The Wichita City Council approved a tax-increment financing district for a high-profile new condo and apartment complex on Douglas Avenue, across from the historic Hillcrest condo building. This is prime neighborhood and community space that deserves an innovative project, and local developer Mike Loveland said he needed the TIF to attract investors to his $40 million condominium project, which includes three-story brownstone apartments (apparently the first in Wichita) fronting Douglas as well as a 12- to 14-story tower.
After years of waiting for something to be done about the old state office building eyesore at that corner (it was finally torn down last year), College Hill residents should welcome a project that adds to the aesthetics and livability of this area.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
38 Comments
Good news! Wichita is becoming more of a great place everyday. I congradulate Mike Loveland for his work.
Can’t wait to see the project get started and complete. I might even think about living there (if I can afford it).
:)
Joe,
I doubt it… I overheard Mike talking the other day… The cheapest is something around a quarter mil. Just like the condos going in downtown. In the first go around, the cheapest was 150k and that didn’t go over well… So they shrunk some of the rooms to make some that were 99k. That’s barely flying.
We shall see though, if it flys, i think it will be good for the area.
Now if they can do something about enlarging the intersection there at Douglass and Hillside as well as Douglass and Hydraulic.
You will both be surprised at what Mike has planned. The cheapest is not $250K. It’s a first class development that will contribute significantly to keeping the College Hill area a viable neighborhood.
Joe W. loves that socialism for the rich!
If it’s such a great idea, why doesn’t this wealthy investor have to follow the “discipline of the market” and use private money for his private venture.
Only the poor people have to follow the “market disciplining.” The rich ask and get government handouts.
Just look at the arena.
From Wikipedia, “Myopia, sometimes called short-sightedness[1] or near-sightedness”
As a former College Hill kid myself, who worked at the old Uptown Theatre, and at the old Safeway store, and took my first Insurance test at the old State Office Building, and went to the Wichita Clinic, as well, when it was located at that site, I have some history with the location.I am glad something is being done.However, TIF financing is being overused in this County.Tax Increment Financing is a tax increase for everyone who does not live in the TIF.If you take “assessed value” out of the calculation of the mill levy, as a TIF always does, you will increase the tax burden on the value that remains.In my opinion, TIF financing began as an innovative tool.Lately, it has become a deceptive way to hide additional spending that will require a tax increase.Our elected leaders can claim that a tax increase is “necessary” because of smaller increase in values.However, part of the cause of that smaller increase in assessed valuation is all of the TIF districts, which together force the burden of tax increases onto everyone who is NOT in a TIF.This happens because TIFs and other innovative tools, when overused, remove any “gain” within those districts from the tax base.TIFs are popular because the pain is back-loaded. TIFs are by definition, inflation adjusted tools. They work best in the latter years.They are sold as “performance based” since the “gain” in value might not have happened without the development project. This is much the same argument under which Municipal Bond financing with tax abatements is sold. Muni bonds are another tool which is often justified and proper, but must be used wisely.Again, I am not against TIFs or the current College Hill project, individually, but I would prefer, when a “public need” arrises, that we not use this tool too much.When our leaders approve a TIF, they are approving government expenditures that will not show up, directly, on the City or County budget.Instead, those expenses will show up on the seperate budget of the TIF.
Good insightful, commentary Paul.
Wally, why are you blowing “free enterprise’s” cover? What are ya, some kinda anarchist? ;-)
America has been socialist for a long time. There wouldn’t be an American midsection, Southwest or Northwest without socialized military actions.
The key is to channel tax resources wisely, for the greatest benefit for the greatest numbers of citizens. I don’t think Wichita gets very good grades in this. The arena is the second part of the old Roman bread and circuses routine. It will provide short-term jobs, but then very little, and operations will have to be taxpayer-funded.
Wisdom might suggest building 21st century educational and research facilities to regenerate Wichita’s economy. Invest in young people, and their potential for high productivity. But apparently that’s “too hard”. We built the Kansas Coliseum three decades ago. So let’s do it again.We don’t want to do something we haven’t done before.
One of the reasons that Wichita is struggling is that we have capable short-horizon tacticians, but not long-horizon strategists. Oklahoma, sitting right next door, has undertaken a multipronged approach to build a future. OKC has a great arena. But it also has a growing biotech cluster, a math and science academy for the state’s most gifted kids, one computer for every 2.7 OKC District students, growing Advanced Placement college preparatory programs, and more. Oklahoma is investing in people. Changes there haven’t occurred overnight. These have been, and continue to be, long-horizon efforts. This energizes Oklahomans, the idea that the future for young Oklahomans will be different than the past was for old Oklahomans, and if things are done wisely, it will be a bright future. Kansans don’t get this idea. Critically, most of Kansas’s “leaders” don’t get it.
It’s not a flaw of Republicans only. On the Corkins blog, JM Walker and I had arguments with Apophis. As a teachers union activist (perhaps an elected steward), Apophis thinks that public teachers are exercising leadership in education. But, clearly they have resigned themselves to teaching subjects of the past, and receiving higher remuneration for their efforts. They’re capable of getting what they want for themselves, but they’re blinded to the fact that they’re not preparing children for a very different world from what the teachers know, which is a product of spending most of their lives, or all of it, in an isolated state (both geographically and mentally).
In the next few years, those of you who access outside-world information resources, which is probably most of you, you’re going to hear a lot more about “right-brain” cultivation in education. Moving art up to a higher place in the training of young minds. Encouraging creativity. Teaching math and science, not as textbook subjects, but as mind-expanding explorational exercises.
I was teaching a 12 year old number theory two years ago. Then we went to conventional algebra and geometry, using regular textbooks, because these were the established college-pathway standards. Frankly, the non-textbook subject matter engaged my student far more than the standard material. I would rather create my own course, and stimulate a child to explore, and grapple with complexity, than present a mass-education regimen. It’s not that I think the regimen is wrong, but it is not close to optimal for every student.
Howard Gardner has promulgated the idea of multiple intelligences. How do we devise diverse educational methods to identify and cultivate these marvelous gifts? I don’t know the answer, but I know our schools don’t do this. I see problem, but I don’t know the solution. It may be up to “underground” home education, i.e. “unschooling”, or unaccredited private schools, to pioneer change. Five hundred years ago, when the vast majority of Europeans stayed put, a small number of intrepid individuals had to explore the world’s oceans and new world to discover what was “out there”. If they had not done this, we would not now be here in America.
NY Times columnist and author of “The World is Flat” Thomas Friedman has emphasized that India and China are mastering things that the US has already done, and they are doing the job cheaper than we. They’re looking as the US as the world’s leader in innovation, as the world’s inventor of the future. There are too few “leaders” in Kansas who either get this, or want to make Kansans future-inventors.
Paul, thank you. I was going to ask if that was the site of the old Wichita Clinic building. I worked there for a while back in…1971? Wow, that was a long time ago.
heartlander…………..you are a broken record. If YOU want these type of “innovations” (I use the term very loosely), then pay for them yourself. Do not expect tax dollars to be spent on unproven schemes. Maybe YOU need to read up on the latest research that shows that charter/alternative schools are producing no better prepared students than the public sector. I see that we are doing just as good through our ongoing reform process.
FYI heartlander……………the teacher’s “union” is our professional organization. If you are not a member, you don’t know what the organization is about. You have made this quite clear many times especially when you make reference that I may be “(perhaps an elected steward)”. We have Professional Representatives who deal with issues and that is far different from a steward.
Now to the point we might in fact agree on……………….an investment in the future through our children is the best method to ensure long term economic growth. For the benefit of ALL of our citizens, this investment MUST be in public education. We must give everyone the opportunity to become a part of a thriving Sedgwick County economy in the 21st century. I voted for the arena. I still think it was the correct vote because it will bring some diversified jobs into the community. This region has suffered in the past because of its lack of economic diversity, maybe the new arena will spark the influx of conventions of medium size. One thing is for sure, if we didn’t build the Arena there definitely won’t be any conventions here.
ApopHow many graduates of USD 259 stay in Wichita?How many of our corporate and business and government leaders attended Wichita Public Schools?I will agree that quality education has something to do with economic development.However, if education is so darn important to eco-devo, how in the heck can ANY of our jobs be “outsourced” to Mexico, where the education system is terrible?We live in a free society.Wichita is free to import talent.Talent we train in Wichita is free to leave Wichita.The ONLY thing our political leaders can do, specific and targeted to our area, is to keep taxes low, keep crime low and encourage business growth.If we accomplish the above, we will have the funds with which to fund education adequately.Quality education is a worthy goal, but it does not, directly, pay for itself.
It pays for itself more than an apartment building does, Paul.
An apartment building that socializes the costs and privatizes the profits, as usual . . .
If you have an employer, and you send a representative, or a team, that establishes a uniform seniority-based payscale, along with uniform benefits for all workers, then you are a member of a union. My sister is a nurse, and is a member of a professional association. Fine. She and thousands of other members call it “our union”. Unions serve beneficial purposes in our society. Nurses unions, for example, lobby for better patient care. There are screwball hospital administrators who say, “We can save money by having labor and delivery nurses work in the coronary care unit from time to time,” or vice versa. The nurses unions object to this, and have stopped it in many states. If the teachers professional associations similarly stopped people without math and science degrees from being assigned math and science classes, that would be good for students. But they don’t.
You want to play semantic games, “organization”, “association” (in earlier posts) vs. “union. If you do this in your class, you’re arguably manipulating and abusing your students. Calling a duck a “deer” doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a duck.
If you think that teachers merit higher salaries, you could engage in a discussion with the tax-paying public. Get them to support your goals. You don’t do that. You campaign for the candidacies of “teacher friendly” politicians, and then do deals with them. You push the taxpayers out of the picture, and hope that they remain asleep. I understand your position. It works. But it is against American society’s long-term interests. Continue doing what you’re doing. Watch jobs migrate to Asia, and deny any personal responsibility. When your job migrates to the private sector, you can deny personal responsibility there too.
I AM for public education in 2040. You ARE NOT. You are for feeding at the public trough for as long as possible, without having to subject yourself to public accountability. That’s why you don’t go door to door to get citizens to sign petitions to raise teachers’ salaries, but instead funnel taxpayer dollars as union dues to elect board of education and legislators who will give teachers more money. You don’t trust the public. If you did a great job teaching, you COULD trust the public. Fundamentally, you are an elitist. You think you’re better than the people who give you a living.
The fact that public teachers have not been able to evolve beyond collective bargaining and identical pay for teachers whose skills and efforts range from exemplary to grossly underperforming, and that schools do not pay higher salaries to obtain people whom the at-large economy covets, such as men and women who are experts in mathematics and science, means that you are members of an Industrial Age enterprise. That’s obsolete.
Suppose that you had student evaluations of teachers. That’s reasonable. Teachers evaluate students, do they not? Suppose that a teacher received extemely high evaluations from most of his or her students. Suppose that parents attempting to help their children with this teacher’s assignments said, “These are difficult, but really good assignments.” Are you saying, as a unionist, that this teacher would not MERIT a higher salary than a teacher who received low evaluations from most of his or her students, whose parents never SAW any assignments, because their kids never came to them for help?
If you say, “parents do not understand what we have to do,” I would respond, “Where did the parents get their education?”
I understand exactly where you are coming from. But I cannot support you because you’re trying to get the best deal for teachers in an obsolete system. Your outdated agenda is wreaking damage on children, who will have to be adults not in our past economy, but in a future economy, where creativity, the ability to make connections with other people and seemingly disparate ideas, facility in learning new things, the ability to work with technologic toos, and the ability to think individually, are going to be rewarded.
The fact that these are off your personal mental map, doesn’t make me wrong for bringing them up. If you think you know everything your students have to know, look at labels and refuse to buy anything that isn’t made in Kansas. Throw away anything you have bought that was made outside the U.S. Make sure that the gas you buy for your car wasn’t made from overseas petroleum. (Good luck!) Go ahead. Do it. Then you will conclude that you are utterly dependent on the outside world. Now, your salary comes from USD 259. Where do you think that money comes from? Does Wichita have a massive gold mine? Does it have a mint?
So, the trick is to not to teach historically-set subjects, it is to prepare children to interface successfully with an outside-world-generated economy.
JM Walker asked where you teach and what you teach. Good question. Let’s first eliminate where you teach, but ask what you teach. Are your courses’ labels any different from those taught 30 years ago? I recently looked at my university’s catalog. It’s teaching dozens of courses that were totally unknown when I went there. That’s because it is preparing young people for the future. So, what new courses is your school teaching that it wasn’t 30 years ago?
I disagree with Paul about maintaining low taxes. I think, if we had wise usage of taxes, he might say, “That’s okay.” What he realizes is that our tax monies are squandered, being used for long-term-unproductive purposes.
Heartlander;Of course I want the taxes raised to be spent appropriately.However, I think the average family and the average business owner do a better job allocating resources than any elected official in any branch of government.The government should not be picking winners and loosers.When the government does decide to pick winners and loosers, it invariably taxes the unfavored and subsidizes the favored.Goverment creats visible “beneficiaries” by taxing invisible “contributors.”Goverment tends to concentrate the benefits of its largess on those who will benefit government officials and hide the pain of taxation whenever it can, spreading the liability over a wide population.Visible “benefit.”Invisible pain.Again, however, I know that blighted areas, broken windows and vacant buildings and houses can wreck property values.I am glad College Hill is doing great things, first in the Wesley area and now further South.I question the use of TIFs because, once the whole city becomes one big TIF, we will have to raise the mill levy every year.Growth in valuations alone won’t cover the growth of government expenses if we continue to cap the general fund benefits of taxable valuation increases with TIF districts.
heartlander and JM Walker…………it’s none of your damned business what I teach and where. That is irrelevant. heartlander, you can claim to be for education in 2040, hell anyone can say that. Does that make the crap you spew credible? I think NOT. There is really no point having any type of discussion with you about education because you, as usual, don’t have the foggiest notion what you are babbling about.
All you do is bash the public education system and the dedicated professionals who devote their lives to the cause. SHAME ON YOU!
Things that attract businesses to an area:
1. Educated and trainable workforce. Good schools, university, and training centers.
2. Low taxes and minimum regulatory enviroment.
3. Low crime
4. A positive attitude amoung the community and a good relationship to it and the local governments.
5. Transportation access, energy use and cost, and communication infrustructure.
Apophis, why do dedicated professional teachers feel they need to have a union?
SD, dedicated professional teachers don’t need a union. Associations that generate factual information to present to the public, i.e. here is what we are doing, and why we are doing it, here is what we AREN’T doing, but we would like to do, is beneficial to teachers, people who pay teachers, and society at large.
“Associations” that engage in collective bargaining, and refuse to reward exellent performance, refuse to eliminate poor performance, and disparage good ideas, are anti-professional.
For example, I have proposed that those who want to teach academic subjects to young people have 3.5-minimum GPA’s in junior and senior year academic subjects. I have proposed that middle school and high school teachers earn college of liberal arts and sciences degrees, and then undertake take MAT training to learn classroom teaching methods.
Apophis doesn’t want these things. When asked, “What do you teach?” he responds, “It’s none of your business what I teach.” Of course it is not our business, because we aren’t paying his salary. Oops. We ARE paying his salary. So it IS our business. Because it is OUR MONEY that GIVES HIM A LIVELIHOOD. Apophis wants the money Without revealing WHAT HE IS DOING TO EARN OUR MONEY.
Apophis is a Right Wing Wacko. Give me more money. I don’t have to account for it.
Why wouldn’t we need a union? The right to organize for the greater good of the group or profession is as American as apple pie. Other professions (engineers for one) organize as well. Unions are what has made this country into the industrial powerhouse that has lead the world for many years. Try to take our unions away, see what happens.
heartlander….on a blog is is still none of your damned business what I teach even if you do pay taxes that fund my salary. I pay taxes that fund my salary too. I guess that makes me my own boss. In the real world you might be entitled to know more about my, in cyber-space you do not have that right. I will tell you that I am highly regarded in my profession by numerous groups ranging from National down to State and local organizations. Hell, the Superintendent and I are on a first name basis.
For the record, I am NOT a right wing wacko like you heartlander. I pride myself as a progressive member of the Democratic Party in this bastion of sanctimonious conservatism.
and SD………………who the hell are you to define “dedicated”? Usually those on the outside correlate “dedicated” with slave labor. Stick it in your a** SD.
Apophis, I support the right to organize.However, the head of a teachers union once said, “When students start paying union dues I will represent students.”There is nothing wrong with an organization that represents school teachers in collective bargaining.Just please dont try to pass off your organization as “pro education.”You are pro teacher, that really is not the same thing, is it?Again, you have every right to have an advocate for your cause, and pay dues to that organization.Just remember, the rest of are fully aware of the fact that school kids don’t pay union dues and that you dont speak for school kids.
Good answers, Apophis.
Paul seems to think that teachers can look out for their own interests or they can look out for students’ interests, but they can’t do both at the same time.
The NEA is trying and (sometime succeeds) in reducing class size. That benefits both teachers and students.
You were right not to give out any personal information.
They’ll just use it to hit you over the head with later.
If you say you’re poor, they tell you that you must hate and envy the rich. If you tell them you’re rich, they say you’re an elitist out of touch with the common people. If you’re well-educated, you’re an intellectual snob. If you’re not well educated, you’re a dummy. If you’re married, what woman would be stupid enough to marry YOU? If you’re not married, that’s because you are too ugly to attract a spouse.
See how it works?
Force them to stay on the issues–that’s what they have the toughest time with, heh . . .
CapnWhat issue are YOU on??lol
Apophis, thank you for your kind and considerate answer to my question.
Paul………that quote can be attributed to Al Shanker, the deceased president of the American Federation of Teachers. The AFT is by and far the smaller of the two major teacher’s organizations. The NEA has many, many programs that directly affect students. The bottom line is that the unions look out for the interests of the teachers so the teachers can adequately look out for the best interests of the students. I don’t think we’re in the profession to get rich.
Face it…………….most of you “critics” of public education are just pawns doing the bidding of others. You do NOT have the best interests of children in mind. You just want to break another union.
Anytime SD
SD–
Teachers need a union because they have to deal with administrators and school boards.
They are not independent agents like a doctor or a lawyer who can hang out a shingle. I haven’t seen an English or a math shop lately.
They need the power of a single organization to represent them in negotiations.
If you’re a worker employed by someone else, you need a union too.
There’s a whole lot of critics of public education. Like the vast majority of male students for instance. It’s standard practice in universities and colleges across America these days to have students submit evaluations of their instructors. It would be a great idea in public schools? Nah, who wants accountability measures?
There are many problems in public education. Employers find that high school grads are less motivated and skilled than those of the past. Meanwhile colleges and universities have noticed subtantial non-preparedness, requiring them to expand remedial courses. Let’s see: high school grads who want to work are poorly qualified for anything beyond low-wage simple jobs, while those who want to pursue higher education aren’t prepared for it. Who is responsible for this? People like Apophis claim to be “experts”. Experts in what?
“The bottom line is that unions look out for th interests of the teachers so that the teachers can adequately look out for the best interests of the students.”
That’s a nice warm and fuzzy slogan, but where is the logical connection? If A is true, how does that imply B to be true? It doesn’t.
Unfortunately, public educators don’t think straight. The fact that kids aren’t learning as much as their brains are capable of is always somebody or something else’s fault.
A lot of old-timed doctors had this exact same attitude. If a patient died it was his or her own fault, or just fate. “We did everything we could.” It took lawyers and honest physician expert witnesses to prove doctors were at fault. Medical care improved through outside forces. Today teachers don’t want outsiders to give them direction. That’s a serious problem.
There are people teaching putative “math” and “science” courses who are certified, but not in mathematics or science. Apophis and his friends know this. They know or should know that there are plenty of mathematically and scientifically able people who could teach. But you’d have to pay them more than social studies teachers. Apophis’s view is that the open manpower market is “unfair” because it pays mathematics and science degree holders more than it pays social science and humanities degree holders. So schools’ inability to get qualified math and science teachers isn’t due to union insistence on equal salaries for all teachers, it’s the surrounding society that causes the math and science teacher shortage.
Is it in the best interests of children for those who are forced to take “math” and “science” courses taught by people who are incompetent? Particularly when this problem has a straightforward solution. Apophis went to Topeka to get more money for Wichita schools. So why is he against spending more money to get well-qualified math and science instructors.
Why are businesses willing to pay higher starting salaries to mathematicians and scientists? Because their skills are valuable. Apophis doesn’t get this. He doesn’t get it that if public schools did a much better job of teaching math and science, many more of their students could earn higher incomes as adults. Or he gets it, but finds the proposition repugnant to his view of how the world should work.
It’s funny isn’t it? Teachers don’t want to compete, but they have no problem with giving kids grades and making them compete. Actually, I had very few schoolteachers who were qualified to grade anyone. In college my professors were former “A” students in their chosen fields. But how can former “B/C” students evaluate others’ academic performance? They can’t.
How do I know this? Because nearly every near-straight-A student I knew in high school dropped to a B average their first semester in college. Some rebounded, but they had to learn how to study properly, because they didn’t know how to coming in. And that was before high school grade inflation started. Teachers don’t know how to inculcate good note-taking and study skills, because they don’t possess these skills. Any of you that have teenagers, ask them to see their class notes. Is it YOUR fault for not teaching them how to take them? Ask your kids if any teacher has ever graded their class notes and given them guidance on how to improve their note-taking.
Public schools are very strange institutions. If Apophis actually cared about children, he’d support giving them choices. But he’s basically a fixture.
BTW, the probability is pretty high that Apophis is a social studies teacher. His writing syntax and vocabulary are too primitive for an English teacher, and his argumentation is illogical , so he’s not a math or science teacher.
Apophis doesn’t understand some fundamental principles of education. For example, the neatest teaching is one-on-one. You get to establish a continuous dialog. You can cover a lot more subject matter, and make sure your student masters it. Teaching two to four students also allows dynamic intercourse. As you add more students, you get differential engagement. You also face the problem of having to slow the teaching to reach the less bright, which retards the progress of the more bright. School authorities, don’t want to admit that they hold their brightest students back, and prevent them from achieving their full potentials. Apophis can howl at the moon about giving kids an “equal” education, but that’s not a SOUND education. It is the forced imposition of mediocrity per se. Apophis thinks this is “fair”. It’s not fair to the kids who are made underachievers. It’s not in society’s interest. In my opinion.
heartlander………stick a fork in it because I am done with you after these few brief comments.
“So why is he against spending more money to get well-qualified math and science instructors.”….when did I say this? Actually I AM for this, but not in the way you want it. These teachers (not just mere instructors) need to understand the learning process, not just content. Being an engineer or scientist doesn’t make one a competent teacher.
I am NOT a Social Studies teacher. There is nothing wrong with being a Social Studies Teacher, it’s just not my area of interest. It’s too bad heartlander thinks “His writing syntax and vocabulary are too primitive for an English teacher”. THIS IS A BLOG heartlander. syntax and grammar doesn’t really matter here. At least I don’t type 20 minute tomes about mindless shi* as you do heartlander. “and his argumentation is illogical , so he’s not a math or science teacher”……..You got that one wrong there heartlander…….My “argumentation” is very logical, you just don’t get it. You let your blind hatred of the NEA and the public education system taint your judgment.
I am for choice heartlander…….You have the choice to send your children to private or parochial schools. You can even home school your children if you wish. The thing is, don’t expect taxpayers (myself included) to pay for your choices. I am for school reform, that is a constant in my profession. Just because these reforms aren’t to your liking doesn’t make them invalid. You heartlander, are statistically an outlier in your views. In the real world, outliers are known as radicals. You are entitled to your opinion, but that opinion doesn’t make it a fact.
As I stated at the beginning of this post, I am essentially done with you heartlander. I have to start interacting with students today and will have little time during the school term for this type of diversion. If you really want to make a difference in the here and now heartlander might I suggest actually putting your money where your mouth is……..Why not sign up to tutor some of our more challenging students in, let’s say Math? Let’s say maybe in a Middle School. You have 16 to choose from in Wichita. Put up or shut up heartlander. If you can’t deal with reality, do not preach to those of us who do.
In the interest of full disclosure, how many WE editorial staff live in College Hill?
I believe a few do.
I’ve done tutoring. The problem is, the mathematics that I teach, which is real mathematics, doesn’t interface with school “math”. I’d be happy to teach a math COURSE, but I don’t have a teaching certificate, secondly, what I would teach would be something that would be outside the obsolete traditional box, and thirdly, my strong suit is teaching kids who have extraordinarily high aptitude and interest in mathematics and science. I say the last not because it is easy–it requires a lot of very hard work to teach brilliant kids–but because they need to be challenged in order to achieve their potentials and ultimately make contributions to society, and because I love it when kids present amazing ideas that I never thought about, and challenge ME to learn.
Let’s look a bit into tax funding of private enterprises. Public schools are huge income-redistribution conduits taking money from property owners and selectively passing it on to private enterprises. For instance nearly $400 million was redistributed to private construction companies that refurbished Wichita schools. All material objects in schools, from desks, to textbooks, computers, photocopiers, books, educational and testing software, and restroom cleansers are purchased from for-profit private businesses. Not only are school buses manufactured by private companies, they’re operated by a private company here.
In universities, federally-funded research is performed in private, as well as public universities. In fact Johns Hopkins gets more federal research funding than any public university except the combined-10-campus University of California. Washington University in St. Louis gets about 5 times as much federal research funding as KU.
What does this have to do with teaching? Percentages of professors’ salaries are often comprised of portions of their research grants, and they have teaching duties. Moreover, what they perform research in gets to their classrooms. So public funding is supporting private teaching at the post-secondary level. All across America.
Moreover, students all across America use federal and state scholarships in private colleges and universities, essentially vouchers, as well as taxpayer-backed student loans.
When a public school teacher gets very sick, he or she uses public dollars to pay for private physicians, and if sick enough, private hospitalization. Some parts of the country have county or special tax-district-owned public hospitals, but Kansas doesn’t, and where they do exist along with private hospitals, most public employees choose the latter for their own healthcare.
Public K-12 education is the only institution that is happy to funnel public dollars into private enterprises, but draws an artificial line in the sand saying that it’s outrageous to allow public money to support private enterprise in the form of private educational institutions.
This is illogical. At least if the goal is to educate young people to the best of society’s ability to do so. If the goal is to provide a public work-welfare system for teachers, then we can see a logical motivation, but the former goal may not be compatible with the latter goal.
We should also consider that when public agencies buy things from the private sector, using tax dollars, probably most of the tax-dollar-receiving private companies’ executives, as well as many middle managers and professionals use the proceeds of goods and services sales to the public agencies to foot their own children’s private-school tuition bills. In other words, even at the K-12 level, tax monies are going to private schools. See, nobody has a problem with upper-income people doing this, but the objection is to people of lesser means, particularly socioeconomically-disadvanted minority students getting access to tax monies for THEIR private education, at least not before they get to college, if they can make it that far.
Everyone in Sedgwick County should apply for and receive Tax Increment Financing. Taking money out of the public treasury is only fair if everyone gets an equal share of the largesse.
Everyone in Sedgwick County should apply for and receive Tax Increment Financing. Taking money out of the public treasury is only fair if everyone gets an equal share of the largesse.