FLIPPABLE: Aidan Koster for KS-HD45
I am a native of Lawrence and a 5th generation Kansan. I was born at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, as were both of my kids. I’m the youngest of 4, the daughter of my late, beloved pediatrician dad and my analytical, pragmatic, 20-year school board member mother. I grew up in the Deerfield neighborhood playing kick the can and Red Rover with a whole bunch of other kids whose families were also original to the neighborhood. This was a time (the 80s) when Lawrence had 30-40,000 residents. Our neighborhood had university faculty and staff, professionals, and lots of young families. I still know so many of those neighborhood kids.
I went to Lawrence Public Schools my whole life—walking to Deerfield, then going to West Junior High, Lawrence High, and finally Free State. I helped design the original marching band uniforms and gave tours of the construction site as the school was being built. I was the Valedictorian that first year.
I spent a year at Boston University on a full scholarship, but was homesick for Kansas and returned to the University of Kansas, graduating with a BA in Germanic Languages and Literatures. I also met my husband, Chris, in church choir at St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center.
When my first daughter was born, Kansas newborns were tested for only 4 congenital conditions—PKU and 3 types of anemia. While I was at KDHE, I helped draft the state’s Expanded Newborn Screening program. You can still find my final policy research on KDHE’s website, (read it here). Unfortunately, that means we haven’t done much to update the program in the last 11 years, and medicine has certainly changed in that time.
After graduation, Chris started residency at Children’s Mercy and I took an administrative position at the School of Medicine. Our office provided oversight to the residency and fellowship programs, and accreditation for those programs. Working at the School of Medicine and being married to someone going through medical school and residency gave me a close, inside look at the way physicians are trained in the US and how laws, regulations, and state and federal funding affect medical schools, the training programs, the faculty and staff, the training physicians, and their families.
We went on to spend three years in Great Bend, and have retained some great, close friendships with the people there. While Chris was busy in private practice, I became the Executive Director of Central Kansas CASA. The board was pleased to have a director with legal training, and I was thrilled to have found a job that made use of my education. It is still hard to find employment in smaller towns in Kansas, especially those that are over an hour from larger communities and university towns. Advocating for children in the court and foster care systems is critical. In most cases, those children are in the State’s custody, which means that DCF and the State’s contracted foster care agencies are making the decisions for and about the child, including where they live, who they live with, whether they’re with their siblings, whether they stay in the same school, etc. In Kansas, that system is privatized (which is why we have contracted foster care agencies). That means there is a layer of bureaucracy and an added proverbial crack that Kansas foster kids can fall through. And, the contractors are chronically underfunded, which means that social workers and supervisors are underpaid, the agencies are understaffed, and it’s really easy for children to be overlooked because the staff is overworked. And Kansas needs to provide more “family preservation” services—the kind of in-home guidance and support that can help a family on the brink of collapse keep it together safely. I continue working to improve our foster care system today as a 6-year member of the Douglas County CASA Board of Directors. It was also during this time that I joined P.E.O., a women’s organization that raises scholarship and loan funds for women in college, graduate school, and those returning to education to improve their situations.
We left Great Bend 5 years ago when we were given a golden opportunity to come home to the Lawrence area. Things have changed during the 5 ½ years we’ve been back. The Affordable Care Act changed the landscape of medicine, in good ways and bad. People cannot be denied coverage anymore based on chronic conditions and medical history. Plans are required to cover a standardized panel of modern medical care and cannot discriminate based on age or gender. But cost controls are lacking, and the Medicaid expansion plan has not been universally implemented in all states. So now, Kansas has a pool of people of all ages who don’t qualify for Medicaid because they make too much money, but cannot find affordable health insurance because they make too little for the ACA’s premium subsidies. These people are our neighbors, our friends, and sometimes our family members. And, when I remember when we were without health insurance when we came back to Lawrence and how frightened I was of what could happen, and I can see my temporary fear on the faces of all of our Kansas neighbors who are being hung out to dry by a State Legislature that refuses to expand Medicaid, and I get really angry.
So, here’s the deal. I’ve spent 28 of my 38 years in the 45th. I’ve been inside the state government. I’ve seen the effects of insufficient school funding at the K12 and university level. I’ve watched the state play politics with health care and foster kids. And I’m tired of it. So I’ve joined civic organizations that try to help, but that isn’t enough for me. We need change, and I want to make it happen.
https://www.kosterforkansas.com