Readers share views on Gov. Sam Brownback, smoking addiction and bullies

Lowbrow legacy

I was a school principal in a Seattle suburban district during the 1950s. Then, Washington’s public schools were ranked among the top three states in the nation.

They were ranked No. 1 in the amount of state tax support and had the lowest percentage of students in private schools of any state.

Then Dan Evans was elected governor. He ran on a platform to reduce state funding for education and instead to fund schools through local property-tax levies.

After that, as principal, I had to spend time trying to get out the vote for our local tax levy.

Money for education dropped, class sizes increased and teacher pay decreased.

Dan Evans went on to be elected a U.S. senator and served in the 1980s.

Today, Washington schools are ranked in the bottom 50 percent and Washington has the highest percentage of private-school students in the nation.

Will that be Gov. Sam Brownback’s legacy in Kansas?

R. Vance Hall

Professor Emeritus

University of Kansas

Overland Park

Addictive additives

This could be one solution for the ravages of tobacco addiction.

The government should pass legislation to return cigarettes to their original recipe of merely tobacco, with no addictive additives.

Whistleblowers have confessed to manipulating additives to ensure that tobacco products are more addictive.

One was the subject of a movie about how he was hired to do this dastardly deed.

I sent him money because he lost his job, marriage and home as a reward for blowing the additive whistle.

I stopped smoking some 50 years ago, but my children are still trapped in the smoking addictive circle. When I quit it was pure tobacco, not the new addictive brands.

Any product that produces addiction should be put in the category of addictive drugs (like heroin or crack) and be regulated and monitored for the good of the nation.

How about milk and beef? Someday they could be doctored to be addictive.

Money will warp you.

Don Airington

Kansas City

Politics of bullies

The bug in Missouri, the nasty, disgusting, say-anything bug in Missouri politics, is Jeff Roe (3-4, A1, “‘Bully’ tactics faulted in death”). He appears to have no morals or ethics.

His kind should only come out at night, when civilized folk are at home with their families. He almost makes Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback look like a real human being.

William Britt

Leawood

Pro-video gaming

I would like to express my opinion on the lopsided news coverage of entertainment and sports. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching the Chiefs and the Royals any day, but I do believe there is a market not getting any love — professional video gaming.

You may be thinking, that probably isn’t a very big market, but it is. The championship for DOTA 2 (a popular video game), had a huge prize for the winner. If that isn’tworth some sort of coverage, I don’t know what is.

I know there are bigger markets in sports today but I think the news needs to reach out more toward this growing market. I believe it is well worth getting on this while it is growing, than waiting for it to already get big.

I really do believe this is where popular competitive entertainment is going.

Truman Butler

Liberty

Steve Rose column

Steve Rose, in his March 8 column, “Melcher needs a remedial lesson in school math,” went out of his way accusing the Kansas Policy Institute of spewing distortions about per-pupil spending in the Shawnee Mission School District. The district’s budget report says it spent $12,397 per pupil last year and is budgeting to spend $15,504 this year.

Rose may not want all spending to count, but the Kansas Supreme Court says it should, as does the Kansas State Department of Education Accounting Guidelines. Even school districts say spending on capital outlay and new buildings are necessary parts of education (but often say otherwise when being held accountable for total spending).

Rose is consciously “fibbing” (as he puts it) when claiming that KSDE says capital and debt service do not count. The “asterisk” he referenced does not say that that funding doesn’t count; it is merely a footnote explaining the difference between current spending and total spending. Current spending is an accounting term; it does not mean that any other form of spending doesn’t count.

Rose should apologize for consciously misrepresenting the facts. He should also come out in public and debate the finer points of school funding with people who know the truth.

Dave Trabert

President

Kansas Policy Institute

Olathe

Voting for power

“DemocracyNow!” on March 9 featured Diane Nash, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and leader of the Selma marches 50 years ago, explaining why she didn’t march last weekend. She said it was because former President George W. Bush was marching, and he was about violence, torture and war.

She stated that citizens, not elected officials, should make change. I respectfully disagree with Ms. Nash and agree with President Barack Obama as he said in Selma: “It is we the people” who make change happen, which includes all the people.

But one thing that we people aren’t doing is voting. It is the most important thing we can do to make change happen.

A source of information, help and knowledge about candidates, how to vote and where to vote in local or national elections is the League of Women Voters.

It registers voters, defends voting, monitors government activities, teaches about rights and responsibilities, sponsors forums, informs and takes action on issues people care about. Check them out at www.lwvjoco.org or www.lwvkc.org.

You don’t have to be female or join to get information. Attend a lecture or register to vote. Power is in the people in the United States, and the first step is to vote. Men in my family died to protect and promote voting and democracy, and probably in yours also.

Laurel Mace

Overland Park

Put children first

Charter schools need space for our kids (3-9, A1, “Charter schools struggle for space”). We have empty malls all over this town.

It is a no-brainer. Use space available to take care of our most precious resources. Renovation costs would be minimal. Existing bus service could be incorporated for sensible neighborhood transportation.

When are we going to start putting our kids first and politics and profit last?

Maureen Schutz

Excelsior Springs

Apology required

In Kansas, is the name of the great and powerful grand vizier, Sam Brownback, so sacred that his lowly public employees dare not mention it? When Topeka teacher Jenay Weekly made an innocuous reference to the governor in a speech at a mock United Nations competition, she incurred the wrath of David Kensinger, a former Brownback chief of staff (3-7, A5, “Lobbyist confronts Kansas teacher”).

This self-appointed speech policeman and bully administered a verbal flogging that was as humiliating as it was unjustified. Kensinger owes all of Kansas an apology, just as Gov. Sam Brownback did when he overreacted to some critical tweets by a Kansas high school student in 2011.

Someone should remind Kansas Republicans that despite their overwhelming majority, Kansas is not Russia or Iran. Freedom of speech still applies — even in the caliphate of Brownbackistan.

Lighten up, Kansas Republicans, or someday the peasants may rise up in revolt.

Jeffery Bushman

Kansas City

Freedom of speech

I am wondering who would be appointed to permit or not to permit the satirizing of a religion. Would it be yet another government agency, czar or committee?

I’m not sure everyone has a right to his or her opinion without being ridiculed, but I’m pretty sure everyone has a right to his or her opinion without being slaughtered.

Sherry Darrow