To the editor:

I was astounded by the details of the “model budget” for Kansas prepared earlier this year by Kansas’ new budget director and the Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity. (Journal-World, Dec. 9)

Their first idea is to cut back on Medicaid. Apparently, the idea is to protect the well-heeled by balancing the budget on the backs of the sick and powerless.

Another idea is to funnel tax dollars into school vouchers. Besides being a boondoggle designed to enrich the wallets of those whose children already attend private schools without freeing a single space for an underprivileged student, how could this preposterous idea help balance the budget?

Another idea is to raise college tuition. (Again?) This is based on two premises. First, that most Kansans don’t have children in college and therefore shouldn’t bear the cost. Do Kansans want their doctor to have attended medical school? Do they want to cross a bridge designed by a trained engineer? How about their pharmacist? Their dentist? Shall we fold up Kansas’ aeronautics industry?

The second absurd premise for this budget move is that “it is only the more affluent citizens who are more likely to have children enrolled in higher education.” Incredible! Most students need financial aid to attend college, hold down jobs while there and graduate with a large burden of debt.

The notion of Steve Anderson guiding the future economy of Kansas is truly frightening. The only real idea here is demagoguery: making average hard-working Kansans suspicious of the sick, the disabled, public education and the educated “elite.”