From the Alvin and Rosalie Sara Check studio.

PBS Kansas Presents Kansas Week.

The race for the Governor's Mansion in 2026 is already taking shape.

A familiar face announces he's back in the running.

What's driving his return?

Also, another Kansas community says no to a school bond as more districts faced similar funding challenges.

We ask, what's next for the students and their schools when the money doesn't come through.

But first, unease in Old Town after two women are assaulted in broad daylight.

Allegedly by the same man.

The attacks have businesses and workers calling for more security.

Is that the answer?

We'll talk about these stories and more on this edition of Kansas Week.

Hello and welcome to Kansas Week.

I'm Jared Cirillo.

Heightened concerns in Wichita's old Town today after two separate assaults on women Monday evening, allegedly committed by the same man.

The brazen attacks have left many shaken.

They're prompting renewed calls for enhanced safety measures in the popular district cakes.

Kate Devine has the latest on the investigation and the community's response.

I was leaving work in downtown Wichita at Main and Douglas, a few nights ago, and there was a homeless man just wandering in traffic, clearly not sober or not in his right mind.

And he tried to get in my car while I was driving by slowly.

Elizabeth Cochran says she's never experienced anything dangerous in Wichita until a few days ago.

She wasn't hurt, but it shook her.

That's the first incident I've ever had in Wichita.

Period of anything dangerous, ever.

So I was a little shocked.

And Cochran's story isn't isolated.

On Monday night, two women were attacked just blocks apart in Old Town.

Wichita.

Police say a man first approached a group of softball players outside River City Brewing around 630 Monday, when a woman in the group said she had no money.

He punched her in the shoulder and ran off.

Less than an hour later, he approached a woman sitting in her car at the QuikTrip on East Douglas after she refused to give him change or a cigaret.

He struck her car, then punched her repeatedly in the face, neck and shoulder.

Bystanders held him until police arrived.

Officers took him to jail, but his name hasn't been released.

It makes me a little nervous for my staff, not necessarily for me, but I have a lot of young ladies that work here.

So, I always want to make sure they have somebody walking out with them, especially at night around here.

James Trask is the general manager of Larkspur, just a few blocks from where the attacks happened.

He says security is an ongoing concern.

We would definitely love to see more police presence.

He says police have been helpful, but with fewer officers physically present, he relies more on cameras and community vigilance.

I feel it does help quite a bit, and that may be part of why we don't see as much police presence, because they have those cameras now and they can be watching from elsewhere.

Business owners in Old Town are hoping these incidents don't become a trend.

Well, there's concern.

Many say they've seen improvements over the years, but say it's always important to be aware of your surroundings.

And here to discuss this and some of the week's other big stories is Democrat state Senator Alisa Foust.

Goudeau, Sedgwick County Republican Party chairman John Witmer, and Emporia State University political science professor Michael Smith.

Welcome to all of you.

Senator Foust Goudeau, I'll start with you.

Wichita is the biggest city in the state.

We like to we like to think of ourselves as a small town.

But we're, you know, we're a decent sized city.

And with that, unfortunately, comes crime.

How do we tackle this problem?

Well, I really believe that we need to have the presence of police more.

We need to implement, and really play out community policing.

I think just the presence of, I know I go to some restaurants and other businesses in Topeka and they will have a police car just parked in front of their business, and it it, you know, it gives the effect that police are there.

I think we really need to, do that or, and especially we've got to do something about the homeless issue that, that's one of our major problems in our little big city.

You know, and John Whitmer, the old town district does have a police substation there.

So it's not like police aren't close now.

And I was pleased to see I saw a press conference held by a D. And I know that the chief we're fortunate.

We've got an excellent chief and we've got a very vigilant sheriff, and they're both focused on it.

I know the WPD is increasing patrols in the area.

They'll have an increased police presence in the area.

Hopefully that'll help.

But and obviously the city of Wichita has also increased funding for officers, which is important.

That's a core function.

They're increasing funding where they need to.

Law enforcement is obviously one of the areas they need to call function of government.

And as it usually goes, though, if you if you call for more police officers to be in one area, a professor, you're pulling you're pulling officers away from somewhere that aren't going to have coverage.

It seems like, you know, probably all seen those movies where a fake distraction is created to pull the emergency responders away so the big heist can be pulled off.

If I just wanted to speak about the homeless issue very briefly, because I've experienced that, you know, you go to the local park and now it's a homeless encampment, or you want to enjoy yourself in Old Town.

And we have that instinct to say, could we clear the homeless out?

And I felt that to, And there are right ways and wrong ways to help.

But we have to remember that until we make that commitment to mental health care, substance abuse care, and affordable housing, you know, speaking of what you just said, if you clear the homeless out just like the police, they're going to pop up someplace else.

So we've really got to roll up our sleeves and dedicated.

I want to say this about the homeless issue.

We keep thinking that we need to address those issues, but a lot of the people who are unhoused, they don't go for those services because they feel that they're going to be incarcerated.

They feel that they can't bring their animals with them.

And so we need to do what it's like in the Bible.

Take them as they are.

Bring their animals with them, allow them to do what they do as they're getting those services.

Yeah.

Governor Laura Kelly has escalated the drought declaration, placing Sedgwick, Harvey and Reno counties in an emergency status.

Now, the Kansas Water Office says this allows the area to potentially draw emergency water from six nearby state fishing lakes and several federal reservoirs.

Wichita city officials call this a serious situation, urging everyone to do their part.

Governor Kelly echoes that, warning all Kansans to conserve water and guard against wildfires as we head into the summer.

Wichita remains under stage two drought restrictions, as recent rains did little to ease the parched conditions at Cheney Lake.

John Whitmer, this is a tough call.

You know, we've been dealing with this for years.

It seems like and Cheyney Lake, is at its lowest point ever.

Is the city is the state doing enough to, solve this problem or deal with what's coming?

You know, that's a good question that I just saw.

This week, the city of Wichita announced that they were going to do a study and spend another million dollars on a wastewater study.

You know, maybe that's the solution.

Of course, the fiscal conservative in me is wondering, when you're facing a multi-million dollar budget shortfall, while you're spending $1 million on a study that I guarantee you, some other cities have done.

And it's not necessarily a wastewater study, but a study to determine if wastewater can be recycled to drink.

Yes, you might, but it doesn't change the fact.

I guarantee you that studies have been done elsewhere.

Other cities do this.

And why do we need to spend $1 million with limited resources?

That being said, this is a crisis.

It's a bad situation, and I think we just have to be diligent and we'll wait it out.

I mean, it will rain, the water will come.

We just have to be diligent and do our part.

That's the part regardless of whatever the city, the, the center county or the state does.

If it doesn't rain, it doesn't rain.

Yeah, not much we can do.

Yeah, exactly.

Professor, is is this drought issue being politicized in any way?

Do you see.

No, no Partizan way.

It is political.

Any public policies political?

Yeah.

Come on.

But, remember that the big user of water in the state of Kansas is agriculture.

Now, we folks in the city, we need our water to.

Yeah.

But agriculture is the big dog.

The aquifer, and various kind of reserves and lakes and so on and so forth.

If western Kansas doesn't have water, western Kansas can't grow food.

And so, yes, it's political in the sense that, Governor Kelly has announced it as a priority.

There are policy changes afoot.

Governor Brownback did too, several years ago.

It's bipartisan.

But the question is, are we doing enough and are we doing it quickly enough?

Right.

On the politics now, former Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer is trying for a comeback.

He previously served as lieutenant governor and then finished Governor Sam Brownback's second term.

Colyer announced his candidacy for the 2026 gubernatorial race.

This comes after two previous primary defeats and a significant health battle.

Colyer, who also chaired President Donald Trump's 2020 for Kansas campaign, says Trump's political comeback inspired this new bid.

He joins a growing Republican field, including current secretary of State Scott Schwab and lesser known candidates Stacy Rogers and Doug Billings.

As of now, though, no Democrats have officially entered the race for Kansas Governor John Whitmer.

It's going to be it's going to be a it's going to be a crowded field.

You know, Tim Masterson has likely been talking about getting in this race.

Roy Eakins.

Yeah, there's many other candidates who are talking about really.

I think we'll see, for 8 to 10, maybe ten or as many as 12.

On the Democrat side, I hear Elisa's thinking about it.

Look, I'm glad to see Governor Collier.

I think he'll be a very formidable candidate.

Scotty Schwab, I served with Scott.

So he's a buddy of mine.

I'm.

You know, he's in the race, and I think we'll see some more.

We like that as Republicans.

We like to see we're a big tent.

We like to see a good, good.

Let's go.

Let's fly it out.

And may the best man or woman win and we'll see where we end up.

It's a long time from now and we'll see what the filing shows if they don't have a couple million dollars.

Yeah, but this time next year, forget it.

You're out of the race.

Yeah.

Okay.

Go ahead.

Senator.

So there are some Democrats talking about running for governor.

They're testing the water right now.

I'm sure you will soon hear an announcement from, a few Democrats running for governor.

But I want to say this about former Governor Jeff Cole.

Yeah.

He and I served together in the House of Representatives.

Nice guy.

And then we worked together well when he was lieutenant governor and governor.

But I think all of these races are going to depend on the passage of Senate bill for the bill that eliminates the three day grace period to mail in your ballot, unless the Secretary of State's office does a better job of, sharing that with the voters that their ballots must be in by 7 p.m. so people aren't aware of that yet.

And so some of their strong voters, like people with disabilities and senior citizens that mail in the ballot, the Postal Service is running slow lately, so it's all going to depend on, voter turnout.

Yeah.

Professor, this is your bread and butter.

Tell me what's what.

From an outsider's perspective, what's what's the governor's race shaping out to be?

We're like John Whitmer said, we're still a long way out here, a ways out.

Well, I agree about the money piece and the balloting.

And then on that balloting piece where you're likely to see these laws really shift, an election is in a low turnout election, right?

It's likely to be a relatively small number of ballots.

But if it's a super close election and sometimes Republican primari It's going to be interesting to see what the Democrats do.

Democrats, in Kansas have have developed this pattern of having one figure that they kind of rally around.

Back in the day, it was Kathleen Sebelius.

Now it's Laura Kelly who's a friend of Kathleen Sebelius.

Is there somebody coming up that the Democrats will rally around?

Because with so many candidates in the Republican race, this has happened before.

It happened in 2018.

They could divide up the vote, as are generally nominate somebody that's not their strongest candidate from a a base building perspective and leaving an open lane for the Democrats.

But there has to be a Democrat in that lane.

Yeah, a straw.

That's one of the big questions.

A strong Democrat.

Yeah.

All right.

Once considered a potential gubernatorial contender, Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins is also announcing this week that he's vying for a different statewide office.

Insurance commissioner.

The Wichita Republican is the first to file for the position.

Citing his three decades in the insurance industry.

Hawkins says he plans to advocate for Kansans on cost of living issues.

He hopes to succeed current Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, who has not yet announced whether she will run for reelection.

Senator, I'm sure you know Dan Hawkins.

Tell us about this one.

Saw speaker, Dan Hawkins yesterday at a, groundbreaking event.

And he kind of shared and I, you know, he's announced, I still don't know what Vicky Schmidt is going to do.

The current.

I think we all know what he's going, missioner.

And and he has that background.

I'm sure he can raise the money.

But what's going to be interesting is when you are a legislator and you go from serving at the state House right to another position, it's like we all know you, you.

And so it's going to really depend on, you know, if he was nice to other lawmakers during that time.

So we'll see.

What's Vicky Schmidt going to do?

I think it's the worst kept secret in the building of Vicky Schmidt's going to run for governor.

Yeah.

I don't know what her path is necessarily, certainly in a primary, but.

And as for Dan, I love Dan Hawkins.

I will be fully supporting Dan.

I think he's fantastic candidate and I wish him the best of luck.

And I think anyone who wants to go up against Dan Hawkins is in for a serious fight.

So I think Dan will do a great job.

Yeah.

Professor, what are your thoughts?

I have a button in my office collection that says not running for the Governor of California, 2003.

Maybe we need to do Kansas 2025 for that.

But, I think, obviously it makes sense to seek a different office, like insurance commissioner, because of what's happening with the gubernatorial primary.

You know, that office used to be so low profile, right?

It's kind of rubber stamped rate requests from the insurance industry, some constituent work, and then Kathleen Sebelius, and she completely reinvented that office.

And they do a lot of now constituent work.

It's not as high profile as Sebelius, but, you know, with people that have individual disputes over insurance, it's really a constituent service driven office.

And so whoever is going to do this job, if they're going to do it well, needs to be devoted to that kind of policy.

And we can't we can't deny that the single most important thing with insurance these days is skyrocketing premiums and rates.

Will will Dan Hawkins be able to do anything about that?

You know, I think that that's it seems to be the question, oh, we could do Medicaid expansion right now.

Okay.

Okay.

I doubt that's gonna happen.

We'll move on.

Schools now gotten his the latest Kansas school district to reject a major bond issue.

This one was for nearly $200 million.

It failed by 500 votes.

Goddard joins Wichita, Mulvane, Nest City and others where voters this year have said no to more school funding from property taxes.

For Goddard, the no vote stings, with over 1000 new students expected in four years, parents warn classrooms are already overcrowded.

The bond was targeted for aging infrastructure and to address the growing student numbers.

And the story mentioned that Goddard joins a growing list of no votes.

Hayes bill, though, just passed there, so it seems like a hit and miss.

Both of those are in my old House district.

I'm very familiar with both.

One difference between Goddard and Hazel Hayes bill was much smaller, yes, and much more targeted.

I live in the Gordon School District.

The story that you referred to spoke about not entirely what the Goddard bill was.

The bond was asking for.

More than half of it was on stadium renovations, stadium improvements, track fields, press boxes, LED lighting.

There was a lot of things that didn't affect the classroom.

And when you're asking for $200 million and you have a 34% reading efficiency rate, I'm sorry.

I think voters like myself voted no because you're not delivering a quality product.

We're not going to give you any more money until you do.

Yeah.

Senator, I voted yes for the a scoop on here in in Wichita USD 259.

It's I'm disappointed that, we don't want to spend the money on our children and their future, and they like sports.

You can't, be all work and no play.

We have to give them better environment and opportunities if we want them to compete on the global level.

I think it would also help stop some of the crime when kids are invested.

And when we invest in them.

I've been in some of these schools lately and they are deteriorating and they do need some upgrades.

And and we need a new football stadium somewhere we can't get, the Chiefs to come.

Let's focus on reading, reading, math and science.

Yeah.

And, professor, the argument is from the people who wanted the bond to pass.

It seemed, that without passing the bond issue, we're leaving money on the table from the state's match.

Is that is that the case, or.

I believe it is, unless the state decides to rewrite it, but, yes.

And of course, it is the case that bonds pay for infrastructure.

You're not paying your teacher salaries with bonds, you're not paying the football coach.

You're paying for your buildings.

You're often, you know, paying struction, maintenance.

Yeah, yeah, renovation, so forth.

And a newer school district like Goddard, you've got that growth.

The facilities, are they big enough.

Do they have room for more students in an older school district?

Kansas City, Missouri, recently passed the first school bond issue since 1967, and that they explicitly incorporated plans to close schools and get rid of the buildings because do you want that money spent on a half empty building, or do you want it on more modern facilities?

And then to make it more complicated, voters are pushing back on property taxes and a lot of that is actually not a tax levy issue.

It's an assessment issue.

But these property taxes are hard on people.

And the state legislature didn't act like they said they were going to.

Oh, that's right.

That's not entirely true.

I mean, to give you credit, you the state no longer collects property taxes.

And in Goddard, for example, that would have been an average of a the average home value in Goddard is $300,000.

That would have been a $353 a year tax increase on people who have been taxed enough already.

My home went up by 18% last year and all I've done is mow the lawn.

I'm sorry.

I think voters out there clearly said we don't want to pay any more taxes, but they didn't do anything on assessments.

Yeah, that's a that's a state.

Yeah.

Our next story, an uncertain future tonight for a key program in Wichita's public schools.

The title six Native American education program has been praised for teaching culture and boosting graduation rates.

But now its future hangs in the balance.

The program's two staffers have been laid off this past week amid ongoing budget issues.

District CFO Eddie Lowell says a restructure is planned, aiming to hire back one specialist and focused federal funds on critical services.

But students and parents are demanding answers, and they're questioning the need for this shakeup.

The district maintains it's committed to the program and is seeking community input on how to move forward.

The laid off staffers were given options to apply for other district positions.

It seems to me, Senator, that I don't think we can deny that this is part of the federal attack on Dei issues.

Do you see it that way?

Well, I don't want to get totally in in that area because I don't know the intent in people's minds of what they're doing.

I do know that my daughter graduated from the IB program, the International Baccalaureate program at Wichita East High School, and I do know that, again, how are we going to grow our economy?

Those children are future and we can invest now or later.

Yeah.

John Whitmer, are we are we removing cultural items from the school district unnecessarily here?

You know, I think the school you'd have to really ask a board member.

I think what they're faced with is they too had a bond initiative.

I think they went for too much.

They didn't need 400 and something million dollars.

And I think right now they're faced with a budget shortfall and they're having to prioritize.

And that's, you know, unfortunately they're looking at it.

And maybe this is an area where they had to prioritize.

But but I will say this when I saw your article and it said Native American, we are picking and choosing in those words, it did kind of sting a little bit.

Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics.

I mean, come on, we're, why we should be blind and it should just be based on merit.

Yeah.

Well, professor, any thoughts here?

You know, the big question is if this is purely about money or if there's kind of a, preventative thing, particularly with federal grants, which are going to have more conditions that it's not to be used for Dei, a lot of times what schools do is they use local money for these sort of core functions, you know, teach reading, teach math, pay the teachers, pay the light bill.

But then when you have programs like outreach, or die, if they're still able to do that, or what have you, I've often that's where you bring in the grants and those grants are going to have more restrictions on them or go away.

And maybe this is kind of a preventative measure, I don't know.

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering, if it just seems like the district is worried about losing federal funding or some sort of funding if they don't make these changes.

So our last story today, a major setback tonight for Wichita's long awaited return of passenger rail hopes for the heartland flier line to expand into the air capital, a goal for decades.

It's now facing a serious threat from the south.

The state of Texas is considering de-funding its portion of the existing Amtrak route.

Experts say that could derail Wichita's plans, but Sedgwick County Commissioner Pete Meisner remains hopeful, telling Kake news he believes Texas will resolve the issue, citing ongoing positive communication with CDot and federal rail officials.

Oklahoma lawmakers are also lobbying Texas to keep the vital rail link funded.

You know, the story mentions vital.

It isn't vital.

You know, we've been we've been talking about, this passenger rail link for decades now.

And, you've been around Kansas, this area for a long time.

Tell me your thoughts here.

I would love to have passenger rail, too, but I don't know if that's going to happen.

There was a vision during the Biden administration to expand rail quite.

It met as an alternative both to flying and driving.

As it is, you know, the heaviest rail corridors in this country are along the East coast, right?

If you want to have, rail service in Wichita, Kansas, it has to be subsidized.

It's not going to pay for itself.

And so it's an amenity.

It's some people prefer not to fly.

Some prefer not to drive.

I've taken Amtrak.

I like the observation, but.

Yeah.

But it really is a question of how important this amenity is.

Most of the heavy service of rail in this part of the country is, is moving freight.

Yeah.

Well, I was talking to, representative Tom Sawyer the other day, and he actually drives a rides the train he drives, gets up early, drives to Newton Drive, and then takes the train to Topeka.

And, he walks everywhere he goes in Topeka during session.

I am with Pete.

County Commissioner Pete Meissner.

I am hopeful.

Some of the individuals from Texas came down and talked, for years in the state capitol.

There's a lady named Deborah.

She has come up and advocated for it as well.

I think a lot of people would go that route.

We, you know, with the air industry the way that it is, I think it would boost our economy.

I am hopeful I'm going to be on the Pete Meissner bandwagon.

John Whitmer, you get the last word with about 30s.

So 10% of the annual operating cost has to be covered by Kansas in the first year.

By year six, it has to be fully funded by the state of Kansas.

That's $38 million a year.

The average ticket price based on the riders is expected to be 16,000 passengers, which means that's a $2,300 per ticket.

The taxpayers are going to subsidize.

That's according to the Kansas Department of Transportation.

It's a boondoggle.

It's a taxpayer boondoggle, and we can't afford it.

All right.

That's a wrap for this week.

Thank you so much to Alisa Foust Goudeau, John Whitmer and Michael Smith for joining us today.

And thanks to cake and KSN news for sharing their videos with us.

I'm Jared Cirillo.

We'll see you again next week.