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Thursdav. April 18. 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Schools need money
Study shows that U.S. spends less on education than two-thirds of world's advanced countries
In many inner-city schools, education has taken a backseat to safety. Students attend classes where there are bars on the windows and armed guards patrol the halls.
When schools regress to this level, it is a sure indication that education in the United States is failing.
In fact, the United States spends just 5.1 percent of its gross national product on education. It spends less than two-thirds of the world's most advanced countries, according to a recent study by the American Federation of Teachers.
Although the United States is often considered a world leader, it falls far short in the area of education. It is sad that such a wealthy nation invests so little in future generations.
For example, in addition to less financing, U.S. school children spend fewer days in class than those in most other developed nations. If the government keeps education
on the back burner, other countries will continue to surpass the United States in technology.
Democrats took the first steps to reverse the trend this month when the House and Senate pushed for greater spending for education. And President Bush's current proposal to improve education holds some promise.
Bush's four-part plan focuses on improving schools, basing federal aid on the improvement of national test scores and the expansion of adult education programs. The plan also suggests allowing parents to choose the school their children attend and coordinating local, state and federal services, such as child nutrition and employment help for parents.
It is about time the government made an effort to invest more in education. But this is only the beginning. With a lot of work and cooperation between Congress and the president, maybe the United States can move from 10th to first place in education financing.
Stacy Smith for the editorial board
State is suffering
Legislative procrastination increases problems
once again, the Kansas Legislature has dug itself into a hole.
Lawmakers, who are in recess until Wednesday, have a scheduled three-day wrap up session left before the 1991 session ends.
The most difficult issues in the state — property tax, state welfare and education — have vet to be addressed.
One would think that the 1991 legislators would have learned a lesson about procrastination on difficult issues from the 1990 legislative session.
Many Kansans were furious when that session ended. The Legislature made no laws to amend what many voters felt were unfair property taxes. Lawmakers left higher education twisting in the wind by reneging on a state commitment to assist financing for the third year of the Margin of Excellence. And, because Social and Rehabilitation Services' budget was so tight, enough money for adequate resources for state foster care, nursing homes, welfare and children's programs was not provided.
Since lawmakers put off difficult issues to the end of the 1990 session, many legislators blamed their hasty decisions on the fact that they were not able to come to an agreement in such a short time.
Legislators participating in the 1991 session
want to take the easy way out again. If there is not enough time to decide on some of these electorally devastating decisions, such as increasing sales and income taxes, representatives can pass the buck and secure their political positions.
Education, property taxes and social welfare cannot be ignored by the Legislature any more. When the state continues yearly to underfinance social welfare because they do not have the time to lay out a feasible and well-financed plan, one more child in Kansas goes without a much-needed meal provided by the state.
If the state does not have the money to provide for all of the programs it needs, than legislators must propose some form of a tax increase for Kansans, even if it jeopardizes their re-election.
It is time for the Kansas Legislature to get some backbone and address the most important state problems at the beginning of the session. This way, representatives have plenty of time to come to an agreement on whether new policy is needed and plenty of time to take the credit or the blame for the state's welfare.
Carol Krekeler for the editorial board
■ Editorials reflect the opinion of the University Daily Kansan editorial board. Editorials appear in a box on the left side of the page. Editorials reflect the majority opinion of the board but not necessarily the opinion of the signed author.
Opinions expressed in guest and staff columns and cartoons are solely those of the author or artist. Views expressed in columns and cartoons are not necessarily shared by the Kansan.
Food Barn strike carries deeper significance than just economics
O stensibly, the motive behind the Food Barn strike boils down to simple economics: the strikers refuse to take any more wage or benefit reductions.
After deeper investigation, one learns that strikers such as Mike Simmons, a meat cutter, constitute the real backbone of the strike. Simmons' attitude elucidates the larger principles at work behind the picket lines, fliers and rallies. The bulwark among these is a dedication to fairness and loyalty to one's coworkers.
Simmons js a 41 year-old husband and father of two. His parents owned a small grocery店 in Vermillon, where he got his start in the grocery
He started working for Food Barn about 13 years ago, two weeks after his son was born. The grocery store he had been working for in Topeka was small and independently owned. Simmons was on salary and was putting in at least 60 hours a week on the average. He took a couple of days off when Daniel was born; this angered the management. So he quit and went to work for Food Barn. Why is Simmons striking?
"I'm a big, big fan of labor unions," said Simmons. "When I first went to work for Food Barn, the union established my wages and benefits just for walking through the door. By switching to Food Barn, and as a result of the union there, I immediately began making twice as much money with tons more benefits than I had been making at the independent grocer I had been working at."
Food Barn is a Kansas Missouri grocery chain with 47 stores. Three years ago, the chain underwent some major changes and executive management changed.
David E.
Kinnamon
Guest columnist
The incipient executive officer, Dave Wilson, called for solidarity and outlined his plan for a bold internal reorganization of the workforce wage and benefit reductions.
The benefits reduced were items such as vacation time, sick pay and received weekly hours. The union sanguinely accepted the changes and the new contracts. The store-level and executive-level management received pay increases, however.
Last year Dick Wilson olearly announced that his first three years at the helm had wrought consecutive financial losses for the chain and that to save Food Barn, the workers would have to accept more wage and benefit reductions. That was the final straw for many longtime employees.
The employees felt the management wanted too much sacrifice from them. The employees resented what they were doing, and a attitude on the part of the higher-ups.
"Why would a company in the red give the management $30,000 and $40,000 bonuses last year?" said Sheila Ward, former seafood manager and current Lawrence strike captain.
Most of the store-level managers refused to participate in the strike, opting instead to keep working and resign from the union. The store manager was also a brand manager not unionized, as prescribed by the company bylaws.
"I would not have respected myself if I had crossed the picket line. You don't go along for the ride and bail
out when it gets tough. I wanted my children to understand what I was doing and why I was doing it. The bottom line is human dignity." Simmons said.
Deciding to go on strike, for Simmons, was a particularly intrepid decision. He was a total of four times the need to seek the sole income-provider in his family.
The financial onus has not been as severe as it could have been — so far. Simmons and all the other strikers receive $60 a week from the union. In addition, they have their strike assessment funds available to them; he believes they did not able to accumulate in less than a year's time amounts to a picayune level. And the barrel is beginning to run dry.
"We're in the fifth week. I have to find other employment. Eventually, I will find another job. For now, whatever it comes to me, I'll make sure the statement at the beginning that if I had to sell my house, I would." Simmons said.
Even after he finds a new job, he says, "Whatever time I can devote to the picket, I'll continue to do that."
Simmons has a lot of answers. To him, the strike never needed to occur, if the management had been successful and more human resource-oriented.
Until the Food Barn management is willing to agree to reform and keep a more open ear to the voice of the common worker, you'll find Mike Simmons, along with two or three co-strikers, patiently and resolutely standing in front of the grocery store at 23rd and Iowa streets, wearing a sign and sincerely asking pedestrians for their support.
■ David E. Kinnamon is an Overland Park junior majoring in journalism, English and history.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Should we help Kurds?
I was a little concerned about Jeff Listerman's column in the April 10 edition of the Kansan about U.S. support of Kurdish rebels. No one can deny that the slaughter of the Kurds is an atrocity, but I am confused as to what he believes the U.S. should do about it. He stated that he opposed the use of direct military force in order to insure their safety. However, I don't understand how that is
possible.
What concerned me the most was his naive approach to international politics. Certainly, from a ceramic major's point of view, he might feel a moral obligation to the Kurds since their current predicament is indirectly the result of U.S. actions. I don't believe Listerman, not unlike many Americans, truly understands the ugly facts of war and its consequences. It's easy to say in retrospect that the U.S. should have gone further in destroying the Iraqi military, but I am not going to go into a long disertation about power vacuums. The point is moot.
I wonder whether Listerman has as much compassion for the 700,000 refugees who have fled Liberia during its long civil war and whether he
thinks the United States should take action to stop that conflict as well. If we are going to preach from the high moral ground, would this not be proper? Also, what should we do the next time Soviet tanks roll through the streets of Vilnius or nerve gas is used against protesters in Tblisi? Or should we only concern ourselves with nations that can't fight back? The point being, once you start directly intervening in the internal affairs of nations, where is the line drawn and are you willing to take responsibility for the possible outcomes?
The Kurds are not unique in their plight. The reason people such as the Kurds are persecuted is when the Kurdish tribes have been empires, it was done in such a way as
to insure strife, repression and continual poverty in many parts of the world. Until the international community decides to address this issue in the very serious manner which it deserves, things such as the slaughter of animals should continue. Paps this should be the focus of the "New World Order."
Louis H. Lietzen Lawrence resident
'Penzance' is a triumph
What an exciting production of Gilbert and Sullivan's masterpiece, "The Pirates of Penzance," presented by University Theatre and the music and dance department.
The close attention paid to detail in voice, movement, costumes and set brought joyfully into being, with intellectual rigor and sweeping panache, those overarching concepts Gilbert and Sullivan invite us to consider as we discover the beach of the soul, tide and time waiting for no man as foam laces over sand, and beauties raise pirates up into pilots, we explore ourselves.
That deep sounding of the soul that may eventually transform pirates into pilots has been set out in lyrical andlexandrines by Edmond Rostant and exquisitely filmed in "Cyran de
Bergerac," being shown this month at Liberty Hall. What a happy coincidence that during a single week we could celebrate in our University stadium the nationally recognized triumph of our student athletes, be dazzled by high-minded folderol whose footprints the foam of art sweeps, with panache, clean, and discover, through Cyrano and Raguneau, art in tartlettes and ache in panache.
for the entire cast of "The Pirates of Penzance," a resounding rendition of the stop-stopping anthem: "Hail Poetry!"
J. Theodore Johnson, Jr.
Professor of French and Humanities
KANSAN STAFF
CHRIS SIRON
by David Rosenfield
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