To the editor:

I found Alan Cobb’s Your Turn column on May 9 very odd. If we want to “end incessant school litigation” (and who doesn’t?) then the answer is to adequately fund the schools. Even though the litigation began before the Brownback era, the budget cuts that occurred during his administration and their impact on school financing certainly exacerbated the problem. Cobb thinks that the Legislature should set education policy. OK, so do it already. Don’t blame the Legislature’s failure to do so on the litigation. But wait, we just saw how the policy set by Brownbackians worked out, and sadly now we have a mess to clean up.

We have checks and balances built into our system of government for good reasons, and weakening them is not the answer. Laws and litigation are needed to prevent “politics” from adversely affecting bigger issues that should be beyond that. The litigation is not about who has the power to tax but rather what the proper level of support for education should be. I will vote against any change to our constitution that gives all of the power to the Legislature merely to end the litigation.