Kansas Democrat Turned An Unfunded Phone Ban Into Her Campaign For Higher Office

Danielle Hibbert wants her daughter to have a phone in her pocket in case a shooter walks in.

Kansas lawmakers overrode fears like hers with a bell-to-bell ban that costs districts millions.

One Democrat who co-wrote that law is now asking Kansans for a promotion.

Sykes Grabbed The Microphone While Districts Grabbed Their Wallets

Senate Democratic Leader Dinah Sykes co-sponsored House Bill 2299 with Republican Chase Blasi.

When Governor Kelly signed it in March, Sykes was the one with the loudest quote.

"Kansas is leading the nation," she said, waving around a national report card that gave the law an A.

She called it "a rare bipartisan win" and made sure every reporter knew whose name was on it.

Sykes switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party back in 2018.

In January, she announced she's running for Kansas Insurance Commissioner.

A statewide law with her name on it, passed months before a statewide campaign, is the kind of timing that doesn't happen by accident.

Blasi got credit too.

He's not the one asking Kansans for a promotion this fall.

She is.

Nine states now run these bans bell-to-bell, and Kansas Democrats and Republicans across the country keep grabbing the same headline for it.

Sykes just figured out how to turn that headline into a campaign launch.

Parents Weren't Invited To The Victory Lap

Danielle Hibbert has a daughter in Topeka schools, and she still worries she won't be able to reach her if something goes wrong.

Amy Green teaches in Salina and has two kids at Salina Central.

She wants her own children able to dial 911 themselves, not wait on a front office phone while a hallway is under lockdown.

Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools spent 150,000 dollars on dedicated lockers just to comply.

Blue Valley's superintendent says her district needs 3.5 to 4 million dollars to do the same thing.

Statewide, the estimated price tag is 13.4 million dollars.

Sykes's bill sent districts exactly zero dollars of it.

Rural schools with a fraction of Blue Valley's budget got the same deadline and the same politician's name attached to the invoice.

At Wyandotte High School, kids now file past a windowed locker every morning and watch a staffer slide their phone into a slot they can't touch again until dismissal.

Blasi has defended the setup by arguing that panicked parents rushing a school during a crisis can block first responders.

That's a theory he's never had to explain to a mother standing outside a locked-down building with no idea if her kid is alive.

Sykes herself defined "inaccessible" as fully powered off and buried in a backpack or locker.

The A Grade Came From Activists, Not Classrooms

The "national model" line Sykes keeps repeating traces back to a report card built by the Anxious Generation Movement and Smartphone Free Childhood US.

Those groups graded states on how strict their storage rules were.

They didn't measure what actually happened once the phones were locked away.

A National Bureau of Economic Research study tracking more than 40,000 schools found something a lot quieter than Sykes advertised.

Average test scores barely moved after a ban took hold.

Attendance didn't move either.

Kids reported feeling a little better, which is real, but it's nothing close to the turnaround Sykes sold on the Senate floor.

None of that data existed when she pushed the bill through.

None of it has slowed her campaign down since.

Planned Parenthood Is Already Cashing In On A School Safety Bill

Sykes just picked up an endorsement from Planned Parenthood's Great Plains political arm, which praised her record of "prioritizing Kansans' needs."

Governor Kelly signed the bill and took her own victory lap without sending districts a dime either.

This is the same move Democrats run everywhere.

Claim the popular policy, skip the bill, let local school boards and property taxpayers cover it while the political class collects the endorsements.

Local school boards get the invoice.

Parents get told to trust a plan they never got to vote on, from a legislator who's already asking for her next job.

Sources:

• Rooke, "State Has The Courage To Do What Whole Country Needs," The Daily Caller, August 14, 2026.
• KCTV5 Staff, "Kansas earns 'A' on national report card for bell-to-bell cell phone ban," KCTV5, March 30, 2026.
• KCTV5 Staff, "Put it away: Kansas makes bell-to-bell cell phone ban the law," KCTV5, March 19, 2026.
• WIBW Staff, "Kansas cell phone ban takes effect in August. Here's how one district is implementing it," WIBW, July 29, 2026.
• Axios Staff, "School cellphone bans don't boost scores or attendance, study finds," Axios, August 2, 2026.
• Cooper, "Top Senate Democrat Joining Race For Insurance Commissioner," Sunflower State Journal, January 8, 2026.
• Shorman, "More Kansas lawmakers switch parties: Sykes, Clayton leave GOP, become Democrats," The Kansas City Star, December 19, 2018.
• Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, "Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes PAC Endorses Senator Dinah Sykes for Kansas Insurance Commissioner," Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes.