Opinion

Numbers show teamwork is wildly effective at SCCC

SAINTS PERSPECTIVE, SCCC President Brad Bennett

Last year, Seward County Community College recorded tremendous growth in enrollment — 16 percent up. Now that we’ve reached the midpoint of academic year 2024-25, our official certification numbers are in, and we’re thrilled all over again. Student headcount at SCCC is up by 17 percent.

At a time when higher education is grappling with rising costs, and a culture shift that began with the pandemic, many folks in our sector are discouraged. But that is not the story at Seward. I attribute our success to a campus-wide commitment to one goal: recruiting, enrolling, and retaining more students. In other words, enrollment growth.

Walz’ state ed department appointee: ‘The United States needs to be deconstructed, period.’

GUEST COLUMN, Stanley Kurtz, The National Review

Brian Lozenski, an associate professor of urban and multicultural education at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minn., was appointed by Governor Tim Walz’s state education department to help write the statewide “implementation framework” (similar to a curriculum) for Minnesota’s new “ethnic studies” standards. It now emerges that Lozenski has called for the “overthrow” of the United States.

The plan of reconciliation

MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

We often see that unlikely people are used in spite of failures because of their trust in God and His faithfulness. Adam and Eve in the Garden sinned, but even then God had a plan of reconciliation in mind. He prophetically pronounced curses: enmity between the serpent and Eve, hatred and hostility between her seed and his. From then on, Satan has sought to injure us, but eventually “the seed of woman” will crush him.

Smilin’ Don

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

He probably never knew it, but around the newspaper office throughout the years we referred to Don Witzke as “Smilin’ Don.”

Back when we used to have to build a lot more real estate ads than we do today, Don’s ad was a regular, and a friend of mine handled his account.

Mike sold the ads, and I built them, and we were always part of the skeleton crew that worked on Saturdays.

Kansas’s economic freedom lags behind neighbors: a path to growth

GUEST COLUMN, David Dorsey, Kansas Policy Institute

With the Federal Reserve recently cutting its federal funds rate target by 50 basis points to a range of 4.75 percent to 5 percent, Kansas must reassess its economic policies to prepare for the challenges ahead. Lower interest rates may offer short-term relief by reducing borrowing costs, but the continued risk of inflation demands long-term reforms. Kansas can withstand the economic uncertainty created by the Fed by state policymakers taking proactive steps to reform taxes, reduce spending, and deregulate to improve economic freedom and opportunity.