By PERRY ZURN <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-keep-kids-curious-5-questions-answered-189512">The Conversation</a>

Kids are naturally curious. But various forces in the environment
 can dampen their curiosity over time. Can anything be done to keep 
kids’ curiosity alive? For answers to this question, The Conversation 
U.S. turned to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1fr7ljcAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">Perry Zurn</a>, a philosophy professor at American University and author of three books on curiosity, including “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047036/curious-minds/">Curious Minds: The Power of Connection</a>,” which was released in September 2022.

Curiosity is a natural capacity, present in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab080">nonhuman animals</a> as well as in humans from a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12629">very young age</a>.
 Beings of all sorts seek information, explore their environments and 
innovate new ways of solving problems. Creatures big and small, from 
elephants to bees, engage in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2017.108">exploratory foraging</a> as they discover new territory and resources, while <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1620739114">monkeys</a> – and even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0414">cells and viruses</a> – innovate new behaviors.

Among human beings, most people – scholars and nonscholars alike – 
have a sense that children are especially curious. Psychologist <a href="https://psychology.williams.edu/profile/sengel/">Susan Engel</a> validates this sense in her book “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736757">The Hungry Mind</a>.”
 Engel observes children’s curiosity at work in different environments, 
from preschool nature walks and middle school science labs to asking 
questions around the dinner table. Her research confirms that children 
are bursting with curiosity, expressed in the things they touch, the way
 they talk and how they interact with others. But what happens to that 
curiosity as we age?

Some people I meet bemoan the loss of their childlike wonder, while 
others are proud to have maintained or expanded it. What might explain 
the difference?

While research clearly shows children have a high interest in <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442217331/The-Philosophical-Child">asking questions</a>,
 that interest may dull over time, particularly in school settings. One 
study found that preschoolers ask an average of 26 questions an hour at 
home, but <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/young-children-learning/oclc/11114218">less than two per hour at school</a>.
 Another study showed that fifth grade students, on average, expressed 
curiosity – via question asking, directed gazing or object manipulation –
 <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736757">less than once every two hours</a>. Why?

Many things can dampen curiosity. Internet search engines and 
smartphones that give immediate answers limit children’s ability to sit 
with their questions and stew over their <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Experience-And-Education/John-Dewey/9780684838281">problems</a>. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568743/">Parenting styles</a> that emphasize the value of questions only as a means to an end – such as correct <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed-9781501314162/">answers</a>
 – limit children’s capacity to cultivate questions for their own sake. 
Lastly, when schools train children to ask only specific kinds of 
questions in specific sorts of ways, it can limit their opportunities to
 <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262515108/insatiable-curiosity/">innovate</a> by constraining their interest and inquiry into narrow channels.

3. How good are K-12 schools at fostering curiosity?

Since teacher training focuses on conveying content and cultivating basic skills, teachers <a href="https://manifold.umn.edu/read/curiosity-studies/section/672957b4-788b-40c5-a747-f66544b641fe#conc">may not know how</a> to facilitate curiosity.

To make matters more complicated, educators are often up against <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2022/08/26/are-we-at-a-crisis-point-with-the-public-teacher-workforce-education-scholars-share-their-perspectives/">impossible odds</a>
 of growing class sizes, reduced resources and increased pressure to 
achieve generalized, measurable outcomes. As a result, many teachers 
teach “compliance” more than “curiosity,” as <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220290/between-the-world-and-me-by-ta-nehisi-coates/">Ta-Nehisi Coates</a>
 puts it, reflecting on his time as a student in Baltimore schools. In 
his experience, it was more important for students to behave and learn 
the assigned material than for them to explore their interests and go 
out on a limb. This is especially harmful for students whose creative 
intelligence is already less likely to be encouraged, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.0.0120">students of color</a> and students with <a href="https://manifold.umn.edu/read/curiosity-studies/section/09913fb6-4df2-4607-9192-cf745c919426#ch08/">learning differences</a>, including autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or dyslexia.

As astrophysicist and Black feminist author <a href="https://ceps.unh.edu/person/chanda-prescod-weinstein">Chanda Prescod-Weinstein</a> emphasizes in her recent book, “<a href="https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/chanda-prescod-weinstein/the-disordered-cosmos/9781541724709/">The Disordered Cosmos</a>,”
 not everyone is encouraged to reach for – or understand – the stars. 
She sees Black women as being especially discouraged from their academic
 and scientific aspirations.

4. How can parents protect their children’s curiosity?

Paying attention to each child’s own style of curiosity, and 
instilling in them a sense of pride in that style, will do much to equip
 kids to maintain curiosity. While children are naturally curious, they 
may express and pursue their curiosity in different ways. Research 
indicates there are multiple <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/curious/201801/what-are-the-five-dimensions-curiosity">dimensions</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/sep/04/busybody-hunter-dancer-curiosity-curious-minds-bassett-zurn">styles</a> of curiosity.

One <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-00985-7">study I was involved in</a>, for example, led by communications scientist <a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/people/faculty/david-lydon-staley-phd">David Lydon-Staley</a>,
 showed that people who browse Wikipedia have a tendency either to be 
busybodies – clicking on radically different pages; or hunters – 
clicking on closely connected pages. Does your child like to know 
everything about a few things? Or a few things about everything?

For the ancient Greeks, these two styles were best characterized by <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/08/739502013/the-fox-and-the-hedgehog-a-story-of-triumphs-and-tragedy">the hedgehog and the fox</a>.
 According to Archilochus, the hedgehog “knows one thing,” but the fox 
“knows many things.” Following that instinct, in my book “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047036/">Curious Minds</a>,” written with neuroscientist <a href="https://directory.seas.upenn.edu/danielle-s-bassett/">Dani S. Bassett</a>,
 we analyze 18 different creatures, from animals to insects, and 
characterize their unique curiosity styles. Perhaps your child is more 
like an octopus, with inquisitive arms stretched out in every direction,
 or an inchworm, slow and steady.

If people are to have the curiosity and creative imagination 
necessary to address pressing problems the world over, we will have to 
rethink what happens in the college classroom, and what happens <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/beyond-education">beyond it</a>.

Fellow philosopher of curiosity Lani Watson argues that however much 
colleges and universities tout a central commitment to curiosity, they 
continue to rely primarily on “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-5277-6">answers-oriented education</a>.”
 Over and over again, the written exam, the multiple choice test or the 
position paper are the gold standard by which students demonstrate that 
they have learned and what they have learned.

Asking better, more insightful and more creative questions is rarely 
prized in educational settings except as a means to other ends – higher 
grades, more published papers, more discoveries or innovations. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025115622777">rising</a> social pressures to work longer hours on classes, jobs and internships, and a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/the-liberal-arts-may-not-survive-the-21st-century/577876/">declining</a>
 investment in a liberal arts education, make questioning itself an 
endangered art. Few students have the time or encouragement to get 
curious for curiosity’s sake.

Perry Zurn is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at American University.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663613887084.jpg" alt="Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By PERRY ZURN <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-keep-kids-curious-5-questions-answered-189512">The Conversation</a>Kids are naturally curious. But various forces in the environment
 can dampen their curiosity over time. Can anything be done to keep 
kids’ curiosity alive? For answers to this question, The Conversation 
U.S. turned to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1fr7ljcAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">Perry Zurn</a>, a philosophy professor at American University and author of three books on curiosity, including “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047036/curious-minds/">Curious Minds: The Power of Connection</a>,” which was released in September 2022.<h2>1. Is curiosity abundant at birth?</h2>Curiosity is a natural capacity, present in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab080">nonhuman animals</a> as well as in humans from a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12629">very young age</a>.
 Beings of all sorts seek information, explore their environments and 
innovate new ways of solving problems. Creatures big and small, from 
elephants to bees, engage in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2017.108">exploratory foraging</a> as they discover new territory and resources, while <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1620739114">monkeys</a> – and even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0414">cells and viruses</a> – innovate new behaviors.Among human beings, most people – scholars and nonscholars alike – 
have a sense that children are especially curious. Psychologist <a href="https://psychology.williams.edu/profile/sengel/">Susan Engel</a> validates this sense in her book “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736757">The Hungry Mind</a>.”
 Engel observes children’s curiosity at work in different environments, 
from preschool nature walks and middle school science labs to asking 
questions around the dinner table. Her research confirms that children 
are bursting with curiosity, expressed in the things they touch, the way
 they talk and how they interact with others. But what happens to that 
curiosity as we age?Some people I meet bemoan the loss of their childlike wonder, while 
others are proud to have maintained or expanded it. What might explain 
the difference?<h2>2. What kills kids’ curiosity?</h2>While research clearly shows children have a high interest in <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442217331/The-Philosophical-Child">asking questions</a>,
 that interest may dull over time, particularly in school settings. One 
study found that preschoolers ask an average of 26 questions an hour at 
home, but <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/young-children-learning/oclc/11114218">less than two per hour at school</a>.
 Another study showed that fifth grade students, on average, expressed 
curiosity – via question asking, directed gazing or object manipulation –
 <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736757">less than once every two hours</a>. Why? Many things can dampen curiosity. Internet search engines and 
smartphones that give immediate answers limit children’s ability to sit 
with their questions and stew over their <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Experience-And-Education/John-Dewey/9780684838281">problems</a>. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568743/">Parenting styles</a> that emphasize the value of questions only as a means to an end – such as correct <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed-9781501314162/">answers</a>
 – limit children’s capacity to cultivate questions for their own sake. 
Lastly, when schools train children to ask only specific kinds of 
questions in specific sorts of ways, it can limit their opportunities to
 <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262515108/insatiable-curiosity/">innovate</a> by constraining their interest and inquiry into narrow channels.<h2>3. How good are K-12 schools at fostering curiosity?</h2>Since teacher training focuses on conveying content and cultivating basic skills, teachers <a href="https://manifold.umn.edu/read/curiosity-studies/section/672957b4-788b-40c5-a747-f66544b641fe#conc">may not know how</a> to facilitate curiosity.To make matters more complicated, educators are often up against <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2022/08/26/are-we-at-a-crisis-point-with-the-public-teacher-workforce-education-scholars-share-their-perspectives/">impossible odds</a>
 of growing class sizes, reduced resources and increased pressure to 
achieve generalized, measurable outcomes. As a result, many teachers 
teach “compliance” more than “curiosity,” as <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220290/between-the-world-and-me-by-ta-nehisi-coates/">Ta-Nehisi Coates</a>
 puts it, reflecting on his time as a student in Baltimore schools. In 
his experience, it was more important for students to behave and learn 
the assigned material than for them to explore their interests and go 
out on a limb. This is especially harmful for students whose creative 
intelligence is already less likely to be encouraged, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.0.0120">students of color</a> and students with <a href="https://manifold.umn.edu/read/curiosity-studies/section/09913fb6-4df2-4607-9192-cf745c919426#ch08/">learning differences</a>, including autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or dyslexia.As astrophysicist and Black feminist author <a href="https://ceps.unh.edu/person/chanda-prescod-weinstein">Chanda Prescod-Weinstein</a> emphasizes in her recent book, “<a href="https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/chanda-prescod-weinstein/the-disordered-cosmos/9781541724709/">The Disordered Cosmos</a>,”
 not everyone is encouraged to reach for – or understand – the stars. 
She sees Black women as being especially discouraged from their academic
 and scientific aspirations. <h2>4. How can parents protect their children’s curiosity?</h2>Paying attention to each child’s own style of curiosity, and 
instilling in them a sense of pride in that style, will do much to equip
 kids to maintain curiosity. While children are naturally curious, they 
may express and pursue their curiosity in different ways. Research 
indicates there are multiple <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/curious/201801/what-are-the-five-dimensions-curiosity">dimensions</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/sep/04/busybody-hunter-dancer-curiosity-curious-minds-bassett-zurn">styles</a> of curiosity.One <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-00985-7">study I was involved in</a>, for example, led by communications scientist <a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/people/faculty/david-lydon-staley-phd">David Lydon-Staley</a>,
 showed that people who browse Wikipedia have a tendency either to be 
busybodies – clicking on radically different pages; or hunters – 
clicking on closely connected pages. Does your child like to know 
everything about a few things? Or a few things about everything?For the ancient Greeks, these two styles were best characterized by <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/08/739502013/the-fox-and-the-hedgehog-a-story-of-triumphs-and-tragedy">the hedgehog and the fox</a>.
 According to Archilochus, the hedgehog “knows one thing,” but the fox 
“knows many things.” Following that instinct, in my book “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047036/">Curious Minds</a>,” written with neuroscientist <a href="https://directory.seas.upenn.edu/danielle-s-bassett/">Dani S. Bassett</a>,
 we analyze 18 different creatures, from animals to insects, and 
characterize their unique curiosity styles. Perhaps your child is more 
like an octopus, with inquisitive arms stretched out in every direction,
 or an inchworm, slow and steady. <h2>5. What role can colleges play?</h2>If people are to have the curiosity and creative imagination 
necessary to address pressing problems the world over, we will have to 
rethink what happens in the college classroom, and what happens <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/beyond-education">beyond it</a>. Fellow philosopher of curiosity Lani Watson argues that however much 
colleges and universities tout a central commitment to curiosity, they 
continue to rely primarily on “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-5277-6">answers-oriented education</a>.”
 Over and over again, the written exam, the multiple choice test or the 
position paper are the gold standard by which students demonstrate that 
they have learned and what they have learned.Asking better, more insightful and more creative questions is rarely 
prized in educational settings except as a means to other ends – higher 
grades, more published papers, more discoveries or innovations. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025115622777">rising</a> social pressures to work longer hours on classes, jobs and internships, and a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/the-liberal-arts-may-not-survive-the-21st-century/577876/">declining</a>
 investment in a liberal arts education, make questioning itself an 
endangered art. Few students have the time or encouragement to get 
curious for curiosity’s sake.Perry Zurn is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at American University.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189512/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1"></iframe></div>

ANALYSIS: How to keep kids curious. Five questions answered

I love the&nbsp;Kansas&nbsp;State Fair and&nbsp;I&nbsp;enjoy&nbsp;talking to people about&nbsp;trapping,&nbsp;so I&nbsp;spend some time each year at the Kansas&nbsp;Fur Harvesters booth&nbsp;at the&nbsp;Kansas State Fair.That booth is an excellent way to educate people about the importance of trapping here in the U.S.&nbsp;

As people stop by the booth, one of the things we point out is that&nbsp;furbearers in Kansas are very prolific&nbsp;breeders and trapping is a&nbsp;perfect&nbsp;and necessary&nbsp;tool to keep their populations&nbsp;manageable. Beavers have from one to six young each&nbsp;year, and they&nbsp;do considerable damage by damming streams and ponds that flood farmland, back roads and golf courses.&nbsp;They cut off newly planted saplings with just a couple bites and kill large standing trees by completely chewing off the bark as high as they can reach.&nbsp;Beavers can be beneficial in creating wetlands and other wildlife habitat in pastures or in other out-of-the-way places, but they won’t be tolerated in farm country or in places like city parks&nbsp;or golf courses.&nbsp;Muskrats have three to five litters per year, each containing up to five kits, and even though they don’t chew trees, they can absolutely riddle dikes, stream banks and pond dams with holes for dens.&nbsp;Raccoons birth three or four young each year and their taste&nbsp;for&nbsp;eggs leads&nbsp;them to destroy large numbers of songbird, pheasant and quail nests every spring.&nbsp;Coyotes&nbsp;have six to ten pups each year and even if only three survive, that’s a three hundred percent population increase.&nbsp;

Displayed at the booth are tanned pelts representing every furbearer found in Kansas. Everyone enjoys trying to identify each pelt as they run their fingers through the soft luxurious fur. The skunk pelt is always a good conversation starter, and visitors are usually astonished&nbsp;at how soft and beautiful skunk fur really is; even more surprising to them is the fact that skunk essence is used in minute amounts in perfume as an agent to hold and carry the aroma, making it last longer (ever noticed how long skunk smell hangs around?)&nbsp;I always have a good time with a skunk hat we have at the booth each year. Letting kids try it on and getting their pictures taken&nbsp;is as much fun for me as it is&nbsp;for&nbsp;the kids and their families. Most people are also amazed at how soft and plush a possum pelt&nbsp;actually is. Its hard for them to believe something that soft can come from an animal&nbsp;as&nbsp;homely&nbsp;as a possum&nbsp;that is pretty much a four-legged vulture.&nbsp;

Numerous men who stop at the booth trapped when they were kids and they&nbsp;usually&nbsp;ask about fur prices today.&nbsp;They are often surprised to hear that most wild caught fur ends up in foreign countries where the garment trade still exists, and&nbsp;thatprices for American wild-caught fur are&nbsp;dependent&nbsp;on&nbsp;the economies of those countries and of the political climate of the world in general.

As recently as a generation ago, hunting, trapping and fishing were&nbsp;never questioned and were just a part of life. Today, because&nbsp;of&nbsp;seasons&nbsp;and harvest&nbsp;limits there are more game and fish available for harvest than ever before in the history of our country, so it makes no sense to me that hunting, trapping and fishing would be challenged now. I&nbsp;wish every anti-hunter could envision&nbsp;a world without&nbsp;regulated&nbsp;hunting, trapping and fishing, where wildlife died from starvation, rampant disease and indiscriminate shooting;&nbsp;it wouldn’t be pretty! 

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at stevenrgilliland@gmail.com.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/11/1574696211722.png" alt="Steve&nbsp;Gilliland" />
 <figcaption>Steve&nbsp;Gilliland</figcaption>
 </figure>I love the&nbsp;Kansas&nbsp;State Fair and&nbsp;I&nbsp;enjoy&nbsp;talking to people about&nbsp;trapping,&nbsp;so I&nbsp;spend some time each year at the Kansas&nbsp;Fur Harvesters booth&nbsp;at the&nbsp;Kansas State Fair.That booth is an excellent way to educate people about the importance of trapping here in the U.S.&nbsp;As people stop by the booth, one of the things we point out is that&nbsp;furbearers in Kansas are very prolific&nbsp;breeders and trapping is a&nbsp;perfect&nbsp;and necessary&nbsp;tool to keep their populations&nbsp;manageable. Beavers have from one to six young each&nbsp;year, and they&nbsp;do considerable damage by damming streams and ponds that flood farmland, back roads and golf courses.&nbsp;They cut off newly planted saplings with just a couple bites and kill large standing trees by completely chewing off the bark as high as they can reach.&nbsp;Beavers can be beneficial in creating wetlands and other wildlife habitat in pastures or in other out-of-the-way places, but they won’t be tolerated in farm country or in places like city parks&nbsp;or golf courses.&nbsp;Muskrats have three to five litters per year, each containing up to five kits, and even though they don’t chew trees, they can absolutely riddle dikes, stream banks and pond dams with holes for dens.&nbsp;Raccoons birth three or four young each year and their taste&nbsp;for&nbsp;eggs leads&nbsp;them to destroy large numbers of songbird, pheasant and quail nests every spring.&nbsp;Coyotes&nbsp;have six to ten pups each year and even if only three survive, that’s a three hundred percent population increase.&nbsp;Displayed at the booth are tanned pelts representing every furbearer found in Kansas. Everyone enjoys trying to identify each pelt as they run their fingers through the soft luxurious fur. The skunk pelt is always a good conversation starter, and visitors are usually astonished&nbsp;at how soft and beautiful skunk fur really is; even more surprising to them is the fact that skunk essence is used in minute amounts in perfume as an agent to hold and carry the aroma, making it last longer (ever noticed how long skunk smell hangs around?)&nbsp;I always have a good time with a skunk hat we have at the booth each year. Letting kids try it on and getting their pictures taken&nbsp;is as much fun for me as it is&nbsp;for&nbsp;the kids and their families. Most people are also amazed at how soft and plush a possum pelt&nbsp;actually is. Its hard for them to believe something that soft can come from an animal&nbsp;as&nbsp;homely&nbsp;as a possum&nbsp;that is pretty much a four-legged vulture.&nbsp;Numerous men who stop at the booth trapped when they were kids and they&nbsp;usually&nbsp;ask about fur prices today.&nbsp;They are often surprised to hear that most wild caught fur ends up in foreign countries where the garment trade still exists, and&nbsp;thatprices for American wild-caught fur are&nbsp;dependent&nbsp;on&nbsp;the economies of those countries and of the political climate of the world in general.As recently as a generation ago, hunting, trapping and fishing were&nbsp;never questioned and were just a part of life. Today, because&nbsp;of&nbsp;seasons&nbsp;and harvest&nbsp;limits there are more game and fish available for harvest than ever before in the history of our country, so it makes no sense to me that hunting, trapping and fishing would be challenged now. I&nbsp;wish every anti-hunter could envision&nbsp;a world without&nbsp;regulated&nbsp;hunting, trapping and fishing, where wildlife died from starvation, rampant disease and indiscriminate shooting;&nbsp;it wouldn’t be pretty! Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at stevenrgilliland@gmail.com.&nbsp;

Exploring Outdoors Kansas: Talking trapping at the fair

The Kansas State Fair kicked off with a debate between two candidates for governor. During the debate Republican Derek Schmidt was asked if Kansas is better off today than it was under former Governor Sam Brownback. Schmidt refused to answer the question.

As&nbsp;a state&nbsp;are we&nbsp;better off? Yes. And&nbsp;I think most Kansans would agree.&nbsp;

However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still&nbsp;progress&nbsp;to be made.

Statistically,&nbsp;our economy has improved over the past four and a half years since Brownback left office. But&nbsp;even as the economy has strengthened,&nbsp;much of the improvement has been concentrated in certain areas of the workforce.

Notably, Kansas has major shortages of “pink collar” occupations like teachers, nurses, and childcare workers.&nbsp;These workers have left their&nbsp;professions&nbsp;in droves after bearing too much of the burden of the state’s pandemic response.&nbsp;

Long working hours, inadequate professional support, serious staff shortages, and high COVID-19 infection and death rates among frontline workers, especially during the pandemic’s early stages, have left a mark.

But to blame the pandemic alone would be a mistake. COVID revealed the cracks in&nbsp;our&nbsp;already&nbsp;strained&nbsp;human infrastructure. A system&nbsp;that was&nbsp;built on the&nbsp;labor&nbsp;— paid and unpaid —&nbsp;of&nbsp;Kansas&nbsp;women.

“Caring professions” like nurses, teachers, and childcare workers have long been paid significantly less than&nbsp;male-dominated&nbsp;technical and managerial professions.

Workers in these&nbsp;caring&nbsp;occupations&nbsp;have been undervalued primary because&nbsp;they are&nbsp;mostlywomen. Their status as essential workers throughout the pandemic finally laid that bare for all to see.&nbsp;

But the pandemic didn’t cause the problem.

According to a recent report from United WE, in 2019,&nbsp;Kansas women were less likely to be employed and&nbsp;more likely to be&nbsp;underemployed&nbsp;or not&nbsp;part of&nbsp;the labor force at all. The statewide gender pay gap has also widened over the past five years&nbsp;and&nbsp;one-third of women workers earn less than $25,000 per year.

Data from the&nbsp;US Department of Labor&nbsp;shows that&nbsp;salaries&nbsp;in&nbsp;the top occupations for women&nbsp;are&nbsp;also&nbsp;lower in Kansas than in the&nbsp;rest of the&nbsp;country, while the top occupations for men are comparable.

According to the US Chamber of Commerce nearly one million women nationwide are still missing from the workforce, mostly due to unreliable childcare and elder care options.&nbsp;

During the debate both Kelly and Schmidt acknowledged Kansas’ serious childcare crisis — there is too large a demand for services and too few options,&nbsp;resulting&nbsp;in rising costs&nbsp;that&nbsp;price many women out of the workforce.

Over the past year there&nbsp;here has&nbsp;been some&nbsp;action at the&nbsp;state-level&nbsp;that&nbsp;compensated&nbsp;some&nbsp;of these caring professionals by giving bonuses to workers and offering&nbsp;their employers&nbsp;state funds for retention incentives.&nbsp;

But these will likely only have short term effects.

Offering a one-time bonus to a childcare worker whose average pay is $10.80 an hour is like throwing a single bucket of water on a wildfire. Better than nothing, but wholly inadequate to stop the blaze.

Worker shortages across the country have led to a historic surge in collective action, and&nbsp;Kansas has not been immune to&nbsp;this&nbsp;wave of&nbsp;labor organizing.&nbsp;But with so many women&nbsp;forced&nbsp;out of the workforce, many, especially those low-income women who&nbsp;stand to&nbsp;benefit the most, have been unable to take advantage of the activism that&nbsp;could, if successful,&nbsp;significantly raise&nbsp;wagesand&nbsp;better&nbsp;working conditions —&nbsp;union representation reduces the gender pay gap by nearly 40 percent, per the US Department of Labor.

The underappreciation of women-dominated&nbsp;occupations&nbsp;did not start with the pandemic, and it certainly won’t end with it either. One-time bonuses are not going to fix the&nbsp;systemic&nbsp;problems causing these shortages.&nbsp;

We live in a society.&nbsp;Not an economy. Even more importantly, we live in communities. And our communities&nbsp;desperately&nbsp;need caregivers&nbsp;and educators.

Kansas needs to re-invest in its human infrastructure, especially it’s women.&nbsp;

Alexandra Middlewood, PhD&nbsp;is an Assistant&nbsp;Professor of Political Science at&nbsp;Wichita State&nbsp;University.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/10/1633377761670.jpeg" alt="Alexandra Middlewood, PhD&nbsp;is an Assistant&nbsp;Professor of Political Science at&nbsp;Wichita State&nbsp;University." />
 <figcaption>Alexandra Middlewood, PhD&nbsp;is an Assistant&nbsp;Professor of Political Science at&nbsp;Wichita State&nbsp;University.</figcaption>
 </figure>The Kansas State Fair kicked off with a debate between two candidates for governor. During the debate Republican Derek Schmidt was asked if Kansas is better off today than it was under former Governor Sam Brownback. Schmidt refused to answer the question.As&nbsp;a state&nbsp;are we&nbsp;better off? Yes. And&nbsp;I think most Kansans would agree.&nbsp;However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still&nbsp;progress&nbsp;to be made.Statistically,&nbsp;our economy has improved over the past four and a half years since Brownback left office. But&nbsp;even as the economy has strengthened,&nbsp;much of the improvement has been concentrated in certain areas of the workforce.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/12/1575913663048.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Notably, Kansas has major shortages of “pink collar” occupations like teachers, nurses, and childcare workers.&nbsp;These workers have left their&nbsp;professions&nbsp;in droves after bearing too much of the burden of the state’s pandemic response.&nbsp;Long working hours, inadequate professional support, serious staff shortages, and high COVID-19 infection and death rates among frontline workers, especially during the pandemic’s early stages, have left a mark.But to blame the pandemic alone would be a mistake. COVID revealed the cracks in&nbsp;our&nbsp;already&nbsp;strained&nbsp;human infrastructure. A system&nbsp;that was&nbsp;built on the&nbsp;labor&nbsp;— paid and unpaid —&nbsp;of&nbsp;Kansas&nbsp;women.“Caring professions” like nurses, teachers, and childcare workers have long been paid significantly less than&nbsp;male-dominated&nbsp;technical and managerial professions.Workers in these&nbsp;caring&nbsp;occupations&nbsp;have been undervalued primary because&nbsp;they are&nbsp;mostlywomen. Their status as essential workers throughout the pandemic finally laid that bare for all to see.&nbsp;But the pandemic didn’t cause the problem.According to a recent report from United WE, in 2019,&nbsp;Kansas women were less likely to be employed and&nbsp;more likely to be&nbsp;underemployed&nbsp;or not&nbsp;part of&nbsp;the labor force at all. The statewide gender pay gap has also widened over the past five years&nbsp;and&nbsp;one-third of women workers earn less than $25,000 per year.Data from the&nbsp;US Department of Labor&nbsp;shows that&nbsp;salaries&nbsp;in&nbsp;the top occupations for women&nbsp;are&nbsp;also&nbsp;lower in Kansas than in the&nbsp;rest of the&nbsp;country, while the top occupations for men are comparable.According to the US Chamber of Commerce nearly one million women nationwide are still missing from the workforce, mostly due to unreliable childcare and elder care options.&nbsp;During the debate both Kelly and Schmidt acknowledged Kansas’ serious childcare crisis — there is too large a demand for services and too few options,&nbsp;resulting&nbsp;in rising costs&nbsp;that&nbsp;price many women out of the workforce.Over the past year there&nbsp;here has&nbsp;been some&nbsp;action at the&nbsp;state-level&nbsp;that&nbsp;compensated&nbsp;some&nbsp;of these caring professionals by giving bonuses to workers and offering&nbsp;their employers&nbsp;state funds for retention incentives.&nbsp;But these will likely only have short term effects.Offering a one-time bonus to a childcare worker whose average pay is $10.80 an hour is like throwing a single bucket of water on a wildfire. Better than nothing, but wholly inadequate to stop the blaze.Worker shortages across the country have led to a historic surge in collective action, and&nbsp;Kansas has not been immune to&nbsp;this&nbsp;wave of&nbsp;labor organizing.&nbsp;But with so many women&nbsp;forced&nbsp;out of the workforce, many, especially those low-income women who&nbsp;stand to&nbsp;benefit the most, have been unable to take advantage of the activism that&nbsp;could, if successful,&nbsp;significantly raise&nbsp;wagesand&nbsp;better&nbsp;working conditions —&nbsp;union representation reduces the gender pay gap by nearly 40 percent, per the US Department of Labor.The underappreciation of women-dominated&nbsp;occupations&nbsp;did not start with the pandemic, and it certainly won’t end with it either. One-time bonuses are not going to fix the&nbsp;systemic&nbsp;problems causing these shortages.&nbsp;We live in a society.&nbsp;Not an economy. Even more importantly, we live in communities. And our communities&nbsp;desperately&nbsp;need caregivers&nbsp;and educators.Kansas needs to re-invest in its human infrastructure, especially it’s women.&nbsp;Alexandra Middlewood, PhD&nbsp;is an Assistant&nbsp;Professor of Political Science at&nbsp;Wichita State&nbsp;University.

INSIGHT KANSAS: Want to solve the ‘worker shortage’? Invest in women

Who cares about Saturday night entertainment when you can spend the day at a country auction? Now that it’s cooling down, local auctioneers are&nbsp;revving&nbsp;their season&nbsp;with weekly sales&nbsp;before snow flies. Both my husband and I enjoy looking at the ads to see what what’s&nbsp;on the sale block and where.&nbsp;Fortunately&nbsp;or unfortunately, we’re at that place in our lives where we don’t need anything, but it sure is fun to&nbsp;examine&nbsp;what other folks collected during their time on earth&nbsp;and see how&nbsp;our gathering skills&nbsp;compare.&nbsp;

One of the bonuses to attending local auctions is that we’re sure to run into old&nbsp;friends.&nbsp;A number&nbsp;of us&nbsp;were part of these Saturday crowds for decades as we furnished&nbsp;houses, kitchens, and tool shops&nbsp;from scratch.&nbsp;Once we&nbsp;found&nbsp;our&nbsp;necessities,&nbsp;some of us&nbsp;got hooked on belongings&nbsp;someone else&nbsp;first&nbsp;loved. Others&nbsp;bid on&nbsp;treasures that reminded&nbsp;them&nbsp;of childhood or visits to grandparents’ homes.&nbsp;Depending on the collection, a&nbsp;great&nbsp;auction&nbsp;is&nbsp;better than visiting a museum. It’&nbsp;fascinating&nbsp;to see snippets&nbsp;from folks’ lives&nbsp;from&nbsp;decades before.&nbsp;Sometimes,&nbsp;I find&nbsp;a treasure&nbsp;I didn’t know I needed&nbsp;and my head keeps nodding yes during the bidding.

Oftentimes,&nbsp;regular&nbsp;attendees turn their&nbsp;interest and time&nbsp;into businesses where they buy furniture&nbsp;or&nbsp;equipment&nbsp;to&nbsp;re-sell. Others run booths or online businesses&nbsp;marketing&nbsp;finds&nbsp;to those who don’t have the inclination or time to spend at an all-day auction.&nbsp;A few&nbsp;turn&nbsp;their homes and yards into artistic&nbsp;showcases&nbsp;full of&nbsp;quirky&nbsp;items they&nbsp;repurpose. Nothing like a worn-&nbsp;out wheel barrow, rusty cast iron kettle,&nbsp;or cream separator to&nbsp;display&nbsp;overflowing blooms.&nbsp;Some&nbsp;win the bid on&nbsp;giant carved&nbsp;birds&nbsp;to decorate their world.&nbsp;

Who knows who&nbsp;you’ll run into at an auction,&nbsp;so&nbsp;prepare for catch-up&nbsp;gab.&nbsp;This can involve hours discovering where old colleagues&nbsp;now&nbsp;live&nbsp;or&nbsp;finding&nbsp;out what&nbsp;kids and grandkids are&nbsp;up to.&nbsp;Heaven’s,&nbsp;some early starters&nbsp;share&nbsp;stories about great grands!&nbsp;It doesn’t&nbsp;seem possible&nbsp;time&nbsp;enough&nbsp;has passed&nbsp;to create great grands&nbsp;when&nbsp;everyone&nbsp;still feels&nbsp;young on the inside.&nbsp;These conversations&nbsp;also&nbsp;remember&nbsp;those we’ve lost&nbsp;since last&nbsp;we&nbsp;visited.

For those of us who enjoy local comedy, there’s no one better to poke fun than a good auctioneer.&nbsp;From the time I first attended Stithem and Fabrizius auctions back in the '70s,&nbsp;Leon would interrupt the chatter long enough to tease someone in the crowd and then resume business without losing&nbsp;his&nbsp;concentration. This last week, we were in the community&nbsp;center&nbsp;in&nbsp;a nearby town&nbsp;and&nbsp;folks&nbsp;competitively&nbsp;bid&nbsp;high dollar on foofoorah.&nbsp;Eventually,&nbsp;boxes of religious objects, pictures, crosses, and other&nbsp;sentimental&nbsp;objects crossed the table. For whatever reason, it took&nbsp;a&nbsp;while for folks to bid,&nbsp;triggering the auctioneer to astutely remind us, “Jesus is watching.”

For&nbsp;fans of&nbsp;homemade food, auctions&nbsp;showcase local cooks.&nbsp;Area vendors&nbsp;sell homemade pies and cinnamon rolls.&nbsp;Kirwin auctions once guaranteed&nbsp;slices&nbsp;of fresh coconut cream or butterscotch pies. Auctions at the Ellis K of C Hall promise&nbsp;so many&nbsp;choices that diners&nbsp;have to hit the kitchen more than once.&nbsp;Hungry buyers can snag hot-off-the grill brauts, burgers, and dogs. Add a pickled egg or brownie to complete the meal and you’re set&nbsp;to&nbsp;bid the rest of the day.&nbsp;

Folks in big cities might attend&nbsp;concerts and professional&nbsp;entertainment&nbsp;more often than those of us&nbsp;from&nbsp;rural areas.&nbsp;That said, it’s hard to beat a good auction for a full day’s entertainment shared with friends. 

You might even&nbsp;haul&nbsp;home treasure you didn’t know you needed.

Karen is a retired teacher, writer, photographer, outdoors lover, and
 sixth-generation Kansan. After a time away, she’s glad to be home.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1662584443128.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By KAREN MADORINWho cares about Saturday night entertainment when you can spend the day at a country auction? Now that it’s cooling down, local auctioneers are&nbsp;revving&nbsp;their season&nbsp;with weekly sales&nbsp;before snow flies. Both my husband and I enjoy looking at the ads to see what what’s&nbsp;on the sale block and where.&nbsp;Fortunately&nbsp;or unfortunately, we’re at that place in our lives where we don’t need anything, but it sure is fun to&nbsp;examine&nbsp;what other folks collected during their time on earth&nbsp;and see how&nbsp;our gathering skills&nbsp;compare.&nbsp;One of the bonuses to attending local auctions is that we’re sure to run into old&nbsp;friends.&nbsp;A number&nbsp;of us&nbsp;were part of these Saturday crowds for decades as we furnished&nbsp;houses, kitchens, and tool shops&nbsp;from scratch.&nbsp;Once we&nbsp;found&nbsp;our&nbsp;necessities,&nbsp;some of us&nbsp;got hooked on belongings&nbsp;someone else&nbsp;first&nbsp;loved. Others&nbsp;bid on&nbsp;treasures that reminded&nbsp;them&nbsp;of childhood or visits to grandparents’ homes.&nbsp;Depending on the collection, a&nbsp;great&nbsp;auction&nbsp;is&nbsp;better than visiting a museum. It’&nbsp;fascinating&nbsp;to see snippets&nbsp;from folks’ lives&nbsp;from&nbsp;decades before.&nbsp;Sometimes,&nbsp;I find&nbsp;a treasure&nbsp;I didn’t know I needed&nbsp;and my head keeps nodding yes during the bidding.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658158605319.jpeg" alt="Karen Madorin" />
 <figcaption>Karen Madorin</figcaption>
 </figure>Oftentimes,&nbsp;regular&nbsp;attendees turn their&nbsp;interest and time&nbsp;into businesses where they buy furniture&nbsp;or&nbsp;equipment&nbsp;to&nbsp;re-sell. Others run booths or online businesses&nbsp;marketing&nbsp;finds&nbsp;to those who don’t have the inclination or time to spend at an all-day auction.&nbsp;A few&nbsp;turn&nbsp;their homes and yards into artistic&nbsp;showcases&nbsp;full of&nbsp;quirky&nbsp;items they&nbsp;repurpose. Nothing like a worn-&nbsp;out wheel barrow, rusty cast iron kettle,&nbsp;or cream separator to&nbsp;display&nbsp;overflowing blooms.&nbsp;Some&nbsp;win the bid on&nbsp;giant carved&nbsp;birds&nbsp;to decorate their world.&nbsp;Who knows who&nbsp;you’ll run into at an auction,&nbsp;so&nbsp;prepare for catch-up&nbsp;gab.&nbsp;This can involve hours discovering where old colleagues&nbsp;now&nbsp;live&nbsp;or&nbsp;finding&nbsp;out what&nbsp;kids and grandkids are&nbsp;up to.&nbsp;Heaven’s,&nbsp;some early starters&nbsp;share&nbsp;stories about great grands!&nbsp;It doesn’t&nbsp;seem possible&nbsp;time&nbsp;enough&nbsp;has passed&nbsp;to create great grands&nbsp;when&nbsp;everyone&nbsp;still feels&nbsp;young on the inside.&nbsp;These conversations&nbsp;also&nbsp;remember&nbsp;those we’ve lost&nbsp;since last&nbsp;we&nbsp;visited.For those of us who enjoy local comedy, there’s no one better to poke fun than a good auctioneer.&nbsp;From the time I first attended Stithem and Fabrizius auctions back in the '70s,&nbsp;Leon would interrupt the chatter long enough to tease someone in the crowd and then resume business without losing&nbsp;his&nbsp;concentration. This last week, we were in the community&nbsp;center&nbsp;in&nbsp;a nearby town&nbsp;and&nbsp;folks&nbsp;competitively&nbsp;bid&nbsp;high dollar on foofoorah.&nbsp;Eventually,&nbsp;boxes of religious objects, pictures, crosses, and other&nbsp;sentimental&nbsp;objects crossed the table. For whatever reason, it took&nbsp;a&nbsp;while for folks to bid,&nbsp;triggering the auctioneer to astutely remind us, “Jesus is watching.”For&nbsp;fans of&nbsp;homemade food, auctions&nbsp;showcase local cooks.&nbsp;Area vendors&nbsp;sell homemade pies and cinnamon rolls.&nbsp;Kirwin auctions once guaranteed&nbsp;slices&nbsp;of fresh coconut cream or butterscotch pies. Auctions at the Ellis K of C Hall promise&nbsp;so many&nbsp;choices that diners&nbsp;have to hit the kitchen more than once.&nbsp;Hungry buyers can snag hot-off-the grill brauts, burgers, and dogs. Add a pickled egg or brownie to complete the meal and you’re set&nbsp;to&nbsp;bid the rest of the day.&nbsp;Folks in big cities might attend&nbsp;concerts and professional&nbsp;entertainment&nbsp;more often than those of us&nbsp;from&nbsp;rural areas.&nbsp;That said, it’s hard to beat a good auction for a full day’s entertainment shared with friends. You might even&nbsp;haul&nbsp;home treasure you didn’t know you needed.Karen is a retired teacher, writer, photographer, outdoors lover, and
 sixth-generation Kansan. After a time away, she’s glad to be home.

MADORIN: Saturday auction fun

By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development&nbsp;

Today let’s go to the center of the country to visit an innovative family which has centered its business on high quality, locally produced fresh food, including their own specialty pork.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Last week we met Kaden and Emily Roush, the owners of R Family Farms near Lebanon — the geographic center of the contiguous United States. The Roushes operate a niche hog production system involving Berkshire pigs. What is the history of Berkshire hogs?&nbsp;

According to legend, 300 years ago Oliver Cromwell’s army was encamped in winter quarters at Reading, the county seat of the shire of Berks in England. They discovered the hogs there to be larger than any swine of the time and to produce ham and bacon of remarkable quality. That was the beginning of the Berkshire breed.&nbsp;

For years, the royal family kept a large herd of Berkshires at Windsor Castle due to the excellent carcass quality of the hogs. In 1823, the first Berkshires were imported to the U.S. In 1875 the American Berkshire Association was created, becoming the first swine registry to be established in the world.&nbsp;

In modern times, Kaden took note of the carcass quality of these hogs. For example, in a summary of tests conducted over a 20-year span at the National Barrow Show in Austin, Minnesota, Berkshire pigs scored highest of all major American pure breeds in sensory quality.&nbsp;

R Family Farms began raising Berkshire hogs. The business now specializes in private label production and direct online marketing of their Berkshire pork. R Family Farms is a member of the From the Land of Kansas program of the Kansas Department of Agriculture.&nbsp;

During the pandemic, the Roushes were handling more than 1,000 orders per year out of their garage. They were looking for a retail outlet when something happened in their hometown.&nbsp;

A grocery store had been operated in Lebanon for many, many years. In the 1970s, it was purchased by the LaDow family and operated as LaDow’s Market for decades.&nbsp;

As the LaDows were getting older, some people wondered what would happen to the store when the LaDows retired. Then the husband passed away. It appeared the store would close.&nbsp;

“We wanted to keep a store in our community and we were looking for a retail storefront,” Kaden Roush said. In February 2022, they purchased the store, which continues to operate as LaDow’s Market.&nbsp;

With help from K-State’s Rural Grocery Initiative, R Family Farms applied for a grant from the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. The HFFI was authorized by the 2014 farm bill. Its’ mission is to improve access to healthy foods in underserved areas, create and preserve quality jobs and revitalize low income communities.&nbsp;

The program is administered by the Reinvestment Fund on behalf of USDA Rural Development. HFFI provides capacity building and financial resources to eligible healthy food retail projects in underserved areas.&nbsp;

In June 2022, USDA announced the current HFFI grants, including three in Kansas. All three of these received help in developing grant proposals from the Rural Grocery Initiative. The grants went to the Groundwork Northeast Revitalization Group, a neighborhood coalition in Kansas City, Kansas; the Marmaton Market (as we have previously profiled) and R Family Farms.&nbsp;

The R Family Farms grant will help support the overall construction and costs of rehabilitating the LaDow’s Market historic building into a retail space, adding both refrigerated and dry warehousing capacity. This will accommodate R Family Farms’ growing local meat business as well as creating a permanent aggregation location for other food producers.&nbsp;

As the LaDow’s Market logo states: “The freshest groceries come from the Center.”&nbsp;

For more information on the store, search for LaDow’s Market.on Facebook. For more information on the rural grocery initiative, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ruralgrocery.org/">www.ruralgrocery.org</a>.&nbsp;

It’s time to leave this center of creative pork marketing in the center of the contiguous United States. We commend Kaden and Emily Roush of R Family Farms and LaDow’s Market for making a difference with innovative pork production.&nbsp;

Their commitment to quality for their customers is front and center.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663163404589.png" alt="Courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development&nbsp;Today let’s go to the center of the country to visit an innovative family which has centered its business on high quality, locally produced fresh food, including their own specialty pork.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Last week we met Kaden and Emily Roush, the owners of R Family Farms near Lebanon — the geographic center of the contiguous United States. The Roushes operate a niche hog production system involving Berkshire pigs. What is the history of Berkshire hogs?&nbsp;According to legend, 300 years ago Oliver Cromwell’s army was encamped in winter quarters at Reading, the county seat of the shire of Berks in England. They discovered the hogs there to be larger than any swine of the time and to produce ham and bacon of remarkable quality. That was the beginning of the Berkshire breed.&nbsp;For years, the royal family kept a large herd of Berkshires at Windsor Castle due to the excellent carcass quality of the hogs. In 1823, the first Berkshires were imported to the U.S. In 1875 the American Berkshire Association was created, becoming the first swine registry to be established in the world.&nbsp;In modern times, Kaden took note of the carcass quality of these hogs. For example, in a summary of tests conducted over a 20-year span at the National Barrow Show in Austin, Minnesota, Berkshire pigs scored highest of all major American pure breeds in sensory quality.&nbsp;R Family Farms began raising Berkshire hogs. The business now specializes in private label production and direct online marketing of their Berkshire pork. R Family Farms is a member of the From the Land of Kansas program of the Kansas Department of Agriculture.&nbsp;During the pandemic, the Roushes were handling more than 1,000 orders per year out of their garage. They were looking for a retail outlet when something happened in their hometown.&nbsp;A grocery store had been operated in Lebanon for many, many years. In the 1970s, it was purchased by the LaDow family and operated as LaDow’s Market for decades.&nbsp;As the LaDows were getting older, some people wondered what would happen to the store when the LaDows retired. Then the husband passed away. It appeared the store would close.&nbsp;“We wanted to keep a store in our community and we were looking for a retail storefront,” Kaden Roush said. In February 2022, they purchased the store, which continues to operate as LaDow’s Market.&nbsp;With help from K-State’s Rural Grocery Initiative, R Family Farms applied for a grant from the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. The HFFI was authorized by the 2014 farm bill. Its’ mission is to improve access to healthy foods in underserved areas, create and preserve quality jobs and revitalize low income communities.&nbsp;The program is administered by the Reinvestment Fund on behalf of USDA Rural Development. HFFI provides capacity building and financial resources to eligible healthy food retail projects in underserved areas.&nbsp;In June 2022, USDA announced the current HFFI grants, including three in Kansas. All three of these received help in developing grant proposals from the Rural Grocery Initiative. The grants went to the Groundwork Northeast Revitalization Group, a neighborhood coalition in Kansas City, Kansas; the Marmaton Market (as we have previously profiled) and R Family Farms.&nbsp;The R Family Farms grant will help support the overall construction and costs of rehabilitating the LaDow’s Market historic building into a retail space, adding both refrigerated and dry warehousing capacity. This will accommodate R Family Farms’ growing local meat business as well as creating a permanent aggregation location for other food producers.&nbsp;As the LaDow’s Market logo states: “The freshest groceries come from the Center.”&nbsp;For more information on the store, search for LaDow’s Market.on Facebook. For more information on the rural grocery initiative, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ruralgrocery.org/">www.ruralgrocery.org</a>.&nbsp;It’s time to leave this center of creative pork marketing in the center of the contiguous United States. We commend Kaden and Emily Roush of R Family Farms and LaDow’s Market for making a difference with innovative pork production.&nbsp;Their commitment to quality for their customers is front and center.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Now That’s Rural: Kaden & Emily Roush, LaDow’s Market 

I&nbsp;recently&nbsp;read a posting by Meredith Houston&nbsp;Carr&nbsp;entitled living a “round up” kind of life. In her article,&nbsp;she relayed a story about checking&nbsp;out of a store when the cashier asked her if she would like to round up her total in support of a children’s charity. As she went about her day, she wondered: “where else in my life can I do&nbsp;round up – giving just a little more?”&nbsp;

Since reading her&nbsp;piece, I have been thinking&nbsp;about&nbsp;how I can be a little more intentional in “rounding up” my life. I&nbsp;realize it is the simple stuff: greeting everyone enthusiastically all day long, pausing before meetings to check how my colleagues are doing, embracing the gift of “hallway or sidewalk time” to connect with people rather than rush off to the next meeting, sending just one more email or note that focuses on gratitude and affirmation, and even inviting someone to cut in front of me in line or take that great parking spot&nbsp;I had my eye on.&nbsp;Simple, intentional&nbsp;moments, “round up” moments of generosity,&nbsp;make a difference.

These&nbsp;“round up”&nbsp;moments are also what defines&nbsp;our community of care. A community&nbsp;in whichmy wonderful colleagues “round up” every day.&nbsp;As I reminisced about so many heart-warming stories of care, memories flooded my thoughts.&nbsp;Here are just a few.

Before class,&nbsp;Dr. David Fitzhugh asks his students every Monday morning&nbsp;about&nbsp;their weekend&nbsp;and listens&nbsp;purposefully.&nbsp;These moments&nbsp;of belonging&nbsp;and connection&nbsp;matter.

Ken&nbsp;Windholz,&nbsp;one of the kindest, affirming persons&nbsp;I know, sends&nbsp;emails to acknowledge the works&nbsp;of&nbsp;others.&nbsp;I have been&nbsp;a&nbsp;recipient of his kindness,&nbsp;and it made my day better&nbsp;and brighter.

Dr. Emily Weber&nbsp;arrives early&nbsp;for&nbsp;each class to stand at the door to greet every student by their first name.&nbsp;A student shared with me that two years later,&nbsp;after having&nbsp;just one course with&nbsp;Dr. Weber,&nbsp;they bumped into one another.&nbsp;Dr. Weber remembered her name and asked her how she was doing. Remarkable.

I have asked&nbsp;Vice President for Student Affairs,&nbsp;Joey Linn,&nbsp;to “adopt” struggling students, checking in with them constantly to ensure they&nbsp;have the support they need to&nbsp;graduate. He does,they succeed,&nbsp;and then I get to shake their hands as they walk across the commencement stage.This is the intentionality that drives our mission.

I loved how&nbsp;our&nbsp;chemistry&nbsp;faculty&nbsp;wrapped their support around&nbsp;Mallory Fischer – a non-traditional student about to achieve her dream of walking across the commencement stage to receive her diploma when she ruptured her ACL with&nbsp;additional&nbsp;complications. Doubting that she would physically be able to make it to commencement, her professors insisted she&nbsp;participate in graduation&nbsp;and&nbsp;“rounded up”&nbsp;their love and support.&nbsp;Mallory did cross the commencement stage as&nbsp;chemistry’s&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Balthazor, a commencement&nbsp;marshal, pushed Mallory’s wheelchair&nbsp;– making a longtime dream come true.

The unforgettable redemption story of&nbsp;Tuan&nbsp;Huyn&nbsp;will always remind me of our&nbsp;purpose&nbsp;in action. A&nbsp;naturally gifted artist,&nbsp;Tuan’s&nbsp;early&nbsp;life&nbsp;was&nbsp;marked by&nbsp;deep&nbsp;pain and bad choices.&nbsp;Tuan’s future&nbsp;was turned around by the kindness&nbsp;of many, beginning with Chris Hauck, who befriended Tuan through his church’s prison ministry. Chris connected&nbsp;Tuan with professor&nbsp;Chaiwat&nbsp;Thumsujarit.&nbsp;Chaiwat&nbsp;became&nbsp;Tuan’s&nbsp;mentor.&nbsp;Tuan, overcoming herculean barriers,&nbsp;not only graduated from FHSU but also enjoyed a remarkable career with&nbsp;the&nbsp;Leo Burnett advertising agency. Later he created a non-profit organization, Chicago Peace, to revitalizeneighborhoods by building bridges between stakeholders through partnerships, education, the arts, compassion, and entrepreneurship.

The “round-up” intersection between Curtis Pitts and the Nichol family&nbsp;is&nbsp;another example of Tiger Nation’s powerful relationships.&nbsp;Curtis&nbsp;came to FHSU in 1980 to play football. In 1982 he left FHSU for an internship and did not return. Life continued to happen – including the loss of his parents. Prior&nbsp;to their deaths,&nbsp;he had promised he would&nbsp;complete his&nbsp;college education. Long story short,&nbsp;Curtis was able to complete all of his classes except for&nbsp;one&nbsp;in which he continued to struggle. So,&nbsp;last&nbsp;summer,&nbsp;FHSU staff connected him with a KAMS student living in the same area. That student’s entire family “rounded up” their love and support&nbsp;and,&nbsp;together,&nbsp;tutored Curtis. Curtis is now a proud alumnus of FHSU.&nbsp;I smile every time I think of Curtis saying: “The Nichols embraced me like family and always made sure I had snacks and a cold drink in a glass engraved with Fort Hays State University's logo on it. I couldn’t have completed this class for graduation without&nbsp;their&nbsp;help!”

Small acts of kindness,&nbsp;such as donating&nbsp;professional clothing&nbsp;to Tailored for Tigers,&nbsp;a closet brimming with&nbsp;complimentary&nbsp;professional&nbsp;attire for interviews, business presentations, career fairs, and other professional activities, have&nbsp;been a game changer for our students. We were&nbsp;even able to help a student&nbsp;who lost nearly everything when the family home caught fire.&nbsp;

I am so grateful for&nbsp;our community’s&nbsp;focus on&nbsp;caring for one another authentically and generously. I appreciate&nbsp;this&nbsp;simple&nbsp;reminder that in my life, with just&nbsp;a&nbsp;bit&nbsp;more focus,&nbsp;I&nbsp;cancontinue to&nbsp;round up – giving just a little more&nbsp;to those around me.

As noted author and professor Leo&nbsp;Buscaglia&nbsp;shared, “too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word... all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/12/1575301942236.jpeg" alt="Dr. Tisa Mason, FHSU president" />
 <figcaption>Dr. Tisa Mason, FHSU president</figcaption>
 </figure>I&nbsp;recently&nbsp;read a posting by Meredith Houston&nbsp;Carr&nbsp;entitled living a “round up” kind of life. In her article,&nbsp;she relayed a story about checking&nbsp;out of a store when the cashier asked her if she would like to round up her total in support of a children’s charity. As she went about her day, she wondered: “where else in my life can I do&nbsp;round up – giving just a little more?”&nbsp;Since reading her&nbsp;piece, I have been thinking&nbsp;about&nbsp;how I can be a little more intentional in “rounding up” my life. I&nbsp;realize it is the simple stuff: greeting everyone enthusiastically all day long, pausing before meetings to check how my colleagues are doing, embracing the gift of “hallway or sidewalk time” to connect with people rather than rush off to the next meeting, sending just one more email or note that focuses on gratitude and affirmation, and even inviting someone to cut in front of me in line or take that great parking spot&nbsp;I had my eye on.&nbsp;Simple, intentional&nbsp;moments, “round up” moments of generosity,&nbsp;make a difference.These&nbsp;“round up”&nbsp;moments are also what defines&nbsp;our community of care. A community&nbsp;in whichmy wonderful colleagues “round up” every day.&nbsp;As I reminisced about so many heart-warming stories of care, memories flooded my thoughts.&nbsp;Here are just a few.Before class,&nbsp;Dr. David Fitzhugh asks his students every Monday morning&nbsp;about&nbsp;their weekend&nbsp;and listens&nbsp;purposefully.&nbsp;These moments&nbsp;of belonging&nbsp;and connection&nbsp;matter.Ken&nbsp;Windholz,&nbsp;one of the kindest, affirming persons&nbsp;I know, sends&nbsp;emails to acknowledge the works&nbsp;of&nbsp;others.&nbsp;I have been&nbsp;a&nbsp;recipient of his kindness,&nbsp;and it made my day better&nbsp;and brighter.Dr. Emily Weber&nbsp;arrives early&nbsp;for&nbsp;each class to stand at the door to greet every student by their first name.&nbsp;A student shared with me that two years later,&nbsp;after having&nbsp;just one course with&nbsp;Dr. Weber,&nbsp;they bumped into one another.&nbsp;Dr. Weber remembered her name and asked her how she was doing. Remarkable.I have asked&nbsp;Vice President for Student Affairs,&nbsp;Joey Linn,&nbsp;to “adopt” struggling students, checking in with them constantly to ensure they&nbsp;have the support they need to&nbsp;graduate. He does,they succeed,&nbsp;and then I get to shake their hands as they walk across the commencement stage.This is the intentionality that drives our mission.I loved how&nbsp;our&nbsp;chemistry&nbsp;faculty&nbsp;wrapped their support around&nbsp;Mallory Fischer – a non-traditional student about to achieve her dream of walking across the commencement stage to receive her diploma when she ruptured her ACL with&nbsp;additional&nbsp;complications. Doubting that she would physically be able to make it to commencement, her professors insisted she&nbsp;participate in graduation&nbsp;and&nbsp;“rounded up”&nbsp;their love and support.&nbsp;Mallory did cross the commencement stage as&nbsp;chemistry’s&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Balthazor, a commencement&nbsp;marshal, pushed Mallory’s wheelchair&nbsp;– making a longtime dream come true.The unforgettable redemption story of&nbsp;Tuan&nbsp;Huyn&nbsp;will always remind me of our&nbsp;purpose&nbsp;in action. A&nbsp;naturally gifted artist,&nbsp;Tuan’s&nbsp;early&nbsp;life&nbsp;was&nbsp;marked by&nbsp;deep&nbsp;pain and bad choices.&nbsp;Tuan’s future&nbsp;was turned around by the kindness&nbsp;of many, beginning with Chris Hauck, who befriended Tuan through his church’s prison ministry. Chris connected&nbsp;Tuan with professor&nbsp;Chaiwat&nbsp;Thumsujarit.&nbsp;Chaiwat&nbsp;became&nbsp;Tuan’s&nbsp;mentor.&nbsp;Tuan, overcoming herculean barriers,&nbsp;not only graduated from FHSU but also enjoyed a remarkable career with&nbsp;the&nbsp;Leo Burnett advertising agency. Later he created a non-profit organization, Chicago Peace, to revitalizeneighborhoods by building bridges between stakeholders through partnerships, education, the arts, compassion, and entrepreneurship.The “round-up” intersection between Curtis Pitts and the Nichol family&nbsp;is&nbsp;another example of Tiger Nation’s powerful relationships.&nbsp;Curtis&nbsp;came to FHSU in 1980 to play football. In 1982 he left FHSU for an internship and did not return. Life continued to happen – including the loss of his parents. Prior&nbsp;to their deaths,&nbsp;he had promised he would&nbsp;complete his&nbsp;college education. Long story short,&nbsp;Curtis was able to complete all of his classes except for&nbsp;one&nbsp;in which he continued to struggle. So,&nbsp;last&nbsp;summer,&nbsp;FHSU staff connected him with a KAMS student living in the same area. That student’s entire family “rounded up” their love and support&nbsp;and,&nbsp;together,&nbsp;tutored Curtis. Curtis is now a proud alumnus of FHSU.&nbsp;I smile every time I think of Curtis saying: “The Nichols embraced me like family and always made sure I had snacks and a cold drink in a glass engraved with Fort Hays State University's logo on it. I couldn’t have completed this class for graduation without&nbsp;their&nbsp;help!”Small acts of kindness,&nbsp;such as donating&nbsp;professional clothing&nbsp;to Tailored for Tigers,&nbsp;a closet brimming with&nbsp;complimentary&nbsp;professional&nbsp;attire for interviews, business presentations, career fairs, and other professional activities, have&nbsp;been a game changer for our students. We were&nbsp;even able to help a student&nbsp;who lost nearly everything when the family home caught fire.&nbsp;I am so grateful for&nbsp;our community’s&nbsp;focus on&nbsp;caring for one another authentically and generously. I appreciate&nbsp;this&nbsp;simple&nbsp;reminder that in my life, with just&nbsp;a&nbsp;bit&nbsp;more focus,&nbsp;I&nbsp;cancontinue to&nbsp;round up – giving just a little more&nbsp;to those around me.As noted author and professor Leo&nbsp;Buscaglia&nbsp;shared, “too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word... all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

Heart of a Tiger: Rounding up

Fears about socialism will take the stage in this year's election

By JASON PROBST <a href="https://thatguyinhutch.substack.com/p/lets-talk-about-the-s-word?fbclid=IwAR1vF9rD5ytgUs4UGWbAM4-s2BCb6B0t8vJ4w5_x9n71hfUez0997CfK0RI">That Guy In Hutch</a>

Saturday’s raucous gubernatorial debate at the Kansas State Fair made
 one thing very clear: This election cycle Kansas Republicans - led by 
the sometimes conservative, sometimes moderate, sometimes sue-happy Kris
 Kobach-esque candidate Derek Schmidt - are going to make the election 
about Joe Biden, inflation, and the oldest and most reliable political 
boogeyman - Socialism.&nbsp;

And why wouldn’t they? Those Photoshopped 
sepia-toned images of your friendly neighborhood do-gooder alongside 
some scary national Democrat has long been an effective tool. It frees 
Republican candidates of the need to run their own campaigns, show up at
 public forums, or explain their policy positions. Thanks to the power 
of graphic design and misinformation, even good and reasonable 
Republicans have been vanquished by an engineered appearance with the 
sinister Washington Democrat de jour.&nbsp;

Now I don’t blame them for 
the inflation bit - it’s a legitimate concern for families in Kansas. 
But let’s not allow ourselves to believe the lie that inflation is 
exclusively under the control of one party or another. What we’re 
experiencing now is the result of global economic realities, breakdowns 
in supply systems (that were largely built around maximizing profit and 
less around ensuring a reliable supply of goods), and global monetary 
policies that artificially restrained natural inflation for a 
generation.

Way before Covid, and way before both Presidents Trump and Biden infused money into the economy, there were the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/government-financial-bailout.asp">“Too Big to Fail” handouts</a>
 that bailed out large investment banks who had been grossly 
irresponsible and nearly trashed the world economy in 2007-08. Aside 
from putting taxpayers on the hook for banks and car manufacturers, it 
also saw the public propping up of the housing market - largely 
destabilized by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikecollins/2015/07/14/the-big-bank-bailout/?sh=195433472d83">irresponsible
 lending practices and large financial institutions deploying incredibly
 creative methods to make money from bad loans</a>. And let’s not forget that before that we had the eerily similar Savings &amp; Loan bailout in the 1980s.&nbsp;

So
 let’s not pretend that throwing a few bones at the working stiff has 
led to the downfall of our economy - especially when we’ve made a habit 
of socializing the cost of bad business decisions.

Which brings me to the most curious and interesting of this year’s campaign rhetoric - the big, scary “S” word: Socialism.&nbsp;

When
 a Republican candidate can’t figure out how to win an election, there’s
 the ever reliable cry of Socialism and how it’s ruining our country. 
The threat of Socialism has been an effective political tool since World
 War I, and only gained in power during the protracted “Cold War” in 
which anything that looked in the general direction of Russia sent waves
 of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare">fear across the country</a>.&nbsp;

There was even a movie to tell us how pervasive the threat was to the American way of life.&nbsp;

But I wondered why our tax money is being used to clean up a mess 
that was created by people who made the mess in the first place - and 
who quite likely made a healthy profit in the process.&nbsp; Just like those 
people who don’t want their money going to pay off others’ student 
loans, I don’t really want my money going to plug gas wells that 
should’ve been paid for by people who hoped to find wealth by poking 
holes in the ground .&nbsp;

In Kansas, we carve out about <a href="https://www.ksrevenue.gov/prtaxexreports.html">$10.7 billion in various tax exemptions and deductions</a>
 each year. Now, not all of this is decidedly good or bad. Some of that 
includes things like deductions for families on their income taxes, as 
well as property tax and sales tax rebates. But some of that includes 
exemptions and deductions for large corporations. And sometimes that 
savings helps us get things we want - like better access to utilities, 
internet, and infrastructure. But sometimes, it’s just a tool for big 
companies to reduce their tax burdens.

Speaking of 
tax burdens, did you know that in 1992 residential property accounted 
for 35 percent of the state’s overall assessed property valuation 
(property tax base) but that has grown to 54 percent by 2022 - while 
commercial valuation as a percent of the state’s property tax base has 
dropped to 24 percent? Or that for every dollar Kansas collects in 
taxes, <a href="http://www.kslegresearch.org/KLRD-web/Publications/FiscalFacts/2022-Fiscal-Facts.pdf">90 cents comes from you in the way of individual income and sales tax, while only 7 cents comes from the corporate income tax?</a>

So, about that big, scary “S” word that will take center stage this 
election…We do have a Socialism problem, but not in the way we’ve often 
been told.&nbsp;

I have friends who tell me that between health 
insurance premiums, copays, and co-insurance, they’re spending upwards 
of $20,000 a year on health care. I have other friends who won’t change 
jobs - or are terrified of losing the one they have - because they have 
had cancer or some other serious health issue and fear losing their 
health insurance.&nbsp;

I have other friends who work in small 
businesses that don’t offer insurance, and they’re just out of luck. I 
have other friends who had to downsize or close their small business 
because they can’t compete for labor thanks to the prohibitive cost of 
employer-sponsored health insurance.&nbsp;

Yet your tax money is used every day to prop up some dying business - or to invest in a new venture.&nbsp;

We
 have industries with enough money to influence the laws that govern 
them and build tax policy to their liking, while parents are spending 
upwards of $10,000-$12,000 a year for childcare.&nbsp;

And when people 
struggle in their personal lives, make some bad choices, aren’t born to 
the right people, or just aren’t gifted with the right tools to navigate
 an increasingly complex world, there’s a chorus of those who scream 
that they should just try harder, and do better, at life.&nbsp;

But 
throughout our history, both nationally and in Kansas, when the biggest 
for-profit players need a little help pulling up those bootstraps, when 
they make mistakes that threaten the world’s wellbeing, or when they’re 
done making their money and leave a mess behind - we barely hesitate to 
hit up taxpayers for a collective - one might say socialist - bailout 
that we later celebrate as good and necessary.&nbsp;

I’m not saying 
that it’s all bad. We sometimes decide as a nation, state, or community 
how we’d like to make public investments. In the case of the 
aforementioned gas well plugging, it’s probably good for all of us to 
chip in and address a public safety and health nuisance - even if I 
think it really ought to be someone else’s problem to fix.

Public 
education, infrastructure, transportation, and scientific research have 
all come from public, collective investment. And we’ve all benefited 
from it in one way or another. It’s allowed companies to make more money
 and grow, while it’s helped the average family to live a more 
comfortable life filled with more opportunity for growth and 
prosperity.&nbsp;

It is, however, disingenuous to pretend that one 
thing is Socialism while the other is not. We can’t label Wall Street 
bailouts an investment while calling any move to address spiraling 
healthcare costs for poor and working families a socialist entitlement.&nbsp;

And
 we sure shouldn’t let politicians who have been party to the giveaways 
scare us into believing that a vote for them is a vote for good old 
American capitalism when the record shows they’ve supported their own 
version of Socialism for a very long time.&nbsp;

State Rep. Jason Probst, D-Hutchinson, represents the 102nd District in the Kansas House of Representatives.

<div><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjason.probst%2Fvideos%2F475845714205836%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=0" width="560" height="314" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe></div><h2>Fears about socialism will take the stage in this year's election</h2>By JASON PROBST <a href="https://thatguyinhutch.substack.com/p/lets-talk-about-the-s-word?fbclid=IwAR1vF9rD5ytgUs4UGWbAM4-s2BCb6B0t8vJ4w5_x9n71hfUez0997CfK0RI">That Guy In Hutch</a>Saturday’s raucous gubernatorial debate at the Kansas State Fair made
 one thing very clear: This election cycle Kansas Republicans - led by 
the sometimes conservative, sometimes moderate, sometimes sue-happy Kris
 Kobach-esque candidate Derek Schmidt - are going to make the election 
about Joe Biden, inflation, and the oldest and most reliable political 
boogeyman - Socialism.&nbsp;And why wouldn’t they? Those Photoshopped 
sepia-toned images of your friendly neighborhood do-gooder alongside 
some scary national Democrat has long been an effective tool. It frees 
Republican candidates of the need to run their own campaigns, show up at
 public forums, or explain their policy positions. Thanks to the power 
of graphic design and misinformation, even good and reasonable 
Republicans have been vanquished by an engineered appearance with the 
sinister Washington Democrat de jour.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/12/1575913663048.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Now I don’t blame them for 
the inflation bit - it’s a legitimate concern for families in Kansas. 
But let’s not allow ourselves to believe the lie that inflation is 
exclusively under the control of one party or another. What we’re 
experiencing now is the result of global economic realities, breakdowns 
in supply systems (that were largely built around maximizing profit and 
less around ensuring a reliable supply of goods), and global monetary 
policies that artificially restrained natural inflation for a 
generation.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663188520784.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Way before Covid, and way before both Presidents Trump and Biden infused money into the economy, there were the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/government-financial-bailout.asp">“Too Big to Fail” handouts</a>
 that bailed out large investment banks who had been grossly 
irresponsible and nearly trashed the world economy in 2007-08. Aside 
from putting taxpayers on the hook for banks and car manufacturers, it 
also saw the public propping up of the housing market - largely 
destabilized by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikecollins/2015/07/14/the-big-bank-bailout/?sh=195433472d83">irresponsible
 lending practices and large financial institutions deploying incredibly
 creative methods to make money from bad loans</a>. And let’s not forget that before that we had the eerily similar Savings &amp; Loan bailout in the 1980s.&nbsp;So
 let’s not pretend that throwing a few bones at the working stiff has 
led to the downfall of our economy - especially when we’ve made a habit 
of socializing the cost of bad business decisions.Which brings me to the most curious and interesting of this year’s campaign rhetoric - the big, scary “S” word: Socialism.&nbsp;When
 a Republican candidate can’t figure out how to win an election, there’s
 the ever reliable cry of Socialism and how it’s ruining our country. 
The threat of Socialism has been an effective political tool since World
 War I, and only gained in power during the protracted “Cold War” in 
which anything that looked in the general direction of Russia sent waves
 of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare">fear across the country</a>.&nbsp;There was even a movie to tell us how pervasive the threat was to the American way of life.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663188565264.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663188616770.png" alt="Is it just me that finds it amusingly weird that there was such a fascination with things being filmed behind locked doors in the 1940s and 50s?" />
 <figcaption>Is it just me that finds it amusingly weird that there was such a fascination with things being filmed behind locked doors in the 1940s and 50s?</figcaption>
 </figure>But I wondered why our tax money is being used to clean up a mess 
that was created by people who made the mess in the first place - and 
who quite likely made a healthy profit in the process.&nbsp; Just like those 
people who don’t want their money going to pay off others’ student 
loans, I don’t really want my money going to plug gas wells that 
should’ve been paid for by people who hoped to find wealth by poking 
holes in the ground .&nbsp;In Kansas, we carve out about <a href="https://www.ksrevenue.gov/prtaxexreports.html">$10.7 billion in various tax exemptions and deductions</a>
 each year. Now, not all of this is decidedly good or bad. Some of that 
includes things like deductions for families on their income taxes, as 
well as property tax and sales tax rebates. But some of that includes 
exemptions and deductions for large corporations. And sometimes that 
savings helps us get things we want - like better access to utilities, 
internet, and infrastructure. But sometimes, it’s just a tool for big 
companies to reduce their tax burdens.Speaking of 
tax burdens, did you know that in 1992 residential property accounted 
for 35 percent of the state’s overall assessed property valuation 
(property tax base) but that has grown to 54 percent by 2022 - while 
commercial valuation as a percent of the state’s property tax base has 
dropped to 24 percent? Or that for every dollar Kansas collects in 
taxes, <a href="http://www.kslegresearch.org/KLRD-web/Publications/FiscalFacts/2022-Fiscal-Facts.pdf">90 cents comes from you in the way of individual income and sales tax, while only 7 cents comes from the corporate income tax?</a>So, about that big, scary “S” word that will take center stage this 
election…We do have a Socialism problem, but not in the way we’ve often 
been told.&nbsp;I have friends who tell me that between health 
insurance premiums, copays, and co-insurance, they’re spending upwards 
of $20,000 a year on health care. I have other friends who won’t change 
jobs - or are terrified of losing the one they have - because they have 
had cancer or some other serious health issue and fear losing their 
health insurance.&nbsp;I have other friends who work in small 
businesses that don’t offer insurance, and they’re just out of luck. I 
have other friends who had to downsize or close their small business 
because they can’t compete for labor thanks to the prohibitive cost of 
employer-sponsored health insurance.&nbsp;Yet your tax money is used every day to prop up some dying business - or to invest in a new venture.&nbsp;We
 have industries with enough money to influence the laws that govern 
them and build tax policy to their liking, while parents are spending 
upwards of $10,000-$12,000 a year for childcare.&nbsp;And when people 
struggle in their personal lives, make some bad choices, aren’t born to 
the right people, or just aren’t gifted with the right tools to navigate
 an increasingly complex world, there’s a chorus of those who scream 
that they should just try harder, and do better, at life.&nbsp;But 
throughout our history, both nationally and in Kansas, when the biggest 
for-profit players need a little help pulling up those bootstraps, when 
they make mistakes that threaten the world’s wellbeing, or when they’re 
done making their money and leave a mess behind - we barely hesitate to 
hit up taxpayers for a collective - one might say socialist - bailout 
that we later celebrate as good and necessary.&nbsp;I’m not saying 
that it’s all bad. We sometimes decide as a nation, state, or community 
how we’d like to make public investments. In the case of the 
aforementioned gas well plugging, it’s probably good for all of us to 
chip in and address a public safety and health nuisance - even if I 
think it really ought to be someone else’s problem to fix.Public 
education, infrastructure, transportation, and scientific research have 
all come from public, collective investment. And we’ve all benefited 
from it in one way or another. It’s allowed companies to make more money
 and grow, while it’s helped the average family to live a more 
comfortable life filled with more opportunity for growth and 
prosperity.&nbsp;It is, however, disingenuous to pretend that one 
thing is Socialism while the other is not. We can’t label Wall Street 
bailouts an investment while calling any move to address spiraling 
healthcare costs for poor and working families a socialist entitlement.&nbsp;And
 we sure shouldn’t let politicians who have been party to the giveaways 
scare us into believing that a vote for them is a vote for good old 
American capitalism when the record shows they’ve supported their own 
version of Socialism for a very long time.&nbsp;State Rep. Jason Probst, D-Hutchinson, represents the 102nd District in the Kansas House of Representatives.

🎥 OPINION: Democrat rep from Hutch talks the 's-word'

By KIM BALDWIN McPherson County farmer and rancher Last spring my father-in-law purchased a handful of ewes to graze a pasture near his house. The pasture had not been grazed in a few years, and he liked the idea of having some animals on his farm after getting out of the cattle business about six years ago. He decided to purchase the ewes and make it a project with the grandkids.&nbsp; After the trailer of sheep arrived, each grandchild was allowed to pick out two ewes to claim as their own. Even before the sheep arrived, the kids helped their grandpa build the fencing and prepared the area for the animals. Since their arrival, the kids have attempted to help tame these ewes that were born and spent the early part of their lives in the Flint Hills. The grandkids have helped feed and vaccinate the ewes. Some days I’ve found one of the kids sitting on the fence talking to the ewes as they anxiously eat their grain before returning to the pasture. At the end of March, the kids watched as we turned out a ram with the flock. Soon blue chalk markings began appearing on the ewes.&nbsp; Fast forward to September where we are now on alert for lambs to begin arriving any day now. While the kids are simply excited to have some little lambs running around, my father-in-law is more focused on maintaining the health of the soon-to-arrive lambs and their mothers. I’m most concerned about how many lambs we could possibly bottle feed at once and being prepared with the supplies needed to ensure we can successfully feed multiple babies. It reminds me a lot of when I was pregnant with my two children and the different areas of concern people within my family focused on.&nbsp; While I know my concern is one that can easily be addressed with a quick trip to town, I still want to be ready for the scenario in which we have bottle babies. A handful of years ago my son was given a newborn calf whose mother had unexpectedly died on the coldest day of the year. My husband brought the tiny heifer home just a few hours after being born, and we quickly made adjustments to housing and bottle feeding the calf. In that scenario we weren’t even expecting a calf, but we were able to pivot quickly and begin caring for it.&nbsp; That calf is now Sunflower the cow, and she, too, is due to have her calf any day now. Although she is an experienced mama cow, my son and I are still on alert as we await her newest arrival. The anticipation of baby animals on the farm this fall is exciting, and to have my two children observe life through their animals is something I am so thankful to expose them to. As we patiently await and prepare for these new little additions on the farm, we have begun to embrace and understand the importance of the task of keeping watch.&nbsp;&nbsp;

"Insight" is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state's largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/11/1573617414005.jpeg" alt="Kim Baldwin&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Kim Baldwin&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>By KIM BALDWIN McPherson County farmer and rancher Last spring my father-in-law purchased a handful of ewes to graze a pasture near his house. The pasture had not been grazed in a few years, and he liked the idea of having some animals on his farm after getting out of the cattle business about six years ago. He decided to purchase the ewes and make it a project with the grandkids.&nbsp; After the trailer of sheep arrived, each grandchild was allowed to pick out two ewes to claim as their own. Even before the sheep arrived, the kids helped their grandpa build the fencing and prepared the area for the animals. Since their arrival, the kids have attempted to help tame these ewes that were born and spent the early part of their lives in the Flint Hills. The grandkids have helped feed and vaccinate the ewes. Some days I’ve found one of the kids sitting on the fence talking to the ewes as they anxiously eat their grain before returning to the pasture. At the end of March, the kids watched as we turned out a ram with the flock. Soon blue chalk markings began appearing on the ewes.&nbsp; Fast forward to September where we are now on alert for lambs to begin arriving any day now. While the kids are simply excited to have some little lambs running around, my father-in-law is more focused on maintaining the health of the soon-to-arrive lambs and their mothers. I’m most concerned about how many lambs we could possibly bottle feed at once and being prepared with the supplies needed to ensure we can successfully feed multiple babies. It reminds me a lot of when I was pregnant with my two children and the different areas of concern people within my family focused on.&nbsp; While I know my concern is one that can easily be addressed with a quick trip to town, I still want to be ready for the scenario in which we have bottle babies. A handful of years ago my son was given a newborn calf whose mother had unexpectedly died on the coldest day of the year. My husband brought the tiny heifer home just a few hours after being born, and we quickly made adjustments to housing and bottle feeding the calf. In that scenario we weren’t even expecting a calf, but we were able to pivot quickly and begin caring for it.&nbsp; That calf is now Sunflower the cow, and she, too, is due to have her calf any day now. Although she is an experienced mama cow, my son and I are still on alert as we await her newest arrival. The anticipation of baby animals on the farm this fall is exciting, and to have my two children observe life through their animals is something I am so thankful to expose them to. As we patiently await and prepare for these new little additions on the farm, we have begun to embrace and understand the importance of the task of keeping watch.&nbsp;&nbsp;"Insight" is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state's largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.&nbsp;

Kansas Farm Bureau Insight: Keeping watch

The economy of western Kansas almost entirely relies on water being pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer to grow the grain and forage crops for ethanol plants and livestock operations in the region. Without this water source these industries will not stay in the area, and when they go other support industries will also leave resulting in a major decline of the region’s economy and population.

Since the beginning of irrigation development, decades ago, the natural recharge of the aquifer has not, by any stretch of the imagination, kept up with the amount of water being pumped out and the aquifer continues to be depleted. If this trend continues, it just a matter of time before many wells will not pump enough water for irrigation to be feasible.

Like many other industries, irrigation technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in just a few short years. Tools like soil moisture probes and plant sensors are being used to schedule proper and efficient irrigation applications. Subsurface drip and mobile drip systems significantly reduce evaporation rates and the amount of irrigation water needed to grow the crop. But one of the issues we continue to struggle with is that many of our fields are just not in condition to infiltrate water. Decades of intensive tillage have destroyed the pore spaces the soil needs to take in water.

Many of the pore spaces are formed when the soil has stable soil aggregates. Aggregates are individual soil particles of sand, silt and clay that are bound together by root exudates and organic glues. Microbes that live in the soil, like bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms, produce the organic glues. These microbes flourish in healthy soils where fields are in a no-till system. Other pore spaces are created by earthworms and other macrofauna like centipedes, slugs, and snails. Every time we disturb the soil, we basically destroy the habitat of these soil microbes. Tillage also physically destroys the soil aggregates by breaking them down into individual soil particles.

Maintaining a living root in the soil, as much as possible throughout the year, is also essential in maintaining the needed pore spaces in the soil. Living roots produce root exudates that help bind soil particles together into larger soil aggregates. Living plants provide a carbon source, which is food for the soil microbes, through the photosynthesis process. Decaying roots provide direct channels for water to infiltrate into the soil. Growing cover crops, between cash crops, is one way of maintaining a living root in the soil.

By incorporating some of these simple soil health practices, along with the other irrigation technologies, can reduce the amount of irrigation water needed to grow crops. This will help ensure that water will be available for all water users in the region for generations to come.

For more information about this or other soil health practices you can contact me at dale.younker@usda.gov or any local NRCS office.

Dale Younker is the soil health specialist for the USDA National Resources Conservation Service, Jetmore.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/8/1628525048992.jpeg" alt="Dale Younker is the soil health specialist for the&nbsp; USDA National Resources Conservation Service, Jetmore.&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Dale Younker is the soil health specialist for the&nbsp; USDA National Resources Conservation Service, Jetmore.&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>The economy of western Kansas almost entirely relies on water being pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer to grow the grain and forage crops for ethanol plants and livestock operations in the region. Without this water source these industries will not stay in the area, and when they go other support industries will also leave resulting in a major decline of the region’s economy and population.Since the beginning of irrigation development, decades ago, the natural recharge of the aquifer has not, by any stretch of the imagination, kept up with the amount of water being pumped out and the aquifer continues to be depleted. If this trend continues, it just a matter of time before many wells will not pump enough water for irrigation to be feasible.Like many other industries, irrigation technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in just a few short years. Tools like soil moisture probes and plant sensors are being used to schedule proper and efficient irrigation applications. Subsurface drip and mobile drip systems significantly reduce evaporation rates and the amount of irrigation water needed to grow the crop. But one of the issues we continue to struggle with is that many of our fields are just not in condition to infiltrate water. Decades of intensive tillage have destroyed the pore spaces the soil needs to take in water.Many of the pore spaces are formed when the soil has stable soil aggregates. Aggregates are individual soil particles of sand, silt and clay that are bound together by root exudates and organic glues. Microbes that live in the soil, like bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms, produce the organic glues. These microbes flourish in healthy soils where fields are in a no-till system. Other pore spaces are created by earthworms and other macrofauna like centipedes, slugs, and snails. Every time we disturb the soil, we basically destroy the habitat of these soil microbes. Tillage also physically destroys the soil aggregates by breaking them down into individual soil particles.Maintaining a living root in the soil, as much as possible throughout the year, is also essential in maintaining the needed pore spaces in the soil. Living roots produce root exudates that help bind soil particles together into larger soil aggregates. Living plants provide a carbon source, which is food for the soil microbes, through the photosynthesis process. Decaying roots provide direct channels for water to infiltrate into the soil. Growing cover crops, between cash crops, is one way of maintaining a living root in the soil.By incorporating some of these simple soil health practices, along with the other irrigation technologies, can reduce the amount of irrigation water needed to grow crops. This will help ensure that water will be available for all water users in the region for generations to come.For more information about this or other soil health practices you can contact me at dale.younker@usda.gov or any local NRCS office.Dale Younker is the soil health specialist for the USDA National Resources Conservation Service, Jetmore.&nbsp;

YOUNKER: Water worries in western Kansas

By MAX MCCOY <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/09/13/emporia-state-university-is-about-to-suspend-tenure-heres-why-you-should-care/">Courtesy Kansas Reflector</a>

It would be an improper firing, a violation of my First Amendment 
rights as a university professor, an infringement of the ability to 
pursue my discipline and state the truth as I see it in the marketplace 
of ideas. The given reason might be restructuring, a need for change, a 
response to a crisis, or even “conduct.” But I fear the underlying 
reason for my firing, and that of my colleagues, would be that it’s a 
political maneuver to end tenure.

Outspoken professors like me would ordinarily rely on the protection 
offered by tenure, but shortly after you read this column, that 
foundational protection may have already been suspended at Emporia State
 University, one of six public universities in Kansas.

A <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/09/07/emporia-state-university-seeks-authority-to-begin-campus-workforce-restructuring/">plan to restructure the school</a>
 and allow the firing of faculty members with only a 30-day notice is 
expected to be approved this week by the Kansas Board of Regents, which 
oversees the state’s higher education. If adopted, the “workforce 
management plan” would effectively suspend tenure for the fall 2022 
semester.

A semester doesn’t seem like much, but it’s enough time to wreck 
careers and burn down programs that have taken decades to build. It’s 
enough time to change an institution that has contributed to the common 
good in Kansas for more than 150 years to one that is dedicated to … 
well, we just don’t know yet.

There are few details in the draft “workforce management plan” 
presented to faculty just last Wednesday, no metrics by which to 
consider the closing of programs or the firing of instructors. There is a
 lot of hot air about being “forward focused and future ready.”

The draft is not a management plan, as observed by one professor at a
 faculty forum on Friday, but a blueprint to quickly terminate employees
 — and not just faculty, but classified staff, graduate assistants, 
anybody the university administration might want gone. The reasons for 
termination are so broad as to invite abuse, and range from program 
restructuring to employee conduct deemed disruptive of the work 
environment.

That could mean writing columns like this one, which are critical of 
university policy. I’ve never written much before about the university, 
at least not in column form, because I always considered it to be off 
tone. Self-serving.

But now is the time, and I do it not merely in my own self-interest, 
but to give voice to what many of my colleagues feel but cannot say for 
fear of reprisal.

Nobody denies the university is under financial pressure caused by 
COVID-19, somewhat declining enrollments, and changes in state funding 
over the past 20 years. Just about everyone, including professors, 
agrees that tuition is just too damned high. But professors aren’t the 
cause of that and, in fact, the pay for most of us who teach at Emporia 
State hasn’t even kept pace with the adjustments given across-the-board 
to state employees in the last few years. There’s been a lot of talk by 
administrators about anticipated enrollment drops, and some programs — 
especially those in the humanities — have been cut time and again. But 
from 2017 to 2021, overall enrollment at ESU has dropped only about 2%, 
according to KBOR data. The university disingenuously provided a 
misleading “fever chart” graph that, by manipulating the scale, showed 
that slight drop in enrollment as not a molehill but a mountainous 
plunge.

It’s only one of things the administration has been less than 
truthful about. Just consider the announcement that came from president 
Ken Hush on Wednesday telling faculty the emergency framework had 
already been submitted to KBOR. It hadn’t. <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/09/08/professors-frustrated-by-emporia-state-university-plans-to-eliminate-tenured-faculty-and-programs/">An email from the faculty president</a>
 late that night said the statement was “misleading” because the draft 
had not been submitted and feedback from the faculty had not yet been 
gathered. We were given about two business days to provide that 
feedback, an impossible deadline.

The termination policy, to call it what it is, is a desperate attempt
 to dismantle tenure at a state school and establish a cultural 
beachhead upon which others can land. Would it save money? Sure, in the 
same way that ending school lunches or cutting funds to the local fire 
department would save money. But it’s not a wise strategy, especially if
 your goal is to make your community better for everyone — or just to 
keep the town from burning down.

Tenure is no ivory tower; it’s as essential to higher education as 
the fire department is to your community. At Emporia State, as at most 
colleges, tenure is hard won. It is awarded only after a person already 
has a sufficiently advanced degree, is hired as an assistant professor, 
and puts in five to seven years of probationary time during which they 
demonstrate their ability to research, teach and contribute meaningfully
 to the campus community. Tenure isn’t given automatically, and many 
hardworking individuals fail to achieve it. It is granted based on 
rigorous university and department standards, which include student and 
peer evaluations. Tenure is not the same as promotion, although gaining 
it typically comes with an advancement in rank, usually to associate 
professor.

There’s little doubt that the university’s move to end tenure is in 
response to pressure from the deeply conservative Kansas Legislature, 
and I’ve heard the former university provost Gary Wyatt say as much. 
Once, in a department meeting, he told us that legislators viewed 
tenured professors as “the enemy.” Then again, at a faculty address this
 fall, he said the campus would have to come to grips with the reality 
that we live in a state that is mostly Republican, with a legislature 
that is GOP dominated. How much clearer could he make it? To his credit,
 Wyatt is one of the few administrators willing to speak the truth on 
the issue.

This draft policy, aimed to please most Republican lawmakers, will be
 submitted under a COVID-era KBOR plan that would allow universities to 
create alternate paths to summarily fire professors instead of adhering 
to long-established rules that required the university to either declare
 financial exigency, meaning a crisis in which there is no option but to
 terminate appointments of tenured faculty, or to follow the lengthy 
established process for program termination. Passed in January 2021 by 
KBOR, the policy was meant to give universities a tool to deal with the 
financial stress of the pandemic, lower enrollments and tight budgets. 
None of the six state universities implemented the policy, although the 
University of Kansas flirted with it before an intense backlash from 
faculty and students.

The KBOR policy was slated to expire July 1 of this year, but in June the regents extended it for another six months.

The same week KBOR extended the “workforce management” policy, it 
also hired a new president for Emporia State: Ken Hush. An ESU alum and 
former college tennis star, Hush had <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/12/18/at-emporia-state-a-former-grad-holds-fort-while-campus-waits/">served as interim president</a>
 since November 2021. Hush is a former CEO of Koch Carbon and, according
 to the Federal Election Commission database, a contributor of tens of 
thousands of dollars to KochPAC, which predominately funds conservative 
candidates for Congress.

Hush’s appointment as president came as a surprise to campus because 
many assumed a presidential search would select someone from the outside
 with an advanced degree. Hush holds a dual major bachelor’s, in 
business and marketing, making him <a target="_blank" href="http://www.esubulletin.com/campus_commons/hush-holds-fewest-degrees-among-kbor-chiefs/article_017d2dea-28b6-11ed-ab60-8ff9d0fdec3e.html">the least academically credentialed</a> of the leaders of the six universities in Kansas.

The presidential search process, unlike all previous searches at ESU,
 was a closed one, veiled in secrecy. There was no announcement of 
finalists or opportunities for faculty, students and staff to evaluate 
them, whoever they were. The chairman of the search committee was 
another former ESU tennis athlete, Greg Kossover — and a major donor to 
the new tennis complex on campus.

The selection of Hush at first seemed an odd fit.

Although he had served on the Wichita State University board of 
trustees, he didn’t have a deep background in public service in a 
classroom setting. He had run a Koch company that specialized in bulk 
commodities of coal and petroleum coke, and contributed heavily to a PAC
 that funded candidates who were often climate change deniers.

The libertarian Koch brothers, of course, kicked off the current 
culture war during the Obama years with their support of the Tea Party. 
The university and KBOR both refused to release a resume or curriculum 
vitae for Hush, something that most schools share with pride.

Even before school started this fall, Hush put his foot in his mouth <a target="_blank" href="http://www.esubulletin.com/campus_commons/new-prez-says-i-laugh-at-criticism-about-butcher-closure-then-he-regrets-word-choice/article_191f1e20-1b7f-11ed-8ddf-eb6b24db73d5.html">when talking to the editor of the campus newspaper</a>, saying &nbsp;“I laugh” at criticism of his decision to close a program that offered <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/07/26/emporia-state-university-to-close-child-care-center-despite-student-and-faculty-objections/">the only child care on campus</a>. Such condescension seems a feature, not a bug.

It all makes perfect sense now, considering how devalued higher 
education has become. We are quickly moving toward an oligarchy where 
only money and power matter. What has traditionally been rewarded in 
higher education, merit in the form of academic achievement and 
expertise in a discipline, is sneered at because it doesn’t make it 
rain.

There is little recognition at ESU that a public university serves a 
broader good, to the community and to the state, than just providing 
workers. I’ve always believed higher education was mostly involved in 
making citizens. But I guess the laugh is on me. Those in power are 
looting the culture of higher education like somebody would after a fire
 or a tornado or any other disaster.

It will be a loss for the students, for the community and for the state.

I’m not against change. Innovation is necessary. But one of the goals
 of tenure is to protect institutions from sudden and catastrophic 
change.

“Tenure promotes stability,” says the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.aaup.org/issues/tenure">American Association of University Professors</a>.
 “Faculty members who are committed to the institution can develop ties 
with the local community, pursue ongoing research projects, and mentor 
students and beginning scholars over the long term.”

Tenure also doesn’t protect professors from being fired for the kinds
 of things you would expect others to be fired for. Professors are 
subject to termination for chronic low performance or sexually 
assaulting a student, for example. That’s how it should be.

Tenure serves the public interest because society benefits when 
teachers and researchers are free of control by corporations, religious 
groups, special interests, and the government, according to the AAUP.

“Free inquiry, free expression, and open dissent are critical for 
student learning and the advancement of knowledge,” the association 
says. “Therefore, it is important to have systems in place to protect 
academic freedom. Tenure serves that purpose.”

Academic freedom is “of special concern to the First Amendment,” 
according to Justice William Brennan in a seminal 1967 Supreme Court 
decision, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/15/keyishian-v-board-of-regents">Keyishian v. Board of Regents</a>.
 He wrote, “Our Nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic 
freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely the 
teachers concerned.”

If that statement seems a little pie-in-the-sky for you, consider those <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/24856:global-index-finds-most-countries-do-not-respect-academic-freedom-and-shows-signs-of-decline">countries that do not</a>
 protect academic freedom, according to the Global Academic Freedom 
Index published by Education International. North Korea and China are 
among the worst offenders on the list.

“Academic freedom is part of the essential rights to maintain strong 
democracies,” according to EI. “High quality, independent research can 
serve as a sound basis for public decision-making and democratic debate.
 In recent years disinformation, often instantly and massively 
transmitted by social media, has distorted debate, spread hatred, and 
polarised opinion. A dramatic example is the spread of false information
 on global warming.”

But it just might be a country club for young fossil fuel 
entrepreneurs, each with a copy of “Atlas Shrugged” tucked beneath an 
elbow, drifting through an undergraduate “experience” complete with 
tennis courts and classrooms free of the inane nattering of humanities 
types like me.

Max McCoy is an award-winning author and journalist. A native Kansan, he started his career at the Pittsburg Morning Sun and was soon writing for national magazines. His investigative stories on unsolved murders, serial killers and hate groups earned him first-place awards from the Associated Press Managing Editors and other organizations.&nbsp;Max teaches journalism at Emporia State University.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663100814988.png" alt="Ken Hush, president at Emporia State University, said financial realities compel ESU to consider realigning the budget through process that could include employee layoffs and changes in of academic programs. (Margaret Mellott/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Ken Hush, president at Emporia State University, said financial realities compel ESU to consider realigning the budget through process that could include employee layoffs and changes in of academic programs. (Margaret Mellott/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>By MAX MCCOY <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/09/13/emporia-state-university-is-about-to-suspend-tenure-heres-why-you-should-care/">Courtesy Kansas Reflector</a>I may be fired for writing this.It would be an improper firing, a violation of my First Amendment 
rights as a university professor, an infringement of the ability to 
pursue my discipline and state the truth as I see it in the marketplace 
of ideas. The given reason might be restructuring, a need for change, a 
response to a crisis, or even “conduct.” But I fear the underlying 
reason for my firing, and that of my colleagues, would be that it’s a 
political maneuver to end tenure.Outspoken professors like me would ordinarily rely on the protection 
offered by tenure, but shortly after you read this column, that 
foundational protection may have already been suspended at Emporia State
 University, one of six public universities in Kansas.A <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/09/07/emporia-state-university-seeks-authority-to-begin-campus-workforce-restructuring/">plan to restructure the school</a>
 and allow the firing of faculty members with only a 30-day notice is 
expected to be approved this week by the Kansas Board of Regents, which 
oversees the state’s higher education. If adopted, the “workforce 
management plan” would effectively suspend tenure for the fall 2022 
semester.A semester doesn’t seem like much, but it’s enough time to wreck 
careers and burn down programs that have taken decades to build. It’s 
enough time to change an institution that has contributed to the common 
good in Kansas for more than 150 years to one that is dedicated to … 
well, we just don’t know yet.There are few details in the draft “workforce management plan” 
presented to faculty just last Wednesday, no metrics by which to 
consider the closing of programs or the firing of instructors. There is a
 lot of hot air about being “forward focused and future ready.”The draft is not a management plan, as observed by one professor at a
 faculty forum on Friday, but a blueprint to quickly terminate employees
 — and not just faculty, but classified staff, graduate assistants, 
anybody the university administration might want gone. The reasons for 
termination are so broad as to invite abuse, and range from program 
restructuring to employee conduct deemed disruptive of the work 
environment.That could mean writing columns like this one, which are critical of 
university policy. I’ve never written much before about the university, 
at least not in column form, because I always considered it to be off 
tone. Self-serving.But now is the time, and I do it not merely in my own self-interest, 
but to give voice to what many of my colleagues feel but cannot say for 
fear of reprisal.Nobody denies the university is under financial pressure caused by 
COVID-19, somewhat declining enrollments, and changes in state funding 
over the past 20 years. Just about everyone, including professors, 
agrees that tuition is just too damned high. But professors aren’t the 
cause of that and, in fact, the pay for most of us who teach at Emporia 
State hasn’t even kept pace with the adjustments given across-the-board 
to state employees in the last few years. There’s been a lot of talk by 
administrators about anticipated enrollment drops, and some programs — 
especially those in the humanities — have been cut time and again. But 
from 2017 to 2021, overall enrollment at ESU has dropped only about 2%, 
according to KBOR data. The university disingenuously provided a 
misleading “fever chart” graph that, by manipulating the scale, showed 
that slight drop in enrollment as not a molehill but a mountainous 
plunge.It’s only one of things the administration has been less than 
truthful about. Just consider the announcement that came from president 
Ken Hush on Wednesday telling faculty the emergency framework had 
already been submitted to KBOR. It hadn’t. <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/09/08/professors-frustrated-by-emporia-state-university-plans-to-eliminate-tenured-faculty-and-programs/">An email from the faculty president</a>
 late that night said the statement was “misleading” because the draft 
had not been submitted and feedback from the faculty had not yet been 
gathered. We were given about two business days to provide that 
feedback, an impossible deadline.The termination policy, to call it what it is, is a desperate attempt
 to dismantle tenure at a state school and establish a cultural 
beachhead upon which others can land. Would it save money? Sure, in the 
same way that ending school lunches or cutting funds to the local fire 
department would save money. But it’s not a wise strategy, especially if
 your goal is to make your community better for everyone — or just to 
keep the town from burning down.Tenure is no ivory tower; it’s as essential to higher education as 
the fire department is to your community. At Emporia State, as at most 
colleges, tenure is hard won. It is awarded only after a person already 
has a sufficiently advanced degree, is hired as an assistant professor, 
and puts in five to seven years of probationary time during which they 
demonstrate their ability to research, teach and contribute meaningfully
 to the campus community. Tenure isn’t given automatically, and many 
hardworking individuals fail to achieve it. It is granted based on 
rigorous university and department standards, which include student and 
peer evaluations. Tenure is not the same as promotion, although gaining 
it typically comes with an advancement in rank, usually to associate 
professor.There’s little doubt that the university’s move to end tenure is in 
response to pressure from the deeply conservative Kansas Legislature, 
and I’ve heard the former university provost Gary Wyatt say as much. 
Once, in a department meeting, he told us that legislators viewed 
tenured professors as “the enemy.” Then again, at a faculty address this
 fall, he said the campus would have to come to grips with the reality 
that we live in a state that is mostly Republican, with a legislature 
that is GOP dominated. How much clearer could he make it? To his credit,
 Wyatt is one of the few administrators willing to speak the truth on 
the issue.This draft policy, aimed to please most Republican lawmakers, will be
 submitted under a COVID-era KBOR plan that would allow universities to 
create alternate paths to summarily fire professors instead of adhering 
to long-established rules that required the university to either declare
 financial exigency, meaning a crisis in which there is no option but to
 terminate appointments of tenured faculty, or to follow the lengthy 
established process for program termination. Passed in January 2021 by 
KBOR, the policy was meant to give universities a tool to deal with the 
financial stress of the pandemic, lower enrollments and tight budgets. 
None of the six state universities implemented the policy, although the 
University of Kansas flirted with it before an intense backlash from 
faculty and students.The KBOR policy was slated to expire July 1 of this year, but in June the regents extended it for another six months.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663100887867.png" alt=" After the official announcement of Ken Hush being voted the next president of Emporia State University, Hush spent time talking with the faculty, staff, students and community members who attended the event. (Margaret Mellott/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> After the official announcement of Ken Hush being voted the next president of Emporia State University, Hush spent time talking with the faculty, staff, students and community members who attended the event. (Margaret Mellott/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>The same week KBOR extended the “workforce management” policy, it 
also hired a new president for Emporia State: Ken Hush. An ESU alum and 
former college tennis star, Hush had <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/12/18/at-emporia-state-a-former-grad-holds-fort-while-campus-waits/">served as interim president</a>
 since November 2021. Hush is a former CEO of Koch Carbon and, according
 to the Federal Election Commission database, a contributor of tens of 
thousands of dollars to KochPAC, which predominately funds conservative 
candidates for Congress.Hush’s appointment as president came as a surprise to campus because 
many assumed a presidential search would select someone from the outside
 with an advanced degree. Hush holds a dual major bachelor’s, in 
business and marketing, making him <a target="_blank" href="http://www.esubulletin.com/campus_commons/hush-holds-fewest-degrees-among-kbor-chiefs/article_017d2dea-28b6-11ed-ab60-8ff9d0fdec3e.html">the least academically credentialed</a> of the leaders of the six universities in Kansas.The presidential search process, unlike all previous searches at ESU,
 was a closed one, veiled in secrecy. There was no announcement of 
finalists or opportunities for faculty, students and staff to evaluate 
them, whoever they were. The chairman of the search committee was 
another former ESU tennis athlete, Greg Kossover — and a major donor to 
the new tennis complex on campus.The selection of Hush at first seemed an odd fit.Although he had served on the Wichita State University board of 
trustees, he didn’t have a deep background in public service in a 
classroom setting. He had run a Koch company that specialized in bulk 
commodities of coal and petroleum coke, and contributed heavily to a PAC
 that funded candidates who were often climate change deniers.The libertarian Koch brothers, of course, kicked off the current 
culture war during the Obama years with their support of the Tea Party. 
The university and KBOR both refused to release a resume or curriculum 
vitae for Hush, something that most schools share with pride.Even before school started this fall, Hush put his foot in his mouth <a target="_blank" href="http://www.esubulletin.com/campus_commons/new-prez-says-i-laugh-at-criticism-about-butcher-closure-then-he-regrets-word-choice/article_191f1e20-1b7f-11ed-8ddf-eb6b24db73d5.html">when talking to the editor of the campus newspaper</a>, saying &nbsp;“I laugh” at criticism of his decision to close a program that offered <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/07/26/emporia-state-university-to-close-child-care-center-despite-student-and-faculty-objections/">the only child care on campus</a>. Such condescension seems a feature, not a bug.It all makes perfect sense now, considering how devalued higher 
education has become. We are quickly moving toward an oligarchy where 
only money and power matter. What has traditionally been rewarded in 
higher education, merit in the form of academic achievement and 
expertise in a discipline, is sneered at because it doesn’t make it 
rain.There is little recognition at ESU that a public university serves a 
broader good, to the community and to the state, than just providing 
workers. I’ve always believed higher education was mostly involved in 
making citizens. But I guess the laugh is on me. Those in power are 
looting the culture of higher education like somebody would after a fire
 or a tornado or any other disaster.Or a pandemic.It will be a loss for the students, for the community and for the state.I’m not against change. Innovation is necessary. But one of the goals
 of tenure is to protect institutions from sudden and catastrophic 
change.“Tenure promotes stability,” says the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.aaup.org/issues/tenure">American Association of University Professors</a>.
 “Faculty members who are committed to the institution can develop ties 
with the local community, pursue ongoing research projects, and mentor 
students and beginning scholars over the long term.”Tenure also doesn’t protect professors from being fired for the kinds
 of things you would expect others to be fired for. Professors are 
subject to termination for chronic low performance or sexually 
assaulting a student, for example. That’s how it should be.Tenure serves the public interest because society benefits when 
teachers and researchers are free of control by corporations, religious 
groups, special interests, and the government, according to the AAUP.“Free inquiry, free expression, and open dissent are critical for 
student learning and the advancement of knowledge,” the association 
says. “Therefore, it is important to have systems in place to protect 
academic freedom. Tenure serves that purpose.”Academic freedom is “of special concern to the First Amendment,” 
according to Justice William Brennan in a seminal 1967 Supreme Court 
decision, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/15/keyishian-v-board-of-regents">Keyishian v. Board of Regents</a>.
 He wrote, “Our Nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic 
freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely the 
teachers concerned.”If that statement seems a little pie-in-the-sky for you, consider those <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/24856:global-index-finds-most-countries-do-not-respect-academic-freedom-and-shows-signs-of-decline">countries that do not</a>
 protect academic freedom, according to the Global Academic Freedom 
Index published by Education International. North Korea and China are 
among the worst offenders on the list.“Academic freedom is part of the essential rights to maintain strong 
democracies,” according to EI. “High quality, independent research can 
serve as a sound basis for public decision-making and democratic debate.
 In recent years disinformation, often instantly and massively 
transmitted by social media, has distorted debate, spread hatred, and 
polarised opinion. A dramatic example is the spread of false information
 on global warming.”What now for ESU?Faculty members do not know.But it just might be a country club for young fossil fuel 
entrepreneurs, each with a copy of “Atlas Shrugged” tucked beneath an 
elbow, drifting through an undergraduate “experience” complete with 
tennis courts and classrooms free of the inane nattering of humanities 
types like me.Max McCoy is an award-winning author and journalist. A native Kansan, he started his career at the Pittsburg Morning Sun and was soon writing for national magazines. His investigative stories on unsolved murders, serial killers and hate groups earned him first-place awards from the Associated Press Managing Editors and other organizations.&nbsp;Max teaches journalism at Emporia State University.

OPINION: Emporia State is about to suspend tenure: Here’s why you should care

By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development&nbsp;

“Kon'nichiwa.” That is hello in Japanese. Today, a shipment from the United States is arriving in Japan. It’s some samples of specialty, high quality pork produced by a family halfway around the globe in rural Kansas.

Kaden and Emily Roush are the owners of R Family Farms and a local grocery store in Lebanon, Kan. Kaden grew up in Lebanon on a crop and livestock farm. Five generations of his family have been involved in agriculture.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Hog production was a major part of the Roush family operation until the hog market crash of the 1990s. As described by the family’s website: “However, out of the ashes sprang an opportunity for an energetic little boy, a few sows, and a 4-H project.”&nbsp;

Young Kaden Roush was that little boy.&nbsp;

Roush enrolled in the swine project in 4-H, raised pigs and showed them successfully at the county fair. Soon he was selling extra pigs to fellow 4-H members.&nbsp;

In the process, Roush developed a knack for livestock evaluation. He would develop and use those skills on the livestock judging teams at Allen Community College in Iola and then Kansas State University. The national judging team tours gave Roush the opportunity to observe diversity in agriculture and potential opportunities for marketing pork.&nbsp;

Roush soon met Emily. She was raised on a three-generation wheat, corn and soybean farm near the rural community of Iola, population 5,396 people. Now, that’s rural.&nbsp;

Emily was active in FFA. After studying at Allen Community College, she finished her degree in agronomy at K-State and married Kaden. He earned a degree in agribusiness with a major in animal science.&nbsp;

Together, Kaden and Emily’s families embody more than two centuries of history of caring for the land and animals.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Kaden and Emily thought about the opportunities for niche marketing of pork and decided to move back to his home area to launch a specialty hog enterprise. They named it R Family Farms. The Roush website states about Emily: “Although pigs were not her first love (or second, for that matter), she quickly grew to love them and joyfully welcomed them as a part of her future.”&nbsp;

The Roush’s vision was to educate consumers about where their food comes from while providing a world-class culinary experience. To do so, they chose to raise the Berkshire breed of hogs.&nbsp;

In 2015, R Family Farms broke ground on a new hog facility. The first Berkshire pigs arrived in January 2016. Today, R Family Farms is home to 75 sows that farrow all year long. The resulting litters are raised to market weight.&nbsp;About half of the meat is sold by private label and half to vendors in Missouri. In 2019, they shipped samples to Japan.&nbsp;&nbsp;Meanwhile, Kaden works as a loan officer at a local bank and Emily serves as Lebanon city clerk.&nbsp;

The family needed a specific outlet for their specialty Berkshire pork. They were supplying pork to a national chain of organic whole food stores when the chain cancelled their contract. It appeared to be a disaster.&nbsp;

Then they were contacted by Paradise Locker Meats in Paradise, Mo. That company was selling Berkshire pork to high-end restaurants and suddenly found that their source could not supply it.&nbsp;

“It was divine intervention,” Emily said. “We lost our contract and he’d lost his supplier.&nbsp;&nbsp;He needed the number of hogs that we had.”&nbsp;

The Roush’s farm supplied the pork and Paradise Locker Meats filled the order. The two businesses have worked together ever since.&nbsp;

Today, R Family Farms is using old-style outdoor production practices combined with modern day technology to bring superior quality pork to market.&nbsp;

For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rfamilyfarmsks.com/">www.rfamilyfarmsks.com</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;

It’s time to leave Japan, which was the recipient of these Berkshire pork samples produced halfway around the world in Kansas. We salute Kaden and Emily Roush of R Family Farms for making a difference with innovative marketing of their products.&nbsp;

It’s time to say goodbye – or as they say in Japan, “Sayonara.”&nbsp;

And there’s more.&nbsp;&nbsp;Remember that the Roush family owns a grocery store?&nbsp;&nbsp;We’ll learn about that next week.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1662555942364.png" alt="Screen Shot 2022-09-07 at 8.05.22 AM.png" />
 <figcaption>Screen Shot 2022-09-07 at 8.05.22 AM.png</figcaption>
 </figure>By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development&nbsp;“Kon'nichiwa.” That is hello in Japanese. Today, a shipment from the United States is arriving in Japan. It’s some samples of specialty, high quality pork produced by a family halfway around the globe in rural Kansas.Kaden and Emily Roush are the owners of R Family Farms and a local grocery store in Lebanon, Kan. Kaden grew up in Lebanon on a crop and livestock farm. Five generations of his family have been involved in agriculture.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Hog production was a major part of the Roush family operation until the hog market crash of the 1990s. As described by the family’s website: “However, out of the ashes sprang an opportunity for an energetic little boy, a few sows, and a 4-H project.”&nbsp;Young Kaden Roush was that little boy.&nbsp;Roush enrolled in the swine project in 4-H, raised pigs and showed them successfully at the county fair. Soon he was selling extra pigs to fellow 4-H members.&nbsp;In the process, Roush developed a knack for livestock evaluation. He would develop and use those skills on the livestock judging teams at Allen Community College in Iola and then Kansas State University. The national judging team tours gave Roush the opportunity to observe diversity in agriculture and potential opportunities for marketing pork.&nbsp;Roush soon met Emily. She was raised on a three-generation wheat, corn and soybean farm near the rural community of Iola, population 5,396 people. Now, that’s rural.&nbsp;Emily was active in FFA. After studying at Allen Community College, she finished her degree in agronomy at K-State and married Kaden. He earned a degree in agribusiness with a major in animal science.&nbsp;Together, Kaden and Emily’s families embody more than two centuries of history of caring for the land and animals.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kaden and Emily thought about the opportunities for niche marketing of pork and decided to move back to his home area to launch a specialty hog enterprise. They named it R Family Farms. The Roush website states about Emily: “Although pigs were not her first love (or second, for that matter), she quickly grew to love them and joyfully welcomed them as a part of her future.”&nbsp;The Roush’s vision was to educate consumers about where their food comes from while providing a world-class culinary experience. To do so, they chose to raise the Berkshire breed of hogs.&nbsp;In 2015, R Family Farms broke ground on a new hog facility. The first Berkshire pigs arrived in January 2016. Today, R Family Farms is home to 75 sows that farrow all year long. The resulting litters are raised to market weight.&nbsp;About half of the meat is sold by private label and half to vendors in Missouri. In 2019, they shipped samples to Japan.&nbsp;&nbsp;Meanwhile, Kaden works as a loan officer at a local bank and Emily serves as Lebanon city clerk.&nbsp;The family needed a specific outlet for their specialty Berkshire pork. They were supplying pork to a national chain of organic whole food stores when the chain cancelled their contract. It appeared to be a disaster.&nbsp;Then they were contacted by Paradise Locker Meats in Paradise, Mo. That company was selling Berkshire pork to high-end restaurants and suddenly found that their source could not supply it.&nbsp;“It was divine intervention,” Emily said. “We lost our contract and he’d lost his supplier.&nbsp;&nbsp;He needed the number of hogs that we had.”&nbsp;The Roush’s farm supplied the pork and Paradise Locker Meats filled the order. The two businesses have worked together ever since.&nbsp;Today, R Family Farms is using old-style outdoor production practices combined with modern day technology to bring superior quality pork to market.&nbsp;For more information, see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rfamilyfarmsks.com/">www.rfamilyfarmsks.com</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;It’s time to leave Japan, which was the recipient of these Berkshire pork samples produced halfway around the world in Kansas. We salute Kaden and Emily Roush of R Family Farms for making a difference with innovative marketing of their products.&nbsp;It’s time to say goodbye – or as they say in Japan, “Sayonara.”&nbsp;And there’s more.&nbsp;&nbsp;Remember that the Roush family owns a grocery store?&nbsp;&nbsp;We’ll learn about that next week.&nbsp;

Opinion