I arrived in Kansas 35 years ago, happy to be offered a job at KU, but having little sense of the state that would become my home. My political science colleague, friend, and ultimately co-editor of 15 books, Al Cigler, acidly alerted me to former Democratic Governor Bob Docking’s fiscal words to live by: “Austere but Adequate.”
This was scarcely heartening, but I soon learned that, despite the state’s conservative orientation and ordinary Republican dominance, Kansas had a progressive heart. Between old-time populist leanings and contemporary policy commitments to education, good roads, and clean government, Kansas looked like a slightly watered down version of such progressive states as Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
Government spending, while scarcely munificent, went beyond the Docking prescription. More importantly, there was the rough assumption that government – whether federal, state, or local – had a role to play in the success of all Kansans. We were in this together, and we bore some real responsibility for our fellow citizens.
Kansas might not have been Minnesota, with its Democratic-Farmer-Labor progressive tradition, but it was certainly closer to the upper Midwest than to the minimal government, low-education-spending states of the South.
To be fair, Kansas retains much of its historical commitment to providing good public education, and the wealth of Johnson County and other economic centers has been shared throughout the state, most notably in education and highways.
Still, on many fronts Kansas seems poised to change from being Kansassota to becoming Kansassippi. The state’s traditional commitment to education remains in place, roughly speaking, but this will be tested gravely over the next few years as revenues sink.
Moreover, per the statements of many right-wing members of the Legislature, there is little clear commitment to public education. Rather, their model is more likely Louisiana, where Governor Bobby Jindal has essentially moved to privatize the admittedly bad public school system. The beneficiaries? Among others, private religious schools, who have far more latitude in teaching their versions of science and history.
Kansas roads have long been among the best in the nation, much like the remarkable county highway system in Wisconsin. But as the highway fund becomes a bank to pay for revenue losses, the roads might well begin to look a lot more like Oklahoma’s or Alabama’s than Wisconsin’s.
Highways and schools are markers for states that emphasize the well-being of all citizens. So is health care, and here we have willfully joined the legion of southern states that have turned their backs on those most in need of affordable care. Southern states have uniformly rejected expanding Medicaid or establishing their own health care exchanges, just like Kansas. To be fair, Wisconsin under Governor Scott Walker has resolutely opposed both initiatives, but Minnesota has embraced them.
In addition, Kansas has joined many southern states in opting for the privatization of Medicaid delivery, demonstrating further reluctance to use government – however large or small – to benefit the state’s residents. Rather, Kansas is headed toward resembling the small-government, low-service states of the South.
Over the past four years, Kansas has systematically moved away from the idea that government can help people. This has become a popular storyline, to be sure, but I’d urge Kansans to visit Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and then trek south to Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. In addition, they might consider two recent studies that found Minnesota the third best state to live and work in, while Mississippi averaged 49th.
As we head toward the second four years of the Brownback administration and a right-wing Legislature, we may well be turning away from our tradition of moving forward together as a state. We aren’t there yet, but it doesn’t take much imagination to see Kansassippi on the horizon.
Burdett Loomis is a professor at the University of Kansas and has undergraduate and graduate degrees from a Minnesota’s Carleton College and the University of Wisconsin.