To the editor,
The Aug. 22, Great Bend Tribune column by David Dorsey is an example of how the Kansas Policy Institute functions as a false depiction political propaganda platform, working to benefit those of us with the most money.
Truth is irrelevant –In 2018, the KPI published a book explaining its support for the failed Brownback income tax cut experiment. The last chapter of the book describes the organization’s approach to its role as a professional propaganda platform. It includes statements such as: Truth is irrelevant. Restructure ... perceptions to create the position you desire. Messaging must be ... relentless. For the KPI, truth is irrelevant.
Disparaging public schools – In 2023, the KPI worked to use the state budget surplus to enact a flat income tax. This failed bill would have routed 24% of the tax relief dollars to the top 1% of earners. Public education is the largest expense in the state general fund. For the KPI, limiting public education funds is the best opportunity to create budget surpluses that can then be used for income tax cuts for the wealthy. The KPI gains political power for itself if it can diminish or erase our loyalty to our local schools.
Tax dollars to private schools – The KPI works to reduce the share of our wealth that we use for education. The tax credit and proposed school voucher programs cut tax funds from public schools and send tax funds to private schools. But they cut about twice as much from public schools as they send to private schools. That is how these programs align with the KPI’s efforts.
Restructuring our perceptions about our schools – In 2022, the Kansas Policy Institute published a book, highlighting Florida’s system of routing public tax dollars to private schools and state dictates to local public schools, as a model for what must be done in Kansas. The book noted that Florida ranked No. 3 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The NAEP only tests 4th and 8th graders. Florida has a state mandate to hold back lower scoring third graders. These lower scoring students are then of 5th-grade age when they take the 4th-grade NAEP tests and Florida gets very high 4th-grade scores. But by the time students take the 8th-grade tests, Florida students are below average. Kansas has higher 8th-grade NAEP math scores than Florida. By graduation time the Florida performance drop off is even worse. The Kansas 2023 ACT test average was 19.4 compared to 18.9 for Florida. Presenting Florida schools as superior to Kansas schools is false depiction propaganda. It is propaganda inviting us to change our perceptions and falsely believe that Kansas schools should become like Florida schools.
Restructuring our perceptions about our public servants – In the same 2022 book, the KPI states that our fellow community members, who we know and elect to serve on our local school boards, do not represent the views of the populace. It states they represent the views of resourced interest groups. The KPI is the very definition of a special interest. Yet the KPI is selling an opposite-world story: The KPI, who must only answer to the moneyed individuals that fund the KPI, is the politically good and our democratically elected community members are the politically bad. It is false, but for the KPI, truth is irrelevant. Once again, if the KPI can cause any of us to perceive that the KPI is the politically good and our schools are the politically bad, then it has caused us to believe and hold the false position that it desires.
John Sturn
Ellinwood
