Unfettered Letters

Child-support laws

There is an additional flaw in the “Some will pay, despite DNA” come-hell–or-high-water approach to child support (12/31, Local, “Advocates push for law allowing men wrongly declared as fathers to prove the mistake”), and that is the custodial parent, the recipient of the money, has no legal responsibility to the non-custodial parent or the court to show “proper” use of the money.
Look at the effort the judicial system takes to get the money from the non-custodial parent, but there is no requirement or legal audit to show that the money is spent for the child’s benefit. The system needs to include an accountability of the money paid. This myopic approach to the child support needs to be fixed.
John Boyer
Leavenworth

Child support enforcement

After reading “New child support enforcement used; Kansas officials now check applicant names on hunting, fishing licenses for anyone who owes $5,000 or more” by David Klepper (10/29, Local), all I could do was shake my head and laugh. Most people paying child support are men, but does Kansas actually think they all hunt and fish?

What about all those deadbeats who don’t hunt or fish? When are they going to be tracked down and made to pay child support? This issue is so big, and nothing really seems to be done to make these deadbeats pay. Kansas needs to implement this program with driver’s licenses’ and tag renewal, not hunting and fishing licenses. Once they find these people, Kansas then needs to start garnishing wages and taking tax returns to get these deadbeats on track.

To many of those owed money, this current program will seem like a joke, not a solution.

Pier Miller
Lee’s Summit

Editor’s note: Kansas can impose driving restrictions for parents who owe more than $500 in back child support.

A sign of the times? Deadbeat parents do not care enough about their children to pay child support, but they will pay up in order to get a hunting license.

M. Dinkmeyer
Gladstone