Who’s financially supporting Wichita school bond campaigns? You’ll find out months after
Wichita voters are likely to be bombarded with political ads over the next month asking them to vote for or against a $450 million school bond issue.
But they won’t find out who’s funding the campaigns or how much they’re spending until the end of the year — 10 months after all the ballots have been counted. Election Day is Feb. 25.
District officials say the $450 million bond issue is needed because of enrollment challenges and deferred maintenance costs.
Two campaigns have organized around the issue: Wichita United for a Better Education, led by Republican strategist Ben Davis to defeat the bond issue, and Yes for Wichita Kids, a group advocating for the bond issue that’s chaired by Bradley Dyer Jr., senior development officer at Credit Union of America.
Kansas law will allow both campaigns to operate in near-total darkness. There are no donation limits and no expenditure or receipt reports filed before Election Day. All that’s required is a treasurer and an annual report filed by Dec. 31 with the county election officer.
The penalty for violating those lax rules is $100.
The state law in question — K.S.A. 25-901 — is a holdover from the state’s original campaign finance laws passed in 1893. They required disclosure within 30 days of an election, but the reporting deadline was moved back to Dec. 31 in 1959.
At stake in the bond election is the Wichita school board’s long-term plans for the state’s largest school district and hundreds of millions of dollars in future design work, construction contracts and property taxes.
The 20-year bond issue would cost homeowners 7.5 mills a year, which amounts to $86.25 a year for each $100,000 of a property’s appraised value, $172.50 a year for a $200,000 property. It would extend the mill levy taxpayers pay now for an existing bond issue approved by voters in 2008 that was set to expire in 2029.
Wichita Public Schools would demolish and rebuild seven buildings, build a new early childhood center, new outdoor athletic fields at Northeast Magnet High School and a new Future Ready Center for Trades at East High School. Two elementary schools would be converted to K-8 schools, and Wells Alternative Middle School would be expanded to a 6-12 school that includes Sowers Alternative High School. It would close seven schools and two administration centers.
Both campaigns said they’re willing to disclose their donors, but only as required by the law. Neither volunteered to disclose their donors or donation amounts to The Eagle.
“I’m not going to disclose my donors, and I’ve told my donors I’m not going to disclose them, so I want to keep my word to them on that,” Davis, of the Vote No campaign, said. “If they have the requirement that I have to release the names, I will, at the end (of the year), but not anything before the end.”
“I don’t think we should disclose our donors, particularly if they’re not going to disclose their donors,” Dyer, of the Vote Yes campaign, said. “I don’t think we should do that just yet, but I can tell you it’s not going to be a problem for us to do it in the future.”
Davis said he has already promised anonymity to some of his donors until after the election.
“A lot of the donors . . . don’t want to be harassed by folks or lumped in as some like, public education haters, you know? Because we’re not. Every one of them wants a stronger school district, but they do not believe that the current bond proposal is what needs to go forward to make that happen.”
Davis would not say exactly how much money he has raised so far. But he said it’s in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Dyer also would not say how much the vote yes campaign has raised. But he said it’s far less than hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We know that we’re no match for that kind of money and that kind of entity,” Dyer said of Davis’s campaign and others groups that he expects will spend money opposing the bond issue. “Those entities are well-funded and, more than likely, they’re going to outraise us.”
“We’re not professionals,” Dyer said. “No one is paying us to do this. This is strictly volunteer, and we are learning as we go along.”
The Vote Yes campaign includes several community members who work in the banking and construction industries, the teacher’s union, Greater Wichita Partnership and other local companies.
“This committee has been formed by just regular Wichitans, and we’re not associated with — we don’t see this as any kind of political affiliation or organization,” Dyer said. “We’re just community members that have come together to try to support the district in this bond issue.”
Davis said he does not have a similar board but that he has broad coalition of supporters.
“This campaign has been funded 100 percent by private citizens of diverse backgrounds and political affiliations — and for diverse reasons,” Davis said.
“I have not taken a dime from nor have I coordinated any funding or anything like that with the Kansas Policy Institute or Koch Industries or AFP (Americans for Prosperity),” Davis said. “I know that’s what a lot of critics have said — that that’s where the funding is coming from, and I’ll tell you flat out, under oath, right now, on the record, that is simply not true. As of now, as of us speaking, I have not received one dime from even just a private citizens who even works at Koch Industries. That’s not to say that I won’t, but they would be giving as individuals.”
The Yes for Wichita Kids campaign’s messaging points out that the new bond would not change the tax rate that property owners already pay. It focuses on school safety, building efficiency, career training opportunities and updated learning environments.
Wichita United for a Better Education’s campaign messaging criticizes the school district for focusing on building costs amid declining test scores, for failing to deliver on promises of the 2008 bond issue — including a decision to close six school abruptly in 2024, many of which were renovated or added onto using 2008 bond issue money — and for adding to the future tax burden.