You know what’s great? Not having to pay a lot of taxes.
You know what’s even better? Have nice things like education and roads.
Unfortunately the latter cannot work without having taxes.
Kansas is currently facing this “dilemma.”
Should the State of Kansas raise taxes to fund public services? Services such as public schools, road maintenance (so that everyone, including EMTS and law enforcement, get to where they need to go in a quick and safe manner) and clean drinking water.
Or should the State of Kansas keep cutting the budgets for these programs?
In the past, Gov. Sam Brownback thinks that driving on pot-hole filled roads and raising children in sub-par schools has been the direction Kansas wants to go.
Education plays into a bigger role here at ESU because this is a teacher’s college. Most of the people attending Emporia State are going to become teachers, and while a few may leave Kansas to pursue jobs elsewhere, some may stay here in Kansas.
Students who seek a job in education don’t do it for the money, especially here in Kansas. I mean, how could they? There’s no funding.
Most of the teachers I’ve had told me they became teachers because they wanted to help children learn and encourage them to do amazing things. I hear that same thing, quite often around campus from our future teachers.
How can teachers now, and future teachers, be able to help children learn if their own state won’t give them the adequate funding for public schools?
So, how do we, as Kansans fix this? Well, we directly can’t. Even if Brownback is removed from office, he has a voice in picking who takes over his position. He would pick someone with similar interest and goals for “fixing” Kansas. This is not fair in any single way.
We can, however, kick, scream and bite to get Brownback and other Kansas officials to listen to us. Tell them to stop giving tax breaks to the rich. Tell them we are willing to let them raise taxes because cutting funding for programs isn’t fixing the budget. It’s making it worse.
Better yet, when the Kansas election comes back around, vote Brownback’s ass out of office.
Don’t re-elect him.
Pick someone who will make the future of Kansas brighter.
Pick someone who will help Kansas keep and maintain public services that every American has the right to, such as a good education, clean drinking water and maintained roads.