By John Todd, delivered at the January 4, 2010 meeting of the Wichita public school district board.
Superintendent John Allison, President Barbara Fuller, and members of the USD 259 Wichita Public School Board: My name is John Todd. I am here to speak as a private citizen, and a resident living in the Wichita Public School District who pays both USD 259 school taxes and Kansas state taxes.
I agree with testimony presented earlier by Bob Weeks, Karl Peterjohn, and the other speakers who voiced opposition to your proposed tax funded lawsuit.
The use of taxpayer money by a local governmental body to threaten or to initiate litigation against state taxpayers (that’s us) is an inappropriate use of public funds.
The amount of money you are proposing to spend in this endeavor seems to me to be enough money to pay several full time teachers salaries that could be used to reduce class sizes and help our kids learn.
The prospect of higher state as well as local taxes hits heavily on families and businesses struggling to maintain jobs in today’s economic climate.
If Wichita Public School parents don’t have a job, how are you going to teach their children to read?
Please oppose this proposed tax funded lawsuit.
I work for USD 259, and it makes me feel like I’m stealing from the citizenry whenever I think about it. All they care about is getting as much of our money as they can, and every time we don’t give it to them, they make it sound like our children will be stuck in tents using an abacus.