Burdett Loomis: Kansas is setting its eyes on South

I arrived in Kansas 35 years ago, happy to be offered a job at the University of Kansas but having little sense of the state that would become my home. My political science colleague, friend and ultimately co-editor of 15 books, Al Cigler, acidly alerted me to former Democratic Gov. Bob Docking’s fiscal words to live by: “Austere but adequate.”

This was scarcely heartening, but I soon learned that despite the state’s conservative orientation and ordinary Republican dominance, Kansas had a progressive heart. Between old-time populist leanings and contemporary policy commitments to education, good roads and clean government, Kansas looked like a slightly watered-down version of such progressive states as Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Government spending, while scarcely munificent, went beyond the Docking prescription. More important, there was the rough assumption that government had a role to play in the success of all Kansans. We were in this together, and we bore some real responsibility for our fellow citizens.

Kansas retains much of its historical commitment to providing good public education, and the wealth of Johnson County and other economic centers has been shared throughout the state, most notably in education and highways. But this commitment will be tested gravely over the next few years as revenues sink.

Moreover, per the statements of many right-wing members of the Legislature, there is little clear commitment to public education. Rather, their model is more likely Louisiana, where Gov. Bobby Jindal has essentially moved to privatize the admittedly bad public school system.

Kansas roads have long been among the best in the nation, much like Wisconsin. But as the highway fund becomes a bank to pay for revenue losses, the roads might well begin to look a lot more like Oklahoma’s or Alabama’s than Wisconsin’s.

Highways and schools are markers for states that emphasize the well-being of all citizens. So is health care, and here we have willfully joined the legion of Southern states that have turned their backs on those most in need of affordable care. Southern states have uniformly rejected expanding Medicaid or establishing their own health care exchanges, just like Kansas.

In addition, Kansas has joined many Southern states in opting for the privatization of Medicaid delivery, demonstrating further reluctance to use government – however large or small – to benefit the state’s residents. Rather, Kansas is headed toward resembling the small-government, low-service states of the South.

Over the past four years, Kansas has systematically moved away from the idea that government can help people. This has become a popular storyline, to be sure, but I’d urge Kansans to visit Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, and then trek south to Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. In addition, they might consider two recent studies that found Minnesota the third-best state to live and work in, while Mississippi averaged 49th.

As we head toward the second four years of the Brownback administration and a right-wing Legislature, we may well be turning away from our tradition of moving forward together as a state. We aren’t there yet, but it doesn’t take much imagination to see Kansassippi on the horizon.

This story was originally published November 28, 2014 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Burdett Loomis: Kansas is setting its eyes on South."