It’s like they’re trying to find the worst possibles “solutions”.
Well, Kansas has a very outstanding record on “worst possible solutions” – they don’t want to break their losing streak.
“We’re inventing new ways, it seems, to drive people out of the teaching profession in Kansas,” Parker said.
Between this proposal and the funding cuts to education, they are truly leaders in this field.
Kansas GOP - working hard to become the most regressive state in the union.
Kansas law has allowed teachers to carry concealed guns since 2013 but school districts across the state have disallowed the practice after EMC Insurance Companies, the state’s primary school insurer, refused to provide coverage to schools with armed staff.
How is the legislature going to fix this, legislate the insurance industry?
“It is not, if our kids will be killed. It is, when will they be killed and what are we doing to prevent it?” Carpenter said.
Holy hell! So instead of preventing people from having access to weapons of mass murder and preventing them from entering the places where our precious children learn and grow up, we’re resigning ourselves to the probability that they will be gunned down there? That has got to be one of the stupidest things a politician has ever said.
So if they figure out some way to force insurance companies to insure schools with armed teachers, the companies will simply leave the state, raising rates due to lack of competition. This will be yet another self-inflicted wound if it passes. I thought things were improving in Kansas after the departure of Brownback to be religious czar for the U.S. but that was apparently unfounded optimism. The stupid is obviously wide and deep there.
Well, they did vote in Brownstain and his pack of deplorables. I kinda’ hope this goes through, the schools lose all insurance, teachers leave in droves and a good chunk of the population leaves this God-forsaken state forever. KS drops further in employment, population, tax base and big name corporations start losing all ability to hire out-of-state talent…then these firms also exit KS.
So much winning!
I wonder what Dorothy would think about this.
Let the market sort it out. Unless the market ruins our plans for a market economy paradise, then legislate it until it has no choice to do exactly what we tell it. You know some folks are surprised when I tell them NAZI Germany was a right wing government? I don’t think most people know what right wing even means.
I grew up in Kansas during the 50’sand 60’s and we had good schools at all levels, with support for education from a majority of the residents and the government. I left in the 70’s for new opportunities but it still had not gone hard right at that point. I don’t understand what happened but I think the beginning of the tailspin for the state was the widespread violent opposition to abortion. That opened the door to the extremists and it has spread like a cancer to all aspects of life there. I go there to visit my mother but once she passes, I will probably never return, except to drive across the state on the way to Colorado. It is a hard lesson for the rest of the country, if it will pay attention.
i think the best words she could hear would be your not in kansas anymore
So basically this guarantees that in the case of any kind of weapons discharge at a school there will be a multi-million-dollar uninsured payout. (I’m going with the straight financial angle and ignoring the bit about more students and teachers getting killed, more students staying home from school, fewer qualified teachers working.) How does that work? Does the state cover it out of the general fund? Does the education department? Does the local school district (in which case they’d just have to close all the schools for a year or five)?
Until they mandate concealed carry in the legislature I’m not buying it.
“We’re inventing new ways, it seems, to drive people out of the teaching profession in Kansas,” Parker said.
They act as if this is a new phenomena. The republicans have been trying to destroy public education for decades. If you have a largely uneducated, or poorly educated, electorate they are less likely to question what you are doing.
Darn right. Idiots.
This is the formula for an economic Dust Bowl. I can show you former steel-producing towns in my own county where everyone with any talent or drive left, because there were no opportunities for them there. When that happens you get economic stagnation that can last many decades. You get hopelessness and crime. Way to go, Kansans. Just brilliant. I hope the entire country gets the message before it’s too late for the rest of us.
The return of Bleeding Kansas?
Thomas Frank’s book title is relevant here: What’s the Matter with Kansas? The answer would seem to be, “What isn’t?”
the same people who think that those who make the death machines are in no way liable.
the same people who advocate violence as a solution to dissent, yet bar weapons from state buildings.
What is the matter with Kansas?