In early September, the governor’s communications office issued a “Fellow Kansans” essay renewing the administration’s vigorous claim that everything associated with providing funding to the state’s K-12 public education system must count as money that affects children in the classrooms.

Instead, the essayist complains, $456 million of the $3.2 billion the state is currently funding for K-12 must go for debt service support, capital outlays and KPERS funding. These expenditures allegedly demonstrate the badness of the school funding system the governor and the legislature replaced with block grants this spring. A state supreme court appeal is pending that will determine if the block grant system will be implemented. In the time, before that decision is reached, it’s worthwhile to examine the essay’s claims.

They don’t elicit an outright shout of “Liar, liar, pants on fire,” but perhaps the famous Reagan versus Carter quip, “There you go again” works.

Currently Kansas law requires assistance to low property valuation districts with interest and principal payments (debt service) on their school bond issues. There’s a good chance most Republican legislators believe this probably only encourages voters in those poorer districts to think their kids deserve facilities that at least resemble what wealthier districts can afford.

Nevertheless, debt service support, like the true operating support money known as Base State Aid per Pupil, helps equalize resources for districts with low property tax resources. Without the support, a lot of rural, relatively economically underdeveloped communities would unquestionably have dated, down-at-the-heel facilities. Not exactly great environments for instruction or the sort of facilities likely to attract and hold the brightest young sparks in the teaching profession.

Capital outlay covers the physical stuff that goes into classrooms, auditoriums, libraries, cafeterias, bus barns and athletic facilities. Existing statutes requiring districts to segregate and account for capital outlays differently from operating funds, although a national standard of good accounting practices, are apparently bad for Kansas school children. Setting aside funds in this way leads to funding such things as that horrendous $47,000 grand piano that Kansas City’s Sumner Academy was called out for last February. When the purchase was disclosed, it seemed that some educational administrator soon would be headed for a beheading.

Critics, including the governor’s communications office note that the price would pay a teacher’s salary and benefits for a year. It begs the response, “Yes. Then what happens the next year?” The piano has a half century of useful life. That is fifty years of enlightenment, transcendence and instruction for certainly hundreds if not thousands of school children, teachers, parents and community members at an amortized cost of less than $1,000 per year.

Statutes regarding the public pension system, KPERS, require that the state contributes to teacher pensions. The communications office views this as another unwarranted pigeon-holing of resources block grants would eliminate. Certainly, some will point out, education is a young person’s calling. It’s not the public’s or the state’s responsibility to create homesteaders in the state’s school districts. But where do these critics expect to find ambitious senior mentors, competent experienced administrators, and seasoned personnel who have seen the myriad problems and behaviors that children and parents manifest? Just how long does the current regime of short term thinkers expect to keep competent, inspired and inspiring instructional personnel if the state’s legal dedication to its statutory pension obligation is repealed?

The punchline to the Communications Office essay was that block grants change the restrictions on state school support so that now it can be used to pay teachers – “the most important asset in any classroom.” But then, what happens next year?

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

Due to a long and complicated string of events, I was unable to make it to a movie in theatres this past weekend. I was able to squeeze in a movie from Netflix that I’d been wanting to see, so  I figured I’d review that this week.

“Snowpiercer” is a strange fish, anyway you slice it. It’s an English language film from a Korean director based on a French graphic novel about a frozen post-apocalyptic world where the few human survivors live onboard a single train that has circles the globe once per year and has been doing so non-stop for the past 17 years.

If that wasn’t weird enough, “Snowpiercer” was mired in film distribution politics and was released to Video-on-Demand services such as iTunes within weeks of its limited theatrical debut.

Big cinema chains hate at-home viewing outings for new movies because it’s not hard to image that, nationwide, a lot of movie-goers would just as soon stay at home with their big screen TVs and skip the theatre altogether. It’s not an unreasonable fear, but the corporate politics an business tactics clashing with the artistic creation of film always leaves some fallout.

Regardless of its release controversy, “Snowpiercer” is an engaging, exciting look into a caste-based system where the rich are pampered and the poor and left to die and what happens when people are pushed beyond their limits. “Snowpiercer’s” setting is incredible and the film does an excellent job of dolling out information about why the passengers of the train are there and how their world works.

The film’s structure and ending are a little “Gasp! Look! A twist!” for my taste, but nevertheless, the film paints an arresting picture. “Snowpiercer” will go down in cinematic history as one of the early battles in the war of the cinema chain and Video-on-Demand; controversy notwithstanding,  it’s a wild, weird and worrying ride around the snow-covered globe. I would recommend than hard-core science-fiction fans catch this on Netflix, but it may be too weird for casual movie-goers and definitely to violent and unsettling for the kiddos. Lastly, I love trains.

5 of 6 stars

Travel out to the fields of Kansas during October and you’ll see them teeming with fall harvest. Combines chomp through the fields of corn, milo, soybeans and sunflowers eager to dump the bountiful crops into waiting trucks and grain carts.

Today’s green, red and silver monsters move through the fields like tanks rolling through a war game. All across Kansas, farmers pilot these 12-ton behemoths as easily as the family car.

On gravel and blacktop roads tandem trucks and semis race back from the elevators so the machines can fill them up again. Fall harvest in Kansas marks that magical time of the year when producers of food and fiber reap what they have sowed.

Seeing this bountiful production unfold, underscores the importance of farming and ranching in Kansas. Our Kansas farmers – and their contemporaries across this great land – continually risk all that is theirs; hoping success is what each harvest and year will bring.

They work with the land, chemicals, computers and livestock. They must understand markets, people, soil crops and climate. Their livelihood is largely dependent upon factors that are oftentimes completely out of their control.

Still, farmers farm to succeed. They farm to grow and harvest crops and produce livestock.

Farmers see their vocation not only as a business, but also as a way of life to preserve in good times and bad. They have their feet planted firmly in their soil. They are dedicated to the land and providing us with the safest, most wholesome food on the planet.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the average person consumes approximately 194 pounds of cereal products annually. When you couple that with approximately 66 pounds of oils, 115 pounds of red meat and 63 pounds of poultry it’s readily apparent why Kansas harvest is an important time.

Today’s consumer has the option of using nearly 4,000 different corn products. These uses range from corn flakes to corn sweeteners. Corn and milo remain the top source of livestock feed.

Countless foods are made from today’s fall soybean crop. Some of these include crackers, cooking oils, salad dressings, sandwich spreads and shortenings. Soybeans are used extensively to feed livestock, poultry and fish.

Sunflowers from the Sunflower State can be used as an ingredient in everything from cooking to cosmetics and biodiesel cars. And as you probably already know, they’re a really tasty snack – and healthy too.

So if you have an opportunity to visit our state’s fertile fields this fall, think about the professionals who are busy providing the food we find on our tables each and every day. Tip your hat, raise an index finger above the steering wheel of your car or give a friendly wave to these producers of food and fiber who are dedicated to feeding you and the rest of the world.

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

Maybe we should have learned something last month when Kansas Democratic Chairman Larry Meeker, Lake Quivira, resigned his job at the top of the party’s political hierarchy.

Then we could have gotten our bets down on the resignation of U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

The link between Meeker’s and Boehner’s resignations, while politically different, is philosophically identical.

Meeker wasn’t “Democrat enough” and Boehner wasn’t “Republican enough.”

Meeker, who is to be succeeded Saturday in Salina by former Kansas Democrat Vice Chair Lee Kinch, Wichita, wasn’t “Democrat enough” for the party’s old-timers and donors and members who are more interested in the party name than in actually running state government.

Meeker, recall, suggested renaming the Kansas Democratic Party “Red State Democrats,” which is a pretty accurate perception of Democrats in the Republican (red) stronghold of Kansas.

Not Democrat enough, and many Democrats don’t like the term “red” as it refers to the state’s voter registration and history.

For Boehner, well, pretty much the same story: Working, when necessary, with Democrats to keep the U.S. House of Representatives moving and getting the basic nuts-and-bolts work of running Congress done. It required some leadership compromises, some accommodation to keep things moving, and that isn’t something that some of the most right-wing Republicans will stand for. (For example, U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., who like many farmers, won’t give up an inch on the fence line.)

Can’t tell if Meeker had suggested maybe not changing the century-old party name but maybe making Red State Democrats a nickname or casting it as a source of pride—that even in Red Kansas there are Democrats who are busy and active and politically engaged—that he would have remained chair.

But the Republican- or Democrat-enough issue is likely to play out during next year’s legislative elections where both parties need to explain to their members, and if not members maybe just voters, where the center of each party is and why the far edges of those parties aren’t going to run things.

That’s a tough one, and the central ideas of both parties in terms of taxes, education, health care for the poor and such actually aren’t that far apart. The way to those centrist party goals might be different, the catch phrases different and the reasons for those positions different, but if you squint, both parties want the state to run well and hospitably.

You’ll not have to worry about individual candidates saying where they are: They’re after votes and will be as conservative or moderate as Kansans will allow them to be on their doorsteps.

The real battle for those votes will be in the Republican Party in the House, where maybe seven or eight votes there are the difference between the “hard right” and the moderates, who often side with Democrats to move legislation. Figure that a handful of House members out of the GOP’s 97-seat majority will move things to the center.

In the Senate, with a dozen moderate Republican/Democrat votes and 28 conservative Republicans, well, it will take something dramatic to move that chamber toward the center of either party’s ideals.

So, we’re down to the campaign not just along party lines, but about Kansas values that will move into high gear.

Just waiting, though, to see whether pictures of any Republican standing next to Boehner or any Democrat standing next to Larry Meeker kills a campaign…

Syndicated by Hawver News Co. of Topeka, Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report. To learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit www.hawvernews.com.

Since my daughter’s May graduation and subsequent employment as a NICU nurse, both of my children are now college graduates and gainfully employed.  I had been saving money for that goal for years.
About a month later, my husband celebrated his 65 th birthday in mid-June.  Although he is still employed part-time, his milestone birthday is a reminder that retirement is getting closer year by year.  We’ve been saving for that goal for many years as well.

Saving for your own retirement and a child´s college education at the same time can be a challenge. You want to retire comfortably when the time comes, but you also want to help your child get a good education. How do you take steps now to accomplish both goals? Here are a few pointers from 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy, a website of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Estimate Your Financial Needs
The first step is to determine your financial needs for each goal. For example, how many years until retirement for you and college for your child(ren)? What do you expect to receive for retirement from your employer and/or Social Security? What standard of living do you want in retirement? What´s the expected cost of your child´s preferred college? Gather the facts and set goals now. Periodically meet with your company´s retirement representative and visit college websites to stay on track with your estimates.

Retirement Takes Priority
Although a child´s college education is certainly an important goal, you should probably focus on your own retirement first if funds are limited. With generous company pensions mostly a thing of the past and Social Security in a financial strain, the burden is primarily on you to fund your retirement. Make it automatic- enroll in your employer´s retirement savings plan and take advantage of matching funds, if offered. Or, set up your own automatic savings transfers from a checking account to a retirement savings or investment account.

If you wait until your children are educated to start saving for retirement, you´ll miss out on years of tax-deferred growth and compounding of your money. Remember that a child can get help to attend college by taking out loans (or maybe even receiving scholarships), but no one will give you a loan or a scholarship for your retirement years.

Saving Tips for Both Retirement and College
Ideally you’ll want to try to save for both retirement and college at the same time. Here are some tips to consider:

1.  Work longer.  The more years you work, the more money you´ll earn and the later you´ll need to dip into your retirement savings.

2.  Reduce your standard of living, now or later (or both.)  You might be able to adjust your spending habits now in order to save money for later. Or you may consider a more frugal lifestyle in retirement.

3.  Increase your earnings now.  Consider increasing your hours at your current job, finding a new job with better pay, taking a second job or having a stay-at-home spouse return to the workforce.  You can also earn extra money with seasonal or part-time opportunities like being a ball game referee, a tutor or a county fair judge, or selling products from home or at bazaars and farmers markets. Turn unwanted belongings into cash with garage sales or auctions.

4. Expect your children to contribute more to college expenses.  Encourage your children to work and save for future education needs.  Kids can start small with early money-makers like lawn mowing, babysitting or the sale of 4-H livestock and then move into part-time jobs as they get older. As they look toward college, help them find and apply for all scholarships for which they qualify. Expect them to work part-time while in college and explore student loans if funds are still short.

5. Send your child to a less-expensive school.  A pricey “brand-name” private school may be your child’s dream, but unless he receives generous scholarships, he may need to lower his expectations. A state university or a smaller liberal arts college might provide a similar education
for a far lower cost.

6.  Get creative to reduce education costs.  Encourage your student to take dual-credit classes at a local community college while in high school, attend a local college and live at home to save on room and board, enroll in an accelerated program to graduate in three years instead of four, take advantage of cooperative training where paid internships alternate with course work, or defer college for a year or two and work to earn college funds.

It’s not easy to save for college and retirement at the same time– but it can be done.  Set your goals and stay focused.

Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

Everything living thing has an internal clock of some sort that helps regulate its life.

My internal clock is very reliable as it relates to getting me up in the morning. I have an alarm clock by my bed like most everyone does, but I rarely have to use it. It seems I can just decide in my mind when I want to awaken and when that time rolls around, I awaken. We put our two little dogs to bed about ten PM every night and they also get a treat then. Their internal clock often tells them when it’s time for a snack, as they begin to stir and whine about that time every night.

Wildlife has different worries in life which are all about survival, like when to begin growing their heavy winter coats or when to begin breeding to sustain their species. All studies and research say that those things are dictated by the amount of daylight in a day, technically known as photo-period. So as the days get shorter and thus the amount of daylight becomes less, it triggers changes in wildlife.

In deer, shortening days and reduced amount of daylight triggers the breeding season known to us as “the rut.” I spoke with the Big Game Coordinator for the state of Kansas, Lloyd Fox who explained to me how increased amount of darkness each day causes increased production of certain hormones in a deer’s body and thus the bodies of both male and female deer prepare for the breeding season.

He also pointed out that moon signs and other factors may bring about increased deer activity and changes of behavior, but it is all ultimately controlled by the length of days (photo-period.) As a side note here, have you ever wondered why deer and all wildlife for that matter have their young in the spring and not fall, early winter or even year-round like some domestic livestock? God has programmed their bodies to react the way they do so all wildlife young are born in spring when everything in nature gives them the absolute best chance of survival.

Furbearers are also affected by decreased amount of daylight. Matt Peek, Furbearer Biologist for the state of Kansas explained to me how the photo period dictates when a fur bearer’s pelt becomes “prime.” Fur bearing animals grow an extra-thick, heavy coat to protect them from winter blasts, and when that coat is at its absolute fullest and best for fur harvesting it is called “prime.”

Decreasing amounts of daylight initiates that growth. It could be sixty-five degrees clear into December, but the animals’ fur still grows and becomes prime in anticipation of the cold, no matter when it comes, so that the critters are prepared. Fur from different parts of the country varies vastly in quality, as fur from Idaho for example will always be thicker and more luxurious than fur from Florida. But no matter where a fur bearing animal lives, their fur still becomes prime and the timing of that is dictated by the amount of daylight.

I hate the bi-annual time changes; I wish we would just choose one or the other (I really don’t care which one) and then just leave it alone! But this year as I’m scurrying around resetting the clocks on the microwave, etc. and knowing full well I’ll have to do it again come spring, I’ll stop for a moment and consider how the wild critters clocks just kinda’ reset themselves thanks to the wisdom of our Creator.

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