Kansas in question

In a week in which Kansas gazed into its future at a Wichita symposium inspired by 150 years of statehood, optimism and imagination were tempered by the present.

Cargill axed 50 jobs in Wichita. In two rounds of cuts, the Coleman Co. laid off between 80 and 90 employees. The KGB call center is closing, tallying 156 job losses since October. Hawker Beechcraft is slowing development of its Hawker 200 program. Most worrisome of all, Boeing is studying the future of its Wichita operations, including the possibility of closing the Wichita plant.

Meanwhile, Eagle articles contained the sobering news that the percentage of Sedgwick County residents in poverty grew as median household income sank 7.1 percent from 2008 to 2010; the number of students in the Wichita school district who are eligible for free- and reduced-price lunches has risen since 2008 from 69.1 to 75.1 percent; and the numbers of uninsured Kansas children swelled between 2008 and 2010, to 8.2 percent, tying the state for last place in the nation in getting kids insured during that period.

Consequently, charities are seeing spikes in need — underscoring the community’s need to step up and be generous this holiday season and beyond, and the need for local and state leaders to focus their efforts on adding jobs and improving the economy.

Among the good questions raised at the Kansas in Question Beyond 150 symposium, co-sponsored by Wichita State University, the Kansas Health Foundation, the Kansas Leadership Center and The Eagle, came from Wichita native James Chung, president of New York-based strategy and research firm Reach Advisors: “Are we an oasis of stability, or are we looking at significant stagnation?”

Gov. Sam Brownback clearly doesn’t want stagnation, seeing in his to-be-announced reform of tax policy some changes to help Kansas stop “bleeding taxpayers” to other states. Asked during his meeting with The Eagle editorial board about why he considers tax reform the means to population growth, given that people leave Kansas for lots of reasons, Brownback said: “I don’t know anything else we control” as we do tax rates.

What about school funding, from early childhood through higher education? Or infrastructure spending? Or quality of life including arts funding, which Brownback axed? Kansas must be aggressive and creative about not only retaining and attracting residents but also persuading its talented youths to make careers and lives here.

As Chung told symposium-goers, Kansas also should take advantage of demographic trends, including the state’s burgeoning Hispanic population. Panelists at the Wichita Aero Club’s annual summit last week noted the ongoing challenge of ensuring that as long-time employees retire from the aviation plants, the area is replenished with highly trained and skilled workers. And strong, visionary leadership will be needed to broaden and update the Wichita-area economy, and position the community to build 21st-century companies as well as it builds airplanes.

It can be hard to see the future of Wichita and Kansas through the fog of this economy. But it’s out there, waiting to be defined and conquered.

For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman