Diverse or irresponsible?

Much has been made the past few years over school finance. It is an issue that is near and dear to me. I spent kindergarten through 12th grade in Kansas public schools, graduating from Smith Center High School in 2010. I am currently a senior at Kansas State University and serve on the student senate. I am writing to express my frustration with waste in our public education system.

Recently a spending measure came up in the student senate. It was a measure to spend $150,000 taxpayer dollars on "Diversity Programming." This "Diversity Programming" is a series of controversial speakers that are far outside mainstream thought. It included $26,000 to bring rapper Mos Def to our university. Mos Def is a 9/11 "truther" who blames the Reagan Doctrine and the Freedom Agenda of President George W. Bush for the attacks of 9/11. Another controversial example in this appropriation is $5,500 to have a program titled "The Evolution of Drag" performed on campus.

There are more examples like this in the budget for this year. These programs are far outside the mainstream and far from what Kansans envision as good investments with their hard earned money.

There are many areas of waste in the state budget. This "Diversity Programming" is one of them. If we cannot pare back some of these expenditures, how can we deal with serious issues such as tax and pension reform? How can we ensure that our public schools and universities remain financially viable? Kansans are hard working and deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent. This is a critical issue in these hard times and deserves to be brought to the forefront.

Kyle Abbott, Smith Center, candidate for State Senate District 36