Letter: School alarm

Lawrence Journal-World letters to the editor

To the editor:

Schools will probably not open in the fall in Kansas. There likely will not be a first day of school; there might not be an entire school year. The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered the Legislature to create a school-funding plan by June 30, and no one is discussing or working on it.

The last school funding plan took more than a year to create. Kansas senators and representatives have less than two months left in their session. I don’t know why no one is sounding alarm bells! If there is not a funding plan, there will be no public schools in Kansas.

Yes, the presidential election is full of crazy people. But we have our own crazy people in Kansas who want to shut down our schools. The Kansas Supreme Court is not bluffing. The order is issued and done. It’s the Legislature’s turn.

This doesn’t just affect people with kids in public school. Think about property values. It won’t matter that your house is located in a “good” school district, because no one will want to buy a house here. Not to mention that we will somehow have to support all the people who will be without pay, from custodians to principals, because they won’t be able to provide for their families.

The Journal-World should be covering this every day. How is anything else bigger news? 

And our Lawrence legislative delegation should be pitching a fit.

Do people in Kansas know about this? Does anyone care?