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Needlessly Personifying Fetuses

[ Patrick Tuohey ]

Jason Hart writes in BigGovernment.com that Missouri's Sen. Claire McCaskill is one of a handful US Senators whose re-election is a toss-up and whose voting record is rated 100%  by Planned Parenthood Action Center. (As an aside, the graph on that page is funny—every Republican in the Missouri delegation is rated 0% and every Democrat 100%.)

What caught my eye was the following item in Hart's piece:

All five [Senators] voted against SCHIP language which, in Planned Parenthood’s words, “unnecessarily personified the fetus.” March 14, 2008, Allard Amendment to S. Con. Res. 70, Roll Call vote 81

Meanwhile, back here in the Show-Me State, we learn that clay bottles containing human fetuses were found in a Hannibal, Missouri home. The bottles likely date back to the 1950s when a clinic occupied the premises. The piece ends with the following:

Marion County Coroner Darrell McCoy and the Hannibal Police Department worked with the Missouri State Coroner's Association to decide what to do with the fetuses.

“The James O'Donnell Funeral Home has donated a casket and a burial plot to give the remains a proper burial,” McCoy said. “The police indicated to me that they wouldn't pursue it any further.”

A casket for a 'proper burial?' Doesn't biological waste such as human tissue need to be incinerated? Why are the county coroner and police department unnecessarily personifying fetuses?

2/2/2012 1:54:58 PM

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It's the Schools, Stupid

[ Patrick Tuohey ]

On Monday, the committee room in which testimony was being given on a few education bills, including Sen. Jane Cunningham's SB 706 was filled to capacity. As a result, the adjoining chamber was opened to overflow.

Among those testifying was Yak Nak, an eighth grade student from Holy Cross Catholic school in Kansas City. He testified that when he family fled civil war in Sudan and came to Kansas City, they felt that the quality of education was not up to their standards. And so this Episcopalian family enrolled their children in Catholic schools at considerable personal expense.

Jean Ferrara, the principal of Holy Cross, testified that the students that come to them from the public schools may have impressive grade point averages on their transcripts, but the reality is that they cannot read at their grade level—if at all.

An Army recruiter from St. Louis testified that the public schools there are not graduating children capable of passing the ASVAB test. In her testimony she spoke of one public school valedictorian student who scored a 4 on her ASVAB. A score of 31 is necessary to qualify for Army service.

Kansas City's public schools have been failing for years. Many opponents to reform offer up the same excuses and promises they have for years. KCMSD interim superintendent Steve Green said the district just needs two or three years to turn things around. However, the most flagrant affront to credulity came from Andrea Flinders, president of the Kansas City Federation of Teachers and School-Related Personnel. According to a piece in the Kansas City Star, she said

none of the proposals being considered would do anything to address the problems that plague families that attend its schools, most of which stem from poverty.

If lawmakers want to improve urban schools, they must address community needs, she said.

“Our community is failing our kids,” Flinders said.

It's not clear if Flinders was referring to her community of teachers and school-related personnel. We'd accept that. But if she meant the community that exists outside the doors of the KCMSD, she is wrong. In the testimony referenced above, Holy Cross principal Ferrara said,

Remarkably, the students who leave us after being in our school from Kindergarten to the 8th grade compete and succeed very well in our parochial, college preparatory high schools and 98% of those who graduate from Catholic high schools attend college.

Students who are with us for at least six of their early educational years leave Holy Cross at least a year above the grade level while many test more than two years above grade level.

The members of the community who are able to remove their children from the horror that is the Kansas City public school system benefit tremendously. The problem is not the 'community' at large, but the school district and administration.

2/2/2012 11:28:57 AM

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Some Poll Numbers from Missouri

[ Patrick Tuohey ]

A Public Policy Polling survey of Missourians shows that Republican Senate candidate John Brunner's support has grown:

In the Missouri Senate primary, John Brunner has seriously upped his name recognition and made it a real contest since PPP last polled the race last September. He has tripled his support from 6% to 18%, while Sarah Steelman is down from 40% to 32% and Todd Akin from 29% to 23%.

StlActivistHub referenced Steelman's explanation in their post on the poll. Steelman said in the January 30 debate, in which Brunner was not present,

Oh, well, I say it’s due to his TV ads and the fact that he’s basically trying to buy this election; the 30-second ads.  Or he’d be here tonight participating in a debate where he could actually get questions from the audience and share his views of what the country’s problems are.

Brunner's $1M bought 12% between September and now, if you accept that reasoning.  Another $3 million and he'll have this nomination wrapped up!

Unfortunately, the PPP poll does not provide any breakdown by region. As we've written previously, statewide numbers aren't much help unless we know how candidates are performing in Springfield—the most conservative part of the state. Steelman has performed well there in the past and is likely to do so again, Brunner and Akin are both from the St. Louis area.

To stress the importance of Springfield even further, we learn today that presidential candidate Rick Santorum's allies are running TV ads in Springfield. In the other part of that PPP poll, Santorum is shown to be running ahead of Romney.

In Missouri, held a week from today, Santorum has a 63-21 favorability spread to Gingrich’s 52-32, Romney’s 46-36, and Paul’s 28-57. On the actual primary ballot, for which Gingrich did not qualify, Santorum leads with 45% to Romney’s 34% and Paul’s 13%.

Note that, as they did in 2008, Missouri's Republican establishment has lined up behind Romney. In 2008, Romney lost the caucuses in neighboring Iowa to Huckabee, and then lost the Missouri primary to McCain and Huckabee. This time around, Romney lost the Iowa caucus to Santorum and is polling behind Santorum in Missouri. It's fair to wonder what benefit it is to Romney to have the Missouri GOP in his corner.

2/1/2012 3:52:25 PM

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Tax Credits are Not State Funding

[ Patrick Tuohey ]

The Kansas City and St. Louis public school systems are a mess. And reform proposals can be complicated, but some of the media reporting on current efforts regarding tax credits are just wrong.

Joe Robertson of the Kansas City Star writes in today's paper:

Attempts at carving out public funds to support private schools have repeatedly failed in the legislature in recent years, but [Diocesan School Superintendent] Peters believes heightened concern around Kansas City Public Schools has started a “groundswell” that may give the measure momentum.

KMBC News reports:

The superintendent of Kansas City's Catholic school system wants state law changed to permit some state funding for private schools.

Both of these assertions are flatly wrong. The Diocese is not seeking state funding. The measure before Missouri legislators is not a vouchers program. No less than the Supreme Court ruled last year that a tax credit program in Arizona is constitutional because,

tax credits and governmental expenditures do not both implicate individual taxpayers in sectarian activities. A dissenter whose tax dollars are “extracted and spent” knows that he has in some small measure been made to contribute to an establishment in violation of conscience…. [By contrast,] awarding some citizens a tax credit allows other citizens to retain control over their own funds in accordance with their own consciences.       [emphasis added]

A tax credit is not the government's money, and credits used for education do not amount to state funding.

Proponents of private schooling are wary of accepting public funds because they fear the onerous regulations that come attached. But tax credits will not yield this result.

Opponents of reform will demagogue any issue as a 'voucher' and wring their hands about a separation of church and state. Meanwhile, thousands of children are stuck in schools that everyone admits are an absolute disservice.

While opponents can be expected to confuse the issue at every turn, news outlets such as KMBC and the Star should know better.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Dave Helling at The Kansas City Star responds to our post here.]

2/1/2012 10:31:39 AM

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Gubernatorial Ad War Begins

[ Patrick Tuohey ]

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence has begun running a TV ad focusing on jobs.  The ad castigates "career politicians" for not knowing what to do and ends with "creating jobs is what I do."

It's no surprise that the ad would focus on jobs; Nixon, too, is touting his record on job creation. However, recent reports are that Missouri is one of just three states actually losing jobs. Added to the Mamtek scandal, one wonders if either candidate has a jobs plan that doesn't depend on tax breaks and willful ignorance about who receives them.

1/31/2012 9:27:58 AM

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