Truancy policies can catch parents by surprise

The law really needs to be tightened up to give principals less discretion. My daughter (not in the Lawrence district but nearby) missed a lot of school over the winter due to a recurrent set of flu symptoms. Most of those absences involved doctor's visits but since her pediatrician is 20 miles away, sometimes I just kept her home. Our district policy states that an illness is excused if the parent says they're sick, and further that a doctor's note is "suggested" for absences of five days or more. But the principal decided that because she had missed more than the average number of days (duh - about half the kids will be above the average!), from then on she needed a doctor's excuse for any absence of even a single day.

It's all about the money - the state pays the district by how many days the kid is sitting in the chair. Fine, I get that, but you can't have principals not only ignoring the written district policies, but changing the rules for specific students mid-year.

May 1, 2013 at 12:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Truancy policies can catch parents by surprise

Not entirely true, tanzer - according to state law, a child is not required to attend school until they're seven years old, but once enrolled the child DOES have to meet the same attendance requirements as if they were seven. The alternative is un-enrolling them, which a parent can do at any time at their option.

May 1, 2013 at 12:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Editorial: Tax fairness

Forget fifty states - how many thousands of localities as well?

April 30, 2013 at 11:29 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Editorial: Tax fairness

The product you buy has to physically exist somewhere before you purchase it. Whether it's from a wholesaler or a private second-hand seller or from the manufacturer, it exists SOMEWHERE. And that factory/warehouse/home has roads leading to it, water and sewer lines, police and fire protection, schools for the company employees' kids, etc - I believe that's the infrastructure jafs is talking about, and why the taxes (if any) should be paid to the seller's state/locality, not the buyer's.

April 30, 2013 at 11:23 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

KU researchers say new autism estimates shouldn't set off alarms

Your rebuttal is irrational. Nobody tried to blame vaccines for cancer or asthma.

March 26, 2013 at 9:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

A few KU students already feeling effects after military tuition assistance suspended

And what The DNC doesn't want you to know:

Obama added more to the debt in his first 3 years and 2 months than Bush did in two full terms (and BTW, Bush was more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars shy of "doubling" the debt). In his first year alone he increased the debt more than Reagan in two full terms.

Federal tax revenue receipts went UP, not down, following the Bush tax cuts, and the tax burden shifted more towards the rich than the middle and lower income brackets. Federal taxes are currently lower than in the past, yes - for EVERYONE - two thirds of the Bush tax cuts went to the middle and lower income brackets, and pretty much everyone's taxes went down about the same as a percentage of what they were paying.

Yes, the debt ceiling increased 7 times under Bush (which doesn't put him at the top of the list, BTW), IN EIGHT YEARS, Obama has had it raised 6 times in only four. Also, it's not entirely accurate to say "Republicans Voted Seven Times to Raise Debt Ceiling for President Bush" since three of those increases came while Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.

There is no correlation, and never has been, between tax rate and total tax receipts, receipts correlate with tax BASE.

Just wanted to mention a few, please carry on with your rant.

March 18, 2013 at 12:34 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

A few KU students already feeling effects after military tuition assistance suspended

Personally I find it amusing that in a city full of people frequently complaining about waste (and outright fraud) in the defense budget, not to mention constantly harping on the importance of education funding, they seem willing to accept at face value the administration's claim that there's nothing else in the defense budget that could be cut before tuition assistance for those that fought for their country.

March 18, 2013 at 12:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Editorial: Medicaid equation

Nice evasion. You made the point - and emphasized it - that Obamacare shouldn't be resisted because it's "THE LAW". I merely asked if your belief system extended to all laws or just those that fit YOUR political ideology (or whatever Rachel Madkow told you to think today).

BTW, if we're talking about ideologies, I guess we can assume you're a typical "it's free money 'cause it comes from somewhere else" liberal?

March 6, 2013 at 11:27 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Editorial: Medicaid equation

Which is one of the reasons I separated direct legislative action from court decisions. ;)

March 6, 2013 at 10:29 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Ottawa woman, 60, sentenced to 25 years for dealing prescription drugs

"Of the nine other defendants in the case, one has been sentenced to five years of probation and eight await sentencing."

Now, boys and girls, can you point to which one of these ten people turned federal witness?

March 6, 2013 at 10:20 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )