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opinion
KANSAN.COM | MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2016
THE STATE OF EDUCATION:
Text your #FFA submissions to 785-289-UDK1 (8351)
The best part of watching sports is insulting where the other team is from
Stop Everything,
Vanilla Ice is coming to
KC in June
A bird just tried to fly into my class. It was determined. I am determined to get out of here.
You know it's going to be a great day when you forget to put on pants to open the door for your Jimmy Johns
There's nothing more sad than seeing a homeless guy kick his sign in frustration
Break, also known as "time to forget everything for your test on Tuesday
Note to self: Do not eat Cheetos while reading a library book
Everything in Miamis smells like weed and coffee
Two words: Bracket Busted
I think I just now realized what ODB's song "Baby I got Your Money" meant, ew.
Let's have FFFA's,free food for alls
I would vote Wayne Selden for president
Somedays you win,
somedays you buy an
entire bag of ghirardelli
chocolate and plot to
kill your roommate
Can I eat week-old Chipotle?
Love is...pooping in the woods together without breaking eye contact
Let's all take a minute and be thankful that bugs aren't the same size as us.
The chaos bracket giveth and the chaos bracket taketh away.
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Liston: Department of Education should oversee public school funds
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> RYAN LISTON
@rliston235
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 11 that state funding of public schools was unequally and unlawfully distributed. The Kansas legislature passed a budget bill last month that did not include amendments to funding of public schools. The court told lawmakers public schools will not open in the 2016-2017 school year unless the issue is corrected by June 30.
Kansas public school closings would be detrimental for children, families and school employees. Parents that work during the day would need to find babysitters, students would be a year behind and everyone who works for the schools would have to find alternative ways to earn money.
The state government needs to make the school budget a priority instead of acting like a college student, cramming for a test to try to get prepared at the last minute.
The government must take the court's warning seriously.
To produce an adequate plan, the Kansas government should have the Kansas State Department of Education create a new budget plan that eliminates the inequitable spending and focuses on the essential operations that keep public schools open.
The Department of Education should invite superintendents from all of the Kansas school districts to determine a fair distribution of spending.
The Department of Education will have the best resources and knowledge to determine a suitable budget for the state's public schools. Other state agencies would be unable to accurately assess the needs of our schools.
Without a public school budget in place and with the government's deadline approaching, there is no time left to waste. Legislators need to create a public school budget as soon as possible so it can be reviewed and accounted for in the overall state budget. The Department of Education is the best state agency to solve the problem.
Ryan Liston is a freshman from Lawrence studying journalism.
Issawi: Legislature needs to start acting like adults
Edited by Cele Fryer
▶ DANYA ISSAWI
@danyasawi
Under the right circumstances, experimentation can propel us forward. After all, trial and error are at the pinnacle of discovery and societal development. But what happens when experimentation goes wrong? When rather than acting as a catalyst for change, it becomes an inhibition that halts all hope for prosperity?
Astoundingly enough, this exact scenario, a failed attempt at cultivating a grand-scale experiment spearheaded by our steadfast state politicians, occurred within the Kansas legislature. And we, the students, will be left to reckon with the retributions of twice-elected Governor Sam Brownback's economic policies.
During his first two years in office, Brownback and the rest of his gang within the Kansas legislature decided to enact a tax plan that was a "real live experiment in supply-side economics." Because why not experiment with the livelihood of your constituents?
Brownback's new policies included steep income tax cuts for the wealthy as well as exemptions for business owners, who filed as individuals coupled with a hike on consumption taxes, all the hope
that the result would be an increase in investment and growth within the job sector.
These changes maybe, just maybe, could have perpetuated a shift within the Kansas economy. But what our noble leaders seemingly neglected is that the lack of money flowing in as a result of tax cuts must be equated with spending cuts as well.
Five years later, prospects are looking less than lucrative. Kansas is currently swimming in a 30 million dollar deficit in the state budget. With our legislators' wallets becoming increasingly tighter, we've begun to lose the ability to fund certain critical institutions. Institutions that we pride ourselves on as a state and nation and help us stake our claim as a developed country; institutions like education.
Just last year, the Shawnee Mission School District shut down schools a week earlier than intended for summer vacation in lieu of budget cuts to education. Now if the state can't figure out a way to fund schools by July 1, the government will have no means of paying for public education. In other words, Kansas schools may not open next year.
How comforting to know that any hope of future academic prosperity for Kansas students could be thwarted at the hands of irresponsible fiscal policies enacted by a group of ill-placed politicians.
This problem, this apparent apathy toward something so vital as education, is not an issue we often observe within the boundaries of our prideful nation. We tell our citizens that countries like ours view education as a pillar
to any forthcoming success.
How can we claim any sense of national superiority above less developed nations when we ourselves cannot seem to be fiscally responsible enough to fund something as significant as learning?
With the knowledge that this could affect our siblings, our children and even us as current college students, we must push our politicians to come to terms with the magnitude of their mistake and stop playing politics. Shutting down our schools will not only impede intellectual growth, but would exacerbate the economic disaster our state is already drowning in.
The answer is not in taking money from wealthier districts and passing it on to less affluent districts nor is the solution in voiding the contracts in place for food and electricity for school districts. The solution must come from adults acting like adults and coming together in a bipartisan fashion.
The moment our politicians overcome their inability to compromise due to an inexplicable attachment to broken policies is when they can truly help Kansas' children rather than acting like stubborn children themselves. The men and women in Topeka have four months to figure out a solution, and the clock is quickly ticking.
Danya Issawi is a sophomore from Kansas City studying journalism.
Edited by Shane Jackson
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