(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers May 23, 2016)
Probably because there was no immediate outroar, you got the feeling in the Statehouse that the reaction was generally good for Gov. Sam Brownback’s decision last week to sign most of the budget bill and take the state revenue shortages out of care for the state’s ill and poor.
What?
Yes, his choices were clearly to either cut funding to schools by more than $50 million in the upcoming school year or take roughly the same amount from state programs that provide health care to Kansans without insurance, without much money, and who still need medical care.
Cut spending on schools and you not only get parents of all income levels angry—and the state’s education industry more politically active in the upcoming elections in which the entire House and Senate stand for re-election—but you get the friends, neighbors and grandparents of those schoolchildren upset. And, a lot of those folks vote both in primary and general elections.