tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61094777342202184572024-03-05T20:54:34.598-08:00UFPJ-DVN Education commentaryEducation commentary. Blog was originally devoted to economic effects of Iraq War. All posts by Rich Gardner unless otherwise specified.Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-33366285252385848192016-01-10T14:40:00.001-08:002016-01-10T14:44:11.606-08:00School quality<div style="line-height: 0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The
best education, we have found, and I like to base things on evidence
and not ideology, the best educated: homeschoolers, next best, are
going to be private schoolers, and then charter schoolers and then
public schoolers.</span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
Dr. Ben Carson <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/2016/01/ben-carson-cites-home-schooling-education">Jack
Kemp Foundation Forum</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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I agree
that I'd put home-schooling first, seeing as smaller class size <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/40062283?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">is
correlated</a> with school performance, it makes sense that if you
make the classes really small, you'd get the best possible academic
performance. Two conditions, though. First, you'd need to ensure that
the parent who was doing the teaching had the time and the talent to
properly teach the child. They'd need to be financially able to take
the time for teaching during the day without impacting their basic
standard of living and their financial survival. That might require a
socialist type of organization for society where parents weren't
required to put in so many hours a day into work. Second, I'd hate
for the child to be socially isolated and would prefer to see the
child enrolled in a daily sports program. There may be other and
better ways to see to it that children are not socially isolated, but
I would think that should be a real priority.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But to
prioritize private, charter and public schools into any sort of
hierarchy makes no sense. <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/05/14/31publicprivate.h33.html">There's
never been any evidence</a> that any of these are superior to any
other. Public vs. traditional private schools, there are distinctions
based on admissions. Traditional private schools that serve a wealthy
clientele (I <a href="http://www.bbns.org/">used to work</a> in one
as the receptionist) are essentially skimming off the cream of the
students who are most likely to profit from a really well-funded and
well-organized education.
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Charter
schools do not benefit from capitalism and the innovation that
private companies bring to technical fields because schooling is
overwhelmingly a labor-intensive process. It makes very little
difference to the outcome of schooling whether a schoolteacher is
paid by a local government or a private corporation. Paying teachers
properly and supporting them in their mission is what counts.
Technology is involved to some extent, but technology is nowhere near
as decisive as it is in, say, building windmills for generating wind
power. Showing films via computer as opposed to the old projectors
saves money and makes the teachers job a bit easier, but hardly
results in any obvious bottom-line advantages as what really counts
in educating children is the after-film discussion that the teacher
conducts.</div>
<div style="line-height: 0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Why
would I prioritize public schools and financially starve charter
schools? Because public schools take all comers. They accept everyone
regardless and put whatever resources are needed into educating all
of their charges. Charter schools have a great financial incentive to
toss out under-performing students and to only keep the ones that
will reflect well on the school.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 0.2in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So it's
far from clear what “evidence” Dr. Carson is basing his hierarchy
on. </div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-53806028991167377062015-04-28T07:03:00.000-07:002015-04-30T07:03:38.874-07:00Waste, fraud and abuse in charter schools
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A 2014 report on
charter schools identified $23 million in new cases and $44 million
in old cases of “waste, fraud and abuse” that weren't included in
the 2013 report. In 2015, the reported total was $203 million. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Was
there an increase in mis-spending? <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/28/report-millions-of-dollars-in-fraud-waste-found-in-charter-school-sector/">Actually,
no</a>. And in fact, the next report is expected to uncover <i>even more</i>
expenditures that are simply lining the pockets of charter school
owners and investors as the previous investigations simply weren't
wide-ranging enough to catch all of the waste, fraud and abuse.
</div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-52655895318872242142015-03-30T21:28:00.000-07:002015-03-30T21:33:24.631-07:00Campaign donations to charter schools<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>
<br />
Okay, I found two databases with which to look up campaign
donations in support of charter schools. The first one has been used
to write some pieces on the subject, I used the site <a href="http://www.followthemoney.org/">Follow
The Money</a> to run a query “Show me School Choice Advocates
contributions to ballot measure committees that supported or opposed
Vouchers/Charters ballot measures in elections in 2014 (within
core federal, state, and local data)“ and it turned up
nothing. But this appears to be a good database to use to check on
what's going on with campaign finances.
<br />
<br />
A much more useful site, I ran a query on <a href="https://www.campaignfinanceonline.state.pa.us/pages/CFReportSearchResults.aspx">Campaign
Finance Online</a> for PA and found that a particular contributor,
Joel Greenberg, contributed $350,000 to the Students First PAC in
2014 alone.<br />
<br />
As to general patterns on giving to campaigns that support charter
schools, I saw that in in Washington State, <a href="http://kuow.org/post/10-donors-funded-91-percent-charter-schools-campaign">91%
of the campaign donations</a> came from just 10 donors. Bill Gates, a
Walton heiress and the Amazon people were among the donors. “Of all
of the money raised for the charter school <a href="http://sos.wa.gov/_assets/elections/initiatives/FinalText_274.pdf">initiative</a>,
just one-half of 1 percent came from donations of less than $10,000.”<br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Over the past ten
years, campaign spending in PA <a href="http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/02/big_for-profit_schools_big_don.html">for
and against charter schools</a> has been $10 million for and $8.3
million against.
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.49in;">
Among one of the lobby's biggest
donors is Vahan Gureghian, the CEO of CSMI, which manages the Chester
Community Charter School in Delaware County. According to Follow The
Money, Gureghian pumped $336,000 into the campaign coffers of former
Gov. Tom Corbett - making him his second largest individual donor
over his gubernatorial career.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.49in;"><br>
Gureghian has also donated close to a
million to other Pennsylvania politicians and PACs.</div><br>
The aforementioned Vahan H. Gureghian's Chester Community Charter
School teaches 2,600 students. <a href="http://powerplayers-pa.herokuapp.com/donors/vahan-gureghian-i/">He's
number five</a> on a list of the ten biggest PA political
contributors. Overall, he runs 150 charter schools spread over nine
states.<br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A 2012 piece from
Public Source includes <a href="http://publicsource.org/investigations/top-pennsylvanians-influencing-elections-with-money#.VRoCt1tFDIU">detailed
summaries</a> for the 10 biggest contributors in PA.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.49in;">
<a href="http://powerplayers.publicsource.org/donors/joel-greenberg-i/" target="_blank">Joel
Greenberg</a> and <a href="http://powerplayers.publicsource.org/donors/arthur-dantchik-i/" target="_blank">Arthur
Dantchik</a> are partners in Susquehanna International Group, which
has used lessons from poker to build a successful broker-dealer firm.
The two men spent $446,000 on groups that support vouchers for
private schools such as charter schools. In 2010 their Students First
political action committee contributed $4.9 million to pro-voucher
gubernatorial candidate Anthony Williams, who lost in the Democratic
primary election.</div><br>
Former Governor Corbett was a big recipient of donations from
pro-charter school interests and Republicans generally have received
more, but some Democrats have received money for that purpose as
well.
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-68075030729918854092015-03-28T20:48:00.000-07:002015-03-29T03:23:42.417-07:00Money people and management competence<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So, a charter school
group serves 11,000 students. One of the members of the management
group is a <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/27/1373703/-Teachers-push-for-Los-Angeles-charter-chain-management-to-stay-neutral-in-union-drive">hedge
fund billionaire</a>. High employee turnover is a strong sign of
poor management and this group has so much of it and other problems
that the remaining employees want to form a union.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sears is run by a
hedge fund billionaire and <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/sears-enters--death-spiral---retailer-could-be-gone-by-2017--brian-sozzi-151232559.html">may
be entering a death spiral</a>.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The 2012 Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney ran Bain Capital, not a hedge
fund, but a private equity firm. Pretty similar though, in that the
position meant he made lots and lots of money sitting at a desk. He
served one term as Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, but
by 2012, was so unpopular in that state that he lost MA to Obama 61%
to 38%.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's not that being
a businessman who makes bucket-loads of money hand over fist
necessarily means you're incompetent, it's just that making lots of
money doesn't necessarily make you a good manager.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Will the charter
school group teachers be successful in forming a union? We sure hope
so for the sake of both the teachers and the students, but the hedge
fund billionaire and others are probably going to fight a union tooth
and nail. If the current managers really cared about the teachers and
students, they would have recognized that their group was doing a poor
job and reforms would have been instituted. No, the managers and the
billionaire are in the charter school business to make money and a
union would cut into their stakes in the group.<br />
<br />
So, when Teachout, an organization of teachers and students in New York City, says that hedge fund and Wall Street billionaires are exerting pressure <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/28/thousands-rally-against-cuomos-billionaire-backed-education-scheme">to force schools to accept</a> standardized test scores as a means of evaluating teachers, I think we'd best give the teachers and students the benefit of the doubt and say that depending on standardized test scores is probably not a great idea. </div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-25861181894702117462015-03-23T11:17:00.003-07:002015-03-23T11:17:48.625-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd7GsjNirv91YyZskGFGzqj7VzDbaLq9zkDaCSfC5zwLyDCkRC_uUsS-relTE8qDTgZRC7WTTg5F2ez5QuwFtPoLNy7k25os-G8CKzv8gJoTqPKsC6Kv11Am3FHMCCNFW_R5pEJj4Fvrvb/s1600/11041737_922611857779617_3344492415524310452_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd7GsjNirv91YyZskGFGzqj7VzDbaLq9zkDaCSfC5zwLyDCkRC_uUsS-relTE8qDTgZRC7WTTg5F2ez5QuwFtPoLNy7k25os-G8CKzv8gJoTqPKsC6Kv11Am3FHMCCNFW_R5pEJj4Fvrvb/s1600/11041737_922611857779617_3344492415524310452_n.jpg" height="294" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="fbPhotoContributorName" id="fbPhotoPageAuthorName">
<a data-ft="{"tn":"k"}" data-gt="{"entity_id":"112325855474892","entity_path":"WebPhotoPermalinkController"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=112325855474892" href="https://www.facebook.com/speakupforkids?fref=photo" id="js_4o">Speak Up For Education and Kids</a></div>
<span class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"*G","type":45}" id="fbPhotoPageCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><br />This
cartoon disturbingly depicts today's reality, except that it's from a
1933 edition of Progressive Magazine. Who would you substitute for the
"false economy" symbolized by the man? Learn more about a central player
in the organized effort to dismantle public education, ALEC: <a href="http://educationvotes.nea.org/topics/x-canonical/alec/" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"><span>http://</span><wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>educationvotes.nea.org/</span><wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>topics/x-canonical/alec/</a></span></span>Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-39912440592352488382015-03-01T13:55:00.000-08:002015-03-19T13:57:10.579-07:00How do corporate-private charter schools measure up?
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<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Poorly.
<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/16/1371261/-Boston-lawyers-seek-to-undermine-public-schools-in-the-name-of-civil-rights">Not
only</a> do charter schools fail to “</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">boost
high school graduation rates or pass rates on most Advanced Placement
exams. Another </span></span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #7c470c;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b><a href="http://www.tbf.org/tbf/81/~/media/5C473FE62FFB4914A6513139077E2D26.pdf">study</a></b></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
released this year, found that students who graduate from traditional
Boston public high schools are actually more likely than charter
graduates to earn a college degree or another form of postsecondary
credential within six years.” </span></span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
generally-accepted figure for </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">9</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #242424;"><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">th</span></span></sup></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
all the way to 12</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #242424;"><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">th</span></span></sup></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
grade graduation rates is 85% to 90%. If you're a student, you have
about a nine out of 10 chance of making it all the way to graduation.
How about in a charter school? The rate there is about 60%. </span></span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Who
are the people backing charter schools? Basically lawyers and hedge
fund managers, people with lots of money who have run out of places
to invest it all in. [16 Mar 2015]</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Update:
Yeah, charter schools can use...um...“<a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/florida-college-lured-students-strippers">stimulating</a>”
marketing to get students in their doors to begin with, but that
doesn't solve the retention problem. </span></span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-78412441959176399622015-02-27T06:58:00.000-08:002015-04-30T06:59:54.260-07:00How to distract the public
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<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Two years ago, the
Kansas government had a $700 million budget surplus. Today, that
figure has turned into a $279 million deficit and it's expected to be
a $900 million deficit by 2019. <a href="http://mic.com/articles/112350/2-years-since-cutting-taxes-on-the-rich-kansas-economy-has-become-an-actual-hellscape">Why
is that</a>? It's essentially a case of “Be careful what you wish
for, you might get it.” With a Republican Governor backed by a
Republican legislature, Tea Party-approved policies were put into
place. They've been an absolute, unmitigated disaster. What to do?
What to do? </div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A-ha! Back in 2013,
a state legislator noticed a middle school poster that she thought
was overly sexual and inappropriate for children of that age. Problem
solved! The Kansas Senate <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/02/27/kansas_could_put_teachers_in_prison_for_assigning_books_prosecutors_dont_like/">has
now approved a bill</a> that a liberal opponent has referred to as
“a solution looking for a problem.” Also, “Pilcher-Cook and
other supporters of her measure also say that it’s necessary to
prevent the distribution of pornography in schools — a problem that
has not hitherto arisen.” </div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
All this clearly
makes for a wonderful distraction from the utter failure of Governor
Brownback's economic policies to work in the way they were
advertised.
</div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-72561437443982736812015-01-27T13:54:00.000-08:002015-03-19T13:55:07.732-07:00When state budgets are in trouble.
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<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
economy of Kansas is a disaster because Governor Sam Brownback
insists on making tax cuts that, amazingly enough, do NOT pay for
themselves! They don't operate according to the theory that says they
should be revenue-producers. What to do? Hey, <a href="http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/01/13/kansas-gop-governor-says-he-needs-to-slash-school-funding-after-his-tax-cuts-bankrupts-treasury/">let's
just raid our education fund</a>! Who needs educated children
anyway? They're<i> obviously</i> less important than another tax break for
rich people. [/snark]</span></span></div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-24613153426848652712015-01-25T13:41:00.000-08:002015-03-19T13:58:35.331-07:00Reporting on education <style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>
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<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's
hard to fix a problem when you're poorly informed on exactly what the
problem is and unfortunately, the media is doing a really horrible
job of informing the American public about educational issues. Media
Matters <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/11/20/report-only-9-percent-of-guests-discussing-educ/201659">reported
in November 2014</a> that only 9% of the people discussing education
on TV news shows were educators. Unfortunately, this appears to be
part of a pattern. In January 2015, MMFA also <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/01/28/study-how-broadcast-networks-covered-climate-ch/202232">reported
that only 16%</a> of the people quoted in reports about climate
change were scientists. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alternet
reported in March 2015 that reporters <a href="http://www.alternet.org/education/how-bad-journalism-driving-collapse-our-once-great-public-education-system">who
really don't know what they're talking about</a> on education are
being lionized as “experts” when they're really nothing of the
kind. A real problem a researcher quoted by Alternet was that “the
'experts' who are cited the most often are neither career educators
nor scholars who've published and achieved advanced degrees; rather,
they tend to be individuals from influential right-wing think tanks,
with little to no scholarly work or graduate-level degree work in
education.”
</span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So
if anyone is depending on the traditional media to inform them about
educational problems, they're wasting their time. </span></span>
</div>
<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-13876903460511026752014-10-22T13:36:00.000-07:002015-03-19T13:38:15.330-07:00Reforming education a lot harder than it looks
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<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
average person might think: “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/10/educating-kids-isnt-rocket-science-its-harder/">Education
isn't rocket science</a>.” No, it's a good deal more difficult than
that as it involves understanding and working with human beings.
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Billions
of dollars and millions of hours from reformers have produced very
little in the way of results because those reformers haven't actually
spent much time in schools, learning about what makes learning
different from other fields. “</span><span style="font-size: small;">Unlike working
educators, most leaders in the reform movement have never taught a
five-period day, felt the joy of an unquantifiable classroom victory,
lost instructional time to a standardized test, or been evaluated by
a computer. And unlike the vulnerable students targeted by so much
reform, most policy elites have not gone to school hungry, struggled
to understand standard English, battled low expectations, or feared
for their personal safety on the walk home.”</span></span></div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-15344254538443395442014-10-19T13:34:00.000-07:002015-03-19T13:35:36.060-07:00PA Governor adopts educational plan that will hurt students
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<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
An “unelected,
unaccountable entity charged with school oversight” <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/08/victims-tom-corbett-teachers-contract-philadelphia-unions">abruptly
canceled</a> a state contract with the Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers “and demand new healthcare contributions from its
employees.” The Philadelphia school system had lots of problems
under Governor Corbett, but very few of those problems owed anything
to the schools themselves, most of the problems had to do with
deliberate malfeasance from the Corbett Administration. Having been a
sailor, it was my experience and as my father was also a sailor, it
was his experience too, that we never had to take money out of our
own pockets to fulfill our mission. There were many instances where
we were obliged to do so temporarily, but we always got reimbursed.
Under Corbett, teachers have “to contribute thousands of dollars
out of their own pockets for the most basic supplies.” And of
course, the school bureaucracy under Corbett insists that a mandatory
extra contribution to health care doesn't constitute a reduction in
their paychecks.
</div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-5128803048237055592014-10-14T20:09:00.000-07:002015-04-01T20:12:05.215-07:00How do charter schools make money if they're non-profits? Naturally, no one wants to be paying for a for-profit school as it would then be far too easy to identify excessive charges and then, even if parents didn't make complaints about obvious money-making moves by the school, resentment would grow. The answer is shown in <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/charter-school-power-broker-turns-public-education-into-private-profits">Pro-Publica's piece</a> on profits and schools. Essentially, profits are collected at one remove, with the suppliers of books, furniture, cafeteria food, computers, even teacher training. There is, of course, no competitive bidding for anything as the supply line is set up before the school itself is even built.Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-64689530898964526482014-06-19T13:30:00.000-07:002015-03-19T13:32:03.316-07:00Is education worth spending money on?
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<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The fellow who
replaced Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), the House Majority Leader (Second
in the House after the Speaker) has an, uh, interesting view of
education and spending. "My hero Socrates trained in Plato on a
rock. How much did that cost? So the greatest minds in history became
the greatest minds in history without spending a lot of money."
He has a <a href="http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/david-brat-eric-cantor-common-good-climate-change">lot
of other strange views</a>. Personally, I read I.F. Stone's “<a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780385260329-11">The
Trial of Socrates</a>” and was left considerably less than
impressed with Socrates. I think he was far too abstract a thinker
and could have been more down-to-earth and immediately practical. I
had read Plato's “<a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780486411217-11">The
Republic</a>” in Junior High (Called Middle School these days) and
recall having been pretty unimpressed by that as well. So no, I don't
agree with Rep. David Brat as neither Plato nor Socrates count as “my
hero.”
</div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-58327088379810158642014-05-19T13:28:00.000-07:002015-03-19T13:29:25.505-07:00Charter Schools must obey civil rights laws
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<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/05/15/charter-schools-must-comply-with-u-s-civil-rights-laws-education-dept-says-finally/">Good</a>!
“...the same federal civil rights laws that apply to other public
schools apply equally to public charter schools.”
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The piece also makes
some snarky points about how long the problem has been around.
</div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-91237161572306691542014-01-27T12:22:00.000-08:002015-03-19T14:00:12.033-07:00Backlash against high-stakes school testing<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Seems
parents and students and teach</span></span></span></span>ers
<a href="http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/04/10/mothers-against-drunk-testing/"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">are
against</span></span></a> putting t<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">o</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">o
much reliance into t</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">e</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">sting
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(April
2013)</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Why
are privatized schools (I use that term to distinguish the corporate
schools from traditional private schools that are designed to draw in
wealthier clients) <a href="http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/04/10/mothers-against-drunk-testing/">so
fond of testing</a>? “</span></span></span></span>They
don’t want parents to measure a school on anything other than a
number because they’re not offering anything other than a number.<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“
Privatized schools looking good, in theory anyway, because of the
tests that students constantly take, not because students are turning
out any more thoughtful or competent or skilled. </span></span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-88070573203536002272014-01-25T12:12:00.000-08:002015-03-19T12:21:29.111-07:00Students take exception to privatization<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
About 1,000 students
of a half-a-dozen Newark, NJ, high schools walked out in April 2013
<a href="http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/04/10/newark-students-walk-out-to-protest-privatization-plans-and-budget-cuts/">in
response</a> to Governor Chris Christie's plans to balance the state
budget by taking money out of education.
</div>
<br />
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<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
[Apr 2013]</div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-87892800980448525562014-01-21T12:10:00.000-08:002015-03-19T12:20:49.802-07:00Suspicious test scores<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Michelle Rhee took a
corporate-reform approach to getting better test scores and
graduation rates from her students. It involved the firing of many
teachers and the elimination of tenure. Unfortunately, it also meant
that Rhee did not have any education professionals within her
leadership circle, nor was anyone experienced at running urban school
systems. It appears to have worked, but in April 2013, <a href="http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6232">it
turned out</a> that in her first year as Schools Chancellor in
Washington, DC, she knew that there was a considerable amount of
cheating, erasures of student answers on tests and substitution of
correct answers. Reports of this happening went back to November
2008. The ral problem was that the erasures “suggested widespread
cheating by adults.”
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Unfortunately,
that's a predictable response to high-stakes testing that isn't
difficult to manipulate. Could she have taken a better approach once
cheating was discovered? Perhaps, but “a cheating scandal might
well have implicated her own 'Produce or Else' approach to reform.“
Rhee strongly denied that she was pressuring principals to produce
results regardless of whether students were actually learning more,
but it appears that's exactly what was happening.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="refmark-28"></a>
Has her system actually improved teacher retention, a key measure of
job satisfaction? Actually, no. “For teachers, DCPS has become a
revolving door. Half of all newly hired teachers (both rookies and
experienced teachers) leave within two years; by contrast, the
national average is said to be between three and five years.”</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sadly, “Rhee’s
former deputy is in charge of public schools, and Rhee continues her
efforts to persuade states and districts to adopt her approach to
education reform–an approach, the evidence indicates, did little or
nothing to improve the public schools in our nation’s capital.”</div>
<br />
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<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
[April 2013]</div>
<br />Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-9612847811315508952014-01-18T12:09:00.000-08:002015-03-19T12:20:06.377-07:00Proposal to reform school funding<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In March 2013,
Pennsylvania Representative James Roebuck, Jr., proposed to reform
the way in which cyber and charter school were funded and how they
were called to account for their performance. He estimated the PA
school budget <a href="http://www.pahouse.com/Roebuck/InTheNews/NewsRelease/?id=28977">could
save up to $365 million</a> that way. Included is a chart that shows
exactly what would be affected.
</div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-72934762531733215342014-01-12T10:51:00.000-08:002015-03-19T14:01:56.051-07:00Pleading poverty, Philadelphia closes 23 schools<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">From <a href="http://6abc.com/archive/9018966/">Channel
6</a> (March 2013): “Officials contended the cash-strapped system
couldn't afford to keep open the 27 buildings, more than 10 percent
of the district's schools. Many of them are under-enrolled and in
poor condition. But opponents said the move would irreparably damage
dozens of neighborhoods and further fuel a student exodus from the
district.”
</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The closures were
defended as a response to declining enrollment and a consolidation of
under-attended schools. But money was also a factor. <span style="color: black;">Governor
Corbett tries (April 2013) to <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/10/1200205/-PA-Gov-Pennsylvanians-for-Accountability-Call-Out-Tom-Corbett-s-R-Shell-Game">get
clever</a> with the school budget so that he can pretend th</span><span style="color: black;">at</span><span style="color: black;">
privatization is necessary. But what's </span><span style="color: black;"><i>really
</i></span><span style="color: black;">causing
PA to be short of money are Corbett's tax cuts. A study by the
<a href="http://pennbpc.org/2013-14-budget">Pennsylvania Budget and
Policy Center</a> showed that “</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">corporate
tax breaks that will continue to shift costs to individuals and local
taxpayers, while failing to restore deep cuts to public schools, keep
college affordable for middle-class students, or ensure working
families can obtain basic health care.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Backgrounder
from Truthout as to how private charter schools <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/14610-corporations-advise-school-closings-while-private-charters-suck-public-schools-away">are
sucking money out of the system</a> and causing public schools to be
starved for funds. </span></span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://wearepcaps.org/2013/03/08/video-of-march-7th-school-closings-rally-and-action/">Video
of reaction</a> in front of the School District Building.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.ufpj-dvn.org/ed-com/Eyes-on-Philadelphia-world-is-watching.pdf">Media
summary</a> from PCAPS. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-60024922040337073012014-01-09T10:44:00.000-08:002015-03-19T12:18:48.553-07:00Testimony to the Philadelphia City Council on school closing moratorium <style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.ufpj-dvn.org/ed-com/PennsylvaniaJointBlackRadicalCongressStatementonPublicEducationClosures.pdf">Black
Radical Congress</a> – Recognized that demographic changes meant
some school closings and consolidations were inevitable, but proposed
that charter schools should be closed first. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.ufpj-dvn.org/ed-com/MyTestimonyFacilitiesMP-SchoolClosings-SRC1-17-2013.pdf">Laura
C. Dijilo</a>, PCAPS member - The state of Pennsylvania took over
the schools 10 years ago because the schools were in debt. How has
the state done? The schools are still in debt and underfunded and
even more buildings are in disrepair. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.ufpj-dvn.org/ed-com/Philadelphia-National-Writers-Union-City-Council-Education-Hearing-130212.pdf">Philadelphia
National Writers Union</a> – The PNWU endorses the PCAPS proposals.
</span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://ufpj-dvn.org/ed-com/Testimony-school-closing-moratorium-130202.pdf">UFPJ-DVN
Education Committee</a> – We recognize that the charter school
movement is not driven by parents or students or even by educators,
but by money-seeking corporations. This is an ineffective approach to
education.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://thenotebook.org/blog/135642/what-education-advocates-said-city-council-school-closure-hearings">The
Notebook</a> – Summary of the testimony of four public school
advocates. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
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<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">[February
2013]</span></span></div>
</div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-81395975783153951512014-01-03T10:43:00.000-08:002015-03-19T12:18:13.306-07:00Privatized school vouchers – unpopular but persistent<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }</style>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Despite the
unpopularity of vouchers for corporate private schools, we see a lot
of voucher programs persist anyway, programs that take money out of
the popular public education system and funnel money into an system
that has no real accountability. <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/05/21/168363/billionaires-privatize-education/">Think
Progress</a> examines the cases of several millionaires and
billionaires and their “school choice” front groups.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
[May 2011]</div>
</div>
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-17058046855186362162013-12-27T06:09:00.000-08:002013-12-27T06:09:16.119-08:00Bill Keller and understanding the leftBill Keller was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times from 1984 to 1988, he then became a bureau chief in first Moscow and then Johannesburg, moving up to Foreign Editor and then Managing Editor and then finally up to Executive Editor, where he retired from the Times in 2011. For such a long-time, experienced newspaperman, I found it very disturbing that his view of how the “left-left” (As opposed to the “center-left”) views economic issues <a href="http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/keller-and-krugman-81/">to be so very shallow and uninformed</a>. One would think that with all of the contacts that one with his experience would have, he'd be able to chat with any number of left-leaning people with strong views on the economy. <br /><br />He does a good, quickie summary of economic inequality, but then tries to tell us how the left views the American economy today, where we get comments like this: <br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The left-left sees economic inequality as mainly a problem of distribution — the accumulation of vast wealth that never really trickles down from on high. Their prescription is to tax the 1 percent and close corporate loopholes, using the new revenues to subsidize the needs of the poor and middle class. They would string the safety net higher: expand Social Security, hold Medicare inviolate, extend unemployment insurance, protect food stamps, create more low-income housing. They would raise the minimum wage.</blockquote>
<br />I'd call that, at best, a highly simplified vision as to how the left diagnoses the problem of inequality. The lefty website Daily Kos has a regular Saturday feature: “This week in the War on Workers,” where it examines all kinds of disputes and tensions and battles between workers and corporations. The progressive left sees unions and worker rights as being really critical to reversing economic inequality. <br /><br />Keller quotes President Obama as being concerned with “competitiveness and productivity and business confidence that spurs private-sector investment,” but then claims “he would do trade deals to expand our diminishing share of foreign markets; he would shrink long-term deficits and streamline regulations.” <br /><br /><a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/12/21/how_to_beat_gop_on_inequality_key_reforms_that_dont_involve_congress/">A piece for Salon.com</a> identifies four substantive reforms that don't involve taxes (so that none of them need to involve Congress). The fourth recommendation directly contradicts the suggestion that “trade deals” (NAFTA, TPP, etc.) are of any value to America's middle class whatsoever. Yes, they may make more overseas sales possible, but they also make it easier and more profitable to move production facilities, i.e., middle class jobs, overseas. <br /><br />Also:<br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The left-left seems to believe that government investments — roads and bridges, clean energy, education, etc. — and more-generous safety-net benefits can all be had by milking the rich and cutting military spending.</blockquote>
<br />Well, no. We also believe in deficit spending. We believe that deficit spending is not necessarily a good or healthy thing to engage in, but as with say, an unanticipated war, the spending of borrowed money is vastly preferable to getting overrun by the enemy. To have deficits go up versus having scientific research stall or children to go uneducated or for communities to go without police protection doesn't seem to us to be any sort of reasonable choice at all. In the abstract, everybody likes the idea of cutting “wasteful spending,” but in the actual world of concrete realities, it's very difficult for everyone to agree on exactly what spending is “wasteful” versus “necessary,” with the solution normally being to select the spending that benefits those with the least political power as being the spending that gets cut. The real question for anyone who wants to cut the budget is “Are you attacking weak <i>claims</i> or are you attacking weak <i>clients</i>?” <br /><br />I'm not sure that “the left tends to treat entitlements as sacred” so much as we are completely unconvinced that entitlements <i>need</i> to be sacrificed for any reason whatsoever. Our economic analysis in <a href="http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/the-peoples-budget/">The People's Budget</a>, put out by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, manages to achieve all sorts of positive objectives without sacrificing anything at all in terms of entitlements, i.e., without cutting Social Security or Medicare/Medicaid. I find it kind of amazing that a newsperson with such broad and deep experience is apparently unaware that such a document even exists. <br /><br />Here's a peculiar charge:<br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And a third difference between the near left and the far left is the question of making government more efficient. This is not so much a policy dispute as a mind-set. In education, health care, Social Security and other areas, the center seems more receptive to reforms intended to get decent results at lower costs.</blockquote>
<br />As a member of the “far left,” I most certainly don't see anything decent about education “reform.” I agree with the title and subtitle of <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/09/15/diane_ravitch_school_privatization_is_a_hoax_reformers_aim_to_destroy_public_schools/">Diane Ravitch's piece</a>: “School privatization is a hoax, 'reformers' aim to destroy public schools. Our public schools aren't in decline. And 'reformers' with wild promises don't care about education — just profits.” In short, we don't accept the proposition that privatizing schools is going to “get decent results at lower costs.” Yes, I think it IS a “policy dispute” and that we have strong reason to believe that the policies suggested by right-wingers are really, really awful, terrible ideas. As Ravitch points out:<br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
They believe it is faster, simpler, and less expensive to privatize the public schools than do anything substantive to reduce poverty and racial isolation or to provide the nurturing environments and well-rounded education that children from prosperous families receive. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Instead, the privatization movement nonchalantly closes the schools attended by poor children and destabilizes their lives. The privatization agenda excites the interest of edu-entrepreneurs, who see it as a golden opportunity to make money. But it is bad for our society. It undermines the sense of collective responsibility for collective needs. It hurts public education not only by attacking its effectiveness and legitimacy but by laying claim to its revenues. </blockquote>
<br />Keller's “decent results” are actually a nightmare for anyone who's truly interested in genuinely improving American society. Privatizing education will fatten a few wallets without providing any real benefit to anyone else. It's difficult to see how health care benefits from keeping it in private hands. Private health care insurance entrepreneurs have left about 15% or one-sixth of the population without any health insurance at all. This one-sixth can be covered by using premiums from healthy people to subsidize care for less-healthy people, but of course that means less profit for entrepreneurs, so that cross-subsidizing will simply never happen under a wholly private system. <br /><br />Now clearly, Keller has lots of ideological sympathy for the “center left,” that is, the Blue Dog Democrats or the Third Way. <br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The tension between entitlements and investment is a Third Way obsession. In a column and two blog posts last year (here, and here, and here) I sympathized with the case for imposing some restraint on entitlements. I still do.</blockquote>
<br />So a question here is for those who are trying to decide how to inform themselves on a political issue, specifically on how a particular faction feels about that issue, in this case, on economics. When studying history, we have “primary” and “secondary” sources. A primary source is something like Daily Kos, which supplies us with lefty viewpoints that are delivered straight from the parties themselves. The site also does plenty of in-between pieces that feature lots and lots of direct, lengthy quotations, interspersed with their own commentary. <br /><br />Keller provides us with a straight, unmixed secondary source. We don't get any quotes from his original sources, we get nothing but his summaries and assessments as to what lefties (As opposed to Third Way partisans) are thinking and advocating. In the first paragraph to this essay, we can see that Keller's resume is very, very good for doing this. He's a newsperson of very wide experience. But as we saw in my review, his actual performance leaves the unaware readers stupider than when they began. Those unfortunate readers now “know” many things that just aren't so. <br /><br />When studying history, the use of secondary sources is unavoidable as original, primary sources may be in a foreign language or really long-winded or poorly written while still saying worthwhile things. In history, there is value in secondary sources. In seeking an understanding of current political issues, I regard secondary sources as pretty darn close to worthless. I read secondary sources all the time of course, but if I'm really trying to understand why someone feels the way they do or am trying to assess how a faction really regards an issue, there's simply no substitute for a primary source, for the original words that the studied people were using. <br /><br />Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-69520360020406452692013-08-11T18:25:00.002-07:002013-08-15T03:49:09.325-07:00Considering the nomination of Larry Summers for Chairman of the Federal Reserve <style type="text/css"></style>
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
“Every dog deserves two bites” -
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
Has Larry Summers already had his “two bites”? I would argue
that yes, he has, and that he doesn't deserve any more. First bite
is his role in the <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/larry-summers-economic-war-criminal">economic
crisis</a> that began with the collapse of the housing bubble in late
2007:<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
Not only did Summers work tirelessly
during his years in the Clinton Administration to undermine
regulatory and prudential controls in our financial markets, but he
joined Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and his political sponsor, former
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and public paragon Arthur Levitt, in
smearing CFTC Chairman Brooksley Born so as to make the world safe
for OTC derivatives.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
“The moratorium was a huge victory
for Wall Street,” Robert Stowe England writes in his new book,
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-Box-Casino-Streets-Banking/dp/0313392897">Black
Box Casino.</a> “And a big win for Rubin, Summers and
Greenspan,” though he rightly notes that Levitt later expressed
regrets over his actions.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
And as the economist <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/29/larry-summers-federal-reserve-chair">Dean
Baker</a> puts it:<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
Summers played a major role in
creating the economic imbalances that fostered the housing bubble and
explain the weakness of the economy right up to the present. This is
the problem of the huge US trade deficit, which was in turn caused by
the over-valued dollar.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
Second bite was his taking part on the Obama Administration to try
and correct his earlier errors. In December 2009, Summers was
interviewed and:<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Summers cheerfully
explained to George Stephanopoulos that the U.S. has “walked back
from the brink” following the 2008 economic collapse, and that
“everyone agrees the recession is over and the question is what the
pace of the [job and economic] expansion is going to be.” </span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Summers' cheerful diagnosis was <i>grossly</i>
premature as there was <i>still</i>, as of July 2013, an unemployment
rate of 7.4%, a rate that the <a href="https://mninews.marketnews.com/index.php/bernanke-excerpt-jobs-situation-far-satisfactory?q=content/bernanke-excerpt-jobs-situation-far-satisfactory">current
Chairman of the Federal Reserve</a> described as “far from
satisfactory.” </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The case that Christina Romer made for <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/100961/memo-Larry-Summers-Obama#">a
stimulus larger than the $787 billion</a> that was ultimately passed
was missing from the proposal that made its way to the Presidents
desk. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">At first, Summers gave
her every indication that all three figures would appear in the memo
he was sending the president-elect. But with less than twenty-four
hours before the memo needed to be in Obama’s hands, Summers
informed her that he was inclined to strike the $1.2 trillion figure. </span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Summers' attitude was based on political calculations
that may very well have been correct, but submitting the
under-estimated proposal certainly robbed the proposal of much of the
urgency that Romer quite properly felt that the President should
feel. As we later saw, under-bidding was a poor political choice as
the Obama Administration never got a second chance to go back and get
more stimulus. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">So, having made two failed bites, does Summers
present any further problems as the nominee for Chairman of the
Federal Reserve? Yes, as a matter of fact, he does. To <a href="http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2013/07/29/not-even-wall-street-wants-larry-summers-picked/">begin
with</a>: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Summers is even less
popular with Wall Street than he is with liberal bloggers and
<a href="http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2013/07/26/senate-democrats-push-janet-yellen-over-larry-summers-to-lead-the-fed/">Democratic
senators</a>.</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Former President Bill Clinton said about Summers and
<a href="http://my.firedoglake.com/wigwam/2013/07/26/what-bill-clinton-said-about-summers/">his
advice on derivatives</a>:</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
“<span style="font-size: small;">On derivatives, yeah I
think they were wrong and I think I was wrong to take [their advice]
because the argument on derivatives was that these things are
expensive and sophisticated and only a handful of investors will buy
them and they don’t need any extra protection, and any extra
transparency. The money they’re putting up guarantees them
transparency,” Clinton told me.</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
“And the flaw in that argument,”
Clinton added, “was that first of all sometimes people with a lot
of money make stupid decisions and make it without transparency.”</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">We <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/11/29/how-larry-summers-lost-harvard-18-billion/">also
might remember</a>:</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Through the first half of
this decade, Meyer repeatedly warned Summers and other Harvard
officials that the school was being too aggressive with billions of
dollars in cash, according to people present for the discussions,
investing almost all of it with the endowment’s risky mix of
stocks, bonds, hedge funds, and private equity. Meyer’s successor,
Mohamed El-Erian, would later sound the same warnings to Summers, and
to Harvard financial staff and board members.</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Summers ultimately cost Harvard $1.8 billion (Out of
a $6 billion endowment) through bad investments in, among other
things, derivatives. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Summers, amazingly,
wanted to invest 100% of the university’s cash in the endowment,
and had to be talked down to investing a mere 80%. No wonder Meyer
and El-Erian tried to talk him out of it: the Harvard endowment was
never designed as a place to invest sums of cash which might be
needed immediately. Instead, it’s designed to invest for the very
long term, taking advantage of the higher returns on illiquid
investments.</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
Summers was playing a high-risk
carry-trade game with Harvard’s cash:</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
Did Summers display other ethical problems? Yes.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
So why did Summers lose his job at
Harvard? It was because of his protecting a buddy, a fellow economist
at Harvard named Andrei Shleifer.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
...</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
Shleifer got in trouble, and the U.S
Government sued <i>and won</i> against Harvard and Shleifer.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
…</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
Summers was good friends with this
criminal, and used his position to protect him.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
..</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
Summers said conflict-of-interest
“issues,” in his Washington experience, were “left to the
lawyers.” He said he was sensitive to “ethics rules,” but
testified that “in Washington I wasn’t ever smart enough to
predict them . . . things that seemed very ethical to me were thought
of as problematic and things that seemed quite problematic to me were
thought of as perfectly fine. . . .”</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
Are ethical issues still a problem for Summers? <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_08/mustread_of_the_day_new_york_t046324.php">As
a matter of fact</a>, yes.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
The Lending Club’s rates, says the
Times, are apparently “higher than what was available at a credit
union or other lenders.” And that’s not the only problem with the
outfit:</div>
<blockquote style="margin-left: 1.58in;">
But Sarah Ludwig, the
co-director of the New Economy Project, a nonprofit in New York,
expressed concern that the company did not verify all borrowers’
income and employment.
</blockquote>
This shows incredibly poor judgment and out-of-control greed from
someone who will be <i>regulating businesses</i> to see that
<i>precisely</i> these sorts of things <i>don't</i> occur. Oh, and by
the way, hey, and how is Summers with women? <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/what-potential-fed-front-runner-lawrence-summers-said-about-women-20130724">Ugh</a>!<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<b>“<span style="font-weight: normal;">It
does appear that on many, many different human attributes—height,
weight, propensity for criminality, overall IQ, mathematical ability,
scientific ability—there is relatively clear evidence that whatever
the difference in means—which can be debated—there is a
difference in the standard deviation, and variability of a male and a
female population</span></b><span style="font-weight: normal;">.”
</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
…</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Boston Globe</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/01/17/summers_remarks_on_women_draw_fire/?page=full">reported</a>
on the speech on January 17. According to </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Globe</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
an MIT biologist who was in attendance walked out, explaining that if
she hadn't, she "would've either blacked out or thrown up."
And as </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Globe</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> made
clear, the anger at the speech was about more than just what Summers
said. Up to that point during his tenure, the percentage of tenured
offers made to women by Harvard's faculty of Arts and Sciences had
severely dropped. In 2004, only four of a total of 32 offers went to
women, a result Summers called unacceptable. Following the speech,
Summers <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/22/education/22harvard.html?pagewanted=all">faced</a>
a 218-185 no-confidence vote, and the lingering anger eventually led
to his resignation in 2006. </span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Is the opposition to Summers'
appointment a hopeful sign of better things to come? <a href="http://www.blogger.com/.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/05/1228612/-Senate-Democrats-opposition-to-Larry-Summers-is-a-good-sign">We
sure hope so</a>! </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span>
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Next
to former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, there is perhaps
no more notable public official most identified with Third Way
economics than Summers. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
…</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Occupy
Wall Street seems like an minor event today, but if current trends
continue in hindsight it is going to look like a turning point in
American history. All across the country, opposition to the economic
and political establishment and their order is growing. The same
people who told us nothing could go wrong with bank deregulation and
turning our economy from one of production and innovation to one of
flim flammery and an ever growing list of financier's card tricks,
are now under growing pressure from the discontent in the country.</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
…</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Ten
years ago ... even five years ago ... Summers would have been hailed
and feted for his "keen insight" or whatever. Pundits would
sing his praises. Everyone would vigorously defend him, from the
president on down. CNBC would give us a glowing 1-hour documentary of
his life and times. But now he's under fire.</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">There's also a good piece from
Daily Kos <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/11/1229123/-Elizabeth-Warren-vs-Hillary-Clinton-in-2016-Great-for-women-the-Democratic-Party-and-America">imagining
a contest</a> between Hillary Clinton and Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-MA) for the presidency. Such a contest between two highly
qualified candidates of the same color and gender would enable
Americans to focus on the economic principles that Clinton and Warren
represent. Third Way corporatism versus true populist progressivism.
We need to see to it that Summers does not get to be Chairman of th
Federal Reserve, but even more, we need to hold the Obama
Administration's current economic philosophy up to the spotlight and
to discredit it </span>
<br />
<br />
Update: The President is gettin' all huffy and irritated and <a href="http://www.digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/letat-cest-moi.html">L'etat c'est moi</a> about Democratic Senators who are questioning his choice for the Federal Reserve and feels they oughta just siddown and shuddup and give Summers a rousing cheer and vote him in. <br />
<br />Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-67427950989390004902013-06-12T20:28:00.000-07:002013-06-12T20:28:33.522-07:00Examining some Libertarian ideas
<style type="text/css"></style>
<br />
E.J. Dionne angered some Libertarians with his piece “<a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130611_E__J__Dionne__The_libertarian_problem.html">The
Libertarian Problem</a>.” Two of them responded with a link to the
same piece “‘<a href="http://www.libertyclassroom.com/the-question-libertarians-cant-answer-part-ii/">The
Question Libertarians Can’t Answer' Part II</a>.” Many years ago,
<a href="http://www.tcj.com/">The Comics Journal</a> explained why
they were reviewing what they felt was a poorly-written comic book.
They said something to the effect of: “Every now and then we like
to drag out some really poor example of the comics-writing craft and
flog it for the amusement of our readers.” In that spirit, I'll
review what the Libertarians have to say.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
Only continued capital accumulation,
which occurs when businesses may reinvest their profits in the
purchase of capital goods without being expropriated by government,
made it possible for the economy to become physically productive...</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
Actually, according to <a href="http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/">UK
Public Spending</a>, public expenditures for 1820 (in 2012 currency)
added up to 57.5 million pounds, 17.1 was for defense and 31.1 for
interest. In 1830, those were 53.7, with 15.6 defense and 29.1
interest. In 1870, 67.1, 23.4, and 29.1. 1890, when industrialism
really took off, the numbers were 90.6, 33.4 and 24.5. Additionally
in 1890, the UK government spent 8.3 million on their Postal service
and 21.5 million locally on waste water management and the water
supply, street lighting, etc. So no, the Industrial Revolution was
not simply a matter of allowing capitalists to keep and then to
reinvest their own money. There was also a good deal of public
spending involved that made the Industrial Revolution possible. As
<a href="http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/19/elizabeth-warren-again-nobody-got-rich-o">Elizabeth
Warren</a>, now a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts said:<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
“I think the basic notion is right.
Nobody got rich on their own. Nobody. People worked hard, they
buil[t] a business, God bless, but they moved their goods on roads
the rest of us helped build, they hired employees the rest of us
helped educate, they plugged into a power grid the rest of us helped
build."</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
From the Libertarian piece:<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
“Most of the government’s medical
payments on behalf of the poor compensated doctors and hospitals for
services once rendered free of charge or at reduced prices,” writes
historian Allen Matusow.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
Yes, that's entirely true, but keep in mind that when he's talking
about what doctors once did “free of charge,” he's talking about
the days when a person broke his leg, he'd fix it by breaking off a
tree branch, tearing up his shirt, tying the branch to his leg,
hobbling back home and then staying in bed until his leg healed.
Nowadays we, as a society, can afford slightly more effective
services. But those better services cost more, so instead of having
the individual cover them, we transfer the costs to the larger
economy, which can easily afford to pay them.<br />
<br />
Yes, back In the days of the Model T, people realized that they
couldn't simply peel off a couple of bills from a wad of money and
cover a new automobile, so payment plans came into effect. Can we use
payment plans for medical services? Not really, because we can't plan
on having to pay major medical expenses the way that we can plan to
buy a car. When we really need big dollars for big services, we're
usually well past the age when we've retired from work and are on a
fixed budget or we're in our last decade or so of work and can't
reasonably expect to make much more money then we're already making.<br />
<br />
It's a nice idea to try and make market capitalism apply to
everything, but it really doesn't effectively handle medical expenses
because a medical “customer” doesn't equal a car customer. They
don't always just walk into a showroom with the money they need to
buy services and are often in no position to compare costs and
benefits of various forms of treatment. There's a reason we call them
“patients” and not “customers.”<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
Dionne then says, “Smaller
government meant too many people were poor.” This is flat-out
idiocy. The greatest gains against poverty in the United States
occurred when government was least involved. In 1900, the poverty
rate by today’s standards was 95 percent. By the time the federal
government got involved in poverty relief in a non-trivial way, in
the late 1960s, that figure had already plummeted to between 12 and
14 percent...</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
Well, yeah, <a href="http://visualizingeconomics.com/blog/2008/05/04/average-income-in-the-united-states-1913-2006">in
1913</a> until midway through World War II, average annual incomes
were between $10,000 and $20,000, frequently staying close to the
$15,000 mark. They then increased at a rapid, steady clip until 1970,
at which point, they've been around $40,000 to $50,000. Obviously, a
family in 1950 that's making $25,000 and that, just a decade earlier,
was making $15,000, considered itself quite wealthy and probably
considered itself quite wealthy in 1920, when they were making
$18,000.<br />
<br />
Poverty is not a solid, fixed status. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty">Wikipedia</a>
defines a person who's living above the poverty line as someone who
has adequate amounts of “food, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_water">water</a>,
sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education.” How do
we define “affordable housing,” i.e., a decent, adequate level of
housing? A person living in New York City or San Francisco is not
going to define the term the same way that a person in Arkansas or in
Russia's Ural Mountains or in Southern Niger would. “Poverty” is
a highly subjective term that depends on a number of factors. In
terms of just plain, straight numbers, yes, the poverty rate in 1900
was much higher than it is today, but that measurement is a pretty
meaningless one. It's not just that inflation has risen, it's that
there are many more things to buy, at a higher cost, then there were
way back when.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
Mainstream economics identifies
monopolists by their behavior: they earn premium profits by
restricting output and raising prices.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
Now, there's certainly something to this if we look at Karl Marx's
definition of monopoly. He begins by focusing <a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ch01.htm">on
how concentrated</a> an industry is, but then agrees with the
Libertarians after that.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
In 1904 large-scale enterprises with
an output valued at one million dollars and over, numbered 1,900 (out
of 216,180, i.e., 0.9 per cent).
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
…</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
Almost half the total production of
all the enterprises of the country was carried on by <em>one-hundredth
part </em>of these enterprises! These 3,000 giant enterprises embrace
258 branches of industry. From this it can be seen that at a certain
stage of its development concentration itself, as it were, leads
straight to monopoly, for a score or so of giant enterprises can
easily arrive at an agreement, and on the other hand, the hindrance
to competition, the tendency towards monopoly, arises from the huge
size of the enterprises. (Emphasis in original)</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.79in;">
<br /></div>
The Libertarians make a strong case that monopoly wasn't really a
concern during that period and that price-fixing was not a problem
that anyone really worried about. So what exactly was the problem
with economic concentration during the Gilded Age (From the Civil War
in 1865 to the Progressive Era in 1890)? Well, companies, and indeed
all sorts of groups, might compete in some ways, but might very well
cooperate in others. Police officers from different cities may
badmouth and disparage each other, but if a suspect flees from one
city to another, the police will forget their differences and
cooperate.<br />
<br />
What is the major claim made by labor unions as to the service
they rendered to the American people during the early days? It
concerned an issue where the companies found it advantageous to be
large and where they all took the same approach, it concerned <a href="http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/eco_unionization.htm">labor
conditions and working hours</a>.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.49in;">
By the 1820s, various unions involved
in the effort to reduce the working day from 12 to 10 hours began to
show interest in the idea of federation-of joining together in
pursuit of common objectives for working people. </div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br /></div>
<a href="http://countrystudies.us/united-states/history-82.htm">Later
on</a>,
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.49in;">
Most industrial workers still worked a
10-hour day (12 hours in the steel industry), yet earned from 20 to
40 percent less than the minimum deemed necessary for a decent life.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br /></div>
Such lengthy working hours left employees enough time to eat,
sleep and work and not much else. Why did it help for companies to be
large? Because large companies could mechanize their work more easily
than small companies could and could thus employ less-skilled labor.
It was labor unions, combined with the New Deal and not inter-company
competition that resulted in the 8-hour work day. It was when workers
banded together and demanded a reduction in hours and when the
national government agreed with them that excessive working hours
were ended.<br />
<br />
So yes, it was a bad thing for companies to control as much market
share as they did, but not for the reasons that Marx and Dionne
specify.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.49in;">
Finally, we read this: “And when the
Depression engulfed us, government was helpless, largely handcuffed
by this antigovernment ideology until Franklin Roosevelt came along.”</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br /></div>
Well, it was actually the Supreme Court that put out the
anti-minimum wage, pro-sanctity of contracts decision <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/capitalism/landmark_lochner.html">Lochner
v. New York</a> in 1905 and that reversed itself in 1937 with <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/capitalism/landmark_westcoast.html">West
Coast Hotel v. Parrish</a> by ruling that Washington State could
impose minimum wage regulations on private employers without
violating the Constitution. It appears very highly likely that the
Court took note of popular attitudes towards the sanctity of
contracts and Roosevelt's influence can't be absolutely proven, but
Roosevelt was certainly making his views clear that the Court was
standing in the way of progress.<br />
<br />
Yes, President Hoover came up with many good ideas, but that and a
buck will get you a cup of coffee. Roosevelt was the president that
actually implemented those ideas, or implemented them on a meaningful
scale, and so he's the one who properly gets the credit for them. I
don't agree with the Libertarian view of the Great Depression at all.
I see the Depression as having been the result of a <a href="http://ufpj-dvn-econ.blogspot.com/2010/06/thomas-sowell-franklin-d-roosevelt.html">general
systems failure</a> and not just a trivial hiccup.<br />
<br />
So, the Libertarians certainly make a couple of good points, but
in general, I find their history pretty incompetent.
<br />
Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109477734220218457.post-48935925739453140172013-02-04T16:58:00.001-08:002013-02-04T16:58:53.481-08:00Rep. Paul Ryan - an assessment
In a recent column <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130203_Back_Channels__Ryan_sees_path_ahead_for_GOP.html">for the Inky</a>,
Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) complains that the President wants to
"Fight a straw man. Avoid honest debate. Win the argument by default."
What is his evidence that Obama is smacking Republicans with straw
man-type accusations? "The president will bait us," Ryan said. "He'll
portray us as cruel and unyielding. Just the other day, he said
Republicans had 'suspicions' about Social Security. He said we had
'suspicions' about feeding hungry children. . ." <br />
<br />
Dan Froomkin, now at the Huffington Post, sketched out for us just what the term "<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/09/27/BL2006092701022.html">straw man</a>"
meant. President George W. Bush was speaking about the illegal
warrantless surveillance that his administration was engaged in:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
"You can't protect America unless we give those people on the front
lines of protecting this country the tools necessary to do so within the
Constitution. <i>And that's where the debate is here in the United
States. There are some decent people who don't believe -- evidently
don't believe we're at war, and therefore, shouldn't give the
administration what is necessary to protect us.</i> "
<br />
</div>
<br />
As Froomkin points out, no one in America was suggesting that we
weren't at war. Also, the question of whether warrantless surveillance
was within the Constitution, a question simply assumed by Bush to be
answerable in the affirmative, is a very deeply controversial one and
one that has <a href="http://www.aclu.org/national-security/justice-department-memos-heavily-redacted-conceal-full-scope-bush-administration-s">never been properly investigated or adjudicated</a>. Nor, of course, was it ever shown by the Bush Administration that warrantless surveillance <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/03/iraq-101-aftermath-long-term-thinking">did anything whatsoever</a> to protect America. <br />
<br />
So, is it truly a straw man that Republicans have " 'suspicions' about
feeding hungry children," in other words, that Republicans have no real
desire to see to it that children are properly fed? Well, according to
the former Governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, Republicans care
deeply about children, so long, of course, that those children are still
in the womb. Children who have aleady been born? <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-m-granholm/republicans-what-about-ch_b_1835134.html">Ehh, not so much</a>. <br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
Can you be pro-life and vote to cut funding that supports the life of
a child? Paul Ryan's cut-at-all-costs budget and philosophy, which 100
percent of the pro-life Republicans voted for, would gut the funding
that supports at-risk babies and children: food stamps, temporary
assistance to needy families, day care, Head Start, early childhood
education, children's health care.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
At the state level GOP governors are cutting the child protection
workers who handle child abuse and neglect cases -- you know, those
awful public employees who must have caused the financial crisis.
Programs that would benefit at-risk children outside the womb are all on
the chopping block.</div>
<br />
So no, I don't agree with Ryan at all that he and his fellow
Republicans are being smeared with a straw man-type statement when
people question whether they really favor the feeding of hungry
children. <br />
<br />
<br />
How about the charge that Republicans have " 'suspicions'
about Social Security"? Well, here too, <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/paul-ryan-social-security-privatization.php">the facts are seriously biased</a> against Ryan. <br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
The proposal was in Ryan’s 2010 “Roadmap For America’s Future,” a broad
blueprint to remake the federal budget which elevated the little-known
congressman into the Republican Party’s visionary. It involved shifting
Social Security funds to private retirement accounts as well as reducing
benefits and gradually raising the age of eligibility.<br />
</div>
<br />
In other words, again, the charge of Democrats smearing Ryan and
Republicans with straw man-type charges comes up as a statement that's
without merit. <br />
<br />
What does Ryan ultimately want? According to him, a "smaller, smarter
government." Okay, that sounds pretty reasonable, even though I'd
question why people want, specifically, a smaller government. What's
his plan for getting that? What, specifically, would Ryan and his
buddies in the Republican Party be comfortable cutting? As <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_04/023255.php">The Washington Monthly</a> put it:<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
For years, a variety of polls from a variety of outlets during a variety
of conditions all show the same thing: Americans want to see the
government cut public spending -- in the abstract. Asked for specifics,
the same Americans actually like public spending and <i>don't</i> want to see cuts.<br />
...<br />
There <i>is</i> one area that everyone's willing to trim: foreign
aid. Good 'ol foreign aid. A category that, as Roger McShane dryly
points out, "makes up less than 1% of America's total spending."
Beyond that, there were only four areas that even a quarter of the population was willing to cut...<br />
</div>
<br />
So for many, many years, yes, the American people have wanted to see a
smaller government and want government spending cut, except of course,
when they're pressed for specifics. Then, they really don't agree on
actually cutting anything. The article then documents Ryan making a
number of vague, fuzzy statements that don't get anywhere close to
specifics. <br />
<br />
So no, I don't see any reason to be even slightly impressed with Ryan's promises and accusations. Rich Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04715911716554541999noreply@blogger.com0