Kansas Legislative Update
Just a quick update, for those of you who forgot, during the campaign "educating our children" was "priority number one" for just about everyone. Well, some how "priority number one" seems to be slipping in the standings. Last week I highlighted the fact that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius had decided not to deal with education this year (or at least until the '06 Governor's race kicks into gear later in the year, then she will have a plan to fix education). I thought I would highlight some of the important issues that have emerged since then:
According to State Representative Lance Kinzer:
"This week the House Federal & State Affairs Committee, of which I (Kinzer) am a member, will hold at least three days of hearings on SCR 1601, which would limit marriage to one man and one woman."
At least, at least three days of hearings? What is there to hear about, ministers and conservatives are against gay marriage, gay activists and most liberals are for it. There, the hearing is over, let's vote. Then let's get on to something important like, well, issue number one, education, issue number two jobs and economic development, issue number three who cares about number three until we deal with one and two.
The logic of this debate borders on the ridiculous and three days of it in the state capital is a profound waste of taxpayer time and money.
According to the Lawrence Journal World:
Although Governor Sebelius still doesn't have the leadership ability to tackle education, she has developed a comprehensive plan to deal with the pressing issue of wind energy tourism in the Flint Hills of Kansas.
That's right, no education plan but a plan for wind energy, and almost a million dollars of new funding (funding that could have bought books or higher salaries for teachers) to study options for wind energy tourism in the Flint Hills.
I conducted a comprehensive study of this matter while driving through the Flint Hills last year. My conclusion is that while the Flint Hills are a important part of Kansas and provide food for a good portion of the world, they are mostly endless prairie, which is not very interesting to most people, in fact very boring for most people, and still not interesting with a giant windmill on them, so in short, not a very good tourist destination. So there, million dollar study done, time for an education plan.
Timothy Burger
posted by Timothyb @ 1:28 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Tim: Very much enjoy reading your comments. Would simply note that the 3 days of hearings on the marriage issue did not in any way distract from the work being done on education issues. Given the jurisdiction of the Fed. & State Committee it is not as if we would have been having hearings on education funding if we had not given folks on both sides of the marriage issue a fair chance for public comment.
Again, really enjoy your site. God bless.
Lance Kinzer
Lance,
Thanks for the kind words and your readership.
My point is not that these hearings are bad, just not as important as education. Every year education is the last item funded by the Legislature and I would like to see it be taken more seriously, moral issues were your priority during the campaign, so it makes sense for you to focus on them first, but for many legislators education was number one or two, but then in Topeka it comes last, after wind power, gays, health care and everything else. While these issues are important to many people, I think that most voters would agree that education is at least a top 5 priority, so it doesn't make any sense for it to be dealt with in the post-legislative wrap up session,it should be in the top 5 in Topeka, and right now it is not.
-Tim
Post a Comment
<< Home