Kansas Gov. Brownback's fake "town hall" meetings on Child Poverty

Brownback

Kari Ann Rinker, National Organization for Women (NOW), Kansas, reports the following, cross-posted in Alternet, about how Kansas' Gov. Brownback plans to address the fact that Kansas has the highest infant mortality in the United States of America.

      ...Participants are required to register in advance and provide their personal information. Online registration, in and of itself, creates barriers to participation for those living in poverty, who do not have access to the Internet.
     A woman who answered the hotline for inquiries informed the caller that they would not be allowed entrance unless pre-registered. There will be pre-assigned seating at tables with 8-10 other pre-registered people. A facilitator will be placed at each table to monitor the discussion.  The facilitator will select the questions to be voiced. The meeting will last 3 hours and takes place in the middle of a weekday.

    Governor Brownback has some serious control issues.  There have been closed door discussions on faith based marriage initiatives, a lack of transparency with proposed tax restructuring and a refusal to comply with an open records request regarding the drafting of proposed abortion clinic regulations.

     ..If we want to meet the needs of children, we must provide adequate healthcare to adults. One in five Kansas children are living in poverty. There are 347,400 uninsured individuals in Kansas and nearly 75,000 of them are children.  Now is not the time to consider the elimination of corporate and state taxes, as has been proposed by Governor Brownback.