To the editor:

Many thanks and a long round of applause for John Tacha’s succinct and eloquent defense of the public school systems in our country. Mr. Tacha’s article should be read in both houses of the Legislature when next it meets. That our schools should be under attack by the very people elected to lead us toward a better life for all is indeed a disgrace. I feel betrayed that our legislators would succumb to anti-tax voices, some not even from Kansas, and fail to provide adequate funding for our schools.

The Washington Post, in an editorial early last week, was very blunt in its condemnation of the concerted national attack on public education. The editorial was captioned, “Leave no Rich Child Behind.”

Our federal taxes went down, federal subsidies went down, federal requirements went up, so the money has to come from somewhere. If we don’t raise our state taxes, our local ones must be higher. With the property tax we are hit with a double whammy: raised valuations and raised tax rates. Then there will be the hidden costs of schools charging groups to hold meetings on the premises, charging students to participate in extracurricular activities and fund-raising bake sales for which we donate bread and pies and pay $5 to buy someone else’s contribution. It would be much better for the state to provide stable, predictable, coherent funding for our public schools. Raising the state income tax would be the fairest way.

Sarah Casad,

Lawrence