Going on offense after SurveyUSA polling showed the governor with a lower approval rating than President Obama in the state, the Kansas Republican Party tweeted “now here’s a real survey” about a new Gallup poll showing Kansas as the fifth-most-Republican state (after Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Alaska). Gallup also noted that Democrats have lost their solid political party affiliation advantage in 18 states since 2008. As recently as 2009, Kansas was among the “competitive” states, in which the leading party has no more than a 5 percentage point advantage.
Kansas, infamous not so long ago for having “banned” evolution, scored a B grade and stood out among its neighbors in a damning new study of states’ science standards by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The researchers declared Kansas’ standards a “decidedly mixed bag,” describing the life science and physics standards as “generally clear and rigorous,” those covering chemistry “middling,” and those for earth and space science “mediocre at best.” The report added that “evolution is sidestepped or ignored until grades 8-12, where a brief but very good treatment appears.” Oklahoma and Nebraska were among 10 states to earn F’s. Only California and the District of Columbia had straight A’s.
It was a shame that Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn felt the need last week to hijack a simple proclamation of National Children’s Dental Health Month, which was intended to urge citizens “to set a good example for their kids by encouraging them to brush twice daily, floss regularly and visit the dentist two times a year.” Though Peterjohn voted for the proclamation, he used the opportunity to lash out at “Obamacare” and fearmonger about water fluoridation as “mandatory medication.” Commissioner Richard Ranzau echoed Peterjohn. It’s important to remember that while Wichita continues to resist it for political reasons, water fluoridation was recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century and has been endorsed by the past five U.S. surgeons general.
So far, the Brownback administration has dismissed pleas from parents, service providers and lawmakers to carve out long-term care for the developmentally disabled from its plan to turn Medicaid into a managed-care system. But forcing through the reform is risky, the Kansas Health Institute News Service reported. A 1996 study by the American Academy of Actuaries warned that states that fail to gain support for a managed-care reform among providers and the public, or that quickly implement the changes across the board, are less likely to succeed. Because of how complex it is to transfer to a managed-care system, the study advised that implementation be phased in either geographically or by eligibility category.
Going on offense after SurveyUSA polling showed the governor with a lower approval rating than President Obama in the state, the Kansas Republican Party tweeted “now here’s a real survey” about a new Gallup poll showing Kansas as the fifth-most-Republican state (after Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Alaska). Gallup also noted that Democrats have lost their solid political party affiliation advantage in 18 states since 2008. As recently as 2009, Kansas was among the “competitive” states, in which the leading party has no more than a 5 percentage point advantage.
