Voice For Liberty

Tag: Wichita Eagle opinion watch

  • The Cartoon The Wichita Eagle Wouldn’t Print

    Helen Cochran of Citizens for Better Education commissioned a series of political cartoons concerning the Wichita school bond issue. She’s paid to have them printed in the Wichita Eagle each Monday for the past month or so. They’re also carried on her group’s web site.

    But the Wichita Eagle refused to run this week’s cartoon. Here it is:

    I spoke with Helen and asked her a few questions about the Eagle’s refusal to print this cartoon.

    Q. What did the Wichita Eagle give as their reason for not accepting this advertisement? Who made this decision? Who communicated it to you?

    A. Citizens for Better Education has been running paid political weekly cartoons for 6 weeks now. They are wholesome and poke fun in a light-hearted way. None have been mean-spirited. I usually give a final approval by noon on Fridays for a Monday publication to my Eagle sales rep. My advertising sales person told me on Friday afternoon that this cartoon would not be approved if she sent it through. I was flabbergasted and told her to send it through. It took correspondence between four people including the editor and publisher and I was finally told no.

    Their reasoning was “letting an outside group attack one of our staff members.” They went on to say that on the one hand, this is what Richard Crowson did — in fact he ran a very mean spirited cartoon against me early on. Nevertheless, the Eagle has run our cartoons for six weeks, they have taken our money, and then at the eleventh hour says no they won’t run this one because it pokes fun at McCormick. And I had no finished back up cartoon to run in its place, so CBE lost its weekly cartoon. I was under the false impression, as an ex journalism major, that advertising and news departments operated independently of one another. Well, not so at the Wichita Eagle. They can dish it out but can’t take it.

    Q. Does the cartoon make any claims that are not factual?

    A. It is common knowledge that Mark McCormick is 100% in support of this bond as is the entire Eagle editorial board. He has written extensively in his column about it and has devoted three or four columns to it. It is disappointing that although he’s been corrected on some of the information he has used in error, despite being asked, by me, to correct it, he has failed to do so.

    Q. Your cartoon makes the case that Mark McCormick is a cheerleader for the bond issue. Do you think he weighs both sides of the bond issue, or is he in fact a cheerleader?

    A. He is a cheerleader to the “nth” degree as his support is purely emotional. And that’s fine, but he has done nothing to back up his reasons for support other than all the warm and fuzzy reactionary feelings. He has done little if any investigative reporting and that is very disappointing. He takes the Wichita school district at its word despite facts to the contrary.

  • Wichita Eagle’s Rhonda Holman on Wichita school bond issue

    The Wichita Eagle’s Rhonda Holman, in her recent editorial Business should get off fence on bond, urges voters to get educated about the proposed Wichita School bond issue. It would be helpful if she’d do the same.

    Just two small examples: First, Ms. Holman says that the reforms that I have promoted “have nothing to do with the district’s pressing facilities needs.” Here’s why she’s wrong.

    USD 259 says they want to be held accountable. They say so. But it is only choice– giving parents real choices that they’re capable of exercising — that can hold them accountable. Anything less is not effective. As illustrated by the failure of USD 259 to positively respond to citizen record requests, USD 259 is not willing to release information that will help citizens — and newspaper editorial writers too, if they’re truly interested — hold the district accountable. Even casual information requests take time to fill. For example, in support of the current bond issue, USD 259 claims that research supports arts and athletics as ingredients in the success of students. But if you ask them to provide a reference to this research so that you can read it for yourself, it might take nine days for USD 259 to supply it. That’s how long it took for them to respond to me. You might think that if the district makes a claim, they would have evidence supporting it ready.

    Then, contrary to Ms. Holman’s claims, school choice reforms can help with the district’s pressing needs. One such need is overcrowding. If charter schools opened, the students that chose to attend them would reduce overcrowding in the Wichita schools. Overcrowding is not a district-wide problem, so it’s possible that this might not be a total solution. But Rhonda Holman dismisses it entirely.

    Wichitans need to ask whether Rhonda Holman is simply misinformed, or whether she knows these things but ignores them to advance her political agenda.

  • Wichita School Bond: Is Opposing It Punishing Kids?

    In a letter to the Wichita Eagle, Angela Sader of Wichita says “Don’t punish kids.” (See Letters to the Editor, October 8, 2008)

    One criticism Ms. Sader makes of myself and another school bond issue opponent in her letter is “A primary complaint has been that the Wichita school district and state generally are not efficient in their use of financial resources. But should we sacrifice our children’s education in protest of perceived mismanagement of state and local resources?” She also says we are “throwing irresponsible accusations.”

    I notice that she doesn’t rebut the accusation that government is not efficient. Even if it is, she says, we still need to increase its funding, because it’s for the children. I think that when the welfare of children is at stake, efficiency is very important and should be demanded.

    The overcrowding that Ms. Sader describes in her letter, to the extent it is real, exists only in some parts of the district. Even then, school capacity figures supplied by the district are suspect. An elementary school is chosen as a backdrop to illustrate overcrowding. It has 576 students. What is this school’s official capacity, according to USD 259? 600.

    Then, Ms. Sader makes the “Mark McCormick Starbucks-a-month” argument: “The proposed tax increase is minimal — about one cup of coffee per day for most property owners.” The problem is this argument doesn’t capture the full spectrum of effect of this tax increase. If you take the estimated annual cost of paying for this bond issue and divide that by the number of people living in USD 259, you get about $94. This is the cost of the bond issue per year, per person living in the boundaries of USD 259. For a family of four, that’s $376 per year. This is quite a bit more than the $42.55 extra for the owner of a $100,000 house, the basis for the coffee argument.

    Focusing on the incremental cost of the bond issue also glosses over the tremendous spending the Wichita school district already undertakes.

    Finally, Ms. Sader makes the quality of the schools argument. Don’t punish the students, she says. But I don’t see how pouring more money into a government monopoly that is accountable in only small ways will increase quality of schools. There are reforms that other school districts across the country have made — reforms that in many cases are much less expensive than our present level of spending — that this school district will not consider.

  • Earmarks are (not) OK

    In a Wichita Eagle letter, writer Prem N. Bajaj of Wichita makes the case that Earmarks are OK. But only by tortured reasoning, in my opinion.

    First, he states: “Earmarks finance local projects that the community is unable to support.” I ask Mr. Bajaj this question: Where, if not from community, does money for earmarks come from? If you consider just two parties — your local community and the federal government — earmarks may seem like a great thing. Free money! Who doesn’t want that? But communities across the country lobby for and get earmarks too, and they may be represented by congressmen more skilled at obtaining earmarks than ours.

    At best, earmarks might be a wash, where each community receives earmarks equal to what it sends to Washington. But even if this were the case, why have Washington involved at all? Each community could keep its own money and spend it as it sees fit, without subjecting itself to the waste and corruption inherent in the present earmark process.

    Then he writes this: “The money comes from the taxpayers, and they are the beneficiaries.” Mr. Bajaj writes as though relying on government, rather than markets and the private sector, leads to greater wealth. In fact, the opposite is true. The incentives that government faces and responds to are not the same as the private sector, where waste and inefficiency are punished. Not to mention failing to supply what consumers really want to buy.

    A few quotes from economist Thomas Sowell seem appropriate at this time:

    “This was all before politicians gave us the idea that the things we could not afford individually we could somehow afford collectively through the magic of government.”

    “If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else’s expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves.”

    “Mystical references to ‘society’ and its programs to ‘help’ may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really means is putting more power in the hands of bureaucrats.”

    “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”

  • Should a Beat Journalist be a Layman?

    Keeping TIFs from a public tiff by Wichita Eagle business reporter Bill Wilson on the Eagle’s Business Casual blog contains some comments that are troubling to me.

    In these comments, reporter Wilson wrote this: “Instead, a TIF, to this layman, actually is a government bet on the success of a development.” (emphasis added)

    Now I believe that Mr. Wilson may be wrong in his understanding of the mechanism behind tax increment financing (TIF) districts. I certainly don’t agree with his assessment of their public policy impact when he says “TIFs are miscast as a government giveaway.”

    When our city stakes the success of its downtown development efforts on TIF districts and other economic development incentives, is it asking too much for journalists to acquaint themselves with matters like TIF districts to the point where they are no longer laymen?

    It is not complicated. These articles may be of interest: Tiff over Wichita TIFs, Wichita City Council’s Misunderstanding of Tax Increment Financing, Tax Abatements in Wichita, and Tax Increment Financing in Wichita Benefits Few.

  • Do We Know if Enrollment Numbers Support Wichita School Bond Issue?

    Writing in the Wichita Eagle Editorial Blog, Phillip Brownlee writes “Some opponents of the USD 259 bond issue have argued that the district shouldn’t need more classroom space because its enrollment has been fairly flat since the 2000 bond issue.” He then goes on to make the case for the district needing more schools and classroom space.

    The problem is that it’s difficult to understand the nature of the capacity problem — if in fact it exists — in USD 259, the Wichita public school district. Unfortunately for the citizens of Wichita, the Wichita Eagle is not always helpful. For example, a recent Eagle article highlighted overcrowding at a school (Wichita Eagle reports Wichita area schools’ enrollment increases). Enrollment is up, and adjustments had to be made at the school.

    A little investigation reveals that according to the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for USD 259, the capacity of this school is 600.

    What is the enrollment in this school that is so notable that the Wichita school superintendent used this school to hold a press conference announcing the new enrollment figures?

    576.

    Stated capacity of this school: 600.

    So what is the problem? Perhaps the school is truly overcrowded. If so, why does the information the Wichita school district publishes state the capacity is 600?

    Or, if the capacity is indeed 600, why are district officials complaining when enrollment is 576?

    This information didn’t appear in the Eagle’s news story. To me it’s another illustration of how difficult it is to deal with USD 259 and the information it generates for public consumption.

    Then, I’d ask Mr. Brownlee to familiarize himself, if he isn’t already, with some of the issues surrounding the district’s effort to reduce class sizes. These articles may be helpful: In Wichita Schools, Smaller Classes Mean Adding On — And Subtracting, A Flood of New Wichita Public School Students: The Other Story, and Focus on Class Size in Wichita Leads to Misspent Resources.

  • Wichita Eagle’s Richard Crowson: Cartoonist for the Teachers Union

    In 2006, Wichita Eagle editorial Cartoonist Richard Crowson received an award from the Kansas teachers union. He’s a “friend of education.” Really. You can read about it here: KNEA’s Friend of Education is Wichita Eagle Editorial Cartoonist Richard Crowson.

    I wonder if Crowson realizes the harm that teachers unions cause?

    I wonder if he know that teachers unions try to block every attempt at meaningful reform?

    Does he know how teachers union stifle creativity in teachers? How they block merit pay proposals, so that the best teachers are paid the same as the worst? No wonder many of the best teachers leave public schools.

    Does he know how teachers unions very effectively block most attempts to introduce school choice? (He probably knows this, as his colleagues on the editorial board are firmly against school choice, even though it is a reform that is proven to hold public schools accountable.)

    A while back the head of the NEA’s Kansas and Nebraska chapters said “The NEA has been the single biggest obstacle to education reform in this country. We know because we worked for the NEA.”

    I’ve wondered why a group of workers who want to be treated as professionals rely on an industrial-style labor union. Some have told me that teachers need to be protected from arbitrary actions by administrators. That might be a valid reason. When an organization like the Wichita school district is not held accountable by a profit and loss system, they can abuse their employees in any way they like. Firms that need to earn a profit must keep their best and most productive employees on board. The Wichita school district faces no such discipline.

  • Is Richard Crowson Cartooning For or Against the Wichita School Bond Issue?

    A recent Richard Crowson cartoon drums up support for a proposed bond issue for USD 259, the Wichita school district, by noting the cost is only 11 cents a day. And, he notes, test scores are up in many schools.

    I don’t know if this is an argument for or against the bond issue. If test scores are up — and if these scores are a valid and reliable indicator of increased student achievement — what about bond supporter’s argument that the bond is necessary for student achievement? One might say they’re doing well without a bond.

    The 11 cents a day argument, while mathematically true for the owner of a $100,000 home, is totally without context. It overlooks the higher taxes that businesses and utilities will pay, as that property is taxed at higher rates. These firms will pass on these costs to their customers as much as they can.

    It also overlooks the tremendous sums already being spent, likely to top $13,000 per student this year. And as shown in the post It’s not the $40, it’s the $1,749, the tax burden that USD 259 spending places on district residents is huge.

  • Mark McCormick’s Wichita School Bond Bias

    Writing from Scottsdale, Arizona

    Today’s Mark McCormick column in the Wichita Eagle (Opponents of school bond skip specifics) provides an example of this columnist’s bias, and how this bias leads to his rapidly losing credibility among Wichitans.

    Bias is okay for a columnist. Everyone is entitled to a point of view. After reading a few of McCormick’s columns you get used to his way of looking at the world. Then you can either read his column, filtering it as you do. Or, like many people tell me, they’ve simply stopped reading his column. Sometimes they stop the entire newspaper.

    Here’s one of the problems with this column: In allowing Wichita school board president Lynn Rogers a “big-league rebuttal,” McCormick wrote “The board members, who aren’t paid for this work, are responsible for answering the most pressing challenges.”

    This makes it sound like the bond issue has been planned and managed only by volunteers.

    This ignores, however, the huge staff at USD 259, many highly paid to advance the interests of the public school bureaucracy and monopoly, many now working on educational campaigns for the bond issue.

    This ignores the tremendous effort by Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture in promoting the bond issue. They are working for free, but this firm stands to earn millions in fees if the bond issue passes. As shown in the posts Wichita School Bond Issue Economic Fallacy and Wichita School Safe Rooms: At No Cost? this firm’s head, Joe Johnson, often says things that make me wonder in amazement.

    This ignores the efforts of many construction companies and contractors that have, at least according to their sponsorship of an event, lined up behind the bond issue, hoping to profit from the building of public works — whether they’re needed or not.

    The bond issue opponents are the true volunteers, if that makes any difference. As outsiders, we don’t have access to the type of information that Lynn Rogers and USD 259 insiders have. And, as I’ve illustrated, getting information from this district is problematic.