Jonathan Freiden
Photo by Dave Ranney
By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA — A member of the Kansas Children’s Cabinet who’s known for actively encouraging private businesses to support early childhood development programs will not be appointed to a second four-year term on the advisory panel.
Jonathan Freiden said Gov. Sam Brownback’s appointments secretary, Kim Borchers, called him last week to say he would not be reappointed. His term expired June 30.
“This is the administration’s way of silencing someone who they saw as an obstacle to getting their way,” said Freiden, a moderate Republican from Leawood who was appointed to the Children’s Cabinet in 2010 by then-Gov. Mark Parkinson, a Democrat. “I’m very disappointed. You can look at this say, ‘Oh, it’s just sour grapes,’ and that’s fine. But I’ve been a very, very strong advocate for kids, and I take this work very, very seriously.”
Brownback’s office Friday announced that LeEtta Felter, vice president of the Olathe Public Schools Board of Education, had been appointed to Freiden’s seat on the Children’s Cabinet.
Felter has a bachelor’s degree from Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma and a master’s degree in business administration from Baker University. She owns Cars4Less, an Olathe business that in July hosted a Brownback campaign event that featured an appearance by former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum.
Freiden, 40, is part-owner and CEO at U.S. Toy and Constructive Playthings, a national company based in Grandview, Mo. He has been a key player in the Children’s Cabinet’s efforts to build public and private support for early childhood programs in several Kansas communities.
Created in 1999, the Children’s Cabinet is a 15-member board charged with advising lawmakers on how best to spend monies generated by the state’s master settlement agreement with the nation’s tobacco companies – roughly $50 million annually – on early childhood development programs. Cabinet members also oversee the administration of several grant programs.
Frieden said that in the past three and a half years, he’d clashed with administration officials over several issues, including:
• proposing to eliminate the state’s Early Head Start programs.
• using Temporary Assistance for Needy Family funds to underwrite Reading Roadmap, a Brownback initiative aimed at raising the state’s fourth-grade reading scores.
• diverting $9.5 million in tobacco revenues to the State General Fund.
• allowing the awarding of a no-bid, $12 million contract to a Newton-based reading software company in former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Marc Rhoades’ district.
“We (cabinet members) are supposed to be good stewards of this money, and this money is supposed to be spent on early childhood development,” Freiden said. “It’s not supposed to be turned into some kind of honeypot for special projects that may be well-intended but are not early childhood development.”
Eileen Hawley, Brownback’s communications director, said the governor appreciated Freiden’s tenure.
“It is the Governor’s goal to engage as many Kansans as possible in the work of various commissions,” she wrote in an email to KHI News Service. “The Governor is proud of the work the Children’s Cabinet has done to build and support innovative models for at-risk children and families with a clear focus on achieving results, being accountable and encouraging change by asking businesses to work closely with education leaders.”
She disputed Freiden’s notion that Brownback had not heeded many recommendations from the Children’s Cabinet.
“Our efforts in early childhood programs have been to provide our youngest Kansans with the skills they need to succeed in life,” she wrote. “Ensuring that children are able to read by fourth grade, developing a skill that helps them throughout their lives and finding lifetime families for abused and neglected children in our system are NOT ‘pet projects.’
“These are necessities for Kansas if we are to move our state forward,” Hawley wrote. “Our children will one day be the employees and leaders of our state, and this early investment in their development is critical.”
Amanda Adkins, a Brownback appointee now in her third year as chair of the Children’s Cabinet, said Freiden’s “significant and important commitment to build business relationships in key communities, encouraging discussion on how early learning as an investment is important to future growth of the community, (and) is very much appreciated and in alignment with the vision Gov. Brownback has for the State of Kansas.”
Adkins is a former chair of the Kansas Republican Party.
Shannon Cotsoradis, a Children’s Cabinet member and chief executive with the advocacy group Kansas Action for Children, said Freiden’s departure “is a disappointment; it’s a loss.”
“Jonathan has really been a champion for kids within the business community,” Cotsoradis said.
Freiden said he contributed “a couple thousand dollars” to Brownback’s first gubernatorial campaign. “It was great,” he said. “I met with him, we talked, he was supportive. He said he really wanted to do good things. It was exciting. But then he didn’t follow through on his promises. He and his people talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk. They’re dishonest.”
Freiden said he intends to vote for Paul Davis, the governor’s Democratic challenger.
“The Davis people asked me to be on some kind of economic advisory committee, but I couldn’t make the meeting and I’ve not gotten back to them,” he said. “I’ve not talked to anyone over there. I’m a registered Republican.”
Freiden said he would continue to advocate for children. “I’m not going to let this stop me.”