Opinion column: Somebody’s got to tell ‘em

Window on the West
opinion column

by Mary Rupert

There was a bit of an emotional moment in the Kansas House this afternoon when House Minority Leader Tom Burroughs, D-33rd Dist., got angry and told off a House Republican.

The Republican had made statements including “Has the other side of the aisle come up with a plan to address adequacy?” or offered a plan for equalization or offered funding sources for increased funding they think is necessary? The Republican, Rep. John Whitmer of Wichita, said no, they offered no solutions whatsoever.

You can’t blame Rep. Burroughs for getting mad. For years, the Democrats have been saying the state needs to increase funding by ending the administration’s experiment of eliminating taxes on businesses. The result of the experiment has been the state has consistently lost revenue and has to cut school funding. With more revenue, the state wouldn’t have had to make that level of cuts.

Rep. Burroughs reportedly pointed at the Republican representative and said that Democrats value Kansas schools, teachers and those willing to work on their behalf. “You, sir, are an ideologist, a politician, and,” he said, and at that point he was interrupted by those who wanted him to be quiet. The chair said, “We don’t call out other members on the House floor.”

Rep. Burroughs apologized to Kansas children and to the people of Kansas “for losing my decorum.” But, he said he will continue to stand for children and public education. During the day’s debate, Democrats said that the bill will result in some districts with a larger property tax base being able to spend more on education than poor districts.

Decorum or not, I think Rep. Burroughs was right to tell him. Sometimes, people need to be told. At what point do you let everything go down the tubes just so you can say you cut taxes?

And, we ought to tell the Kansas legislators and Kansas governor, too. Send a letter or email to them today saying that you want more money spent on public education than has been allocated. Tell them that the days when it was OK to discriminate against minority children in facilities and money allocated to their education were supposed to have been over in the 1950s. Tell them to get their values straight and quit shorting the kids’ education. The legislators’ email addresses can be found at http://www.kslegislature.org/, under “legislators,” and then “rosters.” To send the governor a message, visit https://governor.ks.gov/serving-kansans/constituent-services/legislation-and-policy-issues.

To reach Mary Rupert, editor, email [email protected].