Letters on privatizing school custodians, abortion
District should resist pressure to privatize
Some lobbyists and legislators are demanding that the Wichita school district privatize custodial services as a way to increase efficiency and reduce costs. I urge school board members to resist this pressure.
There is no assurance that privatization of these services will actually result in reduced costs and increased efficiency. It really depends on who is doing the math. Privatization could actually increase costs and decrease efficiency.
Privatization also can undermine the authority of the principal, and reduce the ability of the principal to efficiently and effectively manage the school. It also creates an implicit conflict between the need of the private company to make a profit, which is the purpose of a private company, and the needs of the school.
Custodians are members of the school staff and part of the social culture of the school. Many custodians have direct and significant relationships with students and staff. Administrators, staff and students rely on custodians for more than minimal services specified in a contractual agreement. These tangible benefits will be lost if custodial services are privatized.
I urge members of the school board to continue to preserve the quality and protect the integrity of our public schools by maintaining the agreement with custodial workers.
David Hansen, Wichita
Executive director, Interfaith Worker Justice of Kansas
Abortion a scourge
Surely, as a people, we have lost all of our sensibilities. Forty-three years after the unjust and unconstitutional opinion of seven men in black robes who live many miles from Kansas, we continue to treat our unborn children as so much garbage (“Fewer abortions being performed in Kansas,” April 12 Eagle).
According to the law in Kansas as I understand it, first-degree murder is the intentional and premeditated killing of a human being. The 6,974 abortions reported in Kansas in 2015 certainly meet that definition. Although that number is fewer than was reported in 2014, this innocent bloodshed remains a scourge on our state.
I would think that even the most coldhearted of Kansas citizens would believe this article should have been placed on the obituary page of The Wichita Eagle.
Bruce Garren, Wichita
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This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Letters on privatizing school custodians, abortion."