Voice For Liberty

Author: Bob Weeks

  • Construction Companies Line Up for Wichita School Work

    The Wichita Business Journal reports the story Eby to bid on Wichita schools work with new bond underwriter. The story describes how a prominent Wichita construction firm has placed its bonding situation in order, and is now ready to take on some work for USD 259, the Wichita public school district.

    This company paid the price of admission to this game. Sort of. Campaign finance reports for Citizens Alliance for Responsible Education (CARE) show that this company made a contributions of $1,000 towards the effort to pass the Wichita school bond issue.

    A generous contribution? Maybe not generous enough. Eby will be competing with the likes of Key Construction, Inc.. This company contributed $11,000.

    Also, this $1,000 will be competing with the $10,000 contribution made by Clay Davis, president of National Contractors Inc. and the $6,000 contributed by Hutton Construction Company. I wonder how well they’ll do.

    Of course, there’s always the possibility that these construction companies, along with others and the many architectural firms that made generous contributions, are genuinely interested in the education of Wichita’s schoolchildren. Something tells me, though, there’s other interests that trump those of the children.

  • Charter Schools Can Close the Education Gap

    We don’t have these, to my knowledge, in USD 259, the Wichita public school district, and there are very few in Kansas. Across the country, however, charter schools are making a difference, particularly in addressing the needs of urban and high-poverty students.

    Joel I. Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, and Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, wrote an open letter to president-elect Barack Obama in the Wall Street Journal. In it they “second [his] belief that school reformers must demonstrate an unflagging commitment to ‘what works’ to dramatically boost academic achievement — rather than clinging to reforms that we ‘wish would work.’”

    The coalition these two writers formed, the Education Equality Project (EEP), seeks to greatly narrow, if not eliminate, the achievement gap. It seeks to do so by what turns out to be a radical measure: “EEP seeks to ensure that America’s schools provide equal educational opportunity, judged by one measuring stick: Does a policy advance student learning? It’s an obvious litmus test. Yet the current K-12 school system is designed to serve the interests of adults, not children.”

    How can this be radical — advancing student learning? Isn’t that what schools should be doing?

    The reform paths that most public schools take are not ones that work. The characteristics of teachers, it turns out, is the most important factor in learning. (See Wichita Public School District’s Path: Not Fruitful for more.)

    “Finally, our coalition also promotes the development and placement of effective teachers in underserved schools and supports paying them higher salaries. By contrast, we oppose rigid union-tenure protections, burdensome work rules, and antiquated pay structures that shield a small minority of incompetent teachers from scrutiny yet stop good teachers from earning substantial, performance-based pay raises.”

    In Wichita, it appears that there are no proposals to pay teachers based on factors that make a difference in student learning. Instead, pay is based solely on education credentials earned and longevity — two factors shown to make no difference in student leaning. (Some researchers report a negative correlation between these factors and student learning.) Even a proposal a few years ago to offer teachers working in high-poverty schools a $1,500 bonus went nowhere.

    The Wall Street Journal article is Charter Schools Can Close the Education Gap.

  • Not All Agree With New Kansas Energy Plan

    Currie Meyers of the Kansas Federalist has a few issues with Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius‘ energy plan. I can’t link directly to Meyers’ article, so I’ll reproduce it in its entirety here.

    Sebelius New Energy Plan Lacks Energy

    Governor Kathleen Sebelius unveiled weak and pathetic energy proposals that she hopes will help Kansas capitalize on renewable energy. Standing beside her at the major news event was Lt.Gov. Mark Parkinson, whom has already announced he is not running for running for office. The Sebelius four-point legislative plan calls for:

    Net Metering! Which would allow Kansas consumers to generate their own electricity, then sell the surplus they create back to the power companies. (The only energy I can produce on my own is Methane and she wants to tax that one! Maybe I can capture all the squirrels in my yard and place them in the wheel cage for energy. There is plenty since we can’t hunt varmints in the city. Oh, by the way, they tried this “Net Metering” idea in Missouri but consumers could not get insurance to cover liability of producing their own energy.) Next!

    Setting into law the state’s existing voluntary renewable portfolio standard! The standard initially called for 10 percent of the state’s energy to come from renewable resources by 2010, a goal the state has already met. (If we have already met it and we are in a billion dollar deficient then what’s the benefit of making this into law? Except that liberals like laws, regulations and portfolios.) Next!

    Requiring all new state buildings or leases meet energy-efficiency standards! (Which will actually cost more to taxpayers due to the capital improvements that will have to be done in order to change energy systems. And there also is a difference between energy efficient and green. Green is not always efficient.) Next!

    Creating energy bond programs! So Kansas can attract solar and wind manufacturing jobs to our state. (How about tax abatements, low business taxes, low capital gains taxes and less business regulation instead? How about Coal, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Bio-Fuels?) Next!

    This is the best energy proposal that our liberal government leaders can come up with? You have got to be kidding me! “It’s time we take the next step toward a clean energy future,” said Sebelius. No Governor, it’s time to lead! And this ain’t it!

    Lead, follow or get out of the way! The citizens are waiting!

  • And the basis for your criticism is?

    A blogger in Kansas has an issue with a talk given by Jonah Goldberg at Americans For Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit in Wichita.

    As it turns out, the basis for the criticism is …, well, let the speaker himself explain. See the post titled Well-Named.

  • Kathleen Sebelius State of the State 2009: Collectivism Lite

    In Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius‘ 2007 State of the State address collectivism was the theme: “Only a failure to act as ‘One Kansas’ can compromise our future and dash our hopes.” As shown in my post The Collectivism of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, this drive towards collectivism is a threat to liberty and the individual.

    This year, her State of the State speech was not so heavily-laden with collectivist themes. But they’re still there.

    She reminded members of the legislature of the “heavy burdens can be lifted when all of our hands lift together.”

    To the people, she said “Let us come together, as we have in the past, to find common ground and to work for the common good.”

    Perhaps invoking president-elect Obama’s recent speech, she promoted the role of government: “Ultimately, the role of government is to use our collective resources to do what individuals cannot do alone.”

    “In all of our endeavors, we recognize that jobs and capital are best expanded in the private sector. But without resources and workers from government, the massive undertakings needed to promote the common good would likely fail.” I don’t think she really values private sector jobs over government jobs. For many years of her term, most of the job growth in Kansas was in government.
    “Working together, we can succeed.” … “Yes, these are difficult times and we face difficult decisions, but by working in a bi-partisan fashion we’ll once again find answers and experience success.”

    Fortunately the “One Kansas” theme is gone, but collectivism remains the goal in Kathleen Sebelius’ Kansas.

  • Sebelius’ Proposed Cuts Not Likely Enough

    Martin Hawver explains that as bad as the Kansas budget situation is, Governor Kathleen Sebelius — at least for now — isn’t required to recognize the full depth of the crisis.

    The Consensus Revenue Estimating Group, comprised of fiscal wizards who, well, estimate future revenues into the State General Fund, predicts that revenues will fall at least $211 million before the fiscal year ends on June 30, 2009. What that means is that spending approved by last year’s Legislature is about $140 million more than Kansas is likely to have (the state had been looking forward to ending this fiscal year with a small balance). … Here’s the political good part, if we can call it that. Sebelius has to meet the figures produced by the revenue estimators back on Nov. 4, and revenues have gotten worse since then. But the Nov. 4 estimate, legally, is the target she is required to meet. … It probably means that the Legislature is going to have to cut more spending this fiscal year, but Sebelius gets to make the least-icky of the cuts. And the political focus will be on the Legislature’s additional cuts to get through this fiscal year.

    The full article, well worth reading, is The politics of budget cutting.

  • Kansas Votes: A Valuable Resource

    Recently the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy began sponsorship of a valuable resource for all Kansas. This site, Kansas Votes, provides information about pending legislation as it works its way through the law-making process. This process, unbelievably complicated to the average citizen, is explained in plain language. Even I can figure out what’s going on in Topeka by using Kansas Votes.

    From its website, here are some features of Kansas Votes:

    • Concise, plain-language, objective and accurate descriptions of every bill, amendment, roll call vote and voice vote.
    • Ability to track all the votes of a particular legislator, or search by bill number, category or keyword.
    • Ability to view all the bills and amendments introduced by a particular legislator.
    • Ability to post a public comment, view others’ comments, and participate in citizen surveys on each bill.
    • Automatically e-mail legislators or others about a bill.
    • Ability to follow action in any one or more of 50 different categories of legislation (such as Education or Land Use or Taxes).
    • Ability to sign up for e-mail notifications of action on any bill or subject area of interest, including new bill introductions.

    Today marks the start of the session of the Kansas Legislature. Now citizens have a valuable tool to help them follow the action in the statehouse. This is especially important as traditional media such as newspapers devote less coverage to news like this.

    And did I mention it’s free? Thank you to the Flint Hills Center for that.

    To use Kansas Votes, click here: Kansas Votes.

  • Kansas Speaker Mike O’Neal at AFP Summit

    Representative Mike O’Neal, Republican from Hutchinson, is the new Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives. He spoke on January 10 at Americans For Prosperity‘s Defending the American Dream Summit in Wichita.

    His speech warned of tough times ahead, with a difficult job for both the legislature and citizens. Part of the problem is that we’ve been spending a lot in recent years: “Kansas is a cash basis state. We have spent more in the last four years than we’ve taken in, primarily because we’ve had healthy balances, and because we have had, historically, some decent economic growth. That, however, is not, and should not be, the justification for growing government and continuing to spend money without looking out on the horizon to see what economic markets are going to do.”

    He said that the current year deficit (the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009) is around $190 million. But the number to aim for is $290 million, so that there is an ending balance. Then for fiscal year 2010 (July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010), somewhere near $1 billion.

    That’s the bad news, he said. “The good news is that presents us with an excellent opportunity to do things fundamentally different with the way we look at state budgets. … It would probably surprise many of you in this room to learn that we do not conduct financial audits of the state budget, and have not done that for a number of years.”

    “We simply spend our session looking at the governor’s enhancement budget for those agencies, and determine what, if any, enhancements we’re going to allow. That is not going to happen this year. … We are looking at making fundamental cuts in the budget.”

    He went on to say that we’ve known of the trouble with the budget for about 90 days. So why hasn’t anything been done? The legislature couldn’t do anything because it wasn’t in session. But, Governor Kathleen Sebelius can do things when the legislature is not in session. She can make targeted cuts. With permission of the finance council, she could make across-the-board cuts. But she’s not done either.

    The Wichita Eagle provided coverage of O’Neal’s talk, including some remarks made afterwards, in the article Speaker says cuts will be painful.

  • Karl Peterjohn Takes Oath of Office in Sedgwick County

    Karl Peterjohn takes oath of office for Sedgwick County Commission, January 11, 2009

    Today, Karl Peterjohn took the oath of office for the Board of Sedgwick County Commissioners. The ceremony took place in front of a standing-room only crowd. Following are Karl’s remarks:

    I want to begin by thanking my family. I want to thank my wife Marilyn, and my children Christina and Alex. They worked so hard throughout the entire 2008 election campaign to help put me behind this podium today.

    In the last week I have started and had to re-start writing my first remarks as a Sedgwick County Commissioner. The news keeps changing that quickly.

    In each of the last three days I have heard in public meetings one or more elected officials as well as on one day, a key Kansas legislative staffer, report a series of increasingly grim and distressing information concerning the economic and fiscal problems we face.

    Today there were a series of articles in the Wichita Eagle with more articles about our current economic problems. The state of Kansas is facing a major fiscal crisis. The size of this crisis is growing.

    Let me remind you that crises are nothing new.

    Please remember the Kansas state motto. It is, “Ad astra per Aspera,” that is, “To the stars through difficulties.” We as a nation, as a state, and as a county have always faced challenges and controversies.

    Our state was born in a cauldron of problems and disputes that were much worse than anything we face in Sedgwick County today. Our county is named after Major General John Sedgwick who gave his life fighting for our country through the largest problems we have ever faced during the Civil War.

    A decade ago the head of the Federal Reserve bank, Alan Greenspan, warned against irrational exuberance in our economy. Today I urge all of us to avoid irrational pessimism.

    Remember that the challenge of our state’s motto is unchanged: to the stars through difficulties.

    I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and joining with my fellow commissioners, my fellow elected officials inside the courthouse as well as outside, my fellow county employees, and most importantly my fellow citizens in solving the problems facing us in Sedgwick County.

    Thank you and God bless America.