Comey News Coma? Kansas Story Offers Hope for National Unity

A remarkable development in Kansas offers hope for bipartisan respect and cooperation. Kansas elected Gov. Sam Brownback twice on his pledge to severely government and cut taxes. He promised that the decline of the public sector would spur growth of Kansas’ economy. His promises failed. Kansas has posted six straight years of growth below the national average.

Worse, his ideas led to massive cuts for public schools. Democrats were furious; but over the years, so were many Republicans. 

This week the Republican-controlled legislature overrode Brownback’s veto of a bill that would undo some of his tax cuts and raise $1.2 billion over two years.

This is a stunning revolt by moderate Republicans, who have decided to work for now with Democrats.

What’s notable here?

For one, Brownback’s budget is cut from the same cloth as Trump’s first budget. Both proposed deep cuts to public schools and public health.

There’s more. In the 1950s, Kansas was at the center of one of the greatest Supreme Court decisions, Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In that case, Kansas argued that racially segregated public schools were constitutional as long as they were equal—the so-called “separate but equal” doctrine that was a pillar of racial segregation.

Fast-forward to May 2017, when the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that Brownback’s budget was unconstitutional because it severely cut programs for minority students. Interestingly, it had the same effect on rural school districts that keep tiny Kansas towns alive.

The budget cuts accentuated the educational advantage of a few wealthy suburban counties near Kansas City.

The court’s unanimous decision said: “We conclude the state’s public financing system, through its structure and implementation, is not reasonably calculated to have all Kansas public education students meet or exceed the minimum constitutional standards of adequacy.”

Whatever comes of James Comey’s testimony, it won’t heal the nation and it won’t undo a disastrous budget that is before the Congress.

Here’s hoping that the little school house on the Kansas prairie will “Make America Unified Again.”