Ever wonder why you never hear romantic stories about a guy proposing marriage to the love of his life while waiting for the fast-food employee to hand the fries out the window?

It’s because, we hope, it never happens.

But that’s pretty close to the proposal made by lawyers for the state at the Kansas Supreme Court oral arguments last week that its roughly $300 million in new money (atop about $4 billion spent now), two-year school finance plan will bring a lifetime of success to Kansas schoolchildren who attend public K-12 schools.

The state’s arguments were essentially that the low-buck new school finance plan passed this session will provide school districts enough money to turn out graduates we’ll be proud of, who will go on to technical education or higher education or be bright enough right out of high school to find jobs that will provide security for them for the rest of their lives.

Oh, that’s if the new plan for teaching the children more effectively succeeds…and we’ll get back to you in a couple years to see how that works.

If the Supreme Court accepts that proposal, well, then the Legislature has just scored a major victory. It convinced those justices to just sit quietly in the car, and presume that you’re going to share the fries with them, and the children of the state.

But at the end of the hearings last week, it didn’t look like the court is willing to accept that proposal. It was just fries, not even a dinner with tablecloths.

Only seven Kansans—justices of the court—know now whether the Legislature’s plan for school funding which includes new testing and new direction of spending of state resources by local school boards will satisfy the constitutional requirements for adequately financing public schools. But, admittedly, it’s the cheapest solution suggested to the court. Educators, including the State Board of Education, recommend about three times the Legislature’s increase in spending.

If the Legislature’s plan is upheld, well, lawmakers can figure that they won’t have to raise taxes on anyone in the year leading to the statewide offices and Kansas House elections. That’s probably the biggest issue that is going to face those candidates in the next year. You never go wrong by not raising taxes on registered voters. But if the new money and the detailed plan on how school districts are to spend it doesn’t provide adequate funding according to court decree, then we won’t have to wait for test scores in two or three years to see if the plan was successful. We’ll know by the outcome of next year’s elections.

Of course, the biggest issue is the students and whether the new plan provides us a generation of students that is going to be successful once the young adults leave school…and whether Kansas can wait two or three years to see if it works.

The plan rejected? Lawmakers go back to work probably this fall to try another plan…and whatever that yields, it’s going to have to be linked to a tax increase of some sort.  There is still a wide range of services which are exempt from sales taxes, and there is still the statewide 20-mill tax for support of public schools, but lawmakers have about run out of room for increasing general sales taxes and income taxes.

So, does this cheap date work? Or does the Supreme Court decide that the proposal it is considering isn’t just for a few years but a lifetime of success for Kansas schoolchildren?

That’s what the folks in the Statehouse are waiting to hear.

Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com

I remember the Skunk in the cartoons from years ago named PePe Le Pew. PePe fancied himself a bit of a Don Juan and was always trying to woo other female animal characters with his charm. His most famous pick-up line began with the words “Ah my little lotus flower.”

When driving through the McPherson Valley Wetlands lately I’ve noticed amazing yellow flowers in some of the many ponds. This morning I donned my waders and got a firsthand look at what I was seeing. I crossed the surrounding drainage ditch and clamored up the tall dike on the back side. What greeted me was like something from an exotic Chinese water garden. I’ve always called them water lilies, but Jason Black, Public Lands Manager for the Kansas Dept of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism who manages the entire McPherson Valley Wetlands system tells me their proper name is American Lotus, and says they are in fact native to Kansas.

They filled the shallow waters in the corners of the pond like a mat of immense green leaves dotted with bold, pale, yellowish-white flowers the size of cereal bowls. Most of the time these plants are shown with their enormous leaves floating on the water, but here where the water was shallow they actually rise above the water’s surface. Most of the leaves on these plants were about a foot wide, give or take, and the flowers that were fully opened measured 6 inches across. Leaves on older American Lotus plants can reach 24 inches in diameter. An interesting phenomenon is that American Lotus leaves never get wet; water forms a droplet on them and just runs off.

Each flower has a bright, yellow, round center resembling a little double-layer cake. When the flower dies, that center swells into a seed pod 3 or 4 inches wide resembling a wasp nest with several individual seed compartments that each contain a single marble-sized seed. As it further dries the seed pod droops toward the water and the seeds eventually spill out and lay on the bottom of the pond. The seeds can lay dormant in the mud for several years before germinating, which occurs when the hard outer shell softens. The plants grow from tuberous roots called rhizomes which can become up to 50 feet long and can have dozens of plants growing from them. American Lotus plants will grow in the still water of any pond, lake or stream that is shallower than 3 feet.

Waterfowl and other wildlife will eat the seeds and tubers if they can get to them. Native Americans peeled and cooked the tubers to eat as vegetables or dried and stored them for winter food. They ate the seeds in soups and other dishes or roasted them like chestnuts. Many Great Plains tribes attributed mystic powers to the American Lotus plants. A poultice made from the pulp of the root was thought to relieve the pain of inflammatory ailments such as arthritis, and a mash made from the blossoms and leaves was said to have anti-fungal properties. Although little sound research exists concerning the medicinal properties of the American Lotus, a close cousin, the Indian or Sacred Lotus which is native to Asia and Australia has been used medicinally for generations. It is known to relieve asthma, inflammation, headache and fatigue, and is said to promote good digestion.

When I first visited Kansas over 30 years ago, I either bought or was given a decorative seed pod of some sort that was brown and hard with numerous round compartments in it, each containing a round hard seed of some sort. I was told they were called “lake nuts.” That decorative object has long since disappeared, but at the time I remember no one seemed to know what the heck it really was. Guess what? After writing this column, I now know it was an American Lotus seed pod! I never cease to be amazed at the wildlife and plants which flourish here in Kansas that common sense tells me shouldn’t be here in our prairie state at all. For instance, beavers and bobcats here in Kansas, really; and now waterlillies!!! Of the American Lotus someone has said, “Whenever you doubt your self-worth, remember the lotus flower.

Even though it plunges to life beneath the mud, it does not allow the dirt that surrounds it to affect its growth or beauty.”Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].

It’s the time when heat and pests aggravate the best of gardeners. It’s hard to keep tomatoes setting fruit when days and nights break record temperatures. To compound matters, grasshoppers and tomato hornworms appear and gnaw tender fruits, leaves, and stems to little nubbins. Plains green thumbs frequently face daunting challenges. So do horticulturists everywhere, I’ve learned.

Trying something new, I experimented with a high altitude garden in the Rockies. Of course, that means inhaling thinner air, but cool mornings and nights compensate for short breath. Despite planting later and facing shorter harvest dates, I sweat less and face fewer pests. Or so I thought.

No one told me about picket pins, Wyoming rodents that love cruciferous veggies. Since this is an experiment, I rented a community garden plot. I figured I’d learn from locals used to the altitude and temperatures. My 8 x 4 foot raised bed came filled with fertile soil just waiting for me to show up with trowel and seeds. In no time, tidy rows of kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, spinach, radishes and onions absorbed soil nutrients, spring rains, and sunshine. I patted myself on the back, thinking my mountain garden would escape difficulties I’d faced back home.

Once sun warmed the earth in this raised bed, greens grew thick and plentifully. In no time, we enjoyed fresh spinach and lettuce, crisp radishes, and crunchy onions. It was lovely to harvest veggies that didn’t have a single beetle or grasshopper bite taken out of them. My pleasure didn’t last long.

Within days, something had nibbled away at kale and kohlrabi planted near the garden’s edge. I looked for insect droppings but found none. A high fence around the garden prevented trespassing deer so I couldn’t imagine what devoured my dream harvest. It was certainly healthy because it consumed entire rows of healthful greens.

Finally, I caught the thieves. Bigger than chipmunks but smaller than prairie dogs, they were speedy rodents. I learned they’re ground squirrels that natives call picket pins because of their tendency to stand up straight outside their holes , looking like stakes that keep a horse from straying. They also really like cruciferous vegetables.

A fellow gardener lost her cabbage plants to the hungry hordes. Yes, hordes. These creatures reproduce like rabbits so scores of them call the hillside near our fenced plot home. While deer can’t leap over the ten-foot fence, these intruders have no trouble sneaking between posts or under gates. I caught one perched on the wooden edge framing my rented garden. He unhurriedly nibbled what was left of my last kohlrabi plant before scampering out of reach. I swear he winked when he left.

Unconcerned with his human visitor, he didn’t run until I swung a canvas garden bag his direction. Ironically, this guy and his buddies have done far more damage than any grasshoppers or hornworms that visited my Kansas gardens. The verdict is still out about exchanging high plains planting for mountain tilling. What I have figured out is that no matter where vegetables grow, there’s a pest waiting to snatch them from my plate.

Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.