To the editor:

Why is the Legislature dithering about university maintenance? How can the answer have escaped our leadership? Sell the universities!

Heck, Kansas University has such a profitable athletic department some multibillionaire will probably snap it up first thing. Maybe Rupert Murdoch. Just think – Murdoch U!

Who needs public education anyway? That’s an old-fashioned 19th-century notion. Dirt farmers were trying to find some way for their kids to get ahead. They wanted to tax everyone! Even successful business people! All so poor folks’ kids could read, write and figure, and some could go on to college, then help out the old folks! The Founding Fathers didn’t get their education in tax-supported schools. Why should we?

What the Legislature ought to do is sell off these universities, and cut taxes! It’s true Fort Hays State and Pittsburg State are a bit out of the way. The Legislature may have to keep funding them awhile. Taxes are what got George III in trouble. Sell the schools! Isn’t it corporate enterprise that made America great? Look in the Constitution.

Maybe some billionaire oil moguls who need to take a loss and cut their taxes will take Fort Hays and Pittsburg State off our hands. Then we can really cut taxes!

No applause, please. Thank you!

Mark Larson, Lawrence