By Martin Hawver

Well, here’s a former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback-era program that, after an audit by his successor administration run by Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly, turned out to be a profit center for a private contractor…

It’s the Reading Roadmap program, which no-bid Washington contractor Hysell & Wagner reached into Kansas to milk as much as $2.3 million in 2014 and 2015 from the program.

The Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) last week canceled the contract after an audit of the program’s management, which was started and not finished five years ago, was essentially protected from public review. A later audit this year of the program which helps children learn how to read was the tipping point to cancel the Hysell & Wagner contract.

The firm says that contracting issues were fixed, that the program is running well and that it is providing the services it contracted to perform. But DCF is apparently not convinced.

Look for the issue to wind up in a court somewhere, but it’s just money at stake there, and the bigger issue for Kansans is the program itself.

Whatever the reason for the no-bid contract and whatever the reason for short-stopping that early audit that saw misuse of funds, the program of assisting generally poor Kansas schoolchildren to learn how to read is a great idea. Not sure Brownback thought it up himself, or where it came from, but any program that assists children to learn to read and to help their families learn how to encourage that reading is a good investment.

Simply, Kansas prospers the smarter its residents are. That reading assistance, which was carried out before and after school and at summer camps and by meeting with the generally poor families of those children (administered by Hysell & Wagner), is the right thing to do.

It’s a social issue, of course, government assisting  parents in raising their children, but those children are the future of the state and the better their basic skills—even just reading which most of us don’t think about much—prepares those kids for better performance in school and better jobs when they leave school and better skills to help their children learn to read and prosper.

The contract hassle may divert lawmakers next session from the program itself, and that would be a mistake. Children and Families is going to make sure that the more than 30 school districts and a handful of social service agencies get the money appropriated for them last session, so the Reading Roadmap programs will continue under local management. That’s good.

But the preservation of the program gets a little complicated for lawmakers this winter.

Why is this educational undertaking financed with federal funds which are part of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program that is aimed at providing needed food assistance for those families? DCF Secretary Laura Howard likes the program, sees its merit, but wonders why it is financed from the pot that ensures that mostly children, the poor and disabled are able to buy food. It’s a stretch, isn’t it?

Seems more like a program that ought to be operated by the Department of Education? Sure, but then, the TANF money is federal money, and the Department of Education doesn’t get that money and would have to find the cash from somewhere else…which likely means it would need a bigger appropriation from next year’s state budget.

Reading Roadmap? A good program with some management issues but essentially free for the state.

Wonder which way this is going to go?  We’ll see when the election-year Legislature opens in January…

Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com

The next Memories at the Museum event will be “Tales of Dr. Brinkley” on Sunday, Aug. 25. This is open to the public and you can bring your stories and memories about Dr. John Brinkley, his hospital in Milford and the radio station that he also operated in Milford.

The Memories at the Museum session will begin at 3 p.m. in the Historical Museum auditorium.

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The annual Ice Cream Social fundraiser for the Geary County Historical Society will be on Sunday, Sept. 15 from 3-6 p.m. on the museum grounds. There will be ice cream, homemade desserts, a cake walk and live music from the Kansas Brigade Band plus the Junction City High School jazz band and orchestra.

Thunderstorms have moved through east central Kansas during the early morning hours Saturday and Sunday.  While there were some severe storm cells in other areas the main impact on Junction City involved extensive lightning and thunder.

According to Geary County Extension Agent Chuck Otte 13-hundredths of an inch of rain was received for the 24-hour period ending at seven a.m. Saturday and 6-hundredths of an inch for the 24-hour period ending at seven a.m. Sunday.

Junction City police dispatch confirmed that one sign was knocked over when storms were moving through the area in the Saturday night – early Sunday morning time frame.

High-achieving high school students and their families are invited to meet with staff from Fort Hays State University’s Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science at information sessions around the state in September, October and November.

KAMS, will host 12 free information sessions across the state, including one at the Manhattan Public Library Auditorium on Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. The academy offers high school juniors and seniors an opportunity to live and learn at Fort Hays State and get a head start on their college educations while completing the last two years for their high school diplomas.

Students and guests can learn about KAMS and visit with representatives from the academy at these sessions.

All information sessions are free and open to the public, but those attending must register in advance. The registration website https://www.fhsu.edu/kams/Info-session-registration/.