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Tuesday, October 16, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
46th District
Incumbant's experience, agenda, make her the stronger choice in local House race
Candidates in the 1990 election face tough issues as the state of Kansas tries to balance its budget without harming necessary programs.
Candidates for Lawrence's 46th District in the House of Representatives both support financing for a third year of the Margin of Excellence. Both also plan to push for improvements in recycling efforts in Lawrence and the state.
however, incumbent Democrat Betty Jo Charlton offered many more specific answers to the tough issues facing Lawrence and Kirkpatrick and her Republican opponent Sean Williams.
Charlton favors financing the third year of the Margin from the state general fund. That way no taxes would be earmarked specifically to pay for the Margin, she said, and specific groups of taxpayers would not feel burdened by the taxes.
if the Margin cannot be financed through the general fund, Charlton would support Gov. Mike Hayden's plan to finance the Margin with a cigarette tax increase.
The Margin of Excellence was the Board of Regents three-year plan to bring the total financing of its seven institutions to 95 percent of their peer schools and to bring faculty salaries to 100 percent of their peers. The Legislature financed the first two years but not the third.
Williams said he would "dive through broken glass" to ensure financing for the Margin. He said something could be neglected out of the budget to pay for the Margin.
Williams and Charlton both present feasible recycle ideas.
Charlton said the state should act as a role model for recycling. She said she supported a resolution passed during the 1990 legislative session that required the state to buy a certain percentage of recycled paper. This action will increase the use of recycled paper, she said, bringing its price down and increasing its market.
Williams said recycling should begin at the local level. He advocates a 5-cent deposit law for beverage bottles. He also advocates fewer trash collections in cities. The deposit law and fewer trash collections should reduce the amount of trash deposited in landfills, he said.
Williams has a more comprehensive property tax plan than Charlton. He sees the tax as a way to pay for education, if evenly and consistently. The new law treats free just a small component of tax problems in.
general. he said.
Williams advocates evaluating sales taxes, income tax and property tax together to determine if each tax is fair.
Charlton said current tax brackets were unfair because they favored big business. She would like to "redistribute the load" in tax brackets, repealing many current exemptions for large businesses. A $100,000 inventory tax exemption could be provided for small businesses, she said, to help them compete with large businesses.
Charlton is the candidate with more specific ideas for solving current Social and Rehabilitative Services budget problems.
She will wait for the results of a current budget study of SIRS before advocating any changes.
If the study reveals that current financing or even more financing is needed for SRS, the state should turn to its sales tax and income tax for financing. Higher tax brackets for those with large incomes could be administered, she said. Money raised from those taxes should be put in the state general fund to finance SRS and education.
Williams said the state needed to be sure SRS was efficiently operated. Financing for education should help reduce the burden of cases SRS is currently under, Williams said, by providing the state with better trained, better educated workers.
Charlton believes she is the better candidate to serve the 46th District because she has experience, maturity and judgment. It takes a few years for a legislator to learn the legislative process, to build a political base and to receive important committee assignments. She said her 11 years as a state representative had helped her develop all three. Charlton currently serves as a member of the House taxation and federal and state affairs committees.
Williams believes he is the better candidate in the 46th District because he has proven himself as a leader in Lawrence. Williams is an advisory board member of the Roger Hill Volunteer Center and is resource chairperson for the Achievement Place, a Lawrence project that teaches acceptable behavior to youths.
Williams said he had an extensive business background that has enabled him to meet people from across the state. He can relate to people from rural counties and is a negotiator. he said.
Sally Gibbs and Mary Neubauer for the editorial board
Members of the editorial board are Sarah Bly, Brett Brenner, Rich Cornell, Kiersten Gabrielson, Sally Gibbs, David Harger, Jill Harrington, Stephen Kline, Julie Mettenburg, Mary Neubauer, Christine Reinolds, Derek Schmidt, Carol B. Shiny, Bryan Swan and Buck Taylor.
What should be the role of the Legislature in higher education during the next two years?
Legislature must find its role in education
The Legislature is always tempted, particularly in times of scarce general fund revenues, to take a larger share of the budget. In reform, reform or delivery of education.
The Kansas Constitution wisely provides for a Board of Regents to act as a buffer between the people and the Legislature, which may be overly sensitive from time to time to shifting political winds and may not shift politics in favor of the ideas, which of necessity, must be part of a liberal education.
Although perhaps not intended by a majority of the Legislature, there is concern after the fact by the Board of Regents that the Constitutional amendment dealing with the Board of Regents has been removed. Regents on the ballot this fall could adversely affect the Regents ability to manage and do long-range planning for higher education in Kansas. It may be wise to defeat that amendment and go back to the drawing room for the next session of the Legislature.
The Board of Regents in recent years has done yeomen's work together with the faculty and administrations of Regents institutions, identifying programs that were unnecessarily duplicative or that should be phased out for good educational policy reasons.
The Regents instituted a periodic review of all programs, which should provide the Regents and the Legislature with assurance that the system of higher education in the state is well-suited to the educational needs of Kansans and is sufficient to attract enough out-of-state and foreign students to make up a well-rounded student body.
The Legislature's principal role in higher education should be to provide adequate funds and set the broad policy and fiscal parameters within which the Regents can manage the institutions. There should be an evaluation of the program particularly relating to Washburn University and community colleges.
The Legislature must provide sufficient resources so that our universities can compete for qualified faculty to achieve the critical mass of intellect within each department in the areas of both research and teaching.
The formula of financing must be
based in part on what the market realities are, i.e. what other institutions are committing as resources, equipment, facilities and talented students.
The Legislature is ill-equipped to run universities.
The Legislature should concentrate on realistically transmitting information to the Board of Regents about what the people of Kansas want, need and can afford in the way of institutions of higher education. It also should provide appropriate resources, but allow the Regents, through its selection of administrators and in cooperation with university governance, to carry out the work of higher education.
The Margin of Excellence, which I continue to support, is more than moving our institutions ahead of peer institutions; it is making up for years of "maintenance support" so that our institutions can again compete.
The Legislature should further provide for a larger tuition waiver for graduate student teaching and research assistants and for consistent, fair and competitive compensation for classified employees.
John Solbach is the Democratic candidate for the Kansas House of Representatives in the 45th District.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Homosexuals oppressed
I am写信 about the latest incident about the posters, which convey a homosexuals-are-people-too message, displayed on the corner of Jayhawk Boulevard and Sunflower Road. I am ashamed to be attending a school of higher education where ignorance causes people to smash the windows of the display case where the posters are located.
Yes, ifkls, Sunday afternoon, I was appalled to see the damage that had been done to public property by homophobics. These are the ones who wrote a dictionary, an "unreasoning fear of or toward homosexuals or homosexualu
ality." They cope with their fear in an adolescent, destructive manner.
Many points have been made about why the posters were displayed, but what does it matter? The issue has become the broken glass, which can mean only one thing: Oppression. Too many narrow-minded people are attempting to oppress the people who are using their freedoms of speech and of life, liberty and the pusuit of happiness. It takes a great amount of courage to resist such beliefs and sexual preference when others do not understand. The people who are homosexual, or who support those who are, are obviously intellectually and emotionally superior. I hope it will be these unbiased people who, as peers, surround me through life.
Sheryl Pearson Lawrence sophomore
Financing for excellence is vital for all levels of education
The future of our state is in education. Education of our youth to ensure their readiness for the 21st century is essential, regardless of whether they go on going immediately after high school graduation into the job market
I have always been an avid supporter of education. Coming from three generations of teachers, I have had the importance of a good education indelibly imprinted on my mind. In every forum I have attended as a candidate and in all written information that I have made public, I have always supported education. In my first mail-out to the voters of the 45th district, I stated, "Elementary and high school students need basic skills for our children in order for them to achieve their life's ambitions and successes. Regents schools, community colleges, and vocational technical schools must have our full
support for Kansas to remain a leader in education."
Dear to the hearts of the University community is financing of the third year of the Margin of Excellence, though most KU faculty members are not financially qualified to equity." Although the first two years' financing helped to quell the talent and brain drain from our universities, failure to finance the third year, following years of inadequate general funding, would have affected the state university system in a noncompetitive situation with its peers.
Furthermore, $60 million financing for the fiscal 1992 is highly improbable under the state's current revenue. Financing for the University is provided to Douglas County: The University is the lifeblood of our economy.
I support financing the third year of the Margin of Excellence. But, also, I support financing for excellence in our elementary and secondary schools, for these lower levels provide the young men and women who will take their places in higher grades or prepare for graduation as well as those whom our universities will mold to be the future leaders and educators of our nation.
I have spoken to many education leaders to better understand their current concerns. One professor expressed anxiety that the Legislature might use the success of Campaign Kansas as an excuse not to finance
the University adequately
Of major concern in the sciences and engineering is the lack of women and minorities enrolling in these fields. One professor of engineering feels that the Legislature must develop ways to attract significantly more of these people into technological fields. He emphasizes that, "The attraction must be at least in middle school."
KANSAN STAFF
Clearly, to confront these problems and to maintain our present high quality of university faculty and students, we must invest in new resources. The quality of education cannot be greater than the quality of instruction. We in Kansas must decide how important quality education should be to give it, we have to pay for it.
Martha Parker is the Republican candidate for the Kansas House of Representatives in the 45th District.
DEREK SCHMIDT
Editor
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