Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Trenton, N.J., mayor Douglas Palmer sat down with AFT president Edward J. McElroy during the AFT’s Quality Educational Standards in Teaching (QuEST) conference. The conference was held in July in Washington, D.C.

Sebelius’ remarks touched on education, economic development, the war in Iraq, healthcare—and her attitude as an employer.

Gov. Sebelius had high praise for Kansas state government employees. She credits them with helping the state restore its financial footing.

“We have the best experts in the world about how to run efficient programs if you just let them run things the right way,” she said.

Running things the right way meant cutting overhead—not services. And the overhead included everything from state vehicles that weren’t being used to turning off the lights in state offices.

“There are ways to cut overhead,” she said, but “you don’t cut services and you certainly don’t cut the employees who know what they are doing.”

On economic development, the second-term governor said that a good education system and strong communities supported with public services draw businesses to a state, not tax incentives. “The best economic development dollars we spend are dollars on schools.”

Gov. Sebelius said that education and healthcare are the two largest expenditures in state budgets; and the federal government should be doing more to assist in funding these areas. She also thinks that the money and human capital that the federal government is spending in Iraq would be better spent here.