An hour with Robert Slattery

evolution intelligent design private school vouchers no child left behind these are just a few of the issues facing the kansas board of education in the next term the new state board will look very different than the current board with only one incumbent seeking reelection november fourth i'm kate mcintyre and today on cape your present we'll look at one of those races between carolyn campbell and robert meissner we're seeking election to the fourth district seat on the state board but first we'll look at another important race that between longtime senator pat roberts and democratic challenger jim slattery roberts and flattery debated earlier this month in wichita one of the we heated debates between the candidates it was recorded at the kansas association of broadcasters meeting moderated by eugene williams general manager at w in topeka first point here jim flattery opening statement thank you very much it's fun to be here katie today as senator

roberts good to see you the first thing i like to do in my opening statement is to set the record straight sen roberts would have you believe that i don't show up for work and the fact of the matter is why was in the united states congress it ninety seven percent attendance record until nineteen ninety four when i ran for governor of missed a few of those like senator obama and senator mccain are doing right now is they've run for president he was already believe that i voted for a massive gas tax increase fact i voted for a four point three cents a gallon gas tax increase in nineteen ninety three when gas was costing about a dollar a gallon that money was needed for highway improvements right here in kansas he was already believe that i favor blanket amnesty fact i voted for a bill in nineteen eighty six supported by senator dole senator kassebaum and signed into law by president ronald reagan at that law been enforced called simpson mazzoli we wouldn't be in the immigration mess we're in today now i would like to do is talk about the roberts' record and the record of others in

washington since night since two thousand and one politicians in washington in both political parties have made three trillion dollar mistakes and it's time for accountability first trillion dollar mistake is the vote at three to four trillion dollars to our nation's debt second trillion dollar mistake to vote to be regulating the financial institutions and the financial markets that is set the stage for this can the calamity that we're currently don't dealing with third trillion dollar mistake was to vote to authorize the war in iraq based on faulty inaccurate intelligence data that given that record sen roberts i can understand why you're not do while about joining me in joint public debates open to the public and prime time televised so it's a pleasure to be here and i look forward to this discussion it thousands lettering sober roberts here to news begins now the first above it thanked them eugene and a

cat cornish and the kansas association of broadcasters for hosting the second of three debates for the united states senate jim always before primetime i was one of the owners six thousand kansans for naming me of a legislator or the year this morning and recognition from i ever listen stop a killer attacks on the campers general aviation and us they'll continue to be your champion and violet setting as we're there were the broadcasters for me to thank my opponent we're cleaning up the airwaves by ending as offensive that campaign interstate i congratulate my opponent and parents across kansas thank you for doing the right thing it may not be able to vote but they should be able to watch tv with their parents and this debate you will hear a clear difference between me and my opponent someone who has dedicated my life's work to public service and my opponent who left and was fourteen years ago to make

billions for himself as a washington lobbyist when he was elected to congress the national debt was just over one trillion by the time he left it was nearly five trillion dollars as part of a democrat majority he supported these policies i oppose them my opponent supported the largest tax increase in history including as a tax increase and so security and gasoline i voted no on these taxes and when i was voting no on the seven hundred billion dollar wall street bailout because it did not protect kansas taxpayers my opponent refuses to take a stand that's not leadership my opponent opposes drilling enamel i support drilling here and now to lower gas prices i am proud of my service to kansas working with boeing to make sure the air force gets it right on the tanker when it actually prevent as families bringing high tech jobs to the state protecting medicare for our seniors and ending government planning decisions for farmers to stop working for kansas and i ask

for your vote first question is a kansas question and advertisers in advertisements and former debates about the book of the objects actually expressed a commitment to serving kansans as he announced a senator but only one of you will be chosen this november if you are not elected what are your plans to fulfill the commitments that you talked about your advertisements to kansas and senator roberts needed to answer fresh i don't think that i'm going to be away as soon as i get back to washington when we have this lame duck session and i will be a lack of that i regard as that we have a job to do we have to oversee all of these recent developments that we see on the news in reference to our economic security and the bailout of the rescue plan that depending on your point of view there's a lot to watch and i had supported the biggest problem

as i see it was to unfreeze the credit crunch that we have and to have the federal reserve and they hock flavoring there to that man and to back up the inner bank transfers so that we would provide liquidity to our community banks so they can turn to serve all of our farmers or ranchers are businesspeople a working families we get jobs going again we could serve the payroll taxes and we could do all of the things that we need to do that seems to me to be the needed first step that i will do still wasn't elected senator if i'm not elected senator i really don't know what i'm going to do i think my wife would probably have some plans for me i think i probably take a lot better care of my three nude by three new granddaughters sang robert's well i think we expect that word and when the selection or we wouldn't be working as far as we are let me just say that i decided to run for the united states senate because i'm terribly worried about where this country's headed and i'm going to continue to work on these things and i care passionately about

and one of them is the fact that it is so wrong for us they had all this debt to the next generation and when i was in the united states congress i voted for less spending and president ronald reagan requested less spending and president bush requested and so less spending and president clinton respect requested so i am proud of my record united states congress and i have a reputation of being a deficit hawk i was one of the early people that kept saying you cannot continue to run up a debt on the american credit card and yeah so i cast some very tough votes to get the deficit under control but clinton deficit reduction plan in nineteen ninety three that i supported senator roberts has been criticizing me for it includes some tax increases it also included a lot of spending cuts you know something that legislation passed in nineteen ninety three set the stage for that great economic growth in the nineteen nineties why because we've demonstrated to the world that we are capable of managing our nation's financial players

sen roberts and others in both political parties pass this legislation called the commodity futures modernization act in two thousand and what did it do it completely deregulated this crazy financial market that we're dealing with right now and people that voted for in both political parties should be retired this year it was a outrage so robert's thirty seconds to revive their thirty seconds them just mad at them and i had a good dad especially gym one time and i said wait i'm a gem understand that that's been no latex my memories of that of that idea when he was in the democratic controlled congress the national debt and degrees from one trillion dollars or five trillion that's a quarter percent increase he never voted for a balanced budget i did spending that's how you control the situation in regards to the deficit and i

felt that they are you know and i'm a lifetime or get a lifetime draper gem but the rest of the national taxpayers union he did support the largest tax increase in history i voted against the tax increase and it had two thousand sets by the way i voted to cut thirty nine billion and entitlement spending since the democrats control two years ago roberts out of order well since we're talking about the financial markets everything let's go down that road the question for months we've heard about the tobacco in the housing and mortgage lending markets and recently we've heard the term crisis to discuss you know basically how this tobacco has led to concerns in the financial and credit markets that term has been huge crisis earlier this month the house and senate passed legislation related to another term and this term or this raises called bailout that affect you used a couple times already kansans and americans are we truly bailed out

or have you run aground and put a big role in the whole of our book conscious lottery ticket well it's short answer your question is i don't think anybody really knows for sure where we are and that's the short answer now let's look at the situation more broadly the fact of the matter is one of the biggest problems with our financial markets today is this whole thing called credit default swaps and derivatives people don't even understand this stuff and im not two thousand when senator roberts voted for the commodity futures modernization act this is what happens that legislation set to the people of this country and to the world that the securities and exchange commission could not regulate regulate this gambling debt it said that the cftc could not regulate it and then to be absolutely certain it said to the states you cannot regulate these markets this was unbelievable and now we find ourselves in a situation where we have trillions of dollars

of these derivatives totally unregulated and people don't know what they're all about we have trillions of them out in the international marketplace that we haven't even started to manage and deal and my question to senator roberts is what in the world are you thinking about when you voted to deregulate these financial markets all of the things you refuse me upset over it for purposes of debate i speculated them all which i don't but if i did if you add all those up that would amount to anything compared to this vote to deregulate the financial institutions so robert's their time sort of un in terms of all of iran accusations and is trying to set the record straight basically i'm very proud in the latest farm bill that we get more authority to the cftc the commodity futures exchange commission we close the enron loophole week we started an investigation the first report was back in september and

with the financial markets worldwide we knew that we had to get a better handle on it reversed it speculation and energy markets in the commodity markets i thought you're going to start off with the repeal of the glass steagall act that obviously you didn't pick up on because everybody is quite figured out the repeal of glass steagall which by the way are lobbying firm lobbied for and i presume that he profited from that but then that's another whole story that we won't get into they differ on the cftc we close the enron loophole that we provided an investigation as to what's going on that report will be due in december and we'll take the appropriate action or it took a lot of action in the farm bill as of this time around but at any rate and i think that we have to do is conduct more oversight more especially with what has been proposed angry at my opponent we don't know what's going on in washington as of the premise market at the present moment that's why when we go back into a lame duck session we're happy and that very strong oversight

i voted against this bailout and has by the thousands told me not to vote for this bailout because it did not protect the american taxpayer from bailing out wall street lore to speculators are some foreign government like china first of all i wanted to say that senator roberts voted for the enron loophole that was part of the commodity futures modernization act i'm glad you decided to repeal it but it also led to the collapse of enron and as far as the fact that sen roberts has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from financial institutions that's information that also needs to be out here in the public arena and senator you know it's absolutely amazing to me that you did this i don't understand what in the world people were thinking about you know we completely deregulated these financial markets and we set the stage for this worse financial crisis and the great depression and it can all be directly taken right back to a few votes are cast in nineteen ninety nine

is two thousand all this thank you that's i think for thirty seconds that is a pitch that we've heard from most democrats in the congress as the repeal of glass steel output had nothing to do with the regulation had everything to do with competition as the commodity futures trading act i just said that during the farm bill we close in on local work we are conducting an investigation say any speculation any manipulation in regards the money markets in the energy markets and so i think my record is clear and at the other thing i would say is your own law firm in nineteen ninety nine lobbying for the very bill that you are criticizing me for and doubtless we've got something from it because all ears do and law firms you wanna give the money back why that would be fine let's just say that what i cannot lobby on any event and i do not benefit from it either because you know the next question

things you see is facing kansans and how would you sit these as priorities during your time if elected and the sas da socrates and robert santelli i'm dying about security by security i mean job security economic security that would be one facet of a second i would say access to affordable healthcare and jantzen every kansas should have access to affordable health care we need a result we need a realistic energy policy a comprehensive energy policy find more use less we do you do that and this very difficult congress where we had a lot of partisan gridlock we did release the outer continental shelf but it was sort of a i i guess is sort of a play on words because they so many revenue from it yet to grow fifty miles out we need an energy policy that is realistically when it put everything on the table i know we can't grow our way out of this but i also know that basically that we get by our mass

or and wenner well but it when our way out of it either everything should be on the table i know what i wouldn't do i would increase the taxes on my opponent wants to get rid of the tax relief that we have on the books now it does that that's a million dollar increase for oil kansas taxpayers a one point trillion dollar increase for taxpayers across the country you cannot during this time a recession raise taxes he's got a record low sen roberts yeah this is amazingly talk about there you go again i have not propose raising taxes i don't what you're talking about and yes you know it's and it's amazing when you support all of them but that that you support senator robert sixty thousand one who voted to send spam for at least three to four trillion dollars in new debt and whether we think is going to pay all of this it is our kids and our grandkids and asked senator roberts raises holy hell with me because i voted for a few taxes in the nineteen nineties it had to be done to get our budget in control i get it because i believe very

strongly that we have a moral obligation to pay our bills and a liquidator means that while i was in the united states congress i did everything i could to cut spending and to be fiscally responsible and i'll continue to do that and the question is and the three top issues top issue is economic stability and restoring sound financial management and our federal government it has been miserable miserable last few years and an ugly there's a person in this room that would disagree and that repeal of the laws regulating these institutions was a major failure health care is a big issue on do everything i can to expand the affordability of health care in this state and energy i've laid out an extensive energy plan on my website bottom line i think were doing everything we can to reduce its dangerous dependence on foreign oil drill i'm a big supporter of wind energy in kansas alone a new solar i wanna be biofuels island do everything we can to reduce its

dependence on foreign oil ricardo semler robert like when my opponent will do everything i can i know that on the public tv station they sent them to my friend bill yes and worn out so what is that i think we ought to drill everywhere that we possibly plan america is the only country in the world that is destroying its economy by not going ahead with domestic energy exploration as when he did do that yes having it on the table coal that may be a four letter word for some advances but it's not for me and in regards to new color in regards to wind solar biomass and the us also fossil fuels and so youre right everything has to be on the table and let me point out again and then i think my opponent senator but let's go let's talk about energy and our planet that asked the same questions about the new kind of that deal with

your previous answer in three parts energy the support more offshore drilling to believe our dependence on foreign oil it's the first or second party support alternative energy sources and if so which ones do you support and then the third area would you support a windfall profits tax on large energy companies and distribute those royalties to taxpayers as a governor of alaska did was start with you or personality do you support offshore drilling a party indicated that i support drilling right here in kansas oklahoma texas all over the energy belt of this country and when senator roberts says will you don't support a more so what you're really talking about well you know i don't support drilling in anwar because i believe that it's a good idea for this generation to save a little oil for the next generation and we can drill right here in the united states we can drill offshore support knowing that on the question of alternative energy sources i also supports you everything we can to encourage the development and

kansas i will not create thousands of good paying jobs i support the production tax credits that will make it clear that what kind of an investment environment will be available for the wind energy in the state i support biofuels this is part of the solution is not all but certainly but it is a part of it and i do believe that we should never lose sight of the fact that we have a two or three hundred year supply of coal in this country we have to learn how to use it on a clean maybe what would fire and i also supporting everything we can to encourage the solar energy development now the folks in washington heavyweight years and years to address this problem of seven hundred billion dollars a year leading our country for oil that we import an s t boone pickens says when that oil gets into this country and for months it's all gone we had nothing to show for it and that has got to be a top priority for the next administration and the next the senate and i will do everything i can to reduce this dangerous dependence on foreign oil samaras what i'm actually with that statement that may come as

a shock they're about it the term especially my opponent that we accept a mammal you mrs about the size of the wichita airport is known as comparative entire state of kansas and be a place where we would drill is probably just one of the airport's ice or one of the year you know one of the places where the er or where our planes land and then the rest of that reserve is going to be preserved for future generations and we can do it in a clean an efficient way with no harm to the environment i just don't see why we can't go ahead with that every gun at five or six years ago i don't think we would've been in the position that we are now but aside from that as i would repeat again the united states is the only country in the world that really devastated its own economy by refusing to develop its own energy resources a reading from that i have consistently supported efforts to decrease our reliance on foreign oil in the region is not only economically is because

it's international security can't be an immersive at the mercy of somebody named hugo chavez or for that matter vladimir putin or for that matter mister of my daughter for that man or anybody else at our adversary and so we have to do this i think my opponent his right we have to consider all sources of energy i would include mr let me just say that to identify more and use less that was a republican plan never came to a vote couldn't offer any kind of an alternative to the offshore drilling are separate welcomes muslims bottom line yet more online right now according to the us department of energy it would make three or four cents a gallon difference at the pole so this is not that big of an issue ok and you know as i was listening to my opponent your talk i have concluded there's a significant difference between a song one thing and that is that i take a long term view of some of these issues i am very worried about the world than my children and grandchildren are going to inherit we're adding all this debt and then works consuming resources all over the world

and we're so focused on right now we have to change this by fellow kansans we have to change this we have to take a long term view and be willing to make some hard short term choices so that our children and grandchildren will have the kind of country we want to hear it there's a question about the administration no matter who becomes the next president of the united states what do you think the priorities of the new administration should be we've talked about a lot of things you just should not it starts with you robert on a lot obviously we have to really get a lot of the economic situation which has now become a whirl contagion and it's hard to keep up with all the headlines i was trying to get secretary paulson and chairman bernanke he and others to tell me i know governments can do a lot of things they can provide or national military didn't provider infrastructure they can do a lot of helga so security with veterans with with medicare but how

can the government set a market price i could never be a very thin that out in regards to who is going to do it now and then i couldn't see kansas taxpayers bailing out some florida speculator or some are selling condominiums are raw some wall street executives or china for that matter and so given that information rather than just do it quickly let's do it right but i think without question of what we have to do is manage its economic crisis as best we can and i will say this or had to do it by reaching across the aisle you know are going to get anything done by to simply say my party right and you know the party is raul the spider beverages in the debate i think we both agree with that so i would reach across now as best we can and say yes let's tackle this energy challenge that we have color rescue plan a bailout whatever but let's make sure that it works and i've got a lot of questions on a lot of concerns is the verdict way that we're going and this is the proper way that we are going i mentioned energy i mentioned healthcare and imagine a national security as well as well

the first thing that we're going to have to do is make sure that we have our financial house in order one of the first signs analyse happen as i want us to go back and re regulate these financial markets we have to go back and repeal a big part of the commodity futures modernization act as senator roberts both for that unleashed all this craziness that we're trying to clean up trillions of dollars trillions of dollars and it is something we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg there's a lot more of this to come so that's the first thing we have to do is get our financial house in order and get some people in washington that understand that if our financial house is not in order we're not going to be able to do all the other things that we talked about so running our financial house is extremely important beyond that we've talked about energy policy i want to see us move forward very quickly with tough new legislation requiring the auto industry to

dramatically improve the fuel efficiency of our vehicles an area where we disagree also sen roberts five times voted against approving the fuel efficiency interview nichols until this election year when he voted for a modest improvement and others in washington in both political parties have done the same thing we acted dramatically improve the fuel efficiency of vehicles so that were not shipping seven hundred billion dollars worth of our dollars around the world and keep in mind seventy percent of its imported oil goes into our vehicles there's no way we're going to reduce dependence on foreign oil without fundamentally changing their consumption of fuel in our vehicles we have to get tougher is it realistic to think that taxes can be cut or redistribute it to the benefit of individual american families you're supporting things like that we're interacting with the largest financial bailout ever we're dealing with a huge current deficit

debt were seeking solutions to our current energy crisis and we still need to make some investments in our efforts in afghanistan so how do we do with all of this and we start with you i'm reminded of what president kennedy once said you know that immortal phrase ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country but there's something friends we are headed into some very difficult times it's time for some straight talk on this and you know if he had to blow smoke in line to get elected yet the lightest elected and i'm not going there so when i talk about these issues of tax cuts i know they're very popular and i want to get to stability in our tax code so i want that tax laws that are in place right now to be extended and i want us to realize that all of us we're going to have a very difficult challenge and promise in all americans are that have to be willing to step up and help solve these difficult problems that we have there's no easy way forward but you know recently i was in greensburg and when i was there i

was actually inspired by the resilience by the courage by the vision of the people of greensburg kansas and you know something that the people in this country have half and the resilience and the courage that the people in greensburg kansas that we were able to get through these problems that we need new leadership in washington that's going to focus on these very tough issues and yes be willing to do the top political things that are not popular to change the direction this country to those that have been in washington for years and years and years they've done some good things but on the big issues that threaten our future they've utterly failed us and that's what this election is all about it's time for accountability right here in kansas said roberts that's the question the estimates that the price in another president kennedy also said that the request actually final context that's i thought actually and then that was repeated by president reagan and repeated by that the up as an illustration two thousand five and basically i'm very happy to see you

say that you're going to expand that actually not tax cuts tax really or else it would cost a million dollars again a tax increase to kansas citizens and one point two trillion in regards financial services we don't need that in the middle of a recession they say that things are it was early that morning i turned twelve songs and i went down at least we're at the crack of dawn saw the utter devastation that was at that particular time that i did call president bush and we were able to get the money declared an onboard and all the rest of the people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps where we get forty million dollars and we were able to get a department of labor and were able to get a finance package to encourage more people come back to greensburg and that is happening it's a modern american same thing happen in tappan same thing happened so there's a thing happen in a statement on the case a campus i would point out that my opponent's

moratorium in regards to so called earmarks would have said wait a minute sorry can't afford it i don't think that's the right approach but at any rate i would just say again that i'm very happy to see him say that he would not do away with the court actually rebuttal congressman welcome the thing that i just want to focus on is that when i am criticizing what has gone on in washington and to be perfectly clear with you all i'm not criticizing to senator roberts listen there's so much blame to go around in washington i am outraged by what i've been watching for the last few years outraged and the commodity futures modernization act that was just the craziest are no law that's been passed recently was signed into law by president clinton it was supported by democrats it was rich supported by republicans in unison they got all been wrong and when you get it wrong in the private sector where i spent two thirds of my life i get my job and i get paid and reward it if i don't get my job i get fired or retired

in that's why what we have to do a citizens in this country stunned at what we own this country because we do is now time for our two minute closing statements will begin with you senator roberts macy's down on the joys of my life and the selection is clear a vote for someone who never stops working for kansas or vote for someone has spent the last fourteen years in washington making millions for itself now when i wasn't raised thirty refer to it this morning where that morning after the tornado or helping to bring assistance to a town in dire need my opponent was in washington lawyer oh i was a working with the kansas health care providers is this year four hundred thousand kansas seniors their medicare at stake and canvassing is to protect and improve medicare my opponent was in washington lobby was helping to pass to actually protect his family's in bringing high tech jobs to

the state my opponent was in washington lobby well i stopped attacks it would have devastated our aviation industry in our economy my opponent was in washington lobbying by pass legislation to reform crop insurance and in government control of planning decisions my opponent was in washington lobby was working to bring new missions and battery sources of new jobs to our military installations and all great men and women in uniform years i was in washington working by now you also know that my opponent's attendance record to his last year record in congress regards to all the other years it is referred to as one of the worst on record it's a testament i was like four hundred and thirty three out of four hundred and thirty five when he ran for statewide office while i'd write their statewide office three times and i have always maintained a ninety seven percent voting record or better i put campus these concerns among everything else were talking about energy were talking about health care we're talking about all the other bombs we've been talking

about that memory and our motto is always faithful separate the dallas i can promise you that i will always be faithful to you and i will always be thankful to campus i would appreciate your vote christmas lottery or two minutes long it's good to be here today and i thank you for this opportunity and just let me say that i have been working for the last fourteen years in the private sector and i've been working representing primarily midwestern companies that have national and international problems like in gdp products and atchison kansas my hometown and yes i'm proud of the work that i've done because i felt to restructure trade agreements i got to clean up some of the masses of the people in the united states congress had created and i've been working hard for kansas companies mid western companies that have big problem was there and senator as you criticize me for lobbying i find this absolutely amazing your own son lobbied for eads airbus right here and that affected this community and he was working for

users votes on the bill that has the buy america provisions in it that's what the lobbying reports club show now in addition to that senator told us the lobby there's nothing terribly raw home with lobbying what's important is who you've been lobbying for i'm proud of all of my clients none of them had been accused of any sort of impropriety none of them i have never been accused of asking anybody in the public arena to do anything against the public interest and i'm proud of the work that i have done i make no apologies for it and the experiences that the plane and working in the in the trade area and what's been a lot of time i've learned a lot about globalization and those experiences will make me a better united states senator but it is something tender when you're up you're criticizing me for the work that i've been doing when your own son does that were sen dodd told us that and many others do and i mean it is really sort of breathtaking to tell you the truth now

manages conclude by saying that has been a great honor to run for the united states senate here in kansas i'm looking forward to the next three weeks and senator i hope you'll join me in not just the debate or the forum tomorrow in kansas city but in many forms across the state broadcast by the local broadcasters and open to the public your image that includes a congressman is that we've been listening to the debate between senator pat roberts and democratic challenger jim slattery moderated by eugene williams of katie wu it was recorded at the kansas association of broadcasters meeting in wichita on october fourteenth two thousand eight and now let's look at another race that for the fourth district seat on the kansas state board of education where republican robert meissner of shawnee faces democrat carolyn campbell of topeka they're vying for secretly held by bill weideman of topeka who is not seeking reelection meissner in

campbell debated at free state high school in lawrence on october twentieth two thousand at their debate was moderated by in gardiner and was supported by the voter education coalition we'll begin with an opening statement i am robert meissner i grew up in topeka i tended to pick a public schools i graduated from highland park went on to college at kent state university and then on the dental school at university of missouri at kansas city and curly in my thirty second year of private dental practice that my north peak office i've been married to my wife sharon for thirty four years she and companies me this evening i have three children and one son in law and a granddaughter kate two of my daughters are teachers in kansas schools and my son in law is also a teacher in kansas schools i've always had a passion for education i desire to make the education system in kansas the best that it can be and because of that desire i felt like i needed to run for my

local board of education and so i served for twelve years on the shiny heights board of education during that time i felt i was able to learn a lot about house schools function and how best we can serve our students and our teachers in the state i feel i'm well qualified for this position i've as i stated i served for twelve years on my local board as a business owner i had the opportunity to interact with people in all in all types of life in all different situations and i think as a year college graduate i have an idea as to what is required of students when they enter school if they choose to go on to college for their for the next chapter in their like i also know is in a business owner employer what it takes for students to decide to go into the workplace i appreciate the invitation this evening and i look forward to answer your questions thank you very much thank you ms campbell

good evening i'm a is carolyn campbell candidate for the fourth district's state board of education i'm a lifelong resident of topeka kansas i grew up in but we went through mckinley elementary school which was a all black elementary school curtis junior high topeka high school and then instead of going to college i chose to graduate from clark school of business and upon neimeyer graduation from that i started working for a southwestern bell telephone company had been in was an employee for almost thirty years and then i went in nineteen ninety two says state of kansas state legislature have been in session employee and now i'm full time and i love government and so i've worked there since nineteen ninety two while my running for state

school board first of all twelve years of experience i want to pick a public school's board of education i have always worked with children as a volunteer when my daughter went back to school i started school that i be when they're volunteering so i've been volunteering in different capacities since nineteen seventy seven currently i'm a commissioner on the state of cans for the state of kansas twenty ten commission and the twenty ten commission is charged by the state legislature to study school finance past president national federation of urban suburban school districts i was a regional vice president for a kansas association of school boards and so my entire life has been devoted to trying to work to make sure that each town we see is a quality education and i'm proud that my service has been updating our children first in everything that i do thank you ok thank you very much says dr meister start with

the opening statement i think will start his gamble for the for the first question what do you think about that teaching the cut that controversy exists between evolutionary theory an intelligent design slash biblical creationism theories as part of the science curriculum in kansas public schools for the state of kansas are standards are for that we should teach the science standards are current as they are then i feel that we should continue with those and i would support them intelligent design and creationism i feel that that is something that can be taught either again social studies class are a religion class but i believe in the separation of church and state and will i'll always support the theory of evolution and it should be talked to each of our children so that when they go off to college or where ever

that they will be able to lease and b records to understand the theories of revolution thank you i support the science standards as they are written currently i support the teaching of evolution in our science classrooms i wouldn't be opposed to the teaching of biblical creationism in our science classrooms as far as other theories as to origin now the litmus test for me his scientific credibility and i believe the debate should occur within the science community out when the science community can come to a consensus as to the scientific credibility that at that point and only at that point would should we consider including those other theories in our science curriculum thank you ok well does alternate with our question to dr maisel that this one first what majors do you propose to try to address the state teacher shortage which is projected to worsen within the next few years well i think that for

me is probably the main concern are the number one issue and as it relates to education and kansas i believe the teachers in the state are is the strength of course education system and i really believe there's a potential shortage out there and that we need to address in and deal with issues relating to it and certainly i think to adequately funding education to the extent that i teachers are compensated fairly is critical but i'll also think there's other issues are at stake and again i said i have a family of teachers and i and i asked him what do we need to do and they indicate well that we need time and we need time to do the work that we need time to spend with kids and not on paperwork so dealing with issues relating to creating the time the teachers need to do their jobs properly is critical i also feel like

there may be some in an innovative approaches to dealing with teacher issues innovative ways to attract quality young people into the teaching profession certain ideas that i've thrown around are realistic requirements for licensure and renewal of a license meaningful in service we hear that constantly tuition costs tuition cost reduction for graduate hours no or low cost home loans for teachers forgiving part of existing student loans and that possibly perks for teachers out from under the business community is you just ideas that are just thinking outside the box but i think we need to do that because i think it's a real concern and a tinge of potent your problem for our state and has forced teachers are concerned thinking into carolyn campbell this is a major concern for all educators that

about a third of our educators are eligible to retire so we're very very thankful when i meet some of our educators are staying pass the time that they can get by what we need to do first us and foremost and recruiting do teachers is to make sure that we have in place a solid mentoring program so that we will lose those after the first three years as far as loan forgiveness are there's housing perks in different parts of the country where they are a world provide our home or so for maybe a year or two to get them started signing bonuses these are the type of things that we need to be trying to investigate to say that this is one of those strategies that the twenty two commission that we have been looking at is trying to determine what we can do we know that our state finances are limited in this respect and so we struggled attempting to

make recommendations to the legislature where we make a report in and recommendations at the end of each year and so it's a matter of our route to licensure i really have want to make sure that our teachers are licensed and and i mean not only question the alternative programs of nine different people choose to use your children because when we think of our children and our schools we want to make sure that they are receiving an adequate a solid education thank you kate thank you will go back to you for the first response to the next question what kind of sex education curriculum do you support for kansas schools and specifically do you favor an abstinence only approach i would support do and would always supported comprehensive a comprehensive

steps sex education course for our children i really feel that arch oder need to have adequate information so that they can make safe choices that can affect the rest of their lives as far as i am absences abstinence only i am i mean i've sort of feel like this is this is what i would like personally but i think to be realistic we need something comprehensive for our young people because well with the age of the inmates in the diseases that we have that i want our children to at least understand what their ears and i do believe in an art i am out approach to sex education secretary and i i support what i guess would best be described as an

abstinence based sex ed curriculum now that could describe a lot of things i guess the best way for me to explain it is that i support the curriculum that is being taught in my home district showing nights in fact that might eat my daughter is a teacher who teaches sex education at shawnee ads and that the curriculum and she describes to me is one that is not strictly abstinence only but that it is i don't know i guess you could call it a comprehensive curriculum i believe it's that this should be all a local control issue though it i really believe a local districts should be the ones to make the determination as far as what best suits them as far as often or opt out again i think it's a local control issue we had an op el programa shouting at which i supported other districts have popped in which works well for them thank you thank you what do you think about the expenditure of public tax dollars through vouchers

scholarships tax credits or other means for private schools are charter schools are run independently of the local school system well i think i can take a shorter than ninety seconds for this my my feeling is this until private schools are after that are required to offer the same services as public schools i am not in favor of vouchers if the us there was ever a time when private schools or required to provide those services and then i would certainly be opened to at least looking at it but until now we have a level playing field until a private schools are required to provide those same services i would not be in favor of vouchers okay thank you ms campbell i am not in favor of vouchers

because that huge dude take money off from public education public schools i am private schools as earl was as mentioned they can be very selective as to who they are now choose to accept and so again upright vouchers are it would not be one that something i could support what specific actions will you take to start no child left behind from stealing time away from history government and economics classes social studies classes and go back and tell you we with no child left behind that has been one of the major concerns are teachers and not just in those classes but our teachers are not able to teach as they would like to be more innovative because they're struggling to make sure that our children can pass the test and so there's a lot of times or teaching to the test when we started to satan pa pa quality performance accreditation

back in ninety two this was a concern so what we need to do on the state board again is to continually studied to present the date data and for us when we go to a war zone to the dc to go talk to our congressman's the legislature this is what we need to have data to show them that this is one of the problems with no child left behind there is quite a bit of good and to no child left behind like the focus on the individual child but the but teaching to the test is a great frustration i visit with a teacher and she was actually comes she's special aired she was actually considering retiring and then be coming a para so she could spend time with her students because she felt so frustrated that she's not able to do so again as a state board member we just need to collect the data and b i never get to the us

thank you thank you no child left behind is a noble legislation but not as with the osha regulations and the americans with disabilities act i don't think the federal government got it right the first time i believe there's definite changes that need to take place i think there it's it's unfair to say that everything about no child left behind is bad but i definitely think as a state board of education we need to be aggressive in working with the federal government in saying that some of those needed changes take place again asking my family about no child left behind again they would stay would share that it's not all bad is it creates a situation where schools have to be accountable

and that's not all bad but the stress and the demands on our teaching staff there is just waiting them down and i think in a large part that's good what's creating some of the discouragement and some of the morale issues that we're seeing within our teaching profession and the state think you were ready for closing statements now we'll go first act two and ms campbell well i want to thank or coalition for this and i thank all of you for coming to listen to us i'm excited about this opportunity that i maybe will be able to serve the state of kansas with her children again my entire life says as an adult has been working for our children i have received endorsements of the kansas national education association can kansas families united also mainstream coalition educating our children and so with carolyn campbell you never get any hidden

agendas always been what is best for our children and so at this time i just want to thank everybody and hope that it will consider only when you go to the polls on november the fourth but just remember that carolyn campbell has no hidden agenda and that i have the endorsements i've received does it sort of supports the fact i didn't recognize for all the work that i've done over the years and i'm even get the contributions that i have received i have been from jews mainstream people and i have not received any from any paxson have a hidden agenda so again i want to thank everybody for your consideration thank you and dr maisel for your closing statement you know it's hard to hide who you are

during twelve years of service on the local school board during my tenure on the shining export of education i had the reputation of being a consensus builder someone who could bring people together being fair and open minded and i think it's that attitude that i can bring to our state board of education during my twelve years on their shiny heads board of education nearly all of those years i served on the negotiations team saw negotiated with teachers some of my stronger stronger supporters among teachers are shining lights are those that i sat across the table from him in negotiations process i think that speaks volumes about the type of person i am the type of person that's willing to listen and to engage people with all different types of ideas and a person a type of person who'll be fair and open minded i really would appreciate the opportunity to serve

that's my desire to try to serve the state and make our education system in kansas the best that it can be i like carolyn and it did not have a hidden agenda my only agenda answering kids' serving teachers answering our public schools thank you very much you've been listening to a debate between carolyn campbell and robert meissner candidates for the kansas board of education they're vying for the fourth district seat of bill wagner and who is not seeking reelection the fourth district covers shawnee county what bonds the county the northern half of the osage county and the western half of the douglas county this today was moderated by and gardner and supported by the voter education coalition before that we heard senator pat roberts and former congressman john slattery slattery is challenging pat roberts november fourth for the senate seat which roberts has held since nineteen ninety six it was moderated by eugene williams of katie wu

i'm kate mcintyre kbr prisons is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas