| It’s a new year and a new legislative session in Kansas. On Monday, the new statewide, house members, and senators will be sworn into their new positions. Elected officials’ families will attend. A lot of pictures will be taken. Everyone will be trying to catch up after not having seen each other since last May. The first couple of days are like syllabus day in college. Everyone is getting familiar with the offices, systems, and new faces. And if you’ve ever been to the Kansas Capitol (which I highly encourage you to do) finding the bathrooms can be its own kind of adventure. But once the new legislature settles in there is a lot of work to do. We have several key priorities that we are focused on for you this session. Several of these items are well overdue and we are excited to get them over the finish line: Fairness in Women’s Sports becoming law This will be the third time this bill has come before the Kansas legislature. We have failed to override Governor Kelly’s veto twice. We will give her one more chance to sign it, but leadership in both chambers is committed to overriding her veto if she once again fails to stand for girls’ opportunities. Parental Bill of Rights The Parental Bill of Rights is a simple bill that ensures parents’ God-given rights are protected. There was a lot of confusion over this simple bill last session. We intend to put forward a straightforward bill that protects parents’ ability to engage fully in their child’s education and re-iterate that it is a parent’s job to raise their child. Children are being exposed to so many things throughout the education system. We want to make sure that children’s privacy is protected throughout their education. Pro-life is Pro-Woman & Pro-Baby As our state continues to become an abortion destination and abortion rates are skyrocketing, it is imperative that women know that they have other options & that we elevate the humanity of the unborn. We are working with others to put together a host of bills to meet women seeking abortion where they are and help them choose life. The conversation around abortion has got increasingly more difficult, especially in Kansas. We want to change the narrative. We also believe it is vitally important to elevate the humanity of babies in the womb. We will be working on cultural, legal, & policy strategies to remind our state of the autonomy and dignity of these babies. Educational freedom is for everyone In the last several years, more and more parents are looking for options for educating their children & have received a lot of pushback from the educational establishment. We firmly believe that every parent should be empowered to make the best decision for their child’s education. There are a lot of different ways to do this, and we look forward to working with legislators to continue to work on policy to give as many parents as possible the options they need. Likewise, we have seen a move for the public education establishment to violate the First Amendment rights of teachers. Teachers already sacrifice an enormous amount when they decide to become a teacher. They shouldn’t also be concerned about being punished for exercising their constitutionally protected rights. We will continue to work with legislators to create policies to protect these rights. There will be a lot of other policy discussions that will happen throughout session. We will continue to be engaged as those discussions occur. We believe these priorities are achievable this year, but we also know that session can take unexpected turns. Make sure you are following us on social media and that you share our emails with your friends so that they know how they can engage this session. On a final note, please plan to join us for a webinar next week to talk about these priorities and other things going on in and around the Capitol. You can sign up here! For Kansas, |
Brittany Jones
