Lawrence Journal-World opinion section

To the editor:

It is self-evident that the ongoing budget crisis in Kansas is derived from the draconian tax cuts implemented by the governor and his legislature. I will not belabor that point.

If the governor intended to conduct an experiment to demonstrate his theory that such cuts would spawn economic growth and job creation, his design is missing one critical element. What mechanism did he develop to measure his hypothesis? How are we to empirically measure the impact of the tax cuts on job creation and economic growth? What indices are to be used to determine a direct relationship between the tax cuts and jobs created and growth to the exclusive of all other forces that could influence these factors?

The point is that there was no such mechanism devised. Brownback and his legislative friends deliberately manufacture a budget crisis to shrink the size of government and reduce the level of services provided to the general populace. The public educational system, which is a significant portion of the budget, is targeted for dismantlement in favor of privatization.

Privatizing government services, including education, means eliminating a retirement pension system for employees or educators. That means you get to dole out contractual services to your supporters in the private sector with minimal oversight.

Attacks on public education through legislative actions, attacks on the courts to minimize their role in governance, proposed legislation to allow tax dollars to be used to provide grants for private sector educational entities all point to demolishing public education as we know it.