With all due respect, I think it is you who mixed up billions and millions, not me. 522 million is very different from the 500.000 million (ie. 500 billion) you mentioned earlier, about a factor 1000, three zero’s. I fully agree it is a shame they voted against it, and I’d say it is indeed pathetically insufficient in the first place (about 60 to 70 USD extra per pupil/year). A shame, unconscionable and asinine in the long run. I side with your State Supreme Court there.

Don’t get your billions and millions mixed up. The state house in Kansas voted against 65-55. The bill was to add $522 million over 5 years. The current spending is $4 billion a year but the state supreme court said not enough. Now there is another bill to add $817 million over the 5 years.

The previous governor and congress cut taxes so much, they know they would have to increase taxes to do more. They don’t want to do it. Remember, one of the big differences between state govt. and fed govt. is the states must balance the budget. If they spend it they must also raise it. Too bad the fed does not have to do the same.

Did you note that ‘Aliens’ are most often either inspired by either human foetus, or by octopus?Even the arthropod-like aliens in “The 4th of July” has a kind of embryonic ‘humanoid’ inside.

Very sensible indeed, methinks.
In a comparison of 11 countries, only South Africa beats the US in number of police killings. (the table is admittedly not measuring the same year). Countries like Finland and Norway have negligeable numbers of deaths (0), and surprisingly Denmark has 71 per 100 million inhabitants/year. The USA and South Africa stick out in that list with respectively 342 and 634 deaths/100 million/y. (South Africa has, of course a vertiginous crime and murder rate, most (not all) police killings are in shoot-outs with gangs. South African police have a very high death rate themselves).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_firearm_use_by_country

Oops, they voted against I see.

Will Kansas spend 500 000 million USD over 5 years? That sounds like quite a bit, 100 billion/year. Does not sound that little. Kansas having just under 3 million inhabitants that would mean about 34.000 USD/y for every inhabitant. If about half the population is of school-going age, that would mean 60 to 70.000 USD/y per pupil. Does a pupil cost that much per year? Did you not add a zero somewhere?
Arming teachers, I think we all agree, is inane.

It’s terrible the way teachers are treated in some states in the US. Many states get it right, but others are abysmal. They just don’t seem to understand the importance of education.

That’s another one where I think our system helps. All teachers that teach in state-funded schools have to be trained teachers. The government is also gradually raising the required education level of teachers too. They are looking at the example of Finland where the minimum education level of teachers is a Masters degree and teaching is seen as one of the most prestigious careers. It improves the quality of teaching which is the #1 thing that makes a difference in outcomes for kids. In some areas your teachers are very poorly paid too, which makes it a really unattractive career for the best people unless they really want to be teachers. People just can’t afford to be teachers in some states, no matter how much they would like to be.

Yeah, our police are much better paid than yours – part of attracting the best to the profession. I don’t know what training yours get, but ours are well trained too. I agree that US police in big cities in particular are probably in a constant state of paranoia which must be had for them, but many also don’t seem to be trained to deal with that. I know it’s not all police though. I think some of your police are really well trained – the problem is that it’s not consistent across the country. There’s also a leadership issue. There are expectations of a high standard of ethics in their personal and well as professional lives here, and these days (it hasn’t always been the case) police do not protect bad officers and are disappointed when a fellow officer lets them down. When you boss id Joe Arpaio, you can’t expect to attract good staff, or the police to act properly. In other places, police appear to be making a real effort to change the culture.

Here, there’s a well know case of a woman who was gang-raped by police over a period of years, and those officers rose to high positions in the force. Eventually the culture became one where they could be prosecuted. Nowadays, she provides education to all recruits that go through police training.

I think it helps that all police in NZ are part of the NZ Police force. There are no separate agencies for different cities, counties, type of policing etc.

(My cousin’s husband is a cop. They live less than 100 metres down the road from me.)

That Sacramento one is outrageous. According to the kid’s family lawyer (Crump) most of the shots were in his back, so he was running away, not towards them. And why did they turn off their microphones?

I’d love to see how an octopus reacts. They’ve done some cool experiments with octopuses, and this could be another one.

Hand guns are the ones that are banned in most other countries. (No one even considers making assault weapons legal for the public in the first place so they’re not part of the equation.) Here, you have to have a gun licence for two years before you can even apply to own a hand gun, and a licence is only rarely approved. Most licences go to people like diplomatic security. It’s almost impossible to get hold of a hand gun. They’re not readily available in gun stores. They have to be especially ordered usually.