I led Kansas City’s Catholic schools, and we taught that all families are welcome | Opinion
Family belongs
As the former superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, I was saddened and angered when I read about how parental complaints about injustices resulted in the expulsion of an innocent student from a Kansas City-area church school. (July 30, 16A, “Blue Springs Catholic school kicks boy out to punish his mom”)
At a Catholic faith-based school, students must be taught the message of Christ that all are welcome. We have the chance to teach by example how to manage disagreement without cutting off people. But my tears came knowing that 11-year-old Will Muller is the victim here.
My hope is that every school in the Kansas City area writes letters of invitation to the Muller family. Parents who object to homophobic practices, sexist gestures and inappropriate comments are great examples of what we hope our graduates are: men and women who have the courage to voice their opposition to unethical practices.
We need more parents like the Mullers. Will deserves a welcoming school community.
- Sister Anne Shepard, Atchison, Kansas
Reduce harm
Gov. Mike Parson’s veto of S.B. 189 blocked much-needed criminal justice system improvements for victims, professionals and the 1.9 million Missourians who face regular barriers because of an old, publicly available arrest or conviction record.
This is an opportunity for legislators to address the governor’s expungement concerns by modifying existing language from H.B. 352, which seeks to automate the process. Instead of petitioning for expungement, which fewer than 1% of eligible Missourians do, H.B. 352 would automatically seal certain records after a person has remained law-abiding for a specified number of years.
Expunging records benefits access to housing and employment while enhancing public safety and the economy. Employment outcomes improve quickly and significantly for people with expunged records, and they have extremely low rates of recidivism. Within one year of expungement, employment and wages jump 23%.The five-year recidivism rate of people with misdemeanor and felony expungements is under 5%.
Employment reduces recidivism, and the associated increase in workers and wages generate an estimated additional $131 million in state revenue each year.
The recent veto presents a second chance for legislators to get it right when it comes to automated expungement.
- Christi Smith, Resident senior fellow for criminal justice and civil liberties, R Street Institute, Washington, D.C.
Doesn’t follow
The July 29 commentary “Medicaid expansion hurts the mental health of the needy,” (6A) written by two fellows associated with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, laments the existence of “America’s mental health crisis.” Worse, the authors decry that the brunt of the crisis has fallen on “society’s most vulnerable”: children of low-income parents, Medicaid beneficiaries ages 40 to 64, women, the disabled and rural residents — in short, a whole slew of folks.
Curiously, the authors point to the expansion of Medicaid benefits through Obamacare and continued legislative efforts to provide health insurance coverage like Medicaid to those vulnerable groups as big culprits in making things worse for those same people. Um, huh?
Their reasoning appears to be that expanding the rolls of Medicaid recipients in effect taxes the ability of the health care delivery system to get care to all the newly covered patients, let alone all the existing folks on Medicaid. So stop expanding Medicaid benefits! Tortured logic, indeed.
Everyone knows that health care in the United States is in major need of reform, but reducing assistance to the people who need health care cannot be part of the equation.
Note that the Mercatus Center was founded by and receives funding from the Koch family foundations. These are crocodile tears.
- Shane Smith, Olathe