Letters on solar energy, teaching, government, Obamacare, bus ridership, big trucks

Don’t let Westar price out solar

As part of its latest rate case, Westar Energy has proposed forcing those with solar energy onto a rate structure with an extra $23-per-month fixed charge while lowering the value for the energy they produce (June 29 Local & State). The proposed solar rate structure is designed to make solar economically unattractive.

National studies show that grid-tied solar provides a net financial benefit to the utility and general ratepayer. But without any independent Kansas study, Westar has decided that an arbitrary and punitive solar fee is in order.

Cromwell Solar and the Alliance for Solar Choice each petitioned for a seat at the table to ensure solar installers and customers have their voices heard by the Kansas Corporation Commission in this rate case. But when Westar opposed, the KCC denied our ability to make our case (no other petitioner was denied).

With electric rates climbing dramatically, Kansans’ ability to control their bills using their own roofs is being jeopardized by an energy monopoly. The growing Kansas solar industry welcomes an independent study of the benefits and costs of rooftop solar. The KCC should get all of the facts before acting in a way that will cost jobs and prevent Kansans from controlling energy costs.

Harder to teach

For Kansas public school educators, this portends to be the “summer of their discontent” as they must ponder the impact of lawmakers’ and the governor’s recent budget decisions. Because of the possibility of even further reductions in financial support, these professionals will spend a great deal of time and thought in considering how they will assure the very best educational opportunities for students.

Few who have not taught can imagine how much more challenging the instruction of a class is assured to be when even one more student is added; class size matters. The reduction of supporting materials and supplies complicates teaching, just as the absence of key paraprofessionals will reduce effectiveness. One “special needs” student, within a class of more than 20 students, guarantees a less than optimal learning opportunity for all of the students. Extra-teacher personnel such as licensed librarians, speech clinicians, nurses and counselors contribute to classroom success, and these are likely to be in shorter supply.

Very likely the public will not hear classroom teachers and other public school educators complain about the impending increase in their personal loads. But the public should be hearing a great deal about how these educators have been insensitively burdened by the shortsighted actions of our legislators and governor.

Students are being denied the quality of instruction they richly deserve.

Teaching skills

Employers who met recently with Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson told him that students need to learn life skills such as punctuality, work ethic and problem solving in addition to academic studies (June 19 Eagle).

As an educator and a parent, I found this statement offensive and shortsighted. Education innately teaches these skills.

Punctuality is expected by being to school on time, attending every day and completing assignments. Work ethic is taught and modeled in a variety of experiences from co-operative learning strategies, completion of tasks and the requirement of assignments being completed in a timely manner. Problem-solving strategies are naturally taught as a part of math and science. Additionally, they are part of peer interactions and classroom expectations. As in life, there are natural consequences for failing to complete these tasks.

I would be interested to know what else these employers would like classroom teachers to do to accomplish their expectations.

Not a charity

“Dishonored Jesus” (June 17 Letters to the Editor) and “Moral wrong” (June 23 Letters to the Editor) need a correction about Jesus. A government is not a charitable organization. The government takes money from the people and dispenses it to whom it may. That is not charity. It may be socialism, but it is not charity. Unfortunately, most politicians have ulterior motives when they spend the public treasury.

Jesus never said to any government, “Take care of my people.” He never instructed Herod or Pilate to feed the poor or give alms. The Jews were warned what government would require once they had a king, and it was not good. Looking to government is to be a serf to government and not a follower of Jesus.

Jesus told his disciples (not the world) to tithe, give alms, care for the widows and orphans, and love. The people are to take care of the people. The 501(c)(3) and other organizations should be taking care of the people. Don’t think the government is dishonoring Jesus, for it is doing what Jesus said it would do.

GOP insanity

It seems obvious that Republicans (instead of addressing real problems) will continue their futile attempts to dismantle Obamacare – the classic definition of insanity.

Neither President Obama nor future President Hillary Clinton would sign such a bill, and Republicans will never have the votes to override a veto. Maybe I’d listen to them if they had a serious workable alternative – they don’t. Oh, wait. They just came up with their biblical alternative: Pray you don’t get sick.

Drop in riders

Wichita bus ridership averaged about 151,800 during each of the first four months of this year (June 21 Eagle). That’s less than one-tenth of what it was in 1951.

I remember when city bus transportation truly was mass transportation, when it seemed as if most everyone rode the bus. Businessmen would commute to downtown by bus, and ladies out for a shopping trip would dress up to ride the bus downtown. (Of course, in the 1940s and early 1950s, the overwhelming majority of Wichita professional offices and retail shopping was downtown.)

Between the high ridership rate, downtown being the desired destination for most bus passengers, and Wichita being so much more compact than it is today, those circumstances made for an efficient transportation system.

But Wichita bus ridership peaked in 1951. An Eagle article on Oct. 10, 1954, reported that bus ridership at the end of 1951 was 1.5 million riders per month. By July 1954, that number had fallen to less than 911,000 riders per month. Operating revenues then were running from 37 to 41 cents per mile, with reported costs of operation at 40 cents per mile.

When I see city buses mostly empty now, and with the geographic size of Wichita exponentially larger than it was when bus ridership was at its peak, I do wonder about the possible efficiencies, and demand for, any city bus transportation system for Wichita.

Bullies on wheels

Wichita is the new home for bullies on wheels. The large vehicles that try to dominate the roads belong on farm fields where the owner has genuine need and private space to park.

Instead, these vehicles, when on the road, obstruct vision, harass others by tailgating anyone who does not let them speed past, and pull across the white lines at intersections at a stoplight, making left turns unsafe for the rest of us.

When parked on two-lane residential streets, they make the passage uncertain, intersections blind and driveways partly inaccessible.

We don’t as much need bike lanes to crowd out narrow streets as we need truck lanes to send vehicles larger than a sedan to major transit routes and away from two-lane residential streets with inadequate private parking.

In College Hill, large trucks with business addresses are parked on streets all the time, and often on curved roads and roundabouts. Neighborhood vehicles are sometimes parked across lawns and often too close to curbs. The city has a policy for residential parking: Search “Wichita” and “Top 10 Residential Parking Violations.”

This story was originally published July 4, 2015 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Letters on solar energy, teaching, government, Obamacare, bus ridership, big trucks."