Wes: In high school we rocked out to the musical stylings of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” You knew the truly hip from the poseurs because poseurs would say, “Pink Floyd! I love him, man.” Pink Floyd was not a him. Neither was Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The brilliantly sinister hook in “Another Brick in the Wall” demanded, “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control, no dark sarcasms in the classroom. Teacher!

Dr. Wes Crenshaw and Kyra Haas

Leave those kids alone!” You can tell Gov. Brownback and the conservative legislators also grew up with Pink Floyd because they’re always striving for these same goals.

Facing a zany block-grant funding system that ignores changes in student census numbers, districts like Olathe face hundreds of new students with zero new dollars. Superintendents are issuing desperate letters to constituents, as courts rule the entire funding scheme unconstitutional.

In response, Kansas teachers are getting out while the getting is good, a story that’s gone national. Teachers feel unsupported because of budget cuts, the elimination of their bargaining power, the attempt to have them prosecuted for teaching sex education, legislation trying to take over their teacher of the year program and so on.

At least someone is benefiting from the Kansas war on public education. Independence, Mo., is advertising along I-70 to hire our teaching refugees.

That kind of thing must be working. Nearly twice as many teachers bailed out of Kansas this year as last, leaving 500 open positions in the final weeks before school starts. And the State’s response to this crisis? Hire unlicensed teachers to teach your kids. They call this “innovative.”

Young people still relate to Pink Floyd in standing up to the autocracy of schools. That’s part of growing up.

But today, the real threat to teens comes from state government changing the structures that fund education and thus altering for a generation to come what is delivered in the classroom and by whom.

One need only look at their platform of theocratic, single party, conservative rule to know where that is headed. Late teens, young adults, and anyone else who wants to avoid that outcome had better become very interested in politics in this state.

We’ll say it again. Kansas has exactly the government it voted for doing nothing but what that government promised. So any change isn’t up to the governor or the Legislature. It’s up to you.

Otherwise, it’s just another brick in the wall.

Kyra: In preparing to leave the state for college, like many of my peers, I am excited to leave behind Kansas schools, among other things. It isn’t the schools’ fault.

As a class, the seniors of 2015 have watched the exodus of some of their favorite teachers over the last few years with great concern, and even greater concern for their favorite teachers left behind.

If you ask my class, we all understand why educators want to leave just as bad as we do. Those instructors who remain are increasingly asked to do more for less, which, as Wes notes, is catching national attention.

In an NPR “All Things Considered” segment on July 9, a reporter interviewed a young teacher who wanted nothing more than to return to Topeka, her hometown, and teach math.

Instead, because of Kansas’ education uncertainty and low wages, she ended up at a middle school in (yes that’s right) Independence, Mo., perhaps lured by the recruiting billboards littering I-70.

While Kansas faces some immediate repercussions from the attempts to pillage funding, the worst may be yet to come. Massive baby boomer retirements loom, and most young teachers have no interest in filling them.

Wes is right. To prevent an upcoming generation from learning from the unlicensed wave of “innovative” instructors used to cover up the terrible financial choices of the Legislature and governor, the people — especially young people — must become more active participants in state government. Lamenting on Twitter or Facebook is not enough.

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax said it best: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

–Wes Crenshaw, Ph.D., ABPP, is author of “I Always Want to Be Where I’m Not: Successful Living with ADD & ADHD.” Learn about his writing and practice at dr-wes.com. Kyra Haas is a Free State High School senior who blogs at justfreakinghaasome.wordpress.com. Send your confidential 200-word question to ask@dr-wes.com. Double Take opinions and advice are not a substitute for psychological services.