More and more, intimidation is being confused as leadership.
In Kansas, state leaders are using intimidating tactics as a means to conduct business, taking the state to unprecedented levels of disrepute.
In the case of education, legislators are daring the handful of Supreme Court justices to use their “hammer” and rule against their decision to cut school funding. Never mind the state constitution and its mandate for an adequate and equitable education, which Rep. Marc Rhoades, R-Newton, said reeked of “socialism.”
To legislators, it’s a matter of money — not education. Their goal is to meet budget and to placate voters they are deflecting the blame for education cuts onto the Supreme Court, which it casts as only all too happy to close the state’s public schools with its June 30 deadline to come up with a new school finance formula.
Legislators take umbrage over what they view as the high court meddling in their affairs. Education is a political issue, they contend.
It shakes one to the core to think what path our state would be on without the checks and balances provided by the Supreme Court.
To that end, legislators have worked tirelessly to emasculate the high court, including its purview — in addition to education, how district court and supreme court justices are appointed — followed by a threat to defund the entire judicial branch.
Because Gov. Sam Brownback is behind these sinister motives, the danger of these few “bad apples” holding sway over the entire Legislature is increasingly grave.
The most recent votes on public schools — which did nothing to increase their funding — passed overwhelming in both the Senate, 32-5, and House, 93-31.
WHAT IS SORELY lacking in the halls of our state Capitol is thoughtful discussion and the inherent weighing of pros and cons.
That cannot happen when legislators come to the table already aligned with special interest groups whose goals strike at the very foundation of public education, public health and public services as a whole.
To get our state back on track, we must elect officials whose goals are to serve the greater good, not just those of a select few.
— Susan Lynn
