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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
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THURSDAY, MARCH 2. 2006
Proposal creates more questions than answers
A bill currently in committee in the Kansas Legislature offers discounted tuition to out-of-state residents who agree to stay in Kansas for five years.
The hope of Rep. Tim Owens (R-Overland Park), who proposed the bill, is that it will keep these students in the state and spur economic development.
But the dismal truth is that the bill only poses questions and more questions. So many that the bill loses any chance of doing what it is intended to do.
Here are some of the unknowns at this time:
What happens if a graduate who agrees to the proposal gets a better job offer two years into his five-year agreement? What's to prevent him from leaving if the offer is too good to pass up?
What incentive does a graduate have to stay after he has already received his or her degree at the discounted costs?
Who enforces the deal? The state? The University?
How can the state or the University get its money back if a student backs out of the deal?
Who is going to monitor where these graduates are?
Do you need to live in Kansas or work in Kansas?
How will the proposed 250 students who get the deal be chosen?
What if a student leaves the University or drops out one year after accepting the deal?
Will it be competitive? Don't smart students get scholarships already?
Will the bill be a prize for
Issue: Legislation making out-of-state tuition cheaper for select students
Stance: The bill leaves too many questions unanswered.
second-best students?
Will financial aid and need determine who gets the deal?
The University has 8,143 non-residents, is 3 percent (250 out of 8,143) of that population going to make a difference?
When will students know if they get the deal? Will the decision be made before the time students choose a university to attend?
How much money would students save?
How much money would the University lose?
Only two Big 12 schools have lower non-resident tuition and fees than the University of Kansas. How will the deal draw more students?
How many of the graduates who get the deal would have staved in Kansas anyway?
What economic benefit will 250 graduates staying in Kansas have?
Most importantly, is a break in tuition a good enough reason to stay in Kansas?
The answer to these questions may be difficult, but the answer to a policy as crazy as this is easy. No.
- John Jordan for the editorial board
Free All for Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
ing each o
If you put a hamster into a penis pump, do you get a ferret?
Hi, this is Mr. Mystery Date, calling back my Sudoku playing, Grey's Anatomy fanatic, wondering what you're doing now that the winter Olympics are over. And p.s., how exactly are we going to go about meet-ing with others?
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I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing
I have the strength of a bear that has the strength of two bears! Oh man, it's like a kola bear crapped a rainbow in my brain.
Debbie, what you need is some food. OK? You need to eat.
and then masturbate, I call it "The Stranger." Do you ever do that, Lil Jon?
Sometimes I sit on my hand until it goes numb,
Eat some more pills, pillhead.
some credit.
My friend ordered a pizza from Gumby's and when he went to pick it up, he couldn't figure out why they didn't have his order. The manager called every location in the city, and then he finally realized that he was at Jimmy
John's
some credit.
Screw the Facebook. It is not for high schoolers. It's just for college kids.
So I've been looking for a velour sweat suit and I haven't been able to find one. Today, I saw Julian Wright wearing one. WTF?
Force us and the bus administration, there are millions of Iraqis that get to pursue free lives free of tyranny and free of a dictator, and yet all people like Justin La Mort do is complain about the administration. Good job, guys. Just because you're liberal, doesn't mean you can't give our president, who's doing a good thing,
Denver girls really aren't that funny.
The question is no longer "What are you thinking?" It is now "Are you even thinking at all?"
Thanks to the US Armed
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Patrick Ross, associate opinion editor
884-4824 or pross@kansan.com
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Nate Karlin, managing editor
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For happy Republicans, ignorance really is bliss
Republicans rejoice. Turns out you are happier than your Democratic counterparts.
This isn't exactly breaking news. The Pew Research Center started surveying American happiness in 1972. Every year, Republicans top Democrats in feelings of joy.
▼ COMMENTARY
In this year's statistics, 45 percent of Republicans described themselves as "very happy," while only 30 percent of Democrats said the same.
In Pew's quest for the source of happiness, they track age, education, wealth, race, religion, marital status, pet ownership and other factors.
while pondering these statistics, I was convinced the pollsters must have missed something that would explain the happiness discrepancy. Surely something explains the link between Republicans and bliss. Ah, of course — ignorance.
The Republican-dominated Kansas State Board of Education's unflinching resolve that religion belongs in the public classroom tops the year's list for ignorance encouragement. Evolution is a tough and coma Republican will rise to the cause. The Lawrence Journal World reported that Sen. Kay O'Connor (R-Olathe) opposed the bill because it intruded too far into family affairs. Clearly the children of Kansas will be happier if protected from the dangers of abstinence education.
I'm not just talking about your run of the mill 2+2=5 ignorance here. Republican politicians are protecting our happiness through a campaign to promote and maintain ignorance.
We only have to look to our own political backyard to find many fine examples of how the GOP protects all of us from dangerous knowledge.
I think this could be a bad decision as far as happiness goes. The creepy old lady in school was better than hearing my mother stutter through describing intercourse. Kansans might be happier if we left sexed in schools.
Speaking of O'Connor, this elected woman once made statements that she didn't support a woman's right to vote. Surely she would have been happier had The Kansas City Star never informed voters of her views. Another example of how knowledge hurts happiness.
Washington Republicans would probably prefer that we stay ignorant of a long list of subjects. I'm positive they think Americans would be happier if we had never heard of Jack Abramoff, port deals or secret government wiretaps.
COURTNEY FARR
opinion@kansan.com
Next year, when the folks at Pew look at American happiness, they should add a new question to the mix:
plicated subject. Saying that some magical force just created everything is easy. And we all know that the easy answer is the happy answer.
Last year, those same underenlightened Republicans deadlocked about how to address sexual education in school. The result is that sex ed isn't required teaching now.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how ignorant do you think you are?
I remember sex ed being a nightmare. A creepy sexagenarian talking about vaginas and penises was not how I liked to start my day. And the diagrams didn't look anything like the ones in my Penthouse magazine. Thanks to Republicans though, schools can divert money away from such depressing topics as HIV, teen pregnancy and strange, itchy rashes and put those funds to some better, happier use - like sports. Sports make kids happy. Maybe the board's next good idea will be to get rid of boring history classes in favor of more basketball courts. That would have made me happier as a kid.
Farr is a Scott City senior in journalism.
But alas, last week the unhappy Kansas Senate passed a bill ensuring that sex ed will continue to be required. But when ignorance is challenged,
Henrickson: protect our house
Dear Students,
I know how important home-court advantage is in any competition and you play a huge roll in the overall excitement at athletics events at Kansas. You bring energy and pride that can intimidate any team coming in to play the Iavhawks.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Help us protect our house on Senior Night. Tickets are free for students with your KUID. Please show up and force KSU to remember the lavhawks!
We're going to need some of that energy tonight when we play Kansas State. Our seniors have never beaten the Wildcats at home and we think tonight is the perfect night to start that tradition. We need you to help make
this happen. Be loud, be proud and support your team in the crimson and blue. We know how much pride Jayhawk fans have, and we are asking you to join us today at 7 p.m. in your arena — Allen Fieldhouse.
Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
FROM KANSAN.COM Non-smoker sympathy
Thank you for expressing these views in a publication. For a non-smoker who works on campus every day, there seems hope from your article. The emotional and monetary costs of smoking are unbelievable, yet smokers try to pass their habit as something enjoyable. It is their right to enjoy life, but it cannot deny another's right to life. Smoking outdoors does not guarantee the smoke will avoid non-smokers' lungs nearby, though I wish that were possible
Bonnie Henrickson Kansas women's basketball coach
Posted on Monday, Feb. 27,
at 12:27 p.m. in response to Neil
Spector's column "Ban falls short
on promoting health."
Politicians should treat U.A.E. like proper ally
There is no good reason to punish the U.A.E. by torpeding its business deals in the United States. Even if it is managing the ports, after all, the same Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security and longshoremen will be responsible for handling and inspecting cargo. If politicians want to get tough on national security, perhaps they should fix systematic weaknesses in our port security instead of promoting xenophobia and trying to hurt a U.S. ally.
JOSHUA GOETTING opinion@kansan.com
▼ COMMENTARY
The recent attempt of a United Arab Emirates company to purchase management rights to several major U.S. ports has raised a lot of furor. But the issue isn't really about port security. It's not even close. Instead, it seems to be about politicians who are more focused on looking tough on national security issues than governing in a fair and productive way.
Take, for instance, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). She jumped on this deal as yet another indication of the incompetence of the Bush Administration and has been doing nothing short of grandstanding on the issue. She has even fully supported an extremely xenophobic piece of legislation purposed by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) that would keep foreign owned companies from managing U.S. ports. This idea is so absurd that the notoriously liberal Los Angeles Times editorial page repudiated Boxer's stand. It said, "Memo to Boxer: 13 of the 14 container terminals at the ports of L.A. and Long Beach, the biggest port complex in the U.S., are run by foreign-owned companies."
So the issue here obviously isn't a foreign company managing ports. It must be the U.A.E.'s ties to terrorism. After all, two of the 9/11 hijackers were citizens of the country. But this criterion for not doing business with companies seems a little restrictive. For instance, Germany, where the cell that planned and carried out 9/11 did most of its work, is still allowed to do business with the United States. What about Britain, whose cities include shoe-bomber Richard Reid and the perpetrators of the London subway bombings? No one has complained that British companies should have to give up the right to manage ports here. If we didn't do business with any nation that has had al-Qaida funds flow through its banking systems, then the United States shouldn't be able to do business with itself.
The crux of the matter is whether the U.A.E. is a dependable ally. The record indicates that it is. Not only have they handed over terrorists sought by the United States in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole, but also they have allowed the United States to build military bases on its soil — bases that are currently used to train Iraqi soldiers and security forces.
Goetting is a Leavenworth senior in political science and East Asian languages and culture.
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