By Baya Burgess

TOPEKA — While a Democratic State Board of Education candidate believes all Kansas families should choose public school, her Republican opponent for the south-central district homeschools her three children.

And both candidates have different approaches to improving literacy, public school funding and cellphone use in the classroom.

The Republican running to represent the board’s 7th District, Alana McWilliams of Abilene, said public schools failed to meet her children’s reading needs and that she wants to reform how schools teach literacy. Student literacy is declining in Kansas and the nation, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

“We have 61% of general education students that are reading basic or below,” she said. “It’s 81% if they have a disability and 91% if they’re English language learners. And to me that’s really a reflection of us not doing structured literacy in every classroom.”

Democrat Ann Zimmerman of Salina wants to address Kansas’ low reading scores by improving resources, particularly teacher pay and state funding for special education.

“It’s not Kansas schools that are causing the issue. It’s our society. It’s the world,” she said. “It’s not time to bash our schools. It’s time to step in and support them.”

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the number of Kansas fourth grade students reading at or above a “basic” level has been dropping for the last two decades. However, Kansas is not unique because many states’ scores are declining.

In 2024, 60% of Kansas fourth graders read at the basic or above level, falling only eight percentage behind the highest scoring states.

The candidates

McWilliams is an education advocate, mother of three children — two with dyslexia — and founder of Designed to Learn, a Wichita-based reading tutor center for students with learning disabilities. She said she wants to bring the public school reading curriculum to the successful standard she set for her children.

“It’s not because I’m homeschooling them. It’s because I’ve hired a literacy specialist,” she said. “That’s not an option available everywhere. I don’t believe public education should be dependent on what school district you’re in, what ZIP code you’re in.”

Zimmerman works as an attorney mediator, serves on the Salina school board, studied elementary education at Kansas State University, went to Harvard Law School and taught school for two years in Kansas City, Kansas. While she does not have children, she said her experience makes her the most qualified candidate.

“I just know the ins and outs,” she said, “the budget, the curriculum, how it works, what we’ve done to change it here in Salina to improve our instruction and our school climate.”

Zimmerman and McWilliams are two of 14 candidates running for the state board. Both run unopposed for their district in the Aug. 4 primary.

Five of 10 district seats appear on Kansas ballots every two years. Because none of the Republican incumbents in those seats chose to seek reelection, the results of this year’s election could flip the board’s Republican majority.

Funding

A state task force is working on a funding formula to replace the current one that expires in June 2027. The formula determines how much money the state gives each school district.

Zimmerman said state funding is inadequate without fully funded special education.

The state is obligated to fund special education costs at 92% but has not since 2010, according to the Kansas State Department of Education. The department estimated the state funds special education at 67.2% this fiscal year, $256 million below the requirement.

“Everybody,” Zimmerman said, “has fairly adequate general education funding. But because we have to pay for special ed, and we’re not getting funded for that, huge amounts of our general education funding has to go to special ed.”

Four Johnson County school districts announced plans in May to sue the state for underfunding special education.

Using one of the four districts as an example, McWilliams said she is skeptical of how districts spend money.

“I was surprised when I pulled Shawnee Mission’s budget that they have 50 million in unencumbered cash sitting earmarked for special education,” she said. “I know they’re a large district, but I want to ask those questions.”

Jake Potter, a spokesperson for the Shawnee Mission school district, said the district holds a significant cash balance because state aid for special education comes a few months after the start of the school year, among other reasons.

“The district needs to have available cash,” he said in an email, “to be able to make payroll and pay monthly bills. One month of expenditures in 2025-26 equated to $26.4 million.”

Cellphone ban

Lawmakers in March banned cellphones in all Kansas K-12 schools. Once the 2026 school year begins, students must store personal devices in a secure location, which districts must enforce. The bill requires districts to decide and pay for their own storage methods.

The candidates agree the state should restrict cellphones at school but disagree on the new law.

McWilliams said the Legislature had to step in and impose the ban because the education board failed to act on recommendations to ban phones, while Zimmerman criticized the Legislature.

“The Legislature passed it in a hurry,” Zimmerman said. “Schools are scrambling this summer to try and comply with the law, which is not that easy the way the law was written. And it has some significant costs to it, and no funding has been provided.”

Districts in other states with similar bans opted to use individual lockable pouches to store phones. During February debate over the proposed ban, a legislative document estimated schools would have to spend $13.4 million to purchase one pouch for 446,000 students.

McWilliams said resourceful schools won’t struggle to comply with the law.

“My reading of the bill is that they just need to be secured,” she said. “It doesn’t really say how it could be secured, so I’m like, what about a hefty bin with a bike lock?”

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