Can state legislators dictate exactly what curriculum Kansas public school districts must teach? Does this conflict with the State Board of Education’s role, and the authority of local School Boards? If legislators 𝗰𝗮𝗻 mandate curriculum, 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙞𝙩𝙨 - if any?  These questions are being asked by SUBV members following the KS Legislature’s passage of S Sub House Bill 2382 earlier this year.  S Sub HB 2382 provided for a salary increase for members of

What grade did the 2025 Republican supermajority-controlled KS Legislature earn when it comes to supporting public education in Blue Valley? Some of the state’s most influential Republican legislators hail from Blue Valley and Johnson County. Certainly they voted for our kids and their neighborhood public schools, right? Read our summary below and tell us what you think. Here are our thoughts, as parents and community members who’ve advocated for our neighborhood public schoo

BV resident Krista Gordon, who has worked in BV public schools for 10 years and whose kids attended BV Schools, highlights a concern that many citizens have with certain southern Johnson County legislators. During campaign season, they’re knocking doors and making promises. After Election Day, they’re unavailable and unresponsive. Read Gordon’s opinion piece in The Kansas Reflector here: https://bit.ly/4liJU2c   As Gordon says in her editorial, Kellie Warren and Carl Turner d

By the slimmest margin possible, Kansas voters lost their rights to a 3-day grace period on mailed ballots postmarked by Election Day. Five BV-area legislators are among those who previously voted to take away the grace period, and then voted today to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the bill. This is just the first in a series of predicted assaults on voting rights since a MAGA supermajority claimed KsLeg in 2024.  Even more alarming: KS House Election Committee Chair, Le

Email your legislators NOW: Vote NO on the veto override to repeal 3-day ballot grace period. Find your legislators and their email addresses here: https://ksleglookup.org   Mon., March 24, Gov. Kelly VETOED a bill that would END the 3-day grace period for properly completed ballots postmarked on or before Election Day to be received by the Election Office. The KsLeg will attempt to override her veto - and your legislators need to hear from you. If this bill becomes law, it w

Email your State Representative now to OPPOSE SB 87 or any other expansion of voucher-like schemes that divert public dollars to private, exclusive schools. Find your KS Rep and their email address here: https://ksleglookup.org   SB 87, an expansion of Kansas’ voucher-like program, passed the KS Senate last month and will be heard in the House Education Committee on Monday. In that KS Senate vote, Kellie Warren and TJ Rose voted to give even more tax money to private school

Voting AGAINST Blue Valley last week, State Senators Kellie Warren and TJ Rose voted to divert even more taxpayer dollars to private (mostly religious) schools; rejected holding those private schools accountable for how they use and manage Kansas taxpayer dollars; voted to disenfranchise mail-ballot voters; and voted against local control of School Boards. BV-area State Senator Cindy Holscher voted the opposite of Warren and Rose in each case.  SB 87 expands the existing vou

The Kansas Senate passed a bill Wed., Feb 5, to eliminate  the 3-day grace period for mailed ballots - postmarked on or before Election Day - to reach the election office and be counted. State Senators Kellie Warren and TJ Rose voted YES - disenfranchising Kansas voters. Voting AGAINST SB 4 - that is, voting to maintain the mail-ballot grace period - was BV-area Sen. Cindy Holscher. Sen. Holscher recognizes that the bill punishes voters for problems with mail processing and d

In their efforts to keep the voucher-supporting, anti-tax supermajority in the KS Legislature, Americans for Prosperity has spent almost $190,000 on five Blue Valley races through Oct. 24 of this year. We won’t know AFP’s TOTAL 2024 spending on their BV-area candidates until weeks after Election Day. Total AFP spending on area candidates through Nov. 5 could exceed $250,000.  Who funds AFP? Nobody knows. Like other dark-money groups we’ve seen in this election cycle - includi

We’ve documented 11 key votes taken between 2019 and 2023 by both State Sen. Cindy Holscher (who we’ve endorsed since 2016) and Sen. Kellie Warren (who we have NEVER endorsed, nor has the other parent-led public education advocacy group in Warren’s own district, Education First Shawnee Mission). Three separate times, Warren voted FOR voucher schemes, or expansion of voucher programs that are already in place, while Holscher voted against. Remember, there’s NO public oversight

Kellie Warren voted in 2023 to make drop boxes ILLEGAL as a way to return mail ballots. Despite assurances from local and state election officials about the efficiency and security of ballot drop boxes, and the fact that they’ve been used since 1978, the Kansas Senate last year voted on a bill to completely ban them. Sen. Cindy Holscher voted NO on the ban and Sen. Kellie Warren voted YES. (This provision was passed by the KS Senate but later removed from the bill.) Also in

Virginia-based Americans For Prosperity spent over $100,000 to help Kellie Warren beat Sen. John Skubal in the 2020 Republican primary - because Skubal didn’t vote for vouchers and cuts to public school funding. Skubal voted for BV kids. Since AFP is all about FOR-PROFIT privatization of public services and tax cuts for their billionaire backers, legislators who vote for public education stand in their way. Now AFP is back for more. We reviewed AFP’s campaign finance filings

Link to eedition with article: https://eedition.kansascity.com/shortcode/LMCKCM/edition/277b7980-2e4a-7e57-165f-db65a7ea845c?page=8aa0784e-8c42-c616-ba45-2fa186dfdf5f

We’re seeing unprecedented spending by outsiders in a local senate race. Liberty First Project, a new voucher-supporting dark-money organization, is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on STREAMING ADS for Kellie Warren. Do you know how expensive streaming ads are?!! Clearly, the school privateers NEED Warren to win. Since 2019, Warren has voted FOR vouchers, fought AGAINST Gov. Laura Kelly on school funding, voted FOR irresponsible tax cuts for wealthy Kansans, and vot

“One of the state’s most extreme incumbents.” That’s what the KC Star Editorial Board calls state senator Kellie Warren. In Sunday’s Star, editors call Warren “an extremist running as a moderate,” and point out that neither Stand Up Blue Valley, nor local parent group Education First Shawnee Mission, have endorsed her. In fact, we have both endorsed Warren’s OPPONENT, Karen Thurlow. The Star editors note that the KsLeg veto-proof supermajority results in little compromise in

Don’t be fooled by the constant campaign commercials, costly mailers, multiple texts, and hundreds of signs in medians. Kellie Warren votes AGAINST BV kids in the KS Legislature. Warren doesn’t want you to remember the multiple votes she has cast against Blue Valley kids and Johnson County interests in NON-election years. Read more here: https://www.standupbluevalley.org/blog/categories/kellie-warren   Warren is trying to mask her voting record in the KS Senate (since 2021)

Lots of dark-money groups, along with Kellie Warren herself, are working overtime to tell voters how much Warren supports public schools in the Kansas Legislature. Who has NOT said that? Not one single public education advocacy group - all of which are run by parents and volunteers in the community, not by outside groups that don't reveal who their financial backers are. Stand Up Blue Valley and Education First Shawnee Mission - both all-volunteer parent organizations operati

NRA “grades” for the 2024 general election haven’t come out yet, but here’s our post from 2022 on the subject. Some of these people are running for election again this year. (That 2022 post has a link to the NRA’s Candidate Questionnaire - so you can read what it takes to get a NRA “A” grade.) https://www.facebook.com/StandUpBlueValley/posts/pfbid026drCsMfQ3wQRUtbc764xaNNmLDt9z35hXdJjrD6DxvpFjzJdhq6JeehgWKaxdrVbl In 2021, NRA-backed Kansas lawmakers voted* to allow 18- to 20-

Some Blue Valley legislators vote against our kids' schools.