“We do not teach history in order to train historians…and we do not teach Shakespeare to train Shakespearean actors or Shakespearean actresses.”

In graduation season, we often hear: “What good is this degree for getting a job?” And that is the question of a society that does not understand the value of education.

The above quote by Jacob Bronowski delivered at the opening of the Clark Science Center in 1968 is a clear message to those who see education as nothing but job training.

As parents, we have a legitimate worry about our offspring graduating and becoming self-supporting. But making a living and having a life are both important. And all of society suffers if a large number of people do not have a job.

But even when everyone is employed, society can be miserable. We can look to places elsewhere in the world today, or back in time to our own Dickensian sweatshop history, to when people had ample work but under slavish conditions. To quote Thoreau: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

So why do we teach history or Shakespeare? Bronowski explains that we need to “…make them second nature to our students because they are a part of contemporary nature….” It means that being a part of society is “…having a share in whatever is alive and original in the thought of your day.”

In the above paragraph, what was the poverty Charles Dickens saw? Who was Henry David Thoreau and by what authority could he criticize the meaningfulness of lives around him? And Bronowski was speaking at a science center proclaiming that everyone, regardless of educational major, also now needed to understand the basics of science—and not just those few who will enter a science career.

But we continue to hear that students only need to pursue their major, and not the full range of academic courses. On February of 1967, newly-elected California Governor Ronald Reagan examined his state’s educational budget and proclaimed “…that there are certain intellectual luxuries that perhaps we could do without.”

When asked by a reporter “what is an intellectual luxury?” Governor Reagan questioned the value of several university programs and stated that taxpayers shouldn’t be “subsidizing intellectual curiosity.” The Los Angeles Times editorial page replied that: “If a university is not a place where intellectual curiosity is to be encouraged, and subsidized, then it is nothing.”

When a large portion of our society lacks a basic understanding of the history and art and music and science and government and math, etc.), we are abdicating the human heritage that we have built up to make life better.
My college student advisees often talked of “getting general education out of the way.” But when they loved their philosophy or history or music or foreign language class even though it was not their major, I tried to encourage them to take the next class, even if it was “only an elective.” –Because they needed to have a life after they came home from making a living.

Public higher education has become expensive due to underfunding, overenrollment and the attitude that education is a private, not a public good. Thus parents and students may only value courses in their major. But sustaining the culture around us, by everyone having that minimal understanding across all of the major disciplines is what keeps us talking together, and treating fellow citizens with dignity and tolerance.

For me, helping the next generation of students become broadly educated and not narrowly job-trained—is personal. My father was a good provider. He worked hard in road construction and as an electrician. We never lacked for food and the essentials in life as I grew up. But when it came time to retire in his 70s, he was lost. He had never developed a love for reading a particular author. He had never developed any appreciation of art or music. “Wheel of Fortune” should not be the high point of your day.

Graduates need to have a life after they get home from making a living.

Man does not cause global warming or climate change. That it does is speculation and not fact. It’s a theory yet to be proven with facts.

This issue is more about politics, not science. It’s a liberal/progressive agenda.

There are only computer models to date attempting to prove man causes climate change by emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Computer models are unable to take into account all that is involved.

There is no consensus among scientists, in spite of what we are told, that emitting carbon into the atmosphere affects our weather. The claim that there is consensus, is a falsehood. Far too many scientists have sold out to a theory as fact, but not all by any stretch.

Let’s not forget CO2 in the atmosphere is needed by humans and plants to live. CO2 is not the culprit we are led to believe by proponents of climate change.

How many billions have we as taxpayers given to control climate already, with no results.

How do we, as a country, affect climate change when our population represents less than 5% of the world’s? Getting other countries to reduce carbon emissions are schemes that do not work no matter how many agreements are signed.

Even if we could affect our climate, the negatives like cost, regulations, loss of liberties, etc. would far outweigh any positives.

The earth’s surface (global warming) was greater during the Middle Ages prior to the Industrial Revolution at which time emitting carbon into the atmosphere was greatly increased. Nor has there been any significant warming in the past 17 years.

Ice caps have not been melting and polar bears dying. Nor have sea levels been on the rise. Nor have hurricanes been on the rise.

I, for one, became very suspicious when global warming could not be proven, therefore, liberals/progressives changed the narrative to climate change to encompass all weather.

Here’s a 64 thousand dollar question. Why have scientists, their data, their claims been caught time and again corrupting results if there is undeniable proof? Even U.S. government agencies have corrupted data.

The science community has lost integrity among Americans over the issue of man causing climate change with too many claims that have been proven to be false. In fact the many false claims about this issue have given the science community a black eye unfortunately.

When Obama and former Secretary of State Kerry claimed climate change is a greater threat to our security than ISIS any sensible person can clearly surmise this is all about politics having nothing to do with reality.

Prior to Trump’s presidency, climate change was a big thing with Obama, but not most Americans, nor is it today for most Americans. Most Americans would prefer our government concentrate on more jobs, lower taxes, border security, etc.

The climate change mantra is nothing more than a scheme or excuse to control more of our lives. Call it a power grab by politicians for bigger government. Call it socialism. Politicians and their cronies stand to make billions by changing how we function as a country.

What did Obama, in a major way, accomplish in his eight years? Had Hillary succeeded in following Obama this would have been another boondoggle like all of his other agendas. And, a gov’t agenda we may not ever recover from economically or as a free nation.

The climate change hoax by liberals/progressives is one more reason, among many, that Trump won the presidency. Most Americans (and most reading my letter) know what is important and what isn’t.

That being said, I rest my case.

Les Knoll lives in Victoria and Gilbert, Ariz.

Now, remember back a decade or a little more, when the Legislature passed a school finance plan under orders of the Kansas Supreme Court to adequately finance high-quality education for the children in the state’s public schools?

It wasn’t easy, it required a lot of time and work and a special session but the Legislature finally back then passed a bill that the court said, if adequately financed, would produce equalized opportunities for public schoolchildren from border to border.

Remember that within two years of passing that bill the Legislature didn’t appropriate enough money to finance the bill? And…of course, the state got sued again, and again, for not meeting constitutional requirements for providing equal access to quality education to all kids in Kansas.

The concept here: It is, of course, possible to trick the Kansas Supreme Court, to make it a promise and then break that promise. The court wasn’t happy.

But at least a couple senators last week did a relatively clever little procedure to remind the court that the Legislature tends to fall away from promises.

You gotta wonder whether a Supreme Court that gets tricked twice…well, should those folks actually be justices, or maybe just magistrates or notaries or something else…

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, took a relatively clever step last week on an income tax increase bill to make sure the high court feels a little like maybe…it’s going to be tricked again.

Lawmakers in both chambers have been advised by their new legislative counsel, dedicated to making sure that it builds a new school finance bill that meets the court’s demands, who warned lawmakers that the court isn’t interested in being handed a school finance plan that it can’t or won’t continue.

So Hensley took a professionally prepared State General Fund profile that shows pretty clearly that the tax bill the Senate debated last week didn’t fix the school finance-into-the-future problem.

That profile, produced at the request of Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, showed that the tax bill being debated would produce a budget deficit in just two years, putting that yet-to-be-approved school funding plan in jeopardy.

Old-timer Hensley used an obscure rule to make sure that the Holland-generated budget profile wound up being printed in small type in the official Senate Journal, where, depending on reading habits of the justices, they’ll be likely to see it.

Yes, it’s bringing a lot of different decisions that haven’t been made yet into the school finance/taxes/budget troika that is confronting lawmakers as they work past the traditional 90-day (that was Mothers’ Day) session.

In terms of providing the Supreme Court with a way to determine whether any school finance plan can be financed by any tax increase bill, well, it’s pretty definitive.

The Hensley move was a little off-target, of course, because there are going to be several tax plans created to finance that school formula. But it might well let the court know that whatever formula emerges, it really doesn’t amount to a solution unless it is financed consistently to accomplish what the court wants done in the way of K-12 finance.

But Hensley did, with his tactic in explaining why he voted against the tax bill, put the court—oh, and his constituents—on notice that he won’t support tax bills that fail to fix the state budget and school finance problems in a sustainable way.

Now, besides spooking the court, has there been much moving on taxes or school finance formulas? Nope, but that Senate Calendar tactic used by Hensley essentially fuses the two issues, doesn’t it?

Might be interesting to see how this all works out…

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.

convenience store after work to treat my sweet tooth. From the time I was four-years-old and walked barefoot down to Vern Wagner’s little general store, I’ve always enjoyed the wonderful taste of chocolate.

Today, I wind up plunking down a buck and a half ($1.50) for my favorite candy – either Reese’s peanut butter cups or the mouthwatering, chocolate-covered Twix sticks. While these chocolate treats taste every bit as good as any “Denver Sandwich” or “Cherry Mash” I ate as a boy, today’s bar appears to be about half the size.

Now that I think about it, $1.50 is much easier to come by today than a nickel when I was a youngster growing up in the northwestern Kansas farm community of Seguin. Back then, men worked 12 and 14-hour days on the farm for as little as $1 an hour.

My dad talked about men working for 50 cents a day during the Great Depression. Back then, you could buy an acre of ground for about the same price you would pay for a five-stick pack of Juicy Fruit gum today.

For most people in this part of the country, times were rough in those days, and they were ready and willing to work for nearly nothing – just to keep bread on the family table. Fifty cents for a day’s wages went a long way toward buying food for a family before World War II.

Recalling those days some 80 years ago, Dad told me bacon sold for 15 cents a pound, eggs cost a dime a dozen, Ivory soap sold at five bars for a quarter, butter cost 20 cents a pound and a large loaf of bread was two pennies.

Remember pennies?

They’re something people toss away today because they won’t buy anything. Some people still pick up these discarded relics, adhering to the adage, A penny saved, a penny earned.

Like food, clothing also cost little by today’s standards. Seventy years ago, shoes sold for two bucks a pair. You could buy a pretty nifty suit for less than $10.

Dad had a brother and brother-in-law who owned a car dealership back in those days. I can remember them talking about a Model T with a sticker price of $300 about the time their parents ushered in the Roaring ‘20s. A full tank of gas (10 gallons) sold for less than $2, a quart of oil cost three bits, and air for the tires was free.

What I wouldn’t give to fill my vehicle with one Andrew Jackson (bill) today.

It’s fun remembering days of yesteryear and comparing them to today. While a lot has changed, my sweet tooth hasn’t.

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

These last two weeks the Senators have spent much time and energy on conference committees, wrapping up some final pieces of legislation to send to the Governor’s desk.

In April, Kansas collected a total of $639 million in taxes. Of this amount $319.5 million came from individual income tax receipts. The Kansas Department of Revenue reported “individual income tax receipts exceeded both estimates by $3.3 million and April 2016 monthly collection by $36.6 million. Year to date the state has collected $4.8 billion in total tax receipts, which is $53.5 million more than fiscal year to date in April 2016. The Senate voted on an income tax increase, that bill failed. We have gone back to the drawing board and are looking for ways to craft a compromise tax bill that can pass both chambers to help balance the budget.

Human Trafficking: A bill strengthening anti-human trafficking laws in Kansas was passed this week. This bill strengthens pre-existing laws and creates new laws, such as a mandatory human trafficking awareness course for truck drivers, so that they may easily identify and report signs of possible human trafficking. Further, this bill will “prohibit using communication devices to facilitate human trafficking or knowingly selling travel services connected with human trafficking. It would also create the crime of internet trading child pornography and increase penalties for sexual exploitation of a child.” The bill is now waiting for Governor Brownback’s signature.

The last week two conference committees I serve on; Financial Institutions-Insurance and KPERS reached an agreement and final language on SB 23, which will merge the Security Exchange Commissioner under the Secretary of Insurance. One other important change will be the attorney’s currently working in the Security Exchange Commission will be working for the Attorney General’s office. By merging these two departments it will save the state money and will also make the Security Exchange attorneys available to help the Attorney General’s office.

We are expecting to meet next week on several bills in my second conference committee Ways & Means. SB 94 which will reinstate the 4% cuts that were made to our hospitals last year. We have changed the date to July 1, 2017 which will allow our hospitals to start receiving reimbursements starting July 1 instead of January 1, 2018.

Last week the Senate and the House Fed & State committee along with the Department of Labor reached an agreement on SB 70 which is the amusement ride bill. The Governor has already signed this bill into law. The current bill has an effective date of July 1, 2017. 
The Fed & State committee will produce another bill that will change the effective date to July 1, 2018. This will allow the legislature some time to work on the rules and regulations with the Department of Labor and allow time to make any necessary adjustments to the bill.

Thank you for the pleasure and honor of allowing me to serve you as your Senator and please feel free to email or call me at [email protected] or 785 296-7399.

By JOHN P. TRETBAR

The world’s two biggest oil exporters agreed Monday to extend their production cuts for several more months. Saudi Arabia and Russia announced Monday they would extend the cuts through next March, and analysts say OPEC members could follow suit when they meet May 25th.

We couldn’t help noticing a story out of Oklahoma last week that might seem a little rank, but also just a wee bit obvious. The Tulsa World newspaper reports a pair of companies getting creative in efforts to secure water supplies for hydraulic fracturing. They’re using treated wastewater from local sewers for fracking. The Mayor of El Reno told the paper “as long as we’re flushing the toilets, we can supply water to the energy industry.”

There were 30 new well completions over the last week. There were 15 well completions in eastern Kansas and 15 west of Wichita. There were three in Russell County including one dry hole, and one each in Barton, Ellis and Stafford counties.

There were 46 permits filed across the state for drilling in new locations last week. That’s 533 so far this year, and a fairly dramatic improvement over the total of 279 last year at this time. There were 32 permits filed east of Wichita and 14 in western Kansas. There was one new permit filed last week in Barton County and two in Ellis County.

Baker Hughes reported 885 active drilling rigs across the US including an increase of nine rigs drilling for oil. In Canada there were 80 active rigs, down two for the week. Independent Oil & Gas Service reported a slight increase in the rig counts in Kansas. There were eight in the eastern half of the state, up one, and 23 west of Wichita, also up one. In Russell County, they’re drilling at one site, preparing to spud at another and moving in completion tools at three more. Crews are moving in completion tools at two sites in Ellis County, one site in Russell County and two in Stafford County.

According to the latest monthly numbers from the Independent Oil & Gas Service, a whopping 28 percent of the new well completions in Kansas last month were dry holes. This hits close to home as well. Of four completions in Barton County last month, two failed to produce pay dirt. In Ellis County there were two dry holes out of four completions. Russell County reported one completion, which was a dry hole, and both of the completed wells in Stafford County last month were dry holes. There were 57 completed wells in eastern Kansas, including eight dry holes, and 64 west of Wichita with a whopping 27 dry holes. Independent Oil & Gas Service reported 121 newly completed wells statewide last month. That’s 470 total through April.

Producers filed 92 drilling permits across Kansas last month. The total is 475 permits through April. There were 30 permits for new locations east of Wichita, and 62 in western Kansas. Barton County reported four new permits, Russell County had five and there was one in Stafford County.

A stalemate in the Oklahoma Legislature increases the odds of a special session in OKC. The fiscal year begins July 1, and the state Constitution requires the Legislature to adjourn May 26. There is no agreement how to fill an $878 million hole in next year’s state budget. The governor has vowed to veto any budget that includes dramatic cuts to vital public services. Republicans last week pulled a bill encouraging so-called long-lateral drilling, after Democrats insisted that it be linked to an increase in the state’s gross production tax on oil and gas production. According to local news accounts, neither side is optimistic.

Canada’s largest oil and gas producer is hoping to start building a new oil sands project later this year in Alberta. Suncor’s Web site says the Lewis Project would increase the company’s production by up to 160,000 barrels per day. Suncor says it is considering use of vaporized solvents and electromagnetic heating to replace steam, and use less water and energy.

There’s yet another petroleum scandal involving a US firm under investigation in Nigeria, once our seventh-largest source of oil. The Nigerian Senate today indicated its readiness to investigate Chevron over alleged fraud to the tune of more $4.9 billion dollars. They’ll investigate alleged tax evasion and other financial chicanery.

The Brazilian-owned refinery in Pasadena, Texas is once again under scrutiny, after it was offered for sale at pennies on the dollar. Petrobras bought the refinery for $1.2 billion, but has now offered it for sale for $200 million. The acquisition was already being investigated by federal prosecutors, who say the refinery cost many times what it was worth and that bribes may have been paid as part of the purchase.

I love to read historical accounts about settling the West. After finishing a book or primary source, I can’t wait to see visit the locale mentioned. Recently, I’ve driven an eighth of the approximately 2100 mile Oregon Trail where it winds along the Platte in Nebraska and Wyoming. During an overnight stop along the way, I read a pamphlet explaining that settlers camping along the river near modern day Guernsey, Wyoming, named that site Emigrant Washtubs. I easily imagined dust-coated women eagerly awaiting a chance to scrub dirty laundry.

Modern travelers quickly learn that a day in a car where windows magnifying sunrays and fine prairie dust sifts through cracks and crevices leads to funky odors and gritty skin. Imagine folks walking long hours under summer sun as they trailed wagons that raised a perpetual Pig Pen-style dust cloud. The resulting scents and filth had to have been atrocious. To make it worse, those nomads didn’t have multiple changes of clean clothing to start their days. Babes in diapers had it even worse.

Lillian Schlissel’s Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey helped me understand these pioneer journeys. The diarists’ words and Schlissel’s commentary bring their travels to life. The author explains women couldn’t maintain regularly scheduled washdays. Instead, they laundered when they camped for more than a day near a substantial body of water. If they were lucky, they’d find enough fuel to heat water. If not, they settled for cold. Without clotheslines, bushes or rocks served to dry wet clothing. One writer mentioned they wore their clothing as it dried.

One diarist, a Rebecca Ketchum, bemoans her skin condition prior to and after laundry day. “Our hands are blacker than a farmer’s and I do not see there is any way of preventing it, for everything has to be done in the wind and sun.” She explains that washday only compounded the damage. “Camilla and I both burnt our arms very badly while washing. They were red and swollen and painful as though scalded with boiling water.”

Jane Gould Tortillott offers another example of laundry difficulties. One Saturday, as her party made camp along the Platte, she tells us, “Gus and I took my clothes to the river to rinse them. Was a little island covered with wild bushes nearby. Gus tried to wade over to it—to hang the clothes but it was too deep so we were obliged to hang them on some low bushes close to the river.”

Catherine Haun, an emigrant from Iowa, anticipated problems and wore a dark woolen dress through most of her journey. She tells us it “protected her from the sun and wind and economized in laundrying which was important considering the lack of ‘wash day’ conveniences.”

My stop at Emigrant Washtubs and subsequent reading of these diaries made me better appreciate these uprooted women who followed their men west. Not only did they live for months under open skies in unfamiliar and frequently dangerous landscapes, they also managed their laundry without the conveniences of home. I’m more than grateful for my automatic washing machine.

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.

One of my editors who runs a monthly outdoor page suggested I do a column on “When wild animals encroach on your yard and eat stuff they shouldn’t.”

Welcome to spring in the Kansas outdoors when all the critters are on the prowl around chicken coops, corrals and even backyards looking for quick easy meals to feed dens and nests full of youngins.’ I’ve already had a call from a local sheep farmer asking me to come trap coyotes and a bobcat hanging around his sheep pens. Those coyotes and that cat would undoubtedly be hanging out there anyway, but usually at night, unseen. This time of the year emboldens predators to hunt and prowl during the day when they would otherwise never think of it. A reader from Abbyville contacted me over the weekend telling me they have lost most of their chickens to what she believes to be a fox, which by the way, do quite well living in towns or on the outskirts of towns in our part of the state.

In late spring a few years ago, my friend was busy in a big round top shed that sits toward one corner of his yard, when his little Blue Heeler dog began raising cane from outside. He stuck his head out the door to see what was agitating the dog and noticed the roosters and the rest of the chickens in his chicken pen crowing, cackling and nervously milling about. He glanced behind the barn nearest the pen and noticed something bounding around wildly just behind the corral, less than fifty yards away. He headed around the barn and through the corral and found a whitetail doe jumping and dodging frantically around something in the field drive ahead. That “something” turned out to be a pair of coyotes with a small whitetail fawn pinned to the ground between them. My friend ran toward the melee shouting and waving his arms, the doe retreated into a nearby patch of weeds and the coyotes scattered toward parts unknown, leaving the lifeless looking fawn on the ground before him. Even though only a few scratches were apparent, the fawn lay there limp and listless. He said that as he stroked its small spotted body, the light suddenly came back into its eyes. It jumped to its feet and after getting its bearings, instinctively headed for cover. As he watched from a distance, the doe joined the fawn and they disappeared into a thicket some distance away.

Like springtime on the farm, springtime in the wild is a season filled with babies everywhere. Just as that whitetail doe had her fawn to protect and feed, you can bet those coyotes had a den full of hungry little mouths to feed also. It is no coincidence that there is more prey available in the form of young, easily caught critters at this time each year, just exactly when every wild animal needs extra prey to feed its young. Isn’t it amazing how everything seems to come full circle back to the fact that God knew exactly what He was doing when he engineered the order of things! Even with the glut of easily caught “wild” lunches right now, predators are still opportunists at heart and will not think twice about grabbing a young farm animal or even cats and kittens if given the chance. As spring turns into July and August, increased predation seen in the spring will slow again, but in the meantime, there are a few extra precautions that can be taken to at least make the opportunists think twice about grabbing’ something from the coop, corral or backyard.

Even though you can’t keep an eye on poultry and young farm animals 24/7, giving them a place under roof to spend the night will help dramatically. Giving poultry a place to spend the night behind a closed door is a good thing any time of the year. Remember, despite their willingness to prowl more during daylight right now, a predator’s favorite time to hunt is still after dark. Keeping the grass and weeds mowed and trees pruned around pens will help also, as removing any cover predators can use to sneak close to a barn, chicken house or yard will help deter their presence. Sadly to say, there’s not a lot that can be done in town to deter predators aside from keeping cats, dogs and chickens within a fenced yard or enclosure of some sort.

Playing a radio and keeping a couple lights lit in the barn where sheep and goats spend the night will sound like human activity to a predator and can help deter their presence.

The most effective predator prevention is probably a good watch dog, even if it’s small. Dogs of any size make predators nervous, and even though any coyote, bobcat or raccoon worth its salt can easily overpower most small dogs especially if they catch them out in the open, a noisy little mutt relentlessly yapping away at them as they slink around the barn or sheep pen might at least make them question their plan and will likely alert you in the process. Unfortunately a yappy little dog will probably not work well in town, as they might help keep predators at bay, but will surely keep you in hot water with the rest of the neighborhood.

Yup, its spring time in the Kansas outdoors again, and all the critters and predators have families to feed and might “Encroach on your yard and eat stuff they shouldn’t as they follow their God-given instincts to protect and feed their young. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning that, after all, I’m a coyote trapper. But I am saying that understanding why it happens helps me look at it from a slightly different perspective ….Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

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

On May 11, I filed to run for a seat on the Hays USD 489 School Board. My goal as a board member is to generate more diversity in thinking when it comes to local education issues. Currently, the school board seems to be in an echo chamber as it relates to the current school board’s push to get a bond issues approved by taxpayers.

Over the past 40 years, I was fortunate to have been involved in federal and gubernatorial elections around the country as well as local elections and local bond issues – all of which I believe will be an asset to both the taxpayer and the school board. My experience tells me that the board’s current effort to rush to another bond election without better preparation is ill-advised, particularly with three board seats up for election this November.

When elected, I will ask a few citizens to meet regularly with the superintendent, maintenance superintendent and me to develop a priority list for capital outlays for repairs to educational facilities in the district. There is simply no need to pay outside firms to advise the school board on how and where to spend money on such improvements. This is a job in which school board members should willingly engage.

Finally, I promise to attend the school board meetings on a regular basis.

I ask for your support in this November’s election.

Thomas M. Wasinger, Hays

Last week our governor and some members of the legislature gathered at the statehouse to experience a day of prayer. Participants prayed that the work of the legislature would serve the will of the Lord. There were also prayers that the legislature not enact laws that reinforce a dependency on government.

Earlier in April the often outspoken and frequently quoted Department of Children and Families Secretary Phyllis Gilmore posted a comment on the department’s Facebook page that alleged the problems of the poor families her department is mandated to serve were largely due to dependency created by left wing enthusiasts for assistance payments. She asserted that the department and the Brownback Administration were instead providing support, guidance and training to help these families to find and keep good-paying jobs.

Last week as U.S. House Republicans celebrated passage of their alternative to the Affordable Care Act many members of the body and the new Secretary of Health and Human Services, former Georgia Congressman Dr. Tom Price, praised reduction of governmental “interference” in healthcare. Many conservative members of Congress spoke approvingly of the bill’s intrinsic Social Darwinism meant to reaffirm medical care as a market exercise and thereby reduce socially borne expenses like immigrants having babies that increase Medicaid costs and lead to welfare payments. A few IK columns ago our colleague Michael Smith wrote about Kansas’s new physician-Congressman Dr. Roger Marshall who, in March, told the medical trade periodical STAT that poor people and homeless people, “just morally, spiritually, socially … don’t want health care.”

I confess that I am no scholar of religion, but these remarks prompted me to think about the intersection of politics and religious belief. That crossroad here in Kansas has been particularly busy. The current struggles over taxation, school finance, public assistance and support of people on the lower end of the socio-economic distribution, and the general debate over government involvement in healthcare all publicly display religious overtones. Among our conservative elected officials the most common set of religious values influencing their political arguments and judgments are those of the Calvinist tradition.

Central to the teachings of John Calvin are pre-ordination and the concept of The Elect. The Elect are people pre-determined to join God in the heavenly hereafter and they are known and recognized in this secular life by their material well-being, good health, virtuous lives and charitable inclinations. Since Calvin taught that nothing mortal man can do will alter the fate determined by God, and God would not waste his blessing on the unvirtuous, all those who lived less virtuous, unsuccessful, and poorer lives are clearly not the Elect and are doomed to damnation in the afterlife.

It seems to me that the remainder, the “Unelect,” are now living in the unenviable circumstance of being ruled by these folks who believe they are members of the Elect with elections to validate their status. I don’t know if John Calvin was right. Like so many prophets before and since, he’s failed to provide us with an update on his circumstances. But I do believe that the effects of this moral certitude are pernicious. We may not all make it to the heavenly hereafter, but in the here and now there is plenty of both scientific and spiritual evidence to suggest that the whole herd benefits in this life from improving the life prospects for the least of us. Using fate and politics to assign personal fault to the few and exonerate our superior selves from a collective responsibility to assist, support and uplift the impoverished and the less able is both inhumane and damned un-Christian.

Dr. Mark Peterson teaches political science at the college level in Topeka.

As the teacher shortage gets worse across Kansas and nationwide, the Kansas Department of Education has launched a marketing effort to recruit young students into the profession. They believe that there simply is lack of understanding about how to become a teacher. But high schools and universities supply an abundance of information for any student with a desire to become a teacher.

Most vocations are invisible to a student growing up; but students have observed the job of a teacher right in front of them for 12 years. And that is precisely the problem: students know the real teaching situation because they have seen firsthand the disaster of No Child Left Behind teach-to-the-test dictates that stripped professionalism from their teachers.

For nearly two decades, we have forfeited the professional decision-making of teachers for standardized one-size-fits-all testing. And the recent name change of NCLB to ESSA and partial reduction in testing has done little to restore teacher professionalism.

When teachers’ professional responsibilities have been undermined, when they are blamed for schoolchildren’s failures, and when they receive no respect from the political bodies or the public at large, video pep sessions are not going to overcome those realities. While a few affluent communities hire away the best teachers to teach the best students, this state of affairs holds true for the majority of schools nationwide. So what can we do to restore professionalism, to make teaching a profession of respect that can recruit the best of the next generation?

• Restore tenure (also called “due process”). Beginning teachers lack any job protection in their first 3 years of teaching—an adequate period to determine if they have the skills to teach. Once “tenured,” it only takes a competent administrator to fire an incompetent teacher. But this accomplishes nothing if there is no surplus of good teachers to fill that vacancy. A competent teacher should not have to fear losing his/her job each year and forever have to rent. While NCLB caused a long decline in teachers, loss of tenure caused a major exodus. Until due process is restored, no other actions will bring back substantial students into teaching.
• Return all curricular design and subject testing to the teachers’ hands…period! Sure, go ahead and use the ACT for college placement. But rural and urban students are different, and teachers must be the sole agents responsible for developing unique teaching for their unique students.
• Stop treating administrators as “instructional leaders.” Administration is there to support the teachers and nothing more. If you do not have good teachers, no administrator can cure the problem.
• Move all secondary teacher training to the university content departments. U.S. secondary teachers are undertrained compared to other developed countries. Ed School fads change every 2–3 years; their methods curricula are generalized and lack lasting value.
• Use only the teaching technology that teachers’ request. A huge amount of money is going down the ed-tech rat hole while student performance is dropping. Gaming is not learning. And walking around a classroom as students individually play on “personalized” programs is not teaching.
• Pay teachers a professional living wage. U.S. teachers made more in purchasing power in 1971 than any year since. Teachers do not enter teaching for the money, but some leave because they cannot support their family.
• Stop lowering the bar for teachers. Most alternative route teachers perform poorly in the classroom. You wouldn’t want nurses practicing medicine or doctors trained in nighttime online courses. When we must fill positions with unqualified persons, call them permit or emergency teachers, but do not give them fake credentials.
• And revive respect for teachers. Teaching has become the target of blame for all of our social ills—the Rodney Dangerfield of professions. Asians and Europeans respect teachers. The child who gets in trouble at school should also be in trouble when they get home. Good teachers who lack parental and administrative support will leave the profession. Many have.

Teaching is the greatest of all professional fields. Unlike a medical doctor, who cures a patient to send him or her back to their prior life, good teachers help their students build a better life forever.

Weekly Overview

This was the legislature’s first week back in session after First Adjournment. We voted on numerous Conference Committee Reports, wrapping up most of our non-tax, budget, or education-related work. Senator Richard Hilderbrand, Baxter Springs, was sworn into the Kansas Senate representing southeast Kansas Senate District 13.

Senate Floor Action

KANSAS CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT – SB 201 amends the Kansas Consumer Protection Act adding members of the military to the definition of “protected consumer” found in the Act. Currently, law includes veterans, surviving spouses of veterans, and immediate family members of members of the military, but does not specifically include current members of the military.

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REPORTS

IGNITION INTERLOCK AND EXPUNGEMENTS – HB 2085 requires every person who has an ignition interlock device installed to complete the ignition interlock device program pursuant to rules and regulations adopted by the Secretary of Revenue. An approved service provider would have to provide proof of completion to the Division of Vehicles before the person’s driving privileges would be fully reinstated.

PROTECTION FROM ABUSE ACT – House sub. for SB 101 would adjust law concerning protective orders, notification of a sexual assault examination of a minor child, infectious disease testing, and claims for compensation through the Crime Victims Compensation Board.

KPERS AND KANSAS POLICE AND FIREMAN – SB 205 makes numerous changes to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS or Retirement System) pertaining to participating service; Kansas Police and Firemen’s (KP&F) death benefits for certain surviving spouses; the Board of Regents Retirement Plan, as it relates to working after retirement; and the administration of KPERS.

CRIMES, CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, AND CUSTODIAL INTERROGATIONS – SB 112 creates the crime of aggravated domestic battery and will modify the crimes of domestic battery, possession of drug paraphernalia, burglary, cruelty to animals, and dog fighting. Further, it would amend provisions concerning illegal sentences, post-release supervision for persons convicted of sexually violent crimes, and expungement of arrest records. It also would enact the Law Enforcement Protection Act signed into law this week.

CRISIS INTERVENTION ACT – Senate Substitute for HB 2053 creates the Crisis Intervention Act (Act) and will amend law related to mental health to reflect the provisions of the Act.

PUBLIC RECORDS AND MEETINGS – HB 2301 modifies law related to public records and public meetings. One of these modifications includes amending law within the Kansas Code of Criminal Procedure relating to trial jurors. The bill would remove addresses of prospective jurors from the information included in the list of prospective jurors filed as a public record with the clerk of the court. The bill would also alter the Kansas Open Meetings Act (KOMA) with respect to closed or executive meetings. The bill would require any motion to recess for a closed or executive session to include a statement describing the subjects to be discussed during the closed or executive session and the justification for closing the meeting. Current law requires a statement of the justification for closing the meeting and the subjects to be discussed during the closed meeting. Unchanged in the bill would be the requirement the motion contain the time and place at which the open meeting will resume.

VEHICLE TITLE AND REGISTRATION FEES AND SEAT BELT SAFETY FUND –SB 89 makes modifications to law relating to the collection of certain vehicle title and registration fees and the remittance of such fees. The bill also would increase fines for certain seat belt violations and direct related moneys to the Seat Belt Safety Fund created by the bill.

National Police Week

This week, both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed SB 112, The Law Enforcement Protection Act, a bill strengthening protections for police officers and creating tougher sentences for individuals convicted of hate crimes toward police officers. This is a great piece of legislation that shows, concretely, our appreciation and respect for our law enforcement officials. This bill passed both chambers with large bipartisan support, and many of our Senators attended the bill’s signing ceremony in Governor Brownback’s office on Friday.

From the State Library – research help for everyone

Needing to do some research, but don’t know where to start? Wanting information on a topic from reliable, quality sources? The Explora database may be exactly what you’re looking for. Explora has a simple search bar, but searches multiple resources at once, giving you full text results. The articles can be saved, printed, or emailed. Explora has photos and videos along with hundreds of Topic Overviews – much like an encyclopedia. Plus, there are different age-appropriate versions of Explora, making it a great resource for all.

Explora General Research: http://kslib.info/explora

Explora for Kids: http://kslib.info/explorakids

Explora for Middle School Students: http://kslib.info/explorams

Explora for High School Students: http://kslib.info/explorahs

Thank You for Engaging

Thank you for all of your calls, emails, and letters regarding your thoughts and concerns about happenings in Kansas. Constituent correspondence helps inform my decision-making process and is taken into great consideration when I cast my vote in the Kansas Senate. As always, I’ll keep you updated on the activities of the Senate while we continue through the last few weeks of the 2017 Legislative Session. I always encourage you to stay informed of the issues under consideration by the Kansas Legislature. Committee schedules, bills, and other information can be easily accessed through the legislature’s website at www.kslegislature.org. You are also able to ‘listen in live’ at this website. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, concerns, and suggestions. An email is the best at this point in the session.

Thank you for the honor of serving you!

Senator Elaine Bowers
Kansas State Capitol Building
Room 223-E
300 SW 10th St.
Topeka, KS 66612
[email protected]
(785) 296-7389