Two recent studies ordered by the Legislature have concluded that public schools are significantly underfunded. So what is the response of Sen. Kay O’Connor, R-Olathe? Blame the schools. "There is an element of greed in our public school leadership," she said Thursday. "Are they teaching the greed to our children? I believe they are." Actually, schools don’t have time to teach kids to be greedy because they are so busy trying to comply with all the unfunded testing mandates.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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76 Comments
Of course Kay O’Connor is wrong abou greed in public school leadership. USD 259 Superintendent Winston Brooks may not have actually applied to higher-paying posts in Florida and Oregon, creating a threat to leave Wichita unless the privately-funded, anonymous-donor bonus package was approved by the BOE. Mr. Brooks may have been totally satisfied with his $137,000 public salary. Just ask him. Just ask him now if he is willing to forgo the bonus package, and just accept his publicly-paid salary for a public-service position. Or maybe he isn’t even receiving this. And please, don’t read Eagle articles published back then about the matter, because they may have been mistaken.
PS. Who can live on only $137,00 (or was his public salary $167,000, I forget the exact figure) a year? Would it be greedy to want more? I don’t know if it would be greed, or reasonable ambition. The USD 259 superintendent doesn’t have a doctorate like his predecessor, Larry Lynch or most larger-than-average-district superintendents in the Great Planes. Maybe they are just grossly underpaid.
In an educational system, some would say that more-highly-educated people should be paid more than less-educated people, but why should Wichita follow this premise. Its schools may be among the top-performing in the Great Plains, according to metrics like district ACT averages. The Superintendent reported in the Eagle a few years back that Kansas ACT and SAT averages are among the top ten in the nation. Wichita may be pulling up the state averages. Somebody should review the data.
Less education may be better. It may be the case that Wichita’s ca. 25% college-graduate employee pool is out-earning JoCo’s 48% college-graduate employee pool, despite reported statistics. According to the 2000 census, 27% of JoCo men earned $75,000 or more in annual income, and 10% of JoCo women did, versus 9% of Wichita men, which is to say the census reported that JoCo WOMEN out-earned Wichita MEN. But maybe the reported census data were wrong. Who can trust government statistics?
Give me a break. The schools found enough taxpayer money to hire lawyers to sue the state for more money. Commonsense says there is hardly a lack of funds regardless of the latest so-called study.
Sueing people to force them to give you money? It’s greed. They didn’t file a personal injury lawsuit, they were not injured or wronged. They just wanted more money. However there is no correlation between spending and student achievement, but that doesn’t stop them from wanting more money.
Only government operates like that.
Heartlander. That is comparing apples to oranges. JoCo is a totally different demographic base. It’s like comparing the wealthy part of San Fransico to South Central L.A.
JoCo is lucky and you won’t find a ghetto there. They are always going to outshine in dollar amounts than around here.
Wichita is still a great place to live and make a living. Try packing up and moving to JoCo and get your $75K a year job and afford their houses. I doubt that hardly anybody could do it.
About School Funding. “Stupid in America” answered that question for me.
“JoCo is lucky and you won’t find a ghetto there”
Well of course it happened by luck! It couldnt be because while the rest of the state was worrying about the industrial age, joco moved on to the information age.
It couldnt be because the companies they went after were creating information based jobs.
And it CERTAINLY couldnt be because of their long-term committment to schools which created the educated workforce that ushered the information age into joco.
No. Hell no. It had to be luck. Joco couldnt possibly be doing some things different and better instead of doing the same things harder and faster. Just blind luck.
Being lucky just isnt working for Wichita. Maybe you all just need to pray a little harder for that economic boost.
Or start carrying a rabbit’s foot in your pocket.
“Try packing up and moving to JoCo and get your $75K a year job and afford their houses. I doubt that hardly anybody could do it.”
Heheh. Yeah joe, hardly anybody. That is why they have the fastest growing economy in ks. Because hardly anybody wants to live there.
Quality of life anyone?
I hear the sound of someone trying to put a lid on that bucket ‘o kansas krabs.
Heartlander:
A BIG underreported story in Kansas is the huge amount of tax dollars for schools used to sue the state for higher taxes for schools.
Over $2 MILLION of Kansas Tax DollarsUsed by Lobbyists and Attorneysto Sue the State of Kansas to Increase Tax Dollars?http://www.kansasmeadowlark.com/2006/02-13/index.htm
Voters in 14 schools districts paid $8.24 to $15.97 in taxes to sue Kansas for higher taxes.Why did Hays voters only pay $8.24/voter when Derby and Dodge City voters paid over $15 to sue?http://www.kansasmeadowlark.com/2006/02-15.htm
ksfarmgrrl. You’re right! I retract saying that JoCo is luck. But rather it is a circumstance of their demographic. Having good schools comes with good money. That is a given. But it never been poor since people started moving into that area. It attracts the brightest and richest from the KC metroplex to do business and live there.
We are blessed that it’s on the Kansas side. What is happening in JoCo could have easily been done on the Missouri side. But the reason its on the Kansas side, is because of Kansas. Kudous for us.
What I mean by packing up and moving to JoCo for $75K, is that you have to have a skill and knowledge base to really make that. A regular union aircraft worker with just a high school diploma won’t be able to make that much or find a job in JoCo that will pay them that much.
I was just questioning the stats and saying it was comparing Apples to Oranges. Yes! A much greater percentage of people make a good living in JoCo than Sedgwick County, but that’s because JoCo has a wealthy demographic base an no ghettos.
I’m not questioning that good schools contributed to it, it most likely did attract people to that area.
Nice Republican attitude–schools are underfunded? Blame the victim.
Joe, you’re right. I was being sarcastic.
My memory is also foggy But I believe that after the private-pay package went through, the superintendent’s total compensation went to the $200K neighborhood. Portland’s salary was in the low-middlish $200k, I think.
But if you try to find a house in Portland, you’d think Overland Park housing prices are a bargain. Consider $200k for a 1950’s 1800 square foot, 3-bed/1.75-bath plain-jane blue-collar tract home, that a Kaiser steelworker originally occupied. Or try $450k for a 1950’s 2500 square foot, 3 bed/3 bath home originally purchased by a young engineer– and his wife was a stay-at-home mom. This home has original bathroom fixtures, its kitchen was “updated” 20 years ago. (This is in the tony suburb of Lake Oswego: because of the location, the lot is worth far more than the house and the next buyer may do a tear down.) You could buy the first home here for about half the Portland cost, and the latter for about a third the cost.
So was the superintendent making apples v. oranges comparisons in doing his fair compensation calculation? He would have had to pay Portland real estate prices. He also would have been subject to high stress in a foreign environment, and a school-underfunding crisis that forced two weeks of school closure because less tax money was received than Oregon schools budgeted. He would have had no political support system, i.e. zero job security: the departed superintendent had lasted only 2 years. BTW, just before he pulled out of consideration, all but one applicant had pulled out, after assessing the job.
Everyone recognized that the Portland job was a snakepit. Given all these conditions, was the superintendent really thinking of taking the Portland job, if he didn’t get a pay-boost here, or was he just pulling a pure bluff? He got the money, so we’ll never know.
Also I seem to recall reading that the Shawnee Mission superintendent makes about $230k. Smaller district? Sure. Easier job, given the demands made JoCo’s highly ambitious-for-their-children parents? I sincerely doubt it.
Running a smaller district isn’t necessarily easier, if community performance-expectations are “A” level academics, versus “B-” level academics, for instance. East High has a turnkey IB program that it bought: the vendor (IB Organization) installed it, and manages it. Shawnee Mission East has a 20-AP course portfolio for that it had to build from scratch on its own. Building it was a lot harder, and maintaining it is a lot harder than an outside vendor building and managing an IB program for you. Your job isn’t made any easier when your community is willing to tax itself in a local-option proposal, but yahoos in other parts of Kansas try to block you from providing the level of education that your community demands from you. They say it’s “unfair”, ignoring the fact that JoCo’s high-income well-educated workers keep the rest of Kansas afloat by paying a lot more money to the state than they get back. Even with local-option, if yahoos don’t scuttle it, JoCo citizens will be heavily subsidizing Wichita and rural kids’ education.
This is not unfair. But would our superintendent argue that the Shawnee Mission superintendent’s salary should be $350k, for the reason that the school system there generates a well-educated worker pool that is prosperous and delivers bread to a hundred other counties? Would he make this argument?
Finally, the Shawnee Mission superintendent has to pay JoCo housing costs, which as you correctly pointed out are a lot higher than Wichita’s. Maybe he feels he is grossly underpaid. Maybe he’s threatening to leave if he doesn’t get a major pay boost. Or maybe he’s happy to be doing a commendable job at what is a modest salary in a high-cost-of-living area. Or maybe his wife has one of those high-paying women’s jobs.
I guess the goal is to try to equalize the education funding base and asking JoCo to forego collecting more moeny for their schools because it would make it unfair. I disagree with going that route, but that is the case with the school funding issue.
Since we are talking about the entire state and not particular districts or area, the local control of schools is pretty much out. JoCo wouldn’t mind putting more money into their schools as so the rest of Kansas. But you hit the nail on the head. JoCo taxes go out to support rest of Kansas. It doesn’t fund Wichita though. Just like JoCo, Sedgwick county is also a net exporter of education based taxes to the rest of the State. The rural districts are the ones sucking money, because their population and tax base cannot support their own districts.
Since these two areas, JoCo and Wichita and you can even say Topeka have to export out their education based taxes, it puts a strain on the rural and urban conflict.
Wichita has a high number of at risk and special needs students. Also, parents in rural areas actually send their special needs students to Wichita because their district and schools do not have a support system to help the special needs kids, but USD 259 doesn’t get any additional funding for it.
We can debate on the just compensation of Superintendents and what is considered adequate funding for education, but I believe that is comes down to rural vs. urban. If all the education based tax revenue collect in JoCo or in Sedgwick County, they would have plenty of money for schools, JoCo even more so, but we do have to share. Can’t keep the rural schools hanging.
“A regular union aircraft worker with just a high school diploma won’t be able to make that much or find a job in JoCo that will pay them that much.”
Joe, that is ENTIRELY the point. You cant stand still with your skills and education while the rest of the world moves on.
Education and training will provide job security more than any other thing.
If joco is willing to tax themselves to do this, why isnt wichita?
Oh, and blaming the rural schools is like saying “clinton did it”.
Who will you all blame when the rural schools are gone?
I have yet to see ONE SINGLE POSTER here put up some facts about how much money the rural schools are taking from you.
And as I reminded last week, this is the SECOND legislative session where urban lawmakers have outnumbered rural lawmakers. You all can outvote the rural boys anytime you choose.
But… you urban districts would rather fight amonst yourselves.
What is the common denominator fo both sessions since urban has outnumbered rural in the legislature?
School finance. Yeah. Sounds like a rural problem to me.
Joe, thanks for correcting my misrepresentation of tax dollar flows.
The Eagle deserves kudos for creating this blog. There’s a lot of thoughtful dialog going on here.Not always, but it’s sure a lot better than anything we had before.
One of the things we might consider to cut costs is to consider giving responsible kids and parents an option of attending school less, and studying at home more, such as attending 4 hours a day, or attending school three days a week. With modern information technology, kids could have online textbooks that are far more instructive than the hard-backed versions. Kids could watch streaming video lectures delivered by some of Kansas and America’s best teachers. The experimental model of rural distance learning can be expanded.
Given the looming teacher shortage, you could substitute technology and shrink the teacher corps. Tech is getting cheap–you can get a new computer today for 500 bucks, and some communities are developing free basic Wi-Fi, with cheap broadband options.
Maybe instead of increasing the cost of education funding, we can DECREASE it, and simultaneously IMPROVE it.
There are obviously many kids who need to be supervised everyday and their parents can’t do it. So maybe these kids should attend school full-time, while others who have more self-direction and better home lives can attend class half-time, and overall, save Kansas taxpayers a lot of money.
ksfarmgrrl. I really don’t want to pass the blame on rural schools. I want everybody to get an equal opportunity to a good education. The reason why urban legislators have not out voted the rural ones, because they don’t want to have them fall behind, because it can easily happen if urban areas stop caring about the rural areas. The rural areas are vastly important to Kansas.
Even the post audit study shows that rural schools are recieving too much money and must be reduce. But it’s not going to happen. It would be hard press for the legislator to do that, even for the urban ones.
The rural vs urban is not meant to blame anyone. If Kansas had the money there wouldn’t be a funding problem, but the deliema is trying to come up with the money it currently doesn’t have. The Rural vs. Urban is about balance. Yes! There are rural districts that need more money and help because of bilingual needs and high drop out rates because of it. But for the most part, most school districts are actually doing quite fine.
Western Kansas does have an education problem, and that is, they elected Connie Morris. She is the biggest problem.
Wichita gave the world Mary Douglass Brown, but we corrected our mistake. :-)
Winston and all the other Super’s are not incented to control costs. Matter of fact, nothing in their contract is based on performance. It’s interesting how big bad corporations can find ways to streamline processes and find innovative cost savings when performance evaluations include a cost control component. But then, pay for performance goes against the grain of ‘progressive’ Democrats.
Joe thanks for clearing that up. Sorry that I misinterpreted your statements about rural. I think post audit said rural schools get more, I dont think they said they get too much. :)
And heartlander has a good idea about alternative methods. We do use technology and distance learning in our schools.
I agree, when western ks sends folks like connie morris to topeka, we deserve what we get.
But then, look who we send to the legislature. FSM help us all if they are representative of the population :)
“‘progressive’ Democrats”
ID, I beg to differ. I have been trying, for over 20 years, to get businesses to understand that compensation drives the organization. Same with NGO’s and government organizations.
But then, I am an old fashioned bleeding heart liberal, (well, ok, a freemarket bleeding heart liberal) and not a progressive :)
Old school dontcha know!
Given the way the republican controlled congress spends and runs up the deficits, and given how the ks legislature continues to run in the red, I’d say it is not the progressive democrats who hate cost cutting and performance based economics.
I’m not sure we can afford any more republican budgets!
Reminds me of the old story about the farmer who wrote his congressman and said:
“Please stop giving me tax cuts. I cant afford them anymore!”
Well, KSF, I’m a freemarket conservative who is extremely disappointed with our legislature and President for out of control spending. Both parties spend and have their pet projects. There is a third party, but it would take a ground swell of moderates to send a message to both lefties and neocons legislature pukes by voting for the Libertarian party.
Back to schools. Take a tour of USD 259’s maintenance shop and observe their behavior for just a small example of wasted money that could be diverted to teacher salaries and classroom supplies.
I’m guessing your farming brothers and sisters run their operations on far less money, and can perform a multitude of jobs. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a new truck every three years, and be responsible for only one or two tasks.
I oft repeat this. But I don’t have any better words so I’ll say it again.
It will be a good day when the schools have all the money then need and the military has to have a bake sale to buy a bomber.
I’m for some REAL greed education. Instead of scraping by and teachers paying for their own supplies etc., make the funding problems PART of education.
“Sorry kids, we just don’t have money for the field trip to the science center this year. Greedy conservatives and Republicans just don’t think you are all that important.”
“Now this is a lesson you best learn early kids. You will run into it someday when your boss tells you that your sick mother is not his problem and if you can’t work this weekend, well, you’re fired.”
“So remember kids, it’s not what you know it’s who ya bl.. uh er……well you’ll find out about that later.”
Make the greed part of the lesson.
Curriculumn? Liberals good…..Republicans evil.
So, JR, you don’t really care that the USD’s waste money? That doesn’t bother you? You, like the rest of your ‘good’ ‘progressive’ liberals, lost all credibility when you cry the same tired old ‘for the children’ BS, but never consider the value of process improvement. If you were SOOOOO caring about the children, then challenge the status quo and demand a culture of efficiency AND effectivity in the the USD’s.
Rooting out waste, intentional or unintentional, is a good thing. Continuous improvement is a good thing. Efficiency is a good thing. Effectiveness is a good thing.
Know the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?
Efficiency is doing the thing well, but effectivness is doing the right thing.
I am for both. Let’s do the right thing and fund education adequately. Concurrently, let’s also do the thing well and with as little wasted money and effort as possible.
Heheh. If we funded ALL government functions using the criteria of how much money they waste, the ENTIRE government would be having bake sales like crazy.
I say let’s start with the kansas water office!
It would be nice if people talking about education spending actually took the time to check out the facts.
There is a lot of waste. Just talk to some of the teachers and they will tell you. You can also talk to the maintance folks as well as the food service people. There is no incentive to reduce costs or try to save money. The attitue is that it’s not mine so I don’t have to worry.
There was a legislator that provided a list of school districts that have millions and millions of dollars in idle funds sitting in long term cd’s. How can that be when they say there is not enough money to buy supplies for the classrooms? How can that be when they say they must have more because they are out of money? This does not make any sense to me.
Also during the school debate I heard a legislator talk about the retirement plans for teachers. They said this is not figured into any of the costs for education dollars and the plans sounded pretty sweet to me. I don’t have a plan as nice as the teachers.
It was also stated that some districts pay for health insurance for their employees. I did some checking and Wichita pays for health insurance for their employees but you don’t hear much talk about that major benefit. I don’t have a my health insurance paid for and most people I know don’t either.
There was also the dicussion of how much the state pays for some of the additional training teachers get. Most professinal jobs require the individual to pay for their continueing education. You don’t hear much about that benefit.
You don’t hear much talk about the long Christmas break or the week for spring break as being a good benefit. I know a lot of people that would love to have some extra time off.
You don’t hear much talk about the three months off for the summer. A lot of parents would love to have that ability to spend time with their kids and family. I know that some teachers take other jobs in the summer and that is their choice. Some even take on duties of summer school etc. and again that is their choice.
Are teachers living in poverty? It does not appear so. Perhaps a study should be done to see how many teachers qualify for healthwave insurance or if they qualify for food stamps and other welfare programs. That would be interesting to see.
Some of the pictures in the paper over the years that have showed teachers and their students have been interesting to me because you cannot always tell the difference between the student and the teacher. Many of the teachers dress down to the level of their students and then wonder why people don’t consider them professionals. You don’t have to have a lot of money to dress nice. I buy a lot of nice clothes at the DAV and the Goodwill stores as well as garage sells. My children dress very nice to from those stores. So I do know what I am talking about here.
Also during the debate there was a lot of discussion on there being no accountablity for the money. I cannot understand why anyone would be against this. It appears to me that if you can prove what you are spending then it would be easier to get funding.
I know I have put a lot on this blog but I just think it is time for all of us to learn more about this subject. We should not just rely on the press or the schools. So I have started getting on the internet and researching more on this as well as making calls to various legislators so that I can get the facts. It was a real awakening to listen to the education debate in the House and Senate. I had never done that before and I can tell you it has opened my eyes. I realized that I only knew what the press said and what the NEA has put out. I realized that my children brought home information from the NEA and others but never from the legislators. Even during the campaigns when my children brought things home telling me to support a certain candidate over another it just did not dawn on me until now that I was not getting both sides of the issue.
I think that it is important for all of us to get all the information we can so that we can make informed decisions. It is going to be an interesting process as I continue getting information on this and stop relying on others to give me their spin.
There are a lot of questions to be asked and I hope that others we started looking into this education funding issue more also. You will be amazed at what you find I know I have been.
There is so much misinformation in the above post that I am just gonna assume it is an April Fool’s joke.
I caught the rage reversal early on, but the letters in this name stump me. For the life of me, I cant make it say bonbon.
You don’t spell fiscal waste
D. O. E.
You spell fiscal waste,
D. O. D. I r a q
An alternative but accepted spelling is:
H a l l i b u r t o n
You spell fecal waste:
b u s h !!
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
Heheheh at both JR and Ian!
Good ones!
Ruby–
1. The issue is not pay for teachers. The issue is funding for schools. This ties in with a whole host of funding needs like federal mandated testing and special education funding, class size, extra curricular activities, liability insurance, security etc. etc.
Teacher vacation, retirement, and health care is only one part of the costs that we’re talking about.
The original court case that led to the ruling was the inequality of funding for some students over others. That’s not due to teacher pay, it’s due to efficiency of urban vs rural systems. Rural districts need a lot more buses for instance.
2. Why do you begrudge teachers a living wage with benefits? Teachers are represented by the NEA in Kansas, although they are not required to join because state law forbids “closed shops.”
Why don’t you organize a union at your workplace and get the benefits you deserve? Pulling teachers down to your level isn’t going to have any pay-off for you.
People have bought into the right-wing lie that they’re “so lucky just to have a job,” they don’t organize for their rights as workers any more.
Not only that, there’s a teacher shortage. Why don’t you try it if it’s such a cushy job?
Ruby, who do you think is getting the money that could be funding your pension?
If you answer, the CEO and his top brass, you are correct.
Scrooge is putting in swimming pools and buying horse ranches while you and the people who EARN the money weep with gratitude when you get Christmas Day off.
As Harry Truman once said, “how many times do you have to get hit over the head before you see who’s hitting you?”
PL,Much to agree with you on, much to disagree with you.
Funding schools has and always will be a problem. I worked for both the military (viet vet), and state government. It is a fact that if you are fiscally responsible, your funding will probably be cut the following year. Is that good? Depends on how you look at it. If it’s cut, you will lose the cushion for the unexpected. Hence, fiscally conservative can cause more problems than it solves.
There is a shortage of teachers: quality qualified teachers. States have gone so lax on the qualifications, that a large percentage of teachers know less than about the subjects they are supposed to teach than they should. That speaks ill of the teachers, but it’s hardly their fault. Again, the governments dumbing down policies are to blame.
Your remarks on scrooge CEO’s only partially hit the mark. Not all CEO’s, and not all rich people are scrooges. There are many that do what they have to do to give back to the communities they live in. I find nothing wrong with someone being paid big time putting in a swimming pool, or building a mansion, for that matter. Hell, most of them do earn it, just not the way you think they should. Someone needs to make decisions, and they should be paid accordingly. Pay them $15 an hour, and you will get what you paid for.
That in no way is an excuse for the robber barons of Halliburton and their ilk. But there will always be white collar criminals, just as there will be blue collar ones. But the generalize the rich as all looking down on average people is both disengenuous and ridiculous.
There could be some waste here. For example shortly after the bond issue passed, the superintendent asked for $1500 per bond site construction signs, to notify people that their neighborhood schools were being refurbished.
Like, Wichitans driving by couldn’t see chain link fenses, construction company semi-trailers and building materials, and conclude, Oh they’re already remodeling our neighborhood school.
The total requested, and approved budget for these signs was over $80,000.
On a hunch, I went to some construction sites. I’m no construction expert, but I’ve done some amateur home projects, and I find it hard to believe that the signs’ initial production costs were more than $200.
For example, I didn’t find professionally lettered large-panel signs. I found 4x 8 x 1/2 inch plywood signboards painted white and mounted to 6″ x 6″ posts. I found either computer-printed plastic-sheeting strips for lettering, or stick-on individual letters, which clearly didn’t require professional sign-painting skills, and which appeared to be much more quickly makable than traditional hand-painted lettering. In my opinion, these signs appeared to be reusable, by peeling off the stick-ons, refreshing with some new white paint and putting new stick on labels, thus perhaps potentially reducing amortized per-site costs to $100 or less.
If my estimates were even somewhat close to accurate, there was an arguable appearance that something more than moderate waste might have been at play, e.g. a $1500 cost to taxpayers for a product that may have conceivably cost less than $200, perhaps less than $100, including 3 hours of semi-skilled labor for the first manufacture, and an hour for each refurbishment, so that at a generous 100% profit rate for the makers, the signs might have had a fair price of $400, or less if the signs were refreshed and re-used.
But then, when taxpayers aren’t given a detailed accounting of how their money is being spent, a lot of things are possible.
I’m not saying that Mr. Brooks’ anonymous donors are school contractors and suppliers who are compensating him for his generosity in sending taxpayer dollars for extraordinarily high-priced goods their way, but because they are anonymous, nobody except they and Mr. Brooks knows who they are. I personally do not believe this is sound public policy. But I doubt that anyone here is going to change things.
JM makes a terrific point that if you are fiscally responsible in govt, your budget gets cut. I remember being told to spend like crazy near the end of the accounting period to justify a same-level budget the following year.
I don’t know what mis-information you are referring to. All I was doing was pointing out that we should all get better informed on the topics we talk about.
I have noticed many blogs where people have just repeated what was in the press and have no factual information to back it up. I’m not saying that the press is always wrong I just know that they only give part of the story and it is important for us to all be as informed as we can be.
Especially when you are casting votes for elected officials. If you don’t talk to them you really do not know how they stand on issues. It is also important to look at their voting records and ask them to explain it.
With the school debate I felt that during the debate (which anyone can listen to on the internet) that there were a lot of interesting things brought up and I had not heard anything in the press about them. So I’ve decided to look into some of them further. I think more people should do that.
I have followed many of the comments you make ksfarmgrrl and it does not appear to me that you do much research on your information. It would be interesting to see the sources that most bloggers use to gather their information on different subjects.
I don’t have all of the answers but I think we should work harder to try and find them and take just as much time investigating some of the issues as we do blogging on the issues.
ksfarmgirl uses personal experience. She’s seen the decline of western Kansas farmtowns. She’s lived in Texas. I’ve lived a lot of places.
As for research, you seem to have no clue how much public-sector information that other states disclose under their “Sunshine Laws” is concealed here. Try to find out who contributes, and how much they contribute to state legislative, gubernatorial, and congressional candidates BEFORE election day, so that you aren’t just bombarded by their media propaganda, but you can figure out who is behind this propaganda.
On my doing “investigative research” by examining construction site signs, why did I have a “hunch” that something “didn’t add up”?
During a televised BOE meeting the superintendent didn’t just make a proposal, he ardently PUSHED for it. The BOE’s then-gadfly balding male member whose name I forget, but he attended Creighton U, and Washburn U School of Law, and then won a state legislative seat (help me out, anyone, on his name), proposed letting contractors hang their own company signs at their own expense on the cyclone fences.
The superintendent retorted that was unesthetic. Give me a break. At Kapaun-Mt. Carmel’s refurbishment at the time, contractors placed their own signs, at no cost to the diocese. Did drivers-by say, “Gosh, those signs are UGLY?” No, they just realized that construction was going on and were informed as to who the contractors were.
The Superintendent, after making the point that contractor-hung signs were not visually appealing, then argued that the contractors were unwilling to pay for a prettier single sign out of their own pockets.
Then, it turned out, the USD signs listings of contractors were so tiny, that you couldn’t tell who the contractors were without getting out of your car and walking up to them.
So, ultimately, more than $80,000 was spent to put up signs right next to cyclone-fenced, construction-trailered, equipment and building materials-on-display sites that apparently said to passers-by:
“Looky here. All this evidence of construction going on in your neighborhood school is NOT AN ILLUSION! This SIGN tells you it is REAL.”
“And we are not letting those contractors put up tacky self-advertising signs like they do everywhere else in Wichita construction projects, because we want you to have a more enjoyable esthetic experience, with our little single sign.”
The Superintendent’s ardent arguments just seemed so bizarre to me, that I was just moved to check the signs out. For $80,000 schools could have purchased more than a hundred new computers.
Speaking of computers, the district also turned down offers of old-computer donations. “Not compatible with our security software.” Right. You can run non-networked computers installed with educational software, for kids to learn. Didn’t the district’s IT people tell them this?
USD 259 now reportedly has 1 computer for every teacher. In the Oklahoma City District, there was 1 computer for every 2.7 STUDENTS two years ago. (They publicly reported this, because it allegedly gave the OKC district the highest computer/student ratio in the nation.)
One computer per teacher would imply one computer for every 25 students. Not quite the same as one computer for every 2.7 students, is it?
OKC has a higher percentage of African-American students than Wichita, and a higher percentage of Hispanic students than Wichita. It’s not overwhelmingly white Shawnee Mission or Blue Valley districts. So what is Wichita’s so-far-behind-the-curve-it-may-never-catch-up problem?
“I find nothing wrong with someone being paid big time putting in a swimming pool, or building a mansion, for that matter.”
Neither do I, JM. Not at all.
What I object to is this. When I had some minimum wage job in high school, the boss had put a little sign up in the bathroom with a pie chart that said, “you get a raise when everyone becomes more productive.” It goes on to argue that it’s not so important for workers to get a “bigger piece of the pie,” what’s important is “to make the pie bigger” by increased productivity.
Okay, let’s accept that on face value (which one shouldn’t because it’s crap) but just for the sake of argument, let’s go with it.
What has happened to productivity in the last twenty years? What has happened to real wages during that same time?
American workers have increased productivity magnificently over many decades–in part because of sheer hard work and putting more time in on the job. We work more than any industrialized country except for S. Korea and Taiwan–even more than the stoic Japanese and way more than the doughty Germans.
Meanwhile, what has happened to wages? Except for a six or seven year period in which raises rose slightly under Clinton, they’ve been steadily FALLING since 1972.
So “increase your wages with higher productivity” is just another LIE the capitalist class uses to keep the working class working harder and harder for less and less.
There is more wealth when productivity increases, but owners, managers, and stock-holders disproportionatly reap the rewards of that increased wealth, that’s my point.
BTW, I am personally heavily invested in stocks. I’m no dummy. It beats working for a living. But just because I benefit from it because of the way the system is rigged, doesn’t mean I have to blind myself to how it’s been rigged.
And before anybody runs to the Dept. of Labor Statistics to show that “wages have not fallen,” let me pre-emptively suggest that you look at “real” wages which have been adjusted for inflation and not raw or “nominal” dollars.
Ruby, if you dont think I do my research, you havent been reading my posts. I saw NO links in your post, only vague references to supposed conversations.
Heheh. Good thing I am still laughing and regarding your post as the April Fool’s joke that it is. I could ask you to back up your statements with facts. I could ask you to post links. I could rebut your stories with different stories.
But… I am still laughing, and quite frankly feel no need to defend myself on facts when you provide no evidence other than your opinion.
Opinions here are good. Just dont try to pawn them off as facts.
ksfarmgirl, you’re a pistol. Why don’t you run for office? I’ll give you a contribution and stuff envelops for you.
Heartlander, that is the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day. Thank you.
HA! I was thinking about the legislature being controlled by urban districts and how school finance has been essentially unsolved in both sessions since the turnover. And my offhand comment about the urban districts competing amongst themselves.
I started laughing and wondering if maybe the rural legies have actually been acting as a leveling factor between the urban districts.
I am reminded of my friend out here who started pen raising pheasant and quail for sale. I went to look at the birds one day and saw a third kind of bird and inquired.
He said they were chukkars (?) and that you always had to have some chukkars in the pen because they kept the peace between the pheasants and quail, who apparantly hate each other for no reason other than competition for resources.
Heheh, wonder if the rural legies have been the chukkars all these years and now the gloves are off between the urban legislative quails and pheasants. We need more chukkars and fewer birds fighting.
Hearlander, maybe that is the third party that could make a difference here. The Kansas Chukkars. Viva la third party!
Count me in!
No problem with your response, PL. I agree in fact. Working in the manufacturing sector, I have seen productivity increased by major percentage points, and little of it getting back to the workers.
But my point wasn’t that. It was there are truly a lot of rich doing what needs to be done. I have known companies that sell their product at a loss in order to keep the plant open and the workers employed. The bean counters go crazy. And if they want to run around in rolls royces, let em. Not my problem.
I can only change things at the voting booth.
Which reminds me to second the motion: kfg . . . get the signs out and up. Tell us what you need to run and we’ll do whatever it takes to get you there. We got blogs galore to post.
I am also in favor of Farmgrrl for public office.
But I think she would need rolling press conferences and speeches. Never gets it all said ‘ya know!
JR. . . which is the sign of a true politician. Have you ever known any who could get it all said? LOL
KFG,If you run, I will support. Let me know what you need and I’ll do what I can.We don’t agree on everything but enough that I know that you’ll stir the pot and hopefully get somethings fixed!
Gosh y’all. I thought everyone was kidding!
I am sure soaking in the affirmations though. Thank you very much. I am truely moved by those sentiments here from across the political spectrum. That is humbling.
I am not sure ks is ready to elect a gray haired, loud mouthed, middle aged, lesbian organic farmer, and ex-democrat from western kansas.
Heheh. Do ya think we could win the governor’s chair? I’ll cook the first organic pig at Cedar Crest!!
You’re gray haired? That’s a little disappointing because it takes time to rise to influence. But wait? How old are ya and how long old were you and what is your family life expectancy? (Don’t answer, but just think about this to yourself.) It will take you at least 8 years to rise to a power position. We will see a democratic shift, as occurred in the Great Depression, or a populist spring-up, as occurred in the 1890’s. I don’t know what district you live in. You’d have to tabulate the demographics to determine if you have a reasonable shot. Being a lesbian is a political negative, but make your campaign focus on your experiences as a farm-raised Kansan, and promote economic development. If your opponent raises your sexual orientation, just say, “Who cares? My opponent not doing anything for our economy. I’m not campaigning for gay marriage, I am campaigning to make bring better jobs to Kansas to help people like my nephews and nieces who are mostly heterosexuals, and he ain’t doin the job here.”
Good strategy heartlander. In fact it would be the only strategy if I were really running for anything. I am much more effective working for candidates than as a candidate. But I am humbled and flattered none the less.
Since you asked, I was adopted as an infant and have no idea about my family biology. I will be fifty in April. And I started going gray when I was 20! Must be all that farm stress…
I am a little late but I want to set the record straight (this is for you Ruby). Contrary to popular belief teacher’s summer vacations are UNPAID! Some teachers choose to split their pay equally into twelve months instead of 9 – but they are still only being paid for the 9 months of work and no more. Not to mention a lot of teachers end up getting second jobs over the summer or teach summer school in order to make ends meet. Secondly, the benefits, although paid, are so terrible that most cannot afford the high copays and deductables. Again, a lot of teachers have to purchase supplemental insurance in order to afford their healthcare needs. And as far as professional growth is concerned, a big majority of the classes and workshops needed to recertify and stay up to date on the latest information needed to be successful in the classroom comes out a teacher’s own pocket. Unless you are referring to what takes place on an inservice day which is no different than meetings at any other business. And don’t get me started on supplies needed for the classroom, who do you think pays for all of those materials? Not the district, not the parents . . .the teacher does! So the next time you want to talk about facts, please do us all a favor and actually talk to a teacher first – because this one is sick of every assuming that it is the easiest, best paid job there is. It is a great profession and very rewarding, but not as simple and easy as you so eloquently stated.
ksfarmgirl
You’re not even 50! You’re a total spring chicken, You. You can run for the legislature. Then congresss. (In some states the governorship is a “step above” congress, but not in Kansas Maybeb you could be governor,.) Sheeshe, it would be really hard. But go for it. Let those spring chicken wings FLY.
KFG,You gotta have potato salad at the Cedar Crest BBQ! Yum!:)
FARM Grrl! FARM Grrl!
Ok ok……
Now her potato salad is getting raves from people who haven’t even got to try it yet!
It is good.
I think we run the risk of spoiling Farmgrrl!
Hey KFG?
Run for state school board. You are in Morris’s district yes?
OMG, I am HOWLING. You all are too funny. Yes, JR, there will be potato salad if I ever live at Cedar Crest, lol. And ya, you are spoiling me. Not to worry though. I am sure someone, right around the corner, is waiting to take me down a peg.
But it is nice to be thought of as a spring chicken!
Dear ksfarmgirl.
My mother was adopted. She didn’t find out til she was 70 who her biological parents were.
I have a friend married to a man who do doesn’t want to learn about his biologic parents. He has an artificial name, as does his son. But biologic identity is really powerful. Like my mom’s mother and sister co-ran a dairy farm by themselve, and their sister was a founding writer for Sunset Magazine. She’s really amazing, but has gotten muddled up by this adoption thing, (She now thinks that her adoptive father may have hd sex with her. Repressed memories possibly: If this is true, reallly sad.)
If you have talent, as you do, go for leadership.AS lot of Kansans are hurting. Help them overcome hurt.
KNOW YOUR BLOGGER/CANDIDATE
Hey KFG?
The “grrl” in your nic?
Is that just incidental or is a growl and attitude implied?
Having seen you tear more than one poster a new one I’m GUESSING it is the latter!and fair warning!
And that’s a good thing.
Just wondering.
Yeah JR, I am just an aging riot grrl. And I do growl before I bite.
Actually I started using ksfarmgirl a long time ago, but when I went to register new accounts, it was usually taken. ksfarmgrrl was NEVER taken, so now I just use that.
ProudLib: Endlessly bashing the capitalist system, but investing in it at the same time. Is this how we define hypocrite?
Honey, there are two things you don’t mess with: MOTHER and MOTHER’s friends. Being one of the original band beeyatchs that I am, you know if anyone is waiting around the corner to take you down a peg, MOTHER will make damn sure they are waiting around the wrong corner . . . for a long time.
You go on and run now, MOTHER will keep the track clear of wingnut refuse. And believe me, I’ve had a world of experience with refuse.
Mother, I have no doubt that you know your way around “refuse”! rotflmosrfao
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
Ian,Most assuredly I do. After all, I do read your posts dear.
Mother,
When I come upon you leaning up against a lampost, smoking a ciggy you can rest assured that I will throw you a couple of shekels. Afterall, I am nothing if not charitable.
Viva La Revolucion Blanco!!
Too funny MOTHER. I appreciate the protection from the sons and daughters of wingnuttia. You are my total idol and I hope you will grace my campaigns with your wisdom.
Uh, no, I don’t see it as hypocrisy, Original Steve.
We don’t live in a perfect world. I’m trying to do my bit to make it better, and that first involves looking at the way things are.
I don’t want to buy tennis shoes made in China, but since they’re ALL made in China, I can’t do much about it.
Also, my old nemisis, I regret to inform you that you’ll have to get your jollies in some other way than tormenting me.
I have a new interest that is going to take up a good deal of my time.
So to all my on-line cronies, I say, Arigato gozaimashita and sayonara.
I’m not surprised that ProudLib doesn’t see the hypocrisy.
Ian,What you need to do, dear, is learn to understand real women. In the first place, they come TO me, I do not wait FOR them. So finding me by a lampost is an improbable setting.
Second: ciggy’s? Honey I get my Havana’s hand rolled and delivered by the best.
Third: I am told by expert sources the only thing you have to throw is crabs, and we’re not talking the alaskan king variety. So your generosity on that regard is neither wanted nor accepted for obvious reasons.
Forth: never disrespect MOTHER, dear.
kfg,You know you can count on me. Nothing else needs to be said, dear.
Thank you MOTHER :)
PL, I like your posts and we need you here. I hope you dont go away for good!
I’m going to send you an e-mail, KSFarmgrrl.
You may want in on my new project–you’re going to like it.
Cool PL. I love a good possiblity!