Opinion
Lawrence Journal-World l LJWorld.com l Tuesday, June 28, 2016
EDITORIALS
Positive outcome It’s only a short-term solution, but legislators have taken the necessary action to keep K-12 schools open.
K
ansas lawmakers deserve credit both for what they did do and what they didn’t do during last week’s special legislative session. Their key accomplishment was a school funding plan that should make sure the state’s K-12 public schools are open next fall. Of at least equal importance was the Legislature’s failure to advance a constitutional amendment aimed at limiting the powers of the state’s judiciary. After a false start, lawmakers were able to agree to a measure that will reinstate the previous school funding formula and add about $38 million to next year’s school funding package. As the special session began, legislative leaders had negotiated a plan that would raise those funds from a variety of sources including $13 million from a 0.5 percent across-the-board cut to school districts. Although leaders presented the plan as virtually a done deal, the bill ran into substantial opposition from legislators who subsequently crafted a different plan that found other sources of funding and doesn’t include any cuts to school districts. The measure will keep schools open, but it’s only a short-term solution. Legislators have promised to craft an entirely new school finance system next year, but that, of course, will depend on who is in the Legislature following elections in November. Regardless of what action is taken on a new plan, Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, predicted that continuing revenue shortfalls will force legislators to revisit the funding plan they approved last week. The new Legislature also can decide whether to revive last week’s effort to pass a constitutional amendment to prohibit both the Legislature and the Kansas Supreme Court from closing public schools as a remedy in any school finance case. Fortunately, action to place the amendment on the November ballot was narrowly defeated in the Kansas Senate. Consideration of the amendment during the special session was inappropriate. The measure would have had no impact on the current school finance situation and was introduced primarily as a slap at the state’s judicial branch. The amendment effort was led by Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, who has decided not to seek re-election. Hopefully the amendment effort also will not be back in the Legislature next year. Congratulations to legislators who were focused on funding state schools and were willing to stand up to legislative leaders who presented an unacceptable funding plan. They produced a relatively positive and efficient outcome to a session that could have been a train wreck.
OLD HOME TOWN
British populism a warning for U.S. London — How fitting. As the Brits cast a stunning vote to quit the European Union, Donald Trump was opening a luxury golf course in Scotland and crowing that Britain did “a great thing.” This historic victory for the British Brexiteers is part of a nationalist trend that is gripping Europe and has spread across the Atlantic. The leader of the “Leave” campaign, the blond, mop-haired Boris Johnson, is a bombastic Trump clone who defied his Conservative Party’s leader, Prime Minister David Cameron. Johnson will probably succeed Cameron, who announced his upcoming resignation Friday. Talking to Leave voters on the Tube, in restaurants and on the street, I heard them regurgitate populist promises made by Johnson, and by his
Trudy Rubin
“
trubin@phillynews.com
Many of these promises are unachievable. By Friday, Farage was already backpedaling on one key pledge — that Brexit would bring a huge cash infusion for Britain’s national health service.”
unofficial backup, the inflammatory Nigel Farage, head of the U.K. Independence Party. Many of these promises are unachievable or based on specious data. By Friday, Farage was already backpedaling on one key pledge — that Brexit would bring a huge cash infusion for Britain’s national health service. But, never mind. “We will get our country back,” pledged the demagogic Farage. “We will get our independence back.” He hopes his party will vastly expand on its sole seat in Parliament, buoyed by many white working-class voters who defected from the Labour Party to vote Leave. (From Scotland, Trump echoed Farage and Johnson: “Come November, the American people will have the chance to redeclare their independence.”) Of course, the differences between Britain and its onetime American colony are
legion. But Americans who worry about the direction of U.S. politics should focus on what caused the political earthquake in Britain and why populists are on such a roll. Public disaffection from mainstream political parties, and from the European Union bureaucracy in Brussels, has been growing for years. Longtime unemployment in former industrial areas created bitterness in the Labour Party’s former heartland, while Cameron’s embrace of austerity further alienated many voters. Both mainstream parties — Labour and Conservative — have lost popular trust and left openings for those who attack the establishment. The Leave campaign produced two convenient targets to blame for economic pain: immigrants and the bureaucracy in Brussels. As a bleached-blonde woman dispatcher complained to me outside the gritty Newbury Park Tube station, echoing the Leave pitch: “People from other countries get priority. We should take care of our own.” Make no mistake, there is an immigration problem in Britain, as social services become overburdened. And the EU bureaucracy in Brussels has failed badly in handling the euro and refugee crises. But leaving Europe offers no silver bullet on either account, and it will do the economy more harm than good. Take immigration. Britain has admitted almost no Syrian refugees, and, unlike other EU members, never gave up border controls. Half its immigrants enter legally
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From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for June 28, 1916: “Although there is plenty of work going on at the bridge, it does years not draw quite such a gallery of ago spectators as it did in the early IN 1916 stages. Workmen are now busy on both of the spans that have been erected, the principal job being to put in place the reinforced concrete cross beams that are to support the roadway and sidewalk. … Paving has been begun between the rails that have been laid for the interurban line on Massachusetts street between Sixth and Seventh.” — Compiled by Sarah St. John
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from other European nations. Cameron had already imposed tighter controls on their entry. If Britain now wants to negotiate a separate trade deal with the European Common Market, as it must, Brussels will no doubt demand it keep its doors open to European migrants. As for most of the remaining inflow, a large portion come from British Commonwealth countries such as India. Quitting the EU will do nothing to stop them. Yet nearly every Leave voter I met believed that Brexit would effectively wall off Britain from foreigners and would somehow permit the country to renew its historic standing in the world. Once again, Britannia will rule the waves. Instead, the vote has plunged Britain into uncertain economic terrain. It will lower Britain’s international standing, not raise it. In a globalized world, operating solo provides less clout. It may turn Great Britain into Little England, as Scotland — which wants to stay in the EU — is already pledging to hold another independence referendum. And it will alienate the best of British youth by opening a glaring age gap. Seventyfive percent of voters age 18 to 25 cast ballots for Remain. I spoke with scores of young Brits the night before the vote, at an open house at Space Studios, an artists’ cooperative in Hackney. All said they were voting to stay because they want the right to travel, study, and work freely in EU member states, and they appreciate the collaborative grants for the arts
and scientific research that the EU provides. Most disturbing, the Brexit vote may precipitate the EU’s breakup — to the benefit of populist political parties throughout the continent. The French far right is already calling for a Frexit vote, and other euroskeptic parties on both right and left will follow. Johnson and Trump think this would be fine (and so would Vladimir Putin, who wants to see Europe splinter). Their slogans are, respectively, “Britain first” and “America first.” But for all its flaws, the EU has stood for something much more important than Brussels’ often petty rules. Germany’s Angela Merkel, who lived under communism, gets it. After the results were in, she said, “The idea of European unity is the idea of European peace … after centuries of terrible bloodshed (and this) is not to be taken for granted. In Europe we still feel the effect of wars.” The failure of both of Britain’s mainstream parties to grasp the voters’ mood has left the field to populists who promise voters they will “take back control” from enemies abroad. When — in a globalized world — those promises turn to ashes, we will see whom the populists blame. America’s mainstream parties are suffering from the same ills as Britain’s, but there is still time for U.S. voters to take notice. As tempting as populist promises may be, they will likely mean little once the votes are in. — Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
PUBLIC FORUM
Trump questions To the editor: Donald Trump keeps bellowing, “We have to take our country back.” From whom or what? What horrible and disgusting entity is the country threatened with, according to the loud-mouthed TV/media non-sensation? Yeah, there is unemployment. There are those who are uneducated for the modern world, unmotivated, cannot get up in time to get to work and more. They are unemployable. There will NEVER be 100 percent employment. There are political issues that we have much disagreement on and will never be resolved in the news media’s constant drumbeat in their efforts to sell soap, diapers and automobiles. But there are an overwhelming number of good businesses providing jobs for the interested and qualified. Although you hear constant negative blather about Wall Street and the stock market, the financial situation continues to carry on. Oh, yeah, there are potholes in the road to financial affairs, but in the long run our financial system has worked miracles in our economy. What is the rub here? No system that works runs completely smoothly. It is simply the way of things, and nothing is ever perfect. So what is the anointed one of the Republicans talking about? But Trump
is not known for reasonable and sane commentary. I guess we just have to wait it out until November and hope that the American electorate has more sense than to select this media-created anomaly. Fred R. Whitehead Jr., Lawrence
Majority voices To the editor: I often read Lawrence city commissioners quoted saying “that’s not what the people who elected me want” — and it is usually something that they oppose. Things like growth, support for development, expanding retail and the East Ninth Street arts project. I think that it’s important to point out that the biggest vote getter last year garnered only 6,131 votes, about 13.8 percent of registered voters in Lawrence. Once elected, their job should be to represent all the citizens of Lawrence, not just those who voted for them. In an apparent attempt by the commission to do just that, the Ninth Street project was subject to a most extensive process to get input from a large constituency. Many public meetings were held, adjustments made and several commissions recommended moving forward. Indeed it was the most pondered project in recent memory. Despite that and the number of people who spoke publicly in support of
the project, our City Commission continues to ponder on about the project. I wonder if some commissioners are trying to figure out how to appease the less than 15 percent of registered voters who voted for them, rather than hearing the voices of the majority. So the lesson for me is this: We get the commission we deserve if we opt not to vote. Al Horning, Lawrence
Festival success To the editor: As the chair of the Lawrence Arts Center, I am so proud of the entire staff who have worked on top of their full-time jobs to create the Free State Festival, a communitywide event. There was something for everyone — more than 70 art talks, lectures and idea panels, concerts and exhibitions. Support from the City of Lawrence make the free events possible. Nowhere else in the Midwest can we have one week filled with experiences that enhance our creativity and understanding of others, and take us back to reminisce the times in our youth. Thank you to Sarah Bishop, director of the festival, and all of the Lawrence Arts Center staff for an incredible week in Lawrence. Joan Golden, Lawrence