Legislators Fixing the Economy - Laying Off Teachers?

Kansas economy is horrible. It is said to be getting better, but very, very slowly. State revenues keep going down. State funds for public schools are 50% of the State budget. I GET IT! So, the most expedient way to ‘balance’ the budget is to cut school funding? Let's think about this!

I keep hearing the ‘plan’ to give tax cuts to small businesses with the hope these small businesses will be able to employ some of the unemployed. New employees get paychecks, provide income tax, buy more things.....get those revenues up. This sounds plausible. I GET IT!!

I could argue ALL DAY about the importance of an educated populist for a strong economy in the future. And honestly, I can’t find anyone that argues this point. BUT what is said is we have a economy problem RIGHT NOW….not in the future. We have to take care of the problem we have TODAY!! OK, I GET IT!

So, how about this? School systems across Kansas have been cutting services and people during the 08-09 school in response to the school funding cuts already handed down by the Legislators. People in our schools lost their jobs! We, are once again waiting on the State Legislature to decide how to balance the 10-11 school year. The revenues are down again. What to do? What to do?

AND again it looks like schools may be on the chopping block. Schools across our State are the major and/or a significant employer in our cities and certainly in rural Kansas. If more ‘cuts’ are coming, many more people will lose their jobs. So, this sounds an awful lot like ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul.’ It is idiocy!

If the Legislators go ahead and ‘cut’ more school funding, they will increase the unemployment rate, more people drawing unemployment, more people not paying income tax, more people not being able to SPEND money. More REVENUE problems!

If we are worried about REVENUES, it seems to me our Legislators ought to try to KEEP KANSANS EMPLOYED!!!