Senate Bill 602

proposed by Senator Victor Callahan is a crock of shit. I just left a forum at Chrisman High School hosted by Mr. Callahan where he out and out lied to his constituents. This bill would allow residents of western Independence who live in the KCMO School District to vote to leave that district. Then another vote by the state legislature would give these schools to the Independence School District. There are 7 schools involved.

Callahan had some alarming statistics. The one that caught my attention was that in 2 years there have been 543 calls to these schools by the Independence police. Callahan claimed that translates to the cops being called to each of these 7 schools 2 to 3 times a day. Do the math, folks. There are 175 days in a school year. You will see that 543 calls to 7 schools in 2 years is nowhere near 2 to 3 calls a day in each school.

Callahan also claimed that the KC schools lack computers. This is blatantly false. And he claimed the schools are not air conditioned. Another lie. At least 4 of the 7 schools are indeed air conditioned.

Callahan said to one woman who was a western Independence resident "I want to help you and your POOR children." She didn't appear to be offended, but I find that remark incredibly insensitive and just downright rude.

Callahan's bill which would allow these residents of western Independence to leave the KC District excludes the other residents of the KC School District. Why is it fair to ignore them? This plan would definitely have an effect on them and their children.

Now it could be that the people who live in western Independence do indeed want to leave the KC School District. That would not surprise me. And I believe they have the right to air their grievances and to make that choice. But why is Callahan lying to them to persuade them to support his bill?

Smells very fishy to me.

... is redundant.

Having dealt with him when he was on the county legislature, I can attest that Callahan and honesty are two ships that pass in the night. I'm honestly surprisd he's not a Repugnantcan since they share the same penchant for believing "truth" is a quality that can be shaped and molded to conform to one's agenda.

after the legislature cut Medicaid. I am sorry now I ever said anything nice about him.

In hindsight, that must have just been a stunt. I didn't know anything about him back then.

Facts leave him befuddledUh, oh. Missouri state Sen. Victor Callahan is angry at The Star — again. And once again he doesn’t have his facts straight.

Upset over a recent Star editorial on one of his bills concerning some schools in Independence, Callahan distributed a mailing to his constituents saying the newspaper “does not pay taxes to the Kansas City School District” on its new downtown printing plant.

This is simply not true. The newspaper will pay millions of dollars a year in taxes on new presses and other non-real estate property. Plus The Star will continue to pay property taxes based on the value of the buildings that once were on the printing plant site. Much of this money goes to the school district.

Like many other businesses, The Star did receive a partial tax exemption in connection with its decision to further invest in the downtown area. But it was for only 10 years — not the 25 years that Callahan claimed in his mailing.

The editorial that irritated Callahan dealt with his bill to enable Sugar Creek and parts of western Independence to leave the Kansas City School District for the Independence School District.

Callahan said in his mailing that The Star had opposed his plan. Wrong again. The editorial simply said the public needed more information — the proposal’s cost, for example — to make a judgment.

Callahan is certainly free to disagree with our views on his legislation. But his chronic inaccurate information has merely undermined his own credibility.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/14145912.htm

If I did my math right, it's about 1 call per week to each school.

543 calls divided by 350 school days is 1.55 calls per day.
Split among 7 schools, that's about .22 calls per day, per school.
With 5 days in a school week, that's about 1 call per week to each school.

Where did Victor Callahan learn math?

Tha actual number for the one middle school is 76 calls in 2 years. Since there are 36 weeks in a school year, your estimate of 1 call per week is pretty close.

But here is another sticky point. Many of the calls turn up no evidence of students involved in criminal activity. A school administrator gave an example of a neighbor having property vandalized over a weekend and she called the school to complain to the police officer there (most middle and high schools now have full time cops in the building every day - not only in KC but all over the metro area). So that call is counted, even though the students were not in school when the vandalism took place. It gets counted since the cop stationed at the school took the report. If there was a car accident in front of the school and the school cop took the report (since he is so close by) then that would count as police activity at the school, even if it involves no students.

The funny thing is Callahan made several references to 'funny statistics' when he was slamming the KC School District but his own statistics were the funniest ones presented, IMO.