From the Alvin and Rosalie Sara Check studio.

PBS Kansas Presents Kansas Week $615 million.

Two ballot questions at a school district.

Losing students is Wichita's massive school bond, the investment the city needs, or a bill taxpayers shouldn't have to pay?

Then a six figure university job.

A handful of emails and questions that could haunt to Kansas gubernatorial candidate just weeks before Election Day.

But first, Donald Trump is coming to Wichita as Republican Roger Marshall is fighting to save his U.S.

Senate seat.

Can the president help drag this beleaguered incumbent across the finish line?

That's what we're talking about right now on Kansas Week.

Welcome to Kansas week I'm Jared Cirillo.

A little more than two weeks before the elections, the nation is turning its attention on Kansas.

Our state has become an unlikely national battleground over control of the U.S.

Senate.

President Donald Trump coming to Wichita this Monday for a high profile rally to support Republican Senator Roger Marshall.

Ahead of the visit, Kansas Republicans have been hitting the road on a statewide bus tour, stopping in small towns like Kingman to energize the base.

Marshall is a locked ear is locked in a surprise toss up fight with Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton.

Hamilton is pushing for an ethics investigation.

He's alleging that Marshall improperly used taxpayer funded congressional staff and government resources to cover travel and meals for his campaign.

Meanwhile, Marshall just landed an endorsement from former Governor Sam Brownback.

But Hamilton fired back, linking Marshall to Brownback's infamous tax cuts that drained state revenues.

Here to discuss the latest news on the upcoming November 3rd elections is Sedgwick County District Court Judge Phil Journey, Wichita Eagle opinion editor Diane Leffler, former State Board of Education member Doctor Walt Chapel and chair of the vote Yes Yes for Wichita Kids Committee.

Luis Rodriguez.

I'll stick to the discussion over here first.

Diane, do you think this endorsement from Sam Brownback is going to help him out at all, or will that hurt him?

Well, that get him any middle of the road voters at all?

Well, I think he he had to come up with something.

Four of the there are six living governors and four of them, including two Republicans endorsed, endorsed Hamilton.

So it's, you know, he he had to come up with a with a name.

And, there are a lot of lingering bad feelings toward Sam Brownback.

From the from the great Texas.

Why is that?

Well, I mean, the great tax experiment, it, it just shifted the tax money around and made a lot of money for some businesses, but, it didn't, it didn't bring us any closer to, no, no state income tax.

And, frankly, it was it was a disaster.

Credit ratings were slashed and, it was just perpetually out of, you know, state was out of money.

So, yeah, it was it was a mess.

And but on the other hand, you know, I mean, Sam, you know, he he still has his, fans out there and, you know, nice guy, you know.

But yeah, politics are different than yours.

Judge, let me move over to you to tell us about this race.

Endorsements really don't add up to very much, but Roger Marshall does sure appear to be in trouble.

Well, I was telling that to my friends back in May, you know, when I came and spoke at Pachyderm Club and gave that presentation there.

I gave you a copy of it.

Nobody saw it.

Then I did, and, you know, the reality is that, I don't know that this is a race is a tossup.

I know it looks like one on the polling.

The reality is, though, that in the last eight years, over the last four cycles, 75% of the polling done all across the United States is a big study done, 75% of them over estimated Democratic turnout by about five points.

And that five points makes it win or lose.

So, you know, but then I'm going to say, on the other hand, for the counter argument that I went, you know, I've been going to these state fair debates for decades, and I've never seen anything like the one we saw in September.

And I was there.

And the Democrats, their level of enthusiasm is off the charts, and Republicans are in a malaise right now because of the circumstances they're in.

Has Roger Marshall, though, is he kind of being forced to lay in the bed he made because of.

Well, I think every politician's in that bed, you know, whatever they do or whoever they are, if they make the bed, they have to lay in it.

Sure.

And, you know, I think that what we're seeing right now is that, you know, Trump for the last seven cycles has won every has defeated every critic, almost every critic he's had in Congress, starting with Jeff Flake back in 2018, as I recall.

And, the ones that are left, they aren't the public does not see them as a check on the executive branch, because they were the ones that would get along and go along.

And so I think given some of the things that we've had and the promises that have not been kept from the 24 cycle by the executive branch, they want to check, particularly with the Iran war and tariffs and things like that.

And their only check they see right now is Democrats.

And that's that's the issue Republicans have, honestly.

All right.

According to a new investigation by the Kansas City Star, Republican Senate president and gubernatorial candidate Ty Masterson is also facing some new questions about his university side job.

Masterson serves as the director of Go Create, a Wichita State University workshop where local entrepreneurs use high tech equipment.

Critics have long labeled it a no show job, pocketing him over $160,000 a year.

But now, records obtained by The Star revealed that over a four month span, Masterson sent just 14 total emails from his university account, most of which were heavily redacted, leaving only four actually readable.

Meanwhile, his assistant sent more than 500 emails during that same time.

Democrats call it pay to play politics, but Masterson's campaign is defending the program's success.

Masterson talks about his go create job and other issues during a special one on one with the candidates.

Victor Hagstrom interviews both Masterson and his opponent, Cindy Holsinger, during this one hour special that will air this coming Thursday at seven here on PBS Kansas.

So tell us about time Masterson judge.

Do you?

I think Masterson it sounds like maybe, a little in better shape than than marshal in the Senate.

He certainly is.

I he certainly is.

I think one of the big things that people aren't paying attention to is that in the Senate race, we have a libertarian.

And in the governor's race we don't.

And that'll pull probably a point and a half two points away from the Republican.

And that could make all the difference in the world.

Go create is an entrepreneurial incubator, and it's a structured program designed to help early stage entrepreneurs get their projects or their ideas and bring them to fruition.

Funded by and all those people there that are on, there are all people that are engineers or, production managers or, you know, people that understand how the government works to help them get their businesses going.

And I think Ty has the experience and the knowledge from his service and public to really help entrepreneurs figure out how to get past some of these roadblocks that they have to get their businesses done.

I think this is, honestly, it's not quite, you know, it came up before October, but this is their October surprise at that race.

Is it a dog whistle that Democrats are using?

You know, I know how these things work and how people are expected to participate in them.

And if they didn't like his participation, I figured they'd find somebody else.

Because I think they're all there to help these entrepreneurs get something done.

And if he wasn't performing, he wouldn't be there.

So, you know, I mean, bring them on the show and let's ask them.

They've been really quiet, though.

I mean, Diane, your words on time, Masterson and his go create job.

I've actually seen Ty Masterson at his go create job.

I you know, I can't say how many people have, but I did.

Rod, Jerry Moran, was touring the, innovation campus one day, and I was following him around, and, and so part of it was go create and and Ty was there.

There was one other guy there.

I think he worked there.

And, Ty showed a couple of, lamp prototypes that somebody had made there and, said that they were going to be sold at Walmart and, don't know if they ever were or not, but, yeah.

You know, I think, you know, the problem here is that, you know, when you have a job out, you know, when you're when you're the when you're the president of the Senate, which really makes him probably, you know, with a, with a veto proof majority.

He is probably the most powerful person in Kansas, other than the governor, other than the.

Well, no.

Not other.

Well, yeah, I guess if you're going to approve, the governor gets overridden all the time.

And, so when you have this side job, people probably expect you to put at least some time into it.

Maybe a little bit more than just being there when there's a Senate, when there's a senator coming through on a tour.

And, you know, we've been trying.

We I say, the Kansas City Star sister paper, has been trying to figure out exactly what he does in this job.

And so far, they're coming up empty.

You know, this this email thing.

I mean, the emails really had very little to do with the actual running of the center.

Yeah, it did sound like some of the emails were, one of them was like, you know, completely off topic.

If they take a check out this trailer.

Yeah.

A trailer for sale.

That's right.

Yeah.

So, I mean, you know, I think it's a valid issue, I really do.

And, Well, with all due respect to maybe to the judge, you know, I don't, you know, I mean, we've we've seen this before.

We've seen this where, you know, people have a job and, and are in the legislature and they don't do a whole lot in the job that they have.

And, so, you know, and with Coke, with Coke involvement, you know, they can afford to they can afford to pay him to be the president of the Senate.

Well, it's the Coke Foundation ad about the emails, even the Kansas City Star story, which.

Thank you for sending that to me.

Acknowledge that Ty is dyslexic and he doesn't like using emails, and he would rather meet with people face to face.

And so that may be why the number is really low.

Because he doesn't like send an email because he's not real good at him.

I could understand that, but I do meet with people face to face when you're up in Topeka all the time.

Well, they have to come up there though.

Yeah, Mohammed has to go to the mountain.

Well, that's how it works.

Yeah, but that's not where the entrepreneurs are.

You know, but it's interesting, though, the messaging in all of the political ads for both of these races, the messaging about what is really affecting voters and rural Kansans and what is really affecting us is lost.

It's all accusations, one way or the other.

In both of these races, it seems like, am I wrong that the ads are horrible?

They're all dog whistles.

They don't address real issues.

Yeah, they talk about things and they misrepresent what the votes were.

You know, I mean, it's enough to make me pull what little hair I have left out when I'm screaming at the TV.

Go on.

Like what?

You know, and that's for ads.

I'd say that's for ads on both sides.

Yeah.

I just I just can't believe it.

They're not persuasive.

They're just trying to be scary.

Yeah.

All right.

Schools are also on the ballot in Wichita.

Voters will decide on a $615 million school bond proposal that's split across two.

Now, the questions.

The first question pumps $407 million into aging infrastructure, like fixing sewage issues and failing Hvac systems without raising the current tax rate.

The second question adds 208 million for new buildings and career training, costing a typical homeowner about $50 a year more.

But opponents pushing the no campaign point to declining enrollment.

They're asking why the district is expanding when student numbers are dropping.

They also emphasize that defeating the bond means property taxes will actually go down in the future, as existing debt expires.

So let's spend some time over here with Luis Rodriguez.

Doctor Walt Chapel, thank you so much for both of you for joining us.

Lewis, you're heading up the vote.

Yes, yes, for kids campaign.

Yes.

So tell us a little bit about why you think this bond issue should pass.

Will it pass because of the due to the failure of the last bond issue?

Do you think this one has a chance of passing?

Yeah, that's a good question.

I'll probably start with the hardest part of the answer is it's a tough thing to pass.

There's real risk that it won't, because of the amount of information that a voter needs to take into account in order to make a decent and and feel good vote on on the subject.

The reality is school financing in Kansas, it's complicated.

It's been fought in the courts.

It's tied up our our our our Supreme Court.

It's got a lot of tendrils.

And whenever we talk about a bond at a local level, what we feel are the property taxes effects of it.

And because of the property tax effects of it, you know, we perk up and then all these other things come into play and we kind of lose the plot.

So it's a tough it's a tough bond vote for sure.

It's interesting that you say lose the plot.

The the bond issue last year was $450 million in one question.

Has the district maybe made a mistake in making it more?

A convoluted is the only word that I can, I can think of in setting up between two questions.

Yeah.

And the if if the first one doesn't pass, there's no way the second one can pass.

Correct?

That is correct.

It's a one plus two or just a one or none at all.

Right.

You can't go.

No.

Yes, yes.

And the reason for that was after the failed 2025 bond, the district had to take a hard look at what were the elements that led to everyone feeling the way they did, not seeing the value in the bond and coming back because it's still a need.

It's still a problem, right?

And saying, how do we address this this time and now with increased cost because of time going by.

So they broke it up into questions.

And the idea was in lots of other municipalities, the voter having a choice of 1 or 2, 2 or 3 was an option that built trust with the community, and they felt okay.

We got some work here to do.

Here are all the things we're going to do that some to ask for faith in the bond because of all those ten rules we talked about a minute ago.

So before I move on to Doctor Chapel, let me ask you one more question.

With how do you answer that ques Something close to eight fewer buildings are now in the district.

Eight buildings, I think, for maybe six elementary schools and two middle schools have been closed.

How how does how is the district justifying needing 615 million more dollars?

Well, enrollment has gone down and site facilities have also been eliminated completely.

Yeah, well, I think the need would be greater if those sites weren't closed.

It was a prudent step in saving taxpayer dollars.

I will add, there's still 8488 buildings in their care.

They still all average over 60 years old.

Some of the choices made in question one and two are about consolidation.

So there's even a further reduction and more closures coming.

The bond is a part of a multi-phased approach.

It's not the answer to every problem the district faces.

It's one of many things they're taking on.

All right, Doctor Chapel, respond to some of what he said here.

You know, I mentioned declining enrollment, eight fewer buildings in the district in the last five years.

How does that justify passing a bond issue of $615 million?

Well, it doesn't it doesn't justify.

And you have fewer students.

We've got buildings.

We've invested millions of dollars in from the 2000 and 2008 bonds and want to close 24 schools in the master plan that you just referred to.

The total amount.

Step one this is step one of three.

They want $2.1 billion.

Now that's guaranteed income and profits for contractors and architects over 20 years over.

No, it's more than that.

20 years for the first bond.

Every time you have a new bond, you have another 20 years.

So we're talking about taxpayers on the hook for 30 to 50 years more.

You get that camel's nose under the tent flap.

And by gosh, you're you're on the hook for the next two and three steps in this plan.

Now, that plan talks about closing 24 schools.

I've been in many of those schools.

They're in good condition.

My house is over 60 years old.

Most of the people in this city have older homes.

We don't ask our neighbors to pay for our repairs.

We don't say, My God, my air conditioners broke, so tear down my house and give me a new one.

This kind of stuff doesn't make any sense.

So it's not about the kids.

It's about the contractors.

They're the ones that are funding this campaign.

All the yard signs are paid for.

They're coming out with all four color brochures mailed to every household.

I'm saying, wait a minute.

Stop it.

Come back to reality.

We need to make sure our kids are proficient.

And right now, they're not.

But if we don't spend this money to improve our buildings, then I think the argument that he might be saying is, how can we expect to improve?

What's what's wrong?

What's wrong is that only 17% of our kids are proficient in math and reading science.

Scores have gone down.

I've got data I've pulled down from the state Department of Education for the last ten years.

It's showing we've consistently gone down even after we've had a bond issue in 2008.

So we built new schools.

One of those is Mueller, for example, and only 8% of the kids are proficient in math and 10% proficient in science, but we call it aerospace and engineering magnet.

Now that doesn't make a bit sense.

New buildings does not help kids learn.

That makes the contractors happy, but it doesn't take care of the low proficiency.

We're asking for the board to come back to reality.

We're here to send our kids to school to learn, come out proficient, ready to go out as adults, able to hold a job and compete in the global economy.

That isn't happening in Wichita, Kansas.

If a bond issue were to pass, though, would that free up money to raise teacher salaries?

And it's important to note that bond issue money cannot be used for personnel costs.

Bond issue money can only be used for things like construction of buildings and maintenance.

Basically that's it.

That's what that's what bond issue money is, is for.

You can't use it for teacher raises and salaries and things like that.

So what we have is almost 100 million a year for construction repairs if you need to.

But we have it dribbled away.

We have no priorities when you look at the school board meetings.

They have a consent agenda.

They'll have 20 or $30 million on the consent agenda every meeting.

But things that have nothing to do with something that's broke or helping kids learn.

So if you already spend it, you don't have it to repair their condition.

You don't have it there to fix the roof.

And we've got those as priorities for repairs for sure.

But in this bond, out of 615 million, only 15 million actually goes for AC.

And we've been spending money and every step of the way since 2000 for air conditioning rehab.

And we're we're still complaining that we're using that as a big reason why we should pass this bond.

Diane, let me move over to you.

You wrote an op ed about this.

Tell us about the op ed that you wrote.

It was a little satirical.

It seemed like.

Well, yeah.

Yeah, it was.

It was a bit satirical.

Yes.

In fact, it it was, it was so satirical that many people thought that it was actually serious.

It was about the nine reasons, not to, you know, not to vote for the school bond.

Basically, the schools are too woke and that they, you know, anyway, water under the bridge with that one.

But, you know, the serious part of this thing is that every suburban school district has approved bonds.

They approve them.

You know, I mean, I live in the Goddard School District, and we approve bonds regularly all the time.

And there is all these houses and, well, mostly duplexes, actually, that are being built out there because the school system is perceived to be better.

And, you know, if, you know, if you're coming into this community and your choice is, you know, I can put my kids in a decrepit school building or I can move over the line into this other district and they'll be going to a brand new school or, or at least a school that's been renovated in, you know, in the past ten years.

You know, that's that's pretty easy decision for parents to make.

And I think if they don't pass the bond, you know, Wichita schools are just going to fall farther and farther behind.

There's no way around it.

I don't have Louise.

A lot has been said.

Right.

First, let's start with every building in our district was built by a bond, right?

Every single one.

It's the only mechanism for doing capital expenses and financing it in a way that's appropriate for the taxpayer.

There's an argument to be made that that won't make it right.

Is that our capital outlay and our maintenance budgets could be used more intelligently.

And you hear me out, every human being trying to do their best is still capable of making mistakes.

That's literally what the judge was just saying about the possibility of tie masters in this job and go create and and Republicans in the way they and Democrats the way they campaign.

Like there's space for things to have gone wrong in the past.

But what we do is we get up and we look at a new plan and try again what this particular school board and new district leadership team has done is showcased a great deal of I've heard you.

Here's a two part question.

Here's a strategy that folds in from the lessons learned from the Mississippi miracle folds in, you know, the complexity of our school financing model here in in Kansas.

It no side loves the way that works.

But it's what we have.

And so we're asking for a bond isn't about asking for a blank check.

And we're still on the hook for holding our administrators and school bond officials accountable.

So you know, in my mind, the bond right is one thing, school performance is another.

And the only interrelated one and one space.

And if you look at the Quarterly Journal of Economics, they did a study of 14,000 bonds across the US in 29 states.

They released this in 2025.

And they noted that bonds do not improve school scores.

So it was that, too.

But they also made clear that it was very evident in the comparison in the study, peer reviewed and verified that bond, poor buildings and lack of bonds to maintain the buildings or do good strategy with them hurt student performance.

So we we know we are we have aged into obstacles of learning.

It's in our performance data and then we're ignoring the solution because it's a lot of money as we run down.

Judge, is there anything that you wanted to add to this before I give Walt the last word?

Sure.

The Mississippi miracle was not about new buildings.

It was about new ways of teaching.

Now, let me go back.

I didn't interrupt you.

Give me a shot.

All right.

I think the Wichita school board needs to go back to the drawing board.

They're going to.

I think they're going to lose both these questions and here's why.

Because they have a credibility gap.

They have not spent money on maintenance and deferred that maintenance so long.

And now they just need a new building.

And if they had been doing it all, and this is what I see is a public perception.

And so they don't have the credibility to sell this because they have not fulfilled their obligation previously.

And they need to go back and they need to go back and start talking to people and understand what their problems are and start resolving them, and then come back to the drawing board once they have public confidence.

The last vote lost 2 to 1.

I mean, that's huge.

And they have to hope they have to overcome that 300.

The last word here was about 40s.

Go ahead.

The primary reason that parents have taken the choice to send themselves, their kids to outlying school districts is because the classroom disruptions, that's the biggest concern teachers have in this district.

They're making the choices.

I don't want my kid to sit in chaos.

We're having teachers resign and leave early.

6% have gone already and we've got kids that aren't learning.

This is not going to be solved by new buildings.

And that's what the majority of these funds in this bond is about.

We've gone from 450 to 615 with no idea why and how it actually increased that much more.

All right.

That's a wrap for this week.

Thank you so much to Judge Phil Journey, Diane Leffler, Walt Chappell and Luis Rodriguez for being here.

Thanks also to cake for sharing their video.

I'm Jared Cirillo.

Have a great weekend.