Print edition: 
School funding —Apparently, Alan Rupe and Schools for Fair Funding won't stop until they've turned every Kansas taxpayer upside down and shaken out his pockets. You remember Rupe and the gang. They're the ones behind the lawsuit that spurred an $892 million increase in funding for Kansas public schools beginning in 2006. News reports last month said Rupe and other attorneys involved in the initial lawsuit were consulting with school districts to perhaps file another lawsuit over school funding. Never mind that lawmakers cut other areas of the budget more deeply than education. Never mind that thousands of Kansas workers have lost their jobs and businesses have suffered, making the idea of tax increases ludicrous. Nope. The SFFF ringleaders are once again determined to get theirs. What an outrage.— Topeka Capital-Journal
Smoking ban — A new University of Kansas study on public smoking bans provides just the kind of evidence Gov. Mark Parkinson needs to help promote a statewide smoking ban. The research done by KU Medical Center indicates that smoking bans reduce the number of heart attacks by as much as 26 percent. That means a nationwide ban could prevent up to 154,000 heart attacks a year, according to the study's lead investigator, David Meyers, KU professor of cardiology and preventive medicine. A number of Kansas cities, including Lawrence, already ban smoking in indoor public places such as restaurants, but the provisions of those bans vary from place to place. A statewide ban would have the advantage of standardizing those provisions across the state, protecting nonsmokers from secondhand smoke and perhaps encouraging some smokers to kick the habit.— Lawrence Journal-World
KPERS — Restructuring the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System should have high priority for lawmakers this coming year. A report from the University of Kansas' Center for Applied Economics warns that KPERS will be bankrupt if something is not done soon. The Kansas system is one of the few left in the country that promises defined benefits regardless of its financial health. Its funding ratio is 49 percent, one of the lowest in the country. This situation puts taxpayers on the hook. The Legislature and several governors have been kicking the KPERS can down the road for years. It is time to put it back on the front burner.— Winfield Daily Courier
Exports — In trying to wriggle free of a painful recession, Kansas continues to do what Kansas does best: feed the world. Another sterling example of that strength came recently when business and government officials from Kansas and Taiwan signed an agreement for Taiwanese flour millers to purchase $425 million worth of wheat from the United States over two years, with a good portion coming from Kansas. Gov. Mark Parkinson took advantage of the recent deal with Taiwan to remind us of the importance of the Sunflower State's export market in not only helping Kansas survive the current recession, but also in ensuring the state's long-term prosperity. The current economic situation also is proof of the need to get the most of all states' export potential by crafting trade policy that maximizes that opportunity worldwide. —Garden City Telegram
