As expected, the Mid-America Arts Alliance decided that Gov. Sam Brownback’s decision to veto funding for the Kansas Arts Commission and lay off all its staff made Kansas no longer eligible to receive arts grants. The National Endowment for the Arts reached the same decision last week. The decisions mean Kansas has lost about $1.3 million in grants. “We are deeply concerned for the artists, arts organizations, arts educators, and arts participants and audiences who will undoubtedly be affected by the loss of the Kansas Arts Commission’s support and leadership,” said Mary Kennedy McCabe, executive director of the six-state alliance. Too bad Brownback wasn’t concerned.
Meanwhile, many arts supporters see hypocrisy in Brownback’s defense of the anti-abortion laws he signed last session. “It was the will of the Legislature and the people of the state of Kansas,” he said when asked last week about the new abortion laws requiring costly defense in court against lawsuits. But what about the will of the Legislature and the public on arts funding?
“Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas likes to put distance between himself and the failures of Congress and Washington gridlock,” noted John Montgomery, editor and publisher of the Hutchinson News. For example, Moran complained about “a dysfunctional Congress” during a speech Monday to the Wichita Downtown Rotary Club. But Moran has been a member of Congress since 1997, and his unrealistic and uncompromising positions on the deficit-reduction deal were a big contributor to the dysfunction. “Moran can’t blame others for the incompetency of Congress any more,” Montgomery wrote. “He needs to look in the mirror. He is part of the problem.”
At open houses and other events, USD 259 parents are getting a look at more of the fruits of the 2008 bond issue, including new schools and additions. But the start of this school year also should spur special gratitude for the 2000 bond issue. Before that $284 million bond issue passed, the district lacked air conditioning in most of its buildings. “‘Resource rooms’ and air conditioning will not help our kids learn more,” wrote Walt Chappell, now a member of the Kansas State Board of Education, in a 2000 letter to The Eagle opposing that bond issue. But without air conditioning, the district would have faced the challenge so far this school year of four days hotter than 100 degrees.
As expected, the Mid-America Arts Alliance decided that Gov. Sam Brownback’s decision to veto funding for the Kansas Arts Commission and lay off all its staff made Kansas no longer eligible to receive arts grants. The National Endowment for the Arts reached the same decision last week. The decisions mean Kansas has lost about $1.3 million in grants. “We are deeply concerned for the artists, arts organizations, arts educators, and arts participants and audiences who will undoubtedly be affected by the loss of the Kansas Arts Commission’s support and leadership,” said Mary Kennedy McCabe, executive director of the six-state alliance. Too bad Brownback wasn’t concerned.
