Limited Edition: The Circus Returns to Town

Yesterday, a bucket load of clown cars arrived in Topeka for the start of two-day’s worth of Senate and House Judiciary Committee hearings before the legislature reconvenes in a special session next week. As per usual, there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth by the only people who don’t have to work in the summer.

As someone with a job--that isn’t provided courtesy of taxpayers--I was unable to attend the circus yesterday. I won’t be there today, either. Sad face. However, for what may be the first time, someone in Topeka decided to use the Internet for good instead of evil. Written testimony was provided!! (I can’t find it to link to it. Ugh.) Many thanks to the folks that decided to do that for we the poor schmucks who can’t take off work every five minutes to run to Topeka.

Also, many thanks to the Lawrence Journal-World for attempting to live stream the committee session. Between Twitter (where the trolls go to commune), the stream, and the written testimony, I got a pretty good feel for what occurred yesterday. Seriously, thanks for that.

Here’s what I gathered:

• Many complaints that the only people attending were on only one side of the issue. Allow me to explain this phenomenon: Regular taxpayers can’t go galavanting off to Topeka to testify and wail every 5 minutes. We have to be in our seats, behind our desks, attempting to make enough money to continue to feed our families after the public schools take their pounds of flesh. Make what you will of that. So the people demanding more money have the summer off. The rest of us: Not so much.

• Sen. Julia Lynn said what surely everyone in the room was thinking: “I’m telling you, everybody is weary of this. What I would like to do is find some type of number that would be satisfactory, and I guess nothing ever will be.”

Nailed it. The Whining Whiners Who Whine basically said as much during the committee hearing. Sen. Lynn attempted to pin down a number or a percent of the budget, and the answer was something like-- well, there are a lot of variables. It’s impossible to come up with a number. It’s impossible to come up with a number, because there’s no amount of money that will satiate them. Ever. If possible, they would take every single dime in the Kansas economy and use it to fund lavish administrator vehicles and vacation homes. (And some fancy school buildings.) Your local school may get a really nice indoor training facility to put the Kansas City Chiefs’ training facility to shame, but the teachers screaming about more money are unlikely to see more than a few nickels for their classrooms, their salaries or even their retirement funds. (The KPERS mess? They should be blaming former Gov. Sebelius, but that will never happen, because intellectual dishonesty.)

• The Internet liberals think that the opposition is just a bunch of people taking orders from the Koch brothers. I feel micro-aggressed and man-splained. I know it’s beyond the comprehension of people who worship at the altar of socialized systems, but there are a lot of people in this world who draw conclusions based on their own experiences and belief systems. The suggestion that people who think like me are taking marching orders and ideas from somewhere else is so offensive. Those people really need to check their privilege.

• It makes perfect sense that this hostage situation end with a Constitutional Amendment saying that the Kansas Supreme Court is prohibited from closing public institutions at the whim of a handful of ambulance chasers selected by secret committee. I can’t even believe all of the so-called FOR THE CHILDREN people who advocated against the amendment. This should tell everyone something--they don’t actually care if anyone gets an education. They just want you to hand over your checks. (And if they absolutely MUST spend a day or two per week in the classroom educating children, parents shouldn’t have a lick of say in what their kids are taught.)

• Can we talk about Game On for Kansas Schools? (Stupid name. Probably penned by a coven of cat ladies.) Anyway, that organizations’ testimony before the committee really clarifies something--for whom they advocate: “We advocate for Kansas public schools to ensure our teachers, principals, superintendents and school board members have the resources necessary to deliver quality education to all Kansas students.” Please note, the children are secondary. At least, that’s what I take from the statement. This isn’t about the children. It’s about the adults.

• Meanwhile, Johnson County school districts have come up with a plan that only requires an additional $12-ish million in state funding. They issued a plea that legislators fund to 81.2 percent--whatever that means--while holding all schools harmless. You know why Johnson County schools are so insistent that school districts be held harmless (don’t lose funding already established)? Because the Johnson County schools will lose millions if the state legislature simply decides to “equalize” school funding. Socialism-- it’s totally not cool if you’re successful, because it basically means everyone suffers equally. Nice work, JoCo public schools. The obvious solution to this problem was always taking money from you, because there’s no money left. And I’ll entertain no words about how we just need to fix the tax situation. The mods and Democrats had the opportunity--twice--and they rejected it.

• Gov. Brownback made a huge mistake by agreeing to negotiate with the terrorists. Even if the Kansas Legislature bent to every insane demand being made by the school lobby, conservatives will be blamed. If you’re fortunate enough to be represented by a conservative in the Kansas House and/or the Kansas Senate, your legislators need to hear from you. They’re getting no help from the Governor, and because taxpayers all have jobs, we’re unable to be there in person to advocate on behalf of fiscal sanity. In this instance, he who screams the loudest wins. Conservatives, please get off of your behinds and let your representatives know that you’re sick of being an ATM machine for people who actively work against your values and the best interests of your family.

• And I just want to say this one more time, mostly because I've seen few things that anger up the liberals more than this suggestion: Voters should FIRE members of the Kansas Supreme Court up for retention this fall.