Kansas lawmakers want to eliminate a program intended to
help the poor save money for college. Our present day Republican lawmakers,
elected last year, have shown nothing but the deepest contempt for our states
poor people and public education in general.
According to The
Wichita Eagle, The program on the chopping block benefits nearly
1,000 Kansans who receive up to a $600 yearly match from the state for
contributions they make to the state’s 529 college savings plan — a way to
shelter college savings accounts from taxes.
Some social service groups, including the United Way of
Greater Kansas City and United Community Services of Johnson County, spoke
against doing away with the program last week.
Yet the Republican lawmakers are more concerned about their
budget cuts than how it will affect people who need a college education to get
a reasonable job here in Kansas.
The Wichita Eagle
quoted some Republicans trying to excuse their inexcusable actions;
“The goal of the
program is, obviously, to encourage saving. That is a good goal,” said Rep.
Craig McPherson, an Overland Park Republican on the budget committee. “Whether
or not the program is effectively accomplishing that goal, or if it’s the
proper role of government, is still something I’m considering.”
“The real question is:
Is it a core function of government?” asked Rep. Pete Degree, a Mulvane
Republican and chairman of the House General Government Budget Committee.
And the core function of government, according to these
Republicans, is to serve the needs of our corporate masters and keep poor
people poorly educated so they can be easily manipulated. It isn’t much
different from the bigots of the old South (US) who didn’t want their ex-black
slaves to be educated. “Don’t need no uppity niggas.”
The kind of bigotry being perpetrated against the poor in
the US and Kansas today is little different than bigotry against African
Americans both today and in the past. In fact many of these poor people are
black which makes this bigotry a double edged sword, attacking to kinds of
minorities at once.
-សតិវអតុ
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