Nick Gosnell: In studio with us this morning is Lynnette Krieger-Zook. She is running for House District 104, which includes Buhler, Inman, and the northeastern part of Hutchinson as a Democrat. And Lynnette, good morning.
Lynnette Krieger-Zook: Good morning, Nick.
Nick Gosnell: All right. Well, let's talk, first of all, your background, because I think people need to know just where you come from when you start to make decisions. And that really comes from the classroom, doesn't it?
Lynnette Krieger-Zook: It does. I am a retired special ed teacher. I moved here 31 years ago to teach early ed center, which was known across the state as a premier early childhood special ed school setting, and it continues to be that. And then I moved on to Hutch Public Schools, where I did kindergarten special ed, Head Start special ed. And then my final year, I actually taught online kindergarten. In addition, for the past five years, I've been the Hutchinson NEA president, which is the Teacher Educators Union. And I have worked really hard in that leadership role to build relationships and respect with both the board and administration. And I would say that has become very fruitful in that collaboration work. Negotiations can be somewhat tense. We all want the same thing, which is the best public school education for our children. We just come at it from different angles. And the result was we were able to compromise, give the teachers a $4,000 raise. And in response to that, the board then raised the classified staff by a dollar, which was a win-win in this economy.
Nick Gosnell: Exactly for that. Now, 308, the key to that, in my opinion, Lynette, is that it got done before school got started. That hardly ever happens. And that means that those relationships have been built. Because otherwise, it can take and did actually in the first year, I can't remember if it was the first year of Dr. Johnson being in the district or if it was the first year of Dr. Johnson being superintendent, it took until October or November to get that accomplished. But once you have those basic relationships built, that's a big point in that. Now, you'll forgive me, but I'm a special ed dad. My middle son is autistic and goes to the program at McPherson because I live in Inman. And so I've got to ask you about education leading off. Just what do you think that the legislature has done well with education? And what do you think the legislature has done poorly with education?
Lynnette Krieger-Zook: Well, I think the poorest of the legislation was under Brownback where the funds kept getting cut and cut and we had frozen salaries. So Hutchinson and Reno County have teachers that have taught for years and have worked through all of these different legislatures. What happens in public schools is controlled often by the legislature. What has worked well is the legislature stepping up to the court order and working at fully funding public education. That is important. And it should be noted that two years ago, special ed funding, because that is important to you, Nick, and many of our listeners, special ed funding is a federal requirement. The federal government does not meet its standards. And so I continue to advocate for the federal government to carry their share of their mandated portion also. But Reno County Education Co-op covers all of rural Kansas, Reno County, and Hutch public schools. And a total of $7 million was removed from general fund from those two entities collectively into special ed in order to meet the needs of our students. The other thing I think I would speak to about special ed is the accountability of teachers. As you know, because you've probably sat through many IEP meetings with your son, as a special ed teacher, together we set goals, that's called collaboration. We work together with the family, therapists, everyone on the team. If those goals are not being met every nine to 12 weeks, we have to sit down, write a report to parents. And if they're not being met, we have to come back together and figure out a way, how can we best meet that student's needs so that they can succeed at any level.
Nick Gosnell: And that's an important point. And we've talked about it before with some of the school superintendents. And I'm gonna follow up because the special education, basically there's two pieces to special ed funding. One is the federal funds through a bill called IDEA. They're supposed to fund 40%. They were in the teens last I knew, I haven't looked lately. And the state then is supposed to fund 92% of excess cost. And there was an argument in the legislature, at least this last session, I wanna say maybe even this last two sessions, that the formula they were using to find that number was wrong. And that the state was really doing what they're supposed to do, but the math was wrong on it. And I don't know whether I believe that or not, Lynette, but that was the policy discussion in Topeka.
Lynnette Krieger-Zook: I would agree. And I clearly wanna state that that is my why for running. My opponent was one of two that voted no to fully fund public education. And as a constituent, I have written him and asked him to help me understand why he voted no. And that's never been answered by him.
Nick Gosnell: We were talking about education, Lynette, obviously, because that's where your career has been spent. But a companion to that is what happens to those kids after they become adults. And part of the issue with that is things like waiver services, which for those that aren't familiar, that don't have somebody that deals with this every time, they basically are state funding to help try to level the playing field for those that may have not been able to go into the workforce normally or so on because of their disabilities. And there is a long wait list still for waivers across the state, regardless of which type it is. And that seems to me to be something that the state could do from a funding perspective, at least right now.
Lynnette Krieger-Zook: Absolutely. We are now tailing parents with children with disabilities in kindergarten, five years age, to go ahead and put their name on the wait list, because we know it takes 12 to 13 years. I have families that their children are in their 20s and 30s before they get it. On the positive side, ClayWorks is a great example. My former students, actually, I buy their clay projects from it. It's such a delight. TECH was actually started by my husband's aunt initially as a mom with a child with Down syndrome in the 50s when these children were just told to be put away in institution. And that's how TECH started. We have disabilities organizations and they need the state funding. We need to take care of, as a civil society, the most vulnerable of our population.
Nick Gosnell: Now, there are lots of different areas where there are differences of opinion on things regarding specific issues at the state level. But the biggest difference I saw in the legislative forum that took place earlier this week, between those that are running as Republicans and those that are running as Democrats for office, seemed to be their position on Medicaid expansion. What's yours?
Lynnette Krieger-Zook: I absolutely support Medicaid expansion. I've been doing this since 2017, going to Topeka to speak about it. Let me just share that a lot of, often it is heard that they are not working people. My son is a server. Many of you listening have probably been served by him at Roma's or at Airport Steakhouse, making $2.15 an hour, working part-time jobs, trying to live on tips. The issue is that because we don't have Medicaid expansion, they don't qualify for the lower Affordable Care Act insurance. In fact, when we've applied for the last several years, it has been $500 a month and a $10,000 deductible because we have not expanded Medicaid. We do need valuing life, recognizes that healthcare access is actually a life and death issue. I value life and I support Medicaid expansion. It has cost Kansans $7 billion that we have taken in federal taxes and given to East and West Coast states that have Medicaid expansion. It's time to bring those federal dollars to our people.
Nick Gosnell: So for you, what are the other issues? We talked education a lot. We talked about Medicaid expansion. What are some of the other issues that you say, if I get to Topeka, this is what I'm going to work on.
Lynnette Krieger-Zook: Absolutely. And that's why I've been walking. I'm now over 5,000 houses that I've knocked on. I've gotten to multiple events in Inman, Buhler, Hutchinson, which includes city council meetings, school board meetings, community events. Last night I was at Empty Bowls and then I wandered through Third Thursday and you just listen to people both at the door and on the street. And because of that, tax reform has certainly come up. I'm listening to seniors that have moved out of their home, are living in less expensive rentals because they can't afford the property taxes. I know that in Topeka, there's a lot of gridlock. And what we need is to be able to work across the aisle for our communities. Only when you have conversations across the aisle, can you begin to have compromise and work on these budget bills. And that's what I've done in my leadership within USD 308 and in my community involvement in various organizations.
Nick Gosnell: Well, and the partisan split of the legislature this last time around was somewhere around, I want to say it was 84 to 85 Republicans to 40 Democrats. I might be one off. And the key number there is 84. 84 votes are needed to overturn a governor's veto. And so in order for there to be meaningful work across the aisle, that number needs to be something where you don't have one party can just get everybody on their side to agree and override vetoes. Because then if you have to get some votes from the other side, then you have to at least listen to what they have to say.
Lynnette Krieger-Zook: We do have to listen to each other. And I think that's what a representative truly does. They represent their community. They go to Topeka and we work through together for what best serves our community and the state of Kansas. When you have a super majority, and you're just battling what you have is food sales tax that took years to come down to zero or just getting there in January. That's ridiculous. Our people are hurting with food costs and not having food sales tax for the last three years would have put dollars back in the pocket of people in Reno County and McPherson County and across Kansas.
Again, we've been talking to Lynette Krieger-Zook. Lynette, how can people find out more about your campaign? We've been actively engaged in social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. You can go to my website, https://www.lynnetteforkansas.com/. Any of those places, you can message me, you can send me an email noted on my website, or you can call me, which is on my literature as I've gone door to door also on my website.
Below is the audio interview.