Print edition: 
Tax plan — There is something retro about the tax talk in Topeka. A bunch of professors and business folks are getting into supply- side economics. With the blessing of Gov. Sam Brownback, they have invited Arthur Laffer to consult with them. Arthur Laffer? He was the economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan whose theories left practical people, if you'll pardon us, laughing. We wish Brownback and his allies on the libertarian right would bring their discussions out into the open. He should not let us be blindsided by his big business buddies. — Winfield Daily Courier
School funding — A top aide to Gov. Sam Brownback got educators' attention with a loosely constructed proposal that, if enacted, eventually would amount to the first fundamental change in school finance in two decades. The details remain sketchy, but it's reasonable to presume that the governor has the votes to get at minimum a serious hearing for any proposal he really wants to push. It's also reasonable to assume, given the state's financial state, that the bottom- line impact on schools will be less, rather than more, state money. — Manhattan Mercury
Bad press — Being in the national spotlight can be great for a community when the focus is on good news. Repealing a domestic-battery ordinance isn't good news. The day Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor announced he would resume prosecution of domestic batteries, he had interview requests from the BBC News, Reuters, the New York Times, MSNBC, Fox, CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC. It was an ugly day for Topeka, one precipitated by elected officials who must work to ensure it isn't repeated. — Topeka Capital-Journal
Kline — Preventing Phill Kline from practicing law in Kansas would be the appropriate penalty for repeated violations of legal rules during his shrill and unfair attack on the state's abortion laws. The Kansas Supreme Court should uphold the indefinite suspension of Kline's license, as recommended by a Kansas disciplinary panel. Kline's harassment of women seeking legal abortions in Kansas — and medical personnel who provided those abortions — was completely out of bounds. It was an alarming display of zealotry, something he should have been ashamed of as the chief law enforcement officer for the state and, later, Johnson County. — Kansas City Star
NCLB — The No Child Left Behind law has been a source of frustration for years in Kansas, even as the state has shown progress on that front. So it was encouraging to hear news of Kansas State Department of Education plans to apply to the U.S. Department of Education for waiver of requirements of the federal NCLB law. Kansas and other states need a growth model that's ambitious, yet with achievable goals — one that would reward schools for improvement on students' state assessment tests, rather than penalize them for not reaching increasingly lofty goals for adequate yearly progress in reading and math. — Garden City Telegram
