From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for March 5, 1990:

The “Public Forum” section of the editorial page was buzzing this week with numerous responses to a Letter to the Editor that had appeared on Feb. 23. In her letter, Lawrence resident Donna Laut had admitted that while there were “mothers in our society due to the general decay of the American family that are forced to work,” the “vast majority of mothers in the work force do not need to work during the child-rearing years.” Laut further objected to these “same women” asking for public funds to pay for before- and after-school care, “a tax burden which, if instated, will never be lifted all because these women desire to fulfill their ‘greed’ needs.” She further asserted that most working mothers supported their school’s PTA organization “only by their initial membership fee” and that “parental support of schools from the working force parents is practically nil.” In a response published today, Lawrence resident Linda Hermes questioned Laut’s “spurious and simplistic” arguments against mothers in the work force, adding that staying home with one’s children did not necessarily make one a better mother any more than going to work turned “a good mother into a tired, indifferent one.” Hermes also countered Laut’s PTA argument with her statement that half the members of the PTO board in her daughter’s school were mothers with full-time employment outside the home, with the other half being employed part-time or attending school.