ShawneeDispatch.com

Two Shawnee Republicans are vying for their party’s nomination for the District 2 seat on Kansas State Board of Education.

Brandon Kenig, 23, will face Mary Ca Ralstin, 53, in the Aug. 5 primary for the right to appear as the GOP nominee on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.

Kenig is an account executive at Validity Screening Solutions, a company that provides background check services; Ralstin is a nurse at Shawnee Mission Medical Center.

Kenig is a Shawnee Mission Northwest High School graduate who said his experience going through the Shawnee Mission USD 512 school system along with his community involvement make him qualified to become a state board member. He is a Republican precinct committeeman for Shawnee Ward 2, Precinct 4. He also is a former intern for U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback and a former member of the Young Adult Advisory Council, which is a Johnson County Library youth outreach program.

“I have the passion and drive to tackle our challenges head-on to ensure the students of this state receive a first-class education,” Kenig said.

Ralstin has been involved with the Shawnee Mission School District and the Kansas Parent Teacher Association for several years. She was PTA president at Rhein Benninghoven Elementary for two years and at Trailridge Middle School for one year, then took on legislative chair duties at different times at Shawnee Mission Northwest PTA. She also worked for four years on the Kansas PTA Board as the health chair.

“My experience comes from being a parent of four children who have just recently graduated from public schools here in District 2,” Ralstin said.

Kenig said Kansas has one of the best public school systems in the country, but the state still faces many challenges, including meeting No Child Left Behind federal mandates, addressing high school dropout rates, integrating immigrants and students who are not proficient in English and properly confronting low literacy skills before students reach high school.

Ralstin agreed there is room for improvement in Kansas education. She said the greatest problem facing education in Kansas today is the large amount of teachers approaching retirement.

“Over half of our teachers are or are approaching retirement, and there are not enough education majors graduating from our colleges and universities to replace them,” Ralstin said. “Recruitment and retention will be a big task.”

Kenig said it was important that Kansas students remain competitive in a global economy, and that starts with a greater emphasis on math and science.

“My proposals include modifications to the teacher certification process to allow more career professionals to teach part-time, a statewide internship/mentor program for high school students, changes to the state assessments, and incentives to bring quality teachers to the state, including a student loan payback program,” he said.

Ralstin said while she is not opposed to bringing in scientists and mathematicians in from the community to fill gaps, she wants quality and certified teachers in the classrooms.

“Those who don’t have a teaching degree would certainly have to go through some type of training to get them classroom ready,” she said. “Not just anybody can teach a class. It takes practice.”

In light of the childhood obesity epidemic, Ralstin said she would emphasize the importance of physical education and instruction on healthy eating for students in all grade levels.

“It has been shown that children, who are active, learn at a better rate than those who don’t get exercise,” she said.

Ralstin also would like to see earlier identification of special needs children and an emphasis on comprehensive education rather than abstinence only.

“It has been proven that the abstinence only approach is not working,” she said. “Our kids need to be armed and dangerous with the age-appropriate, correct information. Ignorance is not bliss in this particular area.”

Kenig said he would like to see more local control in education.

“Local districts and boards should be given the initial opportunity to craft their own guidelines and policies to meet the federal mandates of No Child Left Behind,” he said.

Kenig also wants appropriation of funding, teaching of sex education beyond the state board’s current policy, the English reading curriculum, course/class additions, and some staffing and hiring policies decided on the local level.

Both candidates said they would vote to retain the State Board of Education’s current policy of teaching evolution in science classes.

“Evolution is and has been the basis of all science: molecular, biological and Earth sciences,” Ralstin said. “We need to teach science in science class.”

Kenig agreed and added that other theories, like intelligent design don’t have their place in the science classroom, but may have their place in other courses.

“I do not oppose adding classes which analyze the controversy and examine all origin of life theories if they are offered in the context of historical, philosophical or religious courses,” he said.

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