Month: June 2005
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Tax Abatements For All
Recently I wrote about the Mississippi Beef Plant (The Mississippi Beef Plant Has a Lesson For Us) and its spectacular costs to the taxpayers of Mississippi. I wondered if there were less spectacular failures that we didn’t know about because they weren’t reported in the news media. Failures in this context could mean a situation…
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The cthics case against Justice Donald L. Allegrucci
I have filed an ethics complaint against Kansas Supreme Court Justice Donald L. Allegrucci. This complaint is on the agenda of the July 1, 2005 meeting of the Kansas Commission on Judicial Qualifications.
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Senator Kay O’Connor
The Kansas City Star will not correct an inaccurate story regarding Kansas Senator Kay O’Connor.
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Regarding School Finance from Senator Karin Brownlee
What is the higher priority? Should the Legislature send $143 million more to schools or preserve the form of government our forefathers carefully designed over two hundred years ago? The separation of powers doctrine is fundamental to maintaining our free society because it maintains a balance of powers with the judiciary unable to control the…
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Corruption in the Public Schools: The Market Is the Answer
Corruption in the Public Schools: The Market Is the Answerby Neal McCluskeyClick here to read the article. This is an excellent article that shows how free markets can provide the best education for our children. On the surface, it would seem that having government bureaucrats in charge of educating children would produce good results. For…
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The school productivity crisis
As the Kansas Legislature prepares to meet to consider school financing, it is a good time to reflect upon the state of our public schools.
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Beneath the Radar
Beneath the Radarby Richard Nadler On June 3, the Supreme Court of Kansas issued a ruling requiring the state legislature to appropriate an additional $853 million per year to Kansas schools, K-12. The basis of the decision, said a unanimous court, was a clause in the Kansas Constitution: “The legislature shall make suitable provision for…
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Wearing a Black Robe to Make Sausage
Wearing a Black Robe to Make Sausageby Bob L. CorkinsApril 22, 2005 Want to create new laws without legislators? Then watch the Kansas Supreme Court for the next few weeks to see how it’s done. Like pride for trophies on a mantle, trial lawyers boast of cases where they convinced a court to declare the…
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More from Rep. Frank Miller
A press release from Kansas House Member Frank Miller, Republican from Independence. Further Regarding The Sebelius Court OrderJune 9, 2005 Thank you for your many responses to my last press release. I appreciate getting both those that agree with me as well as those that disagree with me. The responses are running about half agree…
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Base School funding on research, not feelings
On the surface, it would seem like smaller class sizes would produce better educational outcomes. Intuitively, this makes sense. Research tells a different story, however.
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Kansas Supreme Court Bypasses Voters Right to Representation
Following is a press release from Kansas House Member Frank Miller, Republican from Independence. I think he assesses the situation accurately. Kansas Supreme Court By-Passes Voters Right to Representation I am shocked and very alarmed that the Kansas Supreme Court by a unanimous decision would so boldly by-pass the authority of the legislature and directly…
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Disgraceful decision will hurt Kansas
The Kansas Supreme Court’s school finance decision is deeply flawed both in substance and in procedure. This five page judicial edict (www.kscourts.org see case no. 92,032) announced January 3 is designed to pressure the legislature into voting for more spending for public schools without saying by how much. Many tax and spend advocates are now…