McGinn faces challenge from school principal in Senate race

Renee Erickson works for the Wichita school district and serves on the Newton school board. She also opposes the school finance lawsuit.

Erickson, the principal of Brooks Middle School, is challenging Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, in the Aug. 2 Republican primary in Senate District 31, which covers northern Sedgwick County and Harvey County.

McGinn has been in the Senate since 2005 after a stint on the Sedgwick County Commission.

She was one of the few Republican incumbent senators to survive a primary challenge in 2012, when conservative challengers ousted nine incumbents after the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and other groups poured money into the races.

McGinn, who describes herself as “an independent voter” in the Senate, has often been at odds with Senate GOP leadership during the past four years.

“I just don’t always follow the lead of those people who are in charge. … I think that is called being a voter for your constituents,” she said.

Erickson, who lives in Walton, has worked in education for 20 years, including three years as principal at Brooks, a science and technology magnet. She is in her second term on the Newton school board, where she has sometimes clashed with fellow board members over school funding.

She said school districts need to do more to find cost savings in their budgets rather “than simply suing for more money.”

Wichita is one of four plaintiff districts in the school funding lawsuit, which dates back to 2010. Newton is one of 48 districts that belong to School for Fair Funding, the coalition representing the districts in the case.

Erickson said she has voted against membership in Schools for Fair Funding every year she has been on the board.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to use taxpayer money to sue taxpayers for more money,” she said.

Erickson said that if people want lawmakers to allocate more school funding, then the remedy should be at the ballot box rather than at the courthouse.

Erickson said that schools have to do a better job at setting their spending priorities.

“We have to have a place for kids, of course, to learn, and we want them to be nice. But some of the extras that go into that – for example, some of the decorations, some of the artwork – that is expensive,” she said. “It’s nice. I think it adds a good flavor to our schools, but is it more important than textbooks and materials? You know, I think all of us have to pick and choose in our personal budget, and I think schools need to do the same.”

McGinn voted against the budget bill this past session “because it wasn’t going to balance.”

“And then we left part of our job in the hands of the governor,” she said, noting that Gov. Sam Brownback had to make about $100 million in cuts to balance the budget after the Legislature left Topeka.

“We have to figure out what our priorities are and stop spending more than we’re bringing in,” said McGinn, who was the Senate’s budget committee chairwoman before the conservative takeover in 2012. “The way that we’re moving money around and irresponsibly spending other resources, such as KDOT, borrowing against the Kansas retirement fund, I think is a very risky way to go.”

Erickson said she would like to consolidate administrative services among school districts and pursue bulk purchasing as a way to reduce overhead costs for the state’s 286 school districts.

Taxes, spending

Erickson said that if faced with a budget shortfall – a likely possibility based on the past two years – she would favor cutting spending over raising taxes, saying she thinks taxes need to be kept low to maintain a favorable business environment.

Income tax cuts ushered into law by Brownback in 2012 have not produced job growth as quickly as supporters would have hoped, Erickson said, but she still thinks they’re the right course for the state in the long term.

She cited President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, both of whom were famous supporters of trickle-down economics, as two of her biggest political influences.

McGinn said she regrets voting for the income tax cuts in 2012. “The march to zero is not working. Month after month, we’ve had revenue shortfalls,” she said.

She had initially voted against the bill but supported it when the Senate held a second vote at the governor’s urging with the understanding that Brownback would let the bill be tweaked in committee before signing it.

“And the promise was not kept,” she said. “And here we are today.”

McGinn said that when she talks to constituents, they’re unhappy with the governor’s policies.

“They are not happy with the tax plan,” she said. “They think it’s not fair that some people are not having to pay taxes.” She said the state needs to get “back to basics” and restore a fair tax structure.

She voted against raising sales taxes last year, saying that such measures hurt working families. Instead, she would prefer to re-examine a tax exemption for some business owners, the governor’s signature policy, which she said is not working.

Less blame

Lawmakers are set to craft a new school finance formula next year and could face a court order to put more money into schools, depending on how the Kansas Supreme Court rules on the next part of the school finance case after it holds oral arguments in September.

McGinn, who thinks it was a mistake to eliminate the old formula, said she wants to see a school finance formula that is responsive to the needs of each district.

“If the district has high transportation needs, then it needs to reflect that,” she said. “If a district is growing tremendously because of development growth in their community, then we need to be able to meet that need.”

Erickson said she hopes lawmakers can take a cue from the recent special session, where collaboration between lawmakers and school officials resulted in a plan that the court accepted as funding schools equitably.

“We need a lot more of that and a lot less finger pointing and blame and you’re ‘anti-education,’ ” she said. “I don’t believe anybody on either side of this issue is ‘anti-education.’ ”

Erickson, who attends Northside Church of Christ in Wichita and has taught Bible classes in the past, noted the important role that faith and family play in her life.

“My father passed away almost eight years ago, and he taught me work ethic, which I’m forever grateful for,” she said.

When McGinn is not in Topeka, she and her husband run a family farm in Sedgwick, where they grow corn, soybeans and wheat.

“Pretty much just work on our farm and do our church activities,” said McGinn, who attends Holy Savior Catholic Church in Wichita.

This story was originally published July 9, 2016 at 5:34 PM with the headline "McGinn faces challenge from school principal in Senate race."