The Kansas State Board of Education is goin’ back to class during the summer vacation, but they’re not dealing with the 3Rs, unless “responsibility” has taken the place of ‘rithmatic. And maybe it should.
According to recent reports, the state board is being trained in open meetings issues because of some misunderstandings about issues involved in sending group e-mails.
Apparently the way a group e-mail was sent was ruled to be a “technical violation” and the board members will be trained to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Here’s an idea: How about holding regular, open discussions in open meetings and leave the group e-mails alone?
Kansans are tired of public officials who believe they are part of some exclusive club after they have been put into office at the trust of the taxpayers.
If you are considering, discussing, mulling over anything that involves your public office, either do it in public or step aside and let the taxpayers put someone in office who will be more forthcoming.
You have a choice to make, and at the next election, so will we.
Kansas voters: You need to take your responsibilities much more seriously. You need to educate yourselves and get active so that fewer and fewer of our taxpayer-funded positions are just open for anyone who wants them to walk into.
Face it, folks. We already have too many decisions being made that impact our lives and our billfolds by hired regulators whom we cannot fire.
We need to stop giving rubber stamp reelections to people we can fire.
Government in Kansas — at ALL levels — needs to be ever more open and transparent.
If some topic is NOT appropriate to discuss in an agenda session, and unless it fits one of the very few exemptions, we need elected officials who will not try to find loopholes, but who will unflinchingly discuss the issue in public.
There is already too much that is kept from those who foot the bills.
We don’t need to be in the dark any more than we already are.
— Chuck Smith