Letters to the Editor

Letter: State commitments

By Vincent T. Miller, Lawrence

February 15, 2014

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To the editor:

The 2013 base state aid per pupil was 64 percent of what it was in 1992, adjusted for inflation. The governor’s proposal for 2015 would raise it by $14. Inflation in 2013 was 1.47 percent, requiring an increase of $56.

As schools are being starved for funds, the Legislature enacted tax law changes in 2012 and 2013 which reduce state revenue by $1,589 million over the next two years, with a projected deficit of $312 million. Included in these tax changes were provisions I doubt most voting Kansans are aware of.

Sole proprietors, partners and others now pay no tax on their earnings, while their employees pay on their wages. The justification is that these businesses create jobs. As a CPA, I never had a client tell me he was not going to hire an employee because he would have to pay income tax on the resulting profit. I often had clients tell me they were unable to find employees with the necessary education.

So what outcomes can we expect from this underfunding of our schools? We will have higher  property taxes, fewer teachers, larger classes, fewer academic choices and deteriorating facilities.

As a Republican, I thought I belonged to the party of fiscal responsibility. Fiscal responsibility, however, includes meeting your obligations. When cutting taxes becomes the holy grail at the cost of providing basic governmental services, Republicanism has lost its way. I would urge voters to contact their legislators and encourage them to repeal these laws and meet their commitments.

More like this story on LJWorld.com

Comments

Bart Johnson 3 years, 7 months ago

You are urging violence against your neighbor's person and property to pay for the things you want. You are asking the state to hold a gun to people's faces and demand more of their money to pay for what you want. If people refuse to pay for your demands, you want them either shot or sent to prison where they will be raped.

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Richard Heckler 3 years, 7 months ago

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Richard Heckler 3 years, 7 months ago

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Richard Heckler 3 years, 7 months ago

By The Associated Press February 13, 2014 LJW

TOPEKA — A new proposal before the Kansas Legislature would nullify reading, math and science standards for public schools adopted previously by the State Board of Education.

The measure is sponsored by the House Education Committee and was introduced this week.

The bill also says that new standards would be drafted "solely" by the Kansas board with help from an advisory committee.

Conservative Republican legislators tried unsuccessfully last year to block the board from putting into effect the multistate Common Core standards for reading and math.

The board adopted the standards in 2010. Because the federal government has encouraged states to adopt them, critics see them as federal education standards, and costly to implement as well.

The bill also would nullify multistate, evolution-friendly science standards adopted by the Kansas board last year.

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Richard Heckler 3 years, 7 months ago

ALEC has been subverting the GOP for 33 years at local,state and congressional levels. The GOP is dead.

ALEC helps surrogates and lobbyists for corporations to draft and promote bills which:

• gut environmental laws

• create a regressive tax system

• eliminate workers’ rights = lower wages

• undermine universal and affordable health care

• privatize public education

• chip away at voting rights.

http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/alec-the-voice-of-corporate-special-interests-state-legislatures#Voter

United States of ALEC http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/27/the_united_states_of_alec_bill

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/06/10/242334/john-birch-society-celebrates-koch/

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Lynn R. Smith 3 years, 7 months ago

A letter similar to the one above by Vincent T. Miller appeared in the Parsons Sun (Kansas) newspaper on Feb. 11, 2014. This is a link to the longer version. Also Miller is from Parsons, KS, from information I have researched and the way the letter was signed in the Parsons Sun.
There is more detail to this letter. http://www.parsonssun.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/article_b53d5c30-9349-11e3-bf3b-0017a43b2370.html

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Ken Lassman 3 years, 7 months ago

Thanks. The Journal World has a very strict limit on the number of words for a letter to the editor to be printed, while the Parsons Sun apparently does not have this kind of restriction, or at least a much higher upper limit. No doubt Mr. Miller had to cut entire sections out of his more fully formed Parsons letter in order to be printed here.

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