The Elusive Support for Education by Kansas Voters
Posted on August 15, 2016
I can think of only two logical reasons a person would oppose well-funded free public education (AKA “free stuff”):
a. As a rich and entitled person, you prefer to be surrounded by stupid people you can boss around.
b. As an old person who hates your own kids, you prefer to pay low taxes now and don’t give a damn about the future.
There are also lots of illogical reasons, such as:
a. You actually hold libertarian values and believe libertarian propaganda.
b. You may not understand that living in a society with a lot of smart people is a lot better for almost everyone than living in a society filled with ill-educated ignoramuses. (Hint: trying living in a countries where compulsory education for children doesn’t exist or is not enforced)
The reality of the voters’ reasoning is far worse.
Polling data strongly suggest that a majority of those who vote for candidates who are staunch opponents of public education actually SUPPORT paying sufficient taxes to fund high quality public education.
Moreover, over the long haul education tends to be one of the two or three top winning issues in Kansas. (In this respect, Kansasans are actually less conservative than “conservative” leaning voters in many other red states.)
Yet despite supporting education–and being willing to pay for it– they keep voting for candidates who hate public education and want to dismantle it.
Now that is about as ignorant and illogical as it gets.
Fortunately, there are signs that some of them are coming to their senses.