what's the matter with kansas?

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Brownback has plunged the state into economic crisis, and the people keep electing him. They deserve what they get IMO.

Nurseangela, if I may address this one point?

To people of my generation and older, handing out iPads does indeed seem extravagant. As did handing out of bound books, at one point in our history. We home-school one child via a district charter campus a few towns north & the other goes to the local public school. In both cases a few years back, supplying iPads/Chromebooks came up and the discussions went on for some time. We parents and the administrations worked the numbers and it's far cheaper than dead-tree textbooks, even taking into account lost, worn out or broken hardware & software maintenance. Even more so when Apple or Google wants to dump inventory of half-year-old models (they get the write-off, schools get current hardware super cheap). Paper textbook prices really have become that outrageous. It had reached the point where some districts were simply making due with outdated books until the teachers could no longer compensate with supplementary material ("read chapter 4, but ignore any mentions of XYZ and instead read the xeroxed pages I handed out"). Electronic media can be updated instantly to the latest version of an e-textbook. Also, the tablets and notebooks used are locked down, meaning they are *not* game and facebook/instagram machines. They are learning tools.

As an added advantage, by supplying tablets or mini-laptops all students get a chance to become familiar with using the technology that will be needed to do anything from taking fast food orders to typing up resumes & filling out online applications to finding those jobs in the first place. Typewriters and newspaper employment ads are long dead. In our capitalistic society, is this not a fair part of the purpose of an education?



Having been born and mostly raised in California, it always seems odd to me when people speak of places like St. Louis, Kansas or Oklahoma as "Old West". I mean, I understand the westward expansion and all that, but my childhood was soaked in the Old West meaning things like a Mexican or Spanish California, some parts of Nevada & Arizona...all which was driven by Gold and Silver, bored/out of work Conquistadors, and the final set of homestead grants. And Bonanza, of course.

I can imagine what some of WP's righties would say about the wobblies.

Brownback is a terrible governor. I thought for sure he would lose in 2012. People in Kansas tend to vote Republican no matter what though, even if the candidate is terrible.

Nurseangela, if I may address this one point?

To people of my generation and older, handing out iPads does indeed seem extravagant. As did handing out of bound books, at one point in our history. We home-school one child via a district charter campus a few towns north & the other goes to the local public school. In both cases a few years back, supplying iPads/Chromebooks came up and the discussions went on for some time. We parents and the administrations worked the numbers and it's far cheaper than dead-tree textbooks, even taking into account lost, worn out or broken hardware & software maintenance. Even more so when Apple or Google wants to dump inventory of half-year-old models (they get the write-off, schools get current hardware super cheap). Paper textbook prices really have become that outrageous. It had reached the point where some districts were simply making due with outdated books until the teachers could no longer compensate with supplementary material ("read chapter 4, but ignore any mentions of XYZ and instead read the xeroxed pages I handed out"). Electronic media can be updated instantly to the latest version of an e-textbook. Also, the tablets and notebooks used are locked down, meaning they are *not* game and facebook/instagram machines. They are learning tools.

As an added advantage, by supplying tablets or mini-laptops all students get a chance to become familiar with using the technology that will be needed to do anything from taking fast food orders to typing up resumes & filling out online applications to finding those jobs in the first place. Typewriters and newspaper employment ads are long dead. In our capitalistic society, is this not a fair part of the purpose of an education?



Having been born and mostly raised in California, it always seems odd to me when people speak of places like St. Louis, Kansas or Oklahoma as "Old West". I mean, I understand the westward expansion and all that, but my childhood was soaked in the Old West meaning things like a Mexican or Spanish California, some parts of Nevada & Arizona...all which was driven by Gold and Silver, bored/out of work Conquistadors, and the final set of homestead grants. And Bonanza, of course.