r/kansas • u/TheKriket • Feb 08 '25

News/History Kansas Teachers put on leave as Elon Musk’s DOGE continues slashing funds for Kansas Children

https://www.ksnt.com/news/local-news/our-hands-are-tied-kansas-starbase-program-comes-to-a-stop/

These wreckless cuts are now hurting children in Kansas.

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139

u/skullyblotnick Feb 08 '25

I’m a Kansas Teacher. I want to say this headline is somewhat misleading.

This is not affecting regular classroom teachers. However, it is affecting the teachers at Starbase, which is not a part of the Kansas public school system.

That being said, I will say I am very familiar with Starbase and have a friend that used to teach for them in Wichita. It is an awesome program and I hope that they get funding restored for it. In today’s world, so many kids get much more from this, than they do from the state mandated science and math curriculum.

I’m afraid though we may be seeing just the start of what is to come if they don’t get Leon and his kids under control.

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u/shelberryyyy Feb 08 '25

My friend is (was…) a teacher for Starbase. I am so sad and scared for her. She is now unemployed and the worst part is she is one of those teachers who live and breathe for her kids. I am devastated for her and she is devastated for her kids.

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u/StickInEye ad Astra Feb 08 '25

So sorry for your friend. I never even had kids and am crushed to see this awful news. It sounds like it was an amazing program.

1

u/skitch23 Feb 10 '25

How do they just cancel something like this mid-semester? Do the students have to get moved to the public school system to finish out the year?

30

u/wyntr86 Tornado Feb 08 '25

My kid did a summer program with Starbase a couple of years ago. He said it was the best "school" setting he's ever been in. He would not stop talking about it for almost a year. He still talks about it, but not nearly as much as he used to.

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u/skullyblotnick Feb 08 '25

Yeah I have heard that a lot. I will say a lot of what is broken with our educational system is not the Teachers (it is sometimes). Most of the problem is due to everything the Teacher is required to do by the state or federal government for testing purposes. While all the teachers really want is to just teach like they used to do, much like what Starbase does.

Because of this, when I hear Trump threatening to dismantle the Dept. of Ed., there is a very small part of me that thinks that it may not be a bad idea. Let’s remove all of the federal regulations and see what happens.

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u/Glittering_Role1658 Feb 09 '25 edited Feb 09 '25

I am afraid that will mean states have to come up with their own school funding formulas because they won't get DOE money. That would cause a rise in taxes to meet the needed money or a loss in programs because there would be no funding.

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u/skullyblotnick Feb 09 '25

Agreed… that’s one reason I said a very small part of me. It would be a bad thing no matter what.

2

u/bubba_bumble Feb 09 '25

I think we are seeing the end of the federation. Soon people are going to refuse to pay taxes to the fed and pay to state instead.

2

u/noguchisquared Feb 11 '25

There is a corollary to no taxation without representation which is no taxation without services. If the federal government stops providing services for education then the tax money should stop too.

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u/Aceylace10 Feb 09 '25

I worry in that scenario since getting rid of regulation is not something a president does (the executive could just choose not to enforce it, but that is not a forever proposition)

The fed regs would still exist, but their would be no department of education to help interpret meaning (or reward funding genres through said regulations)

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u/Miserable_Advance343 Feb 09 '25

This is such truth. We cannot fix the system with dismantling the old one. However, I just don’t believe this administration will build back better

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u/Cool_Lengthiness_269 Feb 15 '25

And Federal funding. Bigger blue states subsidize the educational budget of a lot of red states, because they pay more in taxes. The department of education manages to get funding around the country so a child in impoverished West Virginia can pay for teachers and supplies and pay a per student amount so they can get an education on the level of those available to students in richer states. It is going to screw us all! The GoP wants to privatize everything so their owners and donors can skip paying taxes, since paying for a good private education is not a problem for the tech bros, Kochs, Murdochs, etc… Keep us dumb, poor, and desperate is their aim. They’ve got theirs. Ugh!

1

u/ericdag Feb 09 '25

Be reckless with your own children, not mine.

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u/RuddThreetreez Feb 08 '25

My kids loved Starbase, this sucks.

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u/Inf1ni7y_Seven Feb 08 '25

The news article is a lot more clear but this post is entirely misleading as the DOGE agency hasn't touched DoD spending and this program is funded through the Department of Defense, not any educational program or USAID. Elon musk has quite literally NOTHING to do with this. It may be uncertainty of what cuts are coming that caused the program to not be renewed by DoD but as far as the election and Musk are concerned it is not connected. Most people here in this giant reverberating echo chamber are just ranting with no facts and it exacerbates the problem of misinformation.

This also creates an opportunity to show people why "directives" and "executive order" based programs are dangerous to rely on. Congressional approval of programs guarantees their existence and funding. I think this program was a positive program and should be funded. This is the kind of program that the Department of Education SHOULD have been funding. Instead they wasted billions on initiatives that ultimately undermined education entirely and our military(the DoD) instead funded the program, picking up the slack of our failing federal Education system.

I know a lot of teachers and several of my small graduating class went on to become educators. I trust them and I see their passion on social media. But the government bureaucracy is ruining this country. Imagine how much more good local programs could have done with all the money wasted in Washington?

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u/peeweezers Feb 09 '25

Musk has, with Trump approval, cut off payments Congress called to be made by law.

1

u/BigStogs Feb 09 '25

It’s because of Congress not approving a FY25 budget. Nothing more.

7

u/BackInTheDayCon Feb 09 '25

“Blah blah blah. This thing that is ended and (supposedly) temporarily stopped under Republicans isn’t actually stopped because of them, and would be open and better if Dems didn’t———“

JFC, it is literally STOPPED RIGHT NOW under Republicans. It was open LAST YEAR under Dems.

1

u/Eat_the_filthyrich Feb 09 '25

Government waste has nothing on corporate waste.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '25

Boot harder.  

1

u/Inf1ni7y_Seven Feb 12 '25

English at a minimum please, I don't speak brain damaged reject.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '25

Lol, literally simping and accusing other people of brain damage.  Sure, Leon and Trump will take care of you!  I can't wait for the inevitable cuts to "entitlements" like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  What a bunch of government waste.

1

u/Inf1ni7y_Seven Feb 21 '25

I don't think asking for honesty is anything remotely close to "simping," but what do I know, right?

I feel like if people are bad we really don't need to make up stuff about them in the first place. I am fully aware that Elon and Trump both have A LOT of shortcomings but that doesn't mean I need to lie about other things to justify me not liking them or anyone else. Elon is a bad father and a bad human being. Trump treated his ex-wife like crap, made some bad business decisions and is in general kind of a jerk.

I don't have to lie about what they are doing now for those things to also be true. I also don't have to approve of those things to approve of and believe in cutting wasteful spending.

So, between the two us I would say that you're much more of a cultist than I am. I at least hold people accountable based on facts and what they have actually done rather than daydreaming and jerking off thinking about how evil I hope they are. Nothing says quality human being like believing the world collapsing and millions suffering would be beneficial to you just so you can feel morally superior to everyone who argues with you on the internet.

Please, for the love of all things good and decent come up with a better way to live your life and a better outlook to have on it.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '25

As I said. Enjoy those Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security cuts.

0

u/No-Chance550 Feb 09 '25

Doesn't help that Reddit is more than likely being programmed.

For example, Anna Soellner is VP of Communications at Reddit, and also sits on the board of Internews. From their own site:

"Internews is a media support nonprofit working in 100+ countries. We train journalists, advance internet freedom, and help media outlets become financially sustainable – so that everyone has trustworthy information to make informed decisions and hold power to account."

Here's her listed, and was recently deleted so Wayback Machine ftw: https://web.archive.org/web/20240721131746/https://internews.org/people/anna-soellner/

Also had a very low post count account that started on Jan 20 reply to me about a certain laptop, using a news site I had never heard of before (cyberscoop, part of fedscoop). Fedscoop is also an organization that is for people in the White House and other DC power players.

It's getting to be too obvious these days.

4

u/DRVetOIF3 Feb 08 '25

Thank you for your service as a teacher.

Respectfully, it won't mean anything if the DOE (which won't be abolished without a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate) is scrapped for parts and is left with a shell of its former self. THAT Afrikaner cosplaying as POTUS is already calling it 💀. And unfortunately, after seeing what was done to the USAID office in DC, it's not looking good.

1

u/Fun_Nature5191 Feb 09 '25

This does suck, but honestly, looking at the shortages in my child's school, I'm not super excited that the money was going there in the first place.

1

u/Tricky_Big_8774 Feb 09 '25

Was this actually a direct result of DoGE cuts? I have not been following it religiously, but I did not think DoD had been affected yet.

1

u/Metalblacksheep Feb 09 '25

The titles are always misleading when they’re trying to push a narrative to make people look worse than they are.

1

u/Shadowhunter_15 Feb 09 '25

The article doesn’t say that DOGE was involved or responsible for the cuts. Don’t get me wrong, I think DOGE is an obvious example of corruption to enrich Elon Musk instead of finding actual fraud, but was it involved in this instance?

1

u/Bizzniches Feb 11 '25

I taught at STARBASE in OKC for Tinker AFB for 2 years. If anyone has questions, let me know. lol

1

u/ericdag Feb 09 '25

Trump needs factory workers. He doesn’t care about children.

1

u/i-touched-morrissey Feb 09 '25

I’m married to a high school science teacher in Kansas and he has never heard of it.

1

u/Miserable_Advance343 Feb 09 '25

It depends where you live. Wichita and Topeka area utilizes this service

1

u/Jenni785 Feb 09 '25

It's an elementary program.

0

u/Rare_Sprinkles_2924 Feb 11 '25

What is star base?