Video: KS Senator Jean Schodorf (R)
From Kansas Senator Jean Schodorf’s website jean4kansas.com:
Biography
In 1883, Jean’s grandmother came to Kansas in a covered wagon, when she was three weeks old. Her family settled near Wayside, Kansas and homesteaded there. Bill and Wilma Kurtis settled in Independence after Bill retired from 20 years in the Marine Corp as a Brigadier General. They had two children. Bill Kurtis was born in Pensacola, Florida and Jean Kurtis was born at Cherry Point, N.C., both Marine Corps bases.
Bill senior looked for Amelia Earhart on his first assignment on an aircraft carrier. He was one of the Marine Corps first 1000 aviators.
Jean grew up in Independence, Kansas and graduated from Independence High School. After high school, the Kurtis’ moved to New Mexico for a dry climate to help Jean’s mother, who had respiratory problems. Jean attended the University of New Mexico and majored in Communicative Disorders. She received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree and then a Master of Science degree in Communicative Disorders.
After graduation, Jean worked in Cherryvale, Independence, Neodesha and Fredonia as a speech/language pathologist. She then moved to Wichita and worked three years in Goddard and Cheney in 1974 and has lived in Wichita for 35 years. Jean returned to school and received her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Communicative Disorders, with an emphasis on language development and disorders in 1981 and has worked as a speech/language pathologist in a number of settings. She works for the Wichita Public Schools and also for several home health agencies where she does work with the elderly.
Jean Schodorf has three children: Kristin, 29, who lives in Coffeyville. Brian, 26, a filmmaker, who lives in Chicago, and Kelly, 21, who is attending Wichita State in Wichita. Jean has a large extended family throughout the state. They will be helping her in this campaign. Her brother, Bill Kurtis, lives in Chicago, but also has the Red Buffalo Ranch, near Sedan. Jean’s niece, Mary Kurtis, has returned from San Francisco to help with the ranch. Bill and Jean own and operate the family farm and the site of the Little House on the Prairie. Bill owns and operates Tallgrass Beef Company. Both have promoted tourism of SE Kansas for many years.
Proven Leadership –
Because of her parents’ keen interest in world and current events, her brother, Bill Kurtis, became a journalist, and Jean turned to politics. She started her political career serving for 5 years on her Citizen Participation Organization, twice as president. She served on the Wichita School Board, USD 259 for 12 years, 3 years as president.
In 2000, Jean Schodorf ran for the Kansas Senate and is serving her third term for the 25th District, which encompasses parts of Wichita and Maize.
Schodorf is the longest, standing member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee and has in-depth knowledge and experience with the state’s budget. Her budget committees include: Aging, Education, Higher Education, Other Education, KDHE, Revenue, Racing and Gaming, the Lottery and others. In addition to Ways and Means, Jean is two-time chair of the Senate Education Committee. She also serves on Commerce, Judiciary, and Confirmations. Jean was also elected Assistant Majority Leader/Whip. She chaired the task force on deferred maintenance and also has chaired the Arts and Cultural Resources Committee and Legislative Educational Planning Committee. Schodorf helped author the school finance plan in 2005. She proposed the original funeral picketing bill and sponsored the bill to increase DUI penalties and establish a task force to rewrite the law. Jean is very concerned that students need to know financial literacy and she sponsored the bill to require financial literacy training to all students in school.
Schodorf worked with fellow Senator Mike Petersen and the Wichita Police Department to get passed the Gang bill, which has helped police crack down on gang violence.
Her main emphasis is to work with Regional groups and Wichita groups to secure programs and funding for south central Kansas and Wichita to help citizens and business. Those programs included: affordable airfares, National Institute of Aviation Research, the water recharge program, funding for the Cessna bonds and funding for the new Jabara Aviation Training Center on the Jabara campus.
Jean believes in hard work, independence, and an undying love for the prairie and the state of Kansas.
Mainstreet Republican –
Jean Schodorf and her parents have been life-long Republicans— proud to be Kansans, proud to be Republicans. But the party has become polarized over the past several years. “We must stop being the party of ‘NO’ and return to being the ‘PARTY of SOLUTIONS.’ And we do that by building coalitions to find real solutions to difficult problems. We must find solutions to affordable healthcare, improving education, and preserving programs for our most vulnerable citizens, the elderly and disabled.”
Schodorf is an effective lawmaker and knows how to reach common ground for the common good. She has always had a passion to serve—driven by community service and consensus building. She is a true Republican.
To learn more click here.
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment