Letters on suppressing professors, cigarette tax, state budget cuts, Brownback’s losing strategy, growing Kansas, abortion, immigration

Don’t suppress real expertise in state

The following letter was submitted by Tom Zoellner, a professor at Chapman University in California, and signed by 70 professors from Cornell University, Emory University, University of Arizona, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Texas at Austin, Princeton University, Northwestern University, Rutgers University and Fordham University:

The Kansas House is considering House Bill 2234, which would prohibit professors at public universities from using their job titles when writing newspaper opinion pieces that discuss elected officials (Feb. 6 Now Consider This).

The Legislature seems to want to suppress the real expertise grown in its own state. The core purpose of a university is to spread knowledge and add value to a society. Nobody is served when free expression is muzzled and a government shows contempt for opinions backed up by science and research – to say nothing of this bill’s disregard for First Amendment rights. Such moves seem more the hallmark of repressive regimes than the United States. In fact, this letter to the editor would be illegal if this bill passes.

Though politicians may not like it, they sometimes deserve public scrutiny and might even benefit from it.

We urge the Kansas House to reject this vindictive bill and make a stand for the American values of free speech and informed debate.

Tax cigarettes

Readers were not presented with both sides in an article on the proposed tobacco tax increase (“Tobacco smuggling would rise with tax, group says,” Feb. 10 Eagle). This is a commonsense issue: Increase the tobacco tax and people will quit smoking or never start in the first place. Research proves it.

If the proposed tax increase is adopted, youth tobacco use will decline by an estimated 20 percent. That proves monumental, considering there are 61,000 youths in Kansas who will die prematurely because of smoking, given existing smoking rates.

Our youths deserve better than to be targeted by tobacco companies with low prices and youthful marketing. Every year, nearly 3,000 kids become smokers and 4,400 adults die because of their tobacco addiction. Raising the tobacco tax will save lives, prevent kids from smoking and reduce tobacco-related health care costs ($237 million in Medicaid alone per year for Kansas taxpayers).

Let’s focus on what’s important – our kids and the benefits of not smoking. Kansans for a Healthy Future, at k4hf.org, is a tobacco prevention coalition that is right on point. Check it out.

Dire consequences

It appears to me we are selling our children’s education down the river to fill the pockets of the business class and a handful – a small handful – of wealthy donors.

Nearly daily in The Eagle I read about the Legislature taking more and more money out of the education funds, the highway fund and the retirement funds to pay for this mistake our governor has led us into.

The Republicans who got us into this mess say: “What can we do? We have to balance the budget.” They ignore how we got into this fix: the tax cuts.

We all hope they know better, but for some reason they don’t seem to. To make it worse, if it can be made worse, the shot of adrenaline we were promised is as far away as the moon, near as I can tell. We did this for nothing at all. What benefit has our state reaped from the reckless tax cuts?

I suspect many are gnashing their teeth over this, but we are eating our seed corn with no concern about what the consequences are going to be. We can’t decimate the state budget without dire consequences.

Losing strategy

Wichita State University men’s basketball coach Gregg Marshall has established a winning program by treating his players with respect, using positive reinforcement principles, having an awareness about the complicated nature of the game, and especially by giving well-deserved encouragement to continue improving.

Gov. Sam Brownback could learn from this approach in dealing with public school educators. His management style is entirely inconsistent with his public demands for greater performance by the schools.

Brownback’s recent decisions to reduce funding for public schools have been interpreted, especially by classroom teachers, as punishment, not respect; negative reinforcement instead of encouragement; a lack of awareness about the complex nature of teaching and administering; nonchalance about increasing class sizes and reducing necessary supplies; and an abject failure to recognize the value of fair compensation (some teachers have not enjoyed a raise for more than four years).

The governor is demonstrating a losing strategy with our schools. His messages lack a vital quality that our public school educators long to hear, that of encouragement. Kansas educators are discouraged, their students must sense this, and we all stand to lose something precious.

Growing Kansas

In the past, students could ace algebra if they were adept at the rules of variable manipulation. Today, computation websites can solve any equation, and the workforce is calling for agile minds, which not only know how to calculate but also know how to formulate real-world problems mathematically.

For educators, midyear funding cuts are looming. These cuts are necessitated by a state budget shortfall.

I know some business owners who don’t pay income tax because they are supposedly growing the Kansas economy by providing jobs. These business owners say: “Not taxing me doesn’t make sense. I’m making good money.” I ask our politicians: Will these tax breaks really attract small businesses to Kansas?

I grew up in Ohio, but I’ve lived in Kansas for almost 10 years now. I dearly love this wind-tossed habitat and its bright winter skies, but Kansas is an acquired taste. The business owners I know are connected to our prairie soil by the roots and aren’t motivated by tax breaks.

However, we may lose our own children – I have three – if we let our public education system crumble through steady underfunding. To truly grow Kansas, we must invest in our children.

Respect for life

The writer of “Abortion bill not about medicine” (Feb. 6 Letters to the Editor) stated that the Legislature is threatening women’s reproductive rights. He never mentioned that the procedure to be banned is dismemberment. It tears the fetus apart limb by limb.

It’s not about power or control if we put a stop to dismemberment abortions. It’s not about trimesters or weeks. It’s about respect for the life of the fetus and the mother.

Politicians are wanting to right a wrong that began more than 50 years ago, and most of society wants to stop the barbaric killing of babies.

Politics of fear

The recent vote by four members of the Wichita City Council to rescind support for driving permits for undocumented immigrants made no sense and once again demonstrated that the politics of fear in Kansas trumps the best interest of the city and state every time.

Everyone knows that we are not about to deport thousands of immigrants in this state. We also know that those immigrants are playing a huge part in the economic stability and success of many of our businesses throughout the city and state.

There are thousands of people driving to the jobs that many of us refused to work because of the low wages and lack of benefits. Those four city councilmen voted to make sure that Kansas drivers who are hit by undocumented workers have no way to financially recover their losses or pay for their injuries.

Before each City Council meeting there is a prayer. Most of those prayers talk about compassion, wisdom and love. The vote to rescind support for the driver’s permit demonstrated none of those prayers.

This story was originally published February 14, 2015 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Letters on suppressing professors, cigarette tax, state budget cuts, Brownback’s losing strategy, growing Kansas, abortion, immigration."