By ALICIA FEYERHERM
Barbara Wasinger and Edward Hammond discussed issues facing Hays during the 111th District Kansas House of Representatives forum Wednesday night at Rose Garden Banquet Hall in Hays.
The forum, coordinated by the American Democracy Project, FHSU’s Department of Political Science, The Chamber in Hays, FHSU’s Docking Institute of Public Affairs and Tiger Media Network, gave community members a chance to better understand the candidates’ positions on a variety of issues.
Each candidate was given two minutes of opening statements followed by questions and answers. The questions were a mix of pre-selected questions and questions submitted by audience members.
Education, affordable housing and childcare were a heavy focus.
Hammond said he would address educational issues at the college level by ensuring Fort Hays State University received more block-grant funding, as the block grant is “the single most important thing for an institution of higher education.”
Wichita State University has similar enrollment numbers as Fort Hays State, but WSU receives millions more in block-grant funding each year.
“If we can do that, we can take pressure off tuition increases, reduce the amount of loans that are being given, and make our institutions fairly and equitably dealt with,” Hammond said.
Wasinger saw the issue of higher education funding to be an issue of decreasing population.
“I think we need to encourage our young people to do things like vocational work,” Wasinger said. “We need to make sure that we take care of them so that they can learn and train and start working.”
Wasinger also added that removing taxation on retirement plans would also help grow the population.
Wasinger said she wants all students to succeed and that during her time in office, K-12 education was fully funded.
Hammond disagreed, saying K-12 education was funded, but special education was separated into its own budget and underfunded by $155 million.
Wasinger did not agree, saying the Kansas Department of Education was given $20 million for special education and $8 million of that has yet to be used. Wasinger also said the department currently has $2 billion in unencumbered funds.
“All I want to know is why hasn’t the state department of education helped?” Wasinger said.
Wasinger was not impressed with the return on investment for K-12 education.
“Believe me, the biggest problem is: What are we getting back?” Wasinger said. “We give them more and more money, but what have we gotten? It’s not for teachers and kids.”
In terms of housing, Hammond said he would work to extend rural housing initiative funding.
“It’s a real difficulty in this community to find adequate housing,” Hammond said.
The current initiatives are funded through COVID money, which runs out next year. Hammond said he would put the initiatives on regular general fund money to ensure the programs continue.
Wasinger argued the money running out next year does not mean funding for housing initiatives would cease.
“What the state of Kansas has tried to do is stop funding programs that turn out not to work,” Wasinger said. “We need to watch and see how it goes.”
Wasinger credited local organizations like Grow Hays for its housing work while also attributing the cause of housing shortages to inflation and rising cost of materials.
“We need to get the federal government to stop spending money like it’s water,” Wasinger said. “We need to take care of business right here.”
Finding childcare is also a struggle for constituents in the 111th District.
For Wasinger, the issue stems from too many regulations on childcare providers. Wasinger mentioned childcare providers have to count their own children who are younger than 11 years old as part of their enrollment numbers. Recently, there has been discussion of changing the age threshold to children under 16 years old.
“That can’t happen,” Wasinger said. “Those are the regulations that we need to get rid of.”
Hammond approached the subject differently, advocating for incorporating early childhood development students into the childcare systems. Allowing students to practicum onsite after their junior year would help diminish the shortage of childcare providers.
Putting childcare facilities on-site for large employers like HaysMed and the school district is another initiative Hammond supports.
The debate concluded with both sides delivering two minutes of closing statements.
“It doesn’t matter whether I’m answering your questions, helping someone get food stamps, getting a bill for Fort Hays students passed, I just get things done,” Wasinger said. “I fix things.”
Hammond drew on his experience as Fort Hays president.
“You know who I am,” Hammond said. “You know what I’ve done. You can bet on me.”
Election day is Nov. 8.
The full debate can be watched at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7fyXoJppI4