Archive for category Education Facts & Policies
Public Employee Unions Exist For Their Leaders….Not Their Members!
Posted by Tom in Economics, Education Facts & Policies, State Finances, Unions on February 22, 2011
Let’s start with a simple question: who are the most powerful people in our nation? Congressmen? Senators? Governors? How about the President? No, not even close. All of these people come and go. Well then, what about the entrenched bureaucrats? They come but don’t go. Close, but no cigar. All of these folks are dependent, they are beholden.
Beholden to whom? Who controls them? Well the voters are too disorganized, with independents swinging elections; and the voters are fickle from election to election. What about the people who can deliver votes, and I mean “deliver” in the Chicago sense of the word. These are the special interest people who can ENFORCE discipline. Who can command delivery of votes. These are the union leaders.
These people are as powerful as any dictator in a banana republic, or more timely, as any dictator in the middle east! They tell President Obama which side the bread is buttered on. So he jumps in to the Wisconsin fracas against the citizens calling pension reform “an attack on the unions.” Or, he tubes the widow and orphan bondholders in favor of the UAW and takes over GM.
Think about the position of a union leader. Fat compensation, fawning liberal press reporting what you want, unlimited expense accounts, no oversight on union control or finances, and you OWN the politicians. Think of that they own the President, supposedly the most powerful position in the world!
What does one do to stay in that position? He or she keeps members in line. What’s his major priority? To stay on top, to stay in power. And the only thing he must do is keep members in line.
That is done by promising, by confronting, and by creating dissension (in other words “community organizing”). Is any of this necessary for the welfare of the members? Hardly! But it is necessary for the leaders to retain their positions.
The thing about this “community organizing” is that it need not be true, it need not be real, it need not be economic. Yes, that’s right, it can all be a big lie. But the big lie works. It really works well where union membership is mandatory either legally or practically. De jure or de facto.
So where there is no economic hope of pension payouts every being realized, union leaders promise more and negotiate for greater pension benefits. Is so doing, they lie to their members and the lie is necessary to keep them in power.
The sad, immoral fact is that the union members rely on these powerful leaders who are only acting in their own behalf. Members rely to their detriment on this “super class” of rulers. When will they wake up?
Public Schools Exist For Teachers Unions, Not Students
Posted by Tom in Education Facts & Policies, Statism, Unions on February 17, 2011
David Harsanyi of the Denver Post tells the sad story of 40% of the unionized teachers in Madison Wisconsin calling in sick, forcing the superintendent of schools to shut down the entire school operation. Harsanyi appropriately calls it An Assault on Taxpayers in his RCP February 18th post. Seems that in Wisconsin lawmakers are attempting to restrict public employee collective bargaining to wages instead of unsustainable pension benefits. Well, the teachers are pissed, and they’ll show those nasty lawmakers by calling in sick!
Harsanyi argues that sure unions are to blame but the bigger problem is state monopoly with education as the prime example.”Whatever you may think of the politics of private-sector unions — now less than 7 percent of the work force — they function in a competitive environment. Public sectors, on the other hand, have artificial leverage that no other workers in the nation enjoy.”
“The counterargument is familiar. These folks are sacrificing healthy salaries by choosing to teach your children rather than greedily chasing riches that they would almost certainly realize if they took their talents to the private sector. (Funny, isn’t it then, that when we try to inject competition into education, it’s met with anger and scorn by the people who sacrifice without it.)” He points that immunity from economic downturns and market fluctuations is rare. But it’s worse when the public sector union demands are often the cause of the financial pain.
Of course we can look to our President for proper guidance, right? NOT! “Some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where they’re just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like more of an assault on unions,” explained President Barack Obama, who, unlike governors, can (and does) borrow trillions. The numbers, though, tell us that public-sector unions are the ones assaulting taxpayers and brittle state economies. And the more we grow the state monopoly the worse it will get.”
It all gets down to the proper role of government. Education, health care, charity don’t come to mind when you start to list the primary functions of government! When government enters these roles, it screws them up. There is little government does well and creating monopolies outside its proper scope only magnifies society’s troubles.
David Harsanyi is an excellent commentator; I recommend following him. tjm
Socialism In Your Face
Posted by Tom in Economics, Education Facts & Policies, Federalism, Government Regulation, Individual Freedom, Law, Morality & Religion in the Public Square, National Character on February 2, 2011
In a brilliant article adapted from his recent book, Kevin D. Williamson, deputy managing editor of the National Review treats modern socialism; the article, Socialism Is Back, is definitely worth the read.
He reviews the traditional notions of socialism as “a system of social organization that advocates the vesting of ownership and control of the means of production and distribution in the community as a whole.” But he argues that “ownership and control” in the modern era should be “ownership or control.” In essence “control” makes “ownership” unnecessary. He uses Fannie and Freddie so called private corporations as current and deadly example; despite the ostensible private ownership, there was no doubt that control was vested in Congress.
Williamson argues for two further criteria in the definition of socialism: “the public provision of non-public goods” and the use of “central planning” to implement that provisioning. Public goods for economists are “non-rivalrous in their consumption and non-excludable in their distribution.” Private goods are the opposite, rivalrous and excludable; my cell phone is mine and I can stop you from using it. By the way cell phones are provided to welfare recipients!
The “central planning” criterion he adds is the one Friedrich Hayek railed against. This is what distinguishes the garden variety welfare state from one that can be called socialist. In effect, “socialism is not redistribution…socialism is central planning.” The plan is everything. Its presence “and the empowerment of the planners is to socialism what the Eucharists is to Christians and what Mosaic Law is to Jews.” If the plan conflicts with its purported goal, say redistribution of wealth to the poor, the plan will prevail. In effect, the plan exists for the sake of the planners.
“Socialism’s main defect is the inability of political decision-makers to make rational decisions without the information provided by prices generated by marketplace transactions. The repression associated with socialist regimes is in most cases a reaction to the failure of The Plan. As Mises’s colleague F. A. Hayek argued in The Road to Serfdom, central planners frustrated by their inability to mold the economic world to their will inevitably are tempted to run roughshod over the rights and interests of the individuals they purport to serve. Sometimes this takes the relatively innocuous form of high-handed officials in the Canadian public-health service denying a procedure or timely access to care; sometimes it takes one of the diverse forms explored with such horrific vigor by Kim Jong Il. Hayek’s diagnosis, which is widely misunderstood and exaggerated, is not perfect, but he was correct that there is a path that connects the many stops on the road to serfdom. But we need not travel to exotic lands to experience socialism firsthand. Any American public school will do.”
He argues that the aim of public education is and has always been to standardize students so as to better fit into the plan; conformity is the order of the day. Examples of political speeches to students to this effect abound, urging them to take up the nation’s challenges like health care. No political party has a monopoly on this approach. Obama is merely the current national advocate just as Bush was in his term.
“The public schools constitute one of the most popular instantiations of socialism in American life, though Social Security and government-funded transportation systems no doubt rank nearly as high. But popular with whom? Certainly the educators and administrators who run the system are largely pleased with it, as they should be; the noncompetitive nature of government-run education provides them with salaries and benefits far exceeding what they plausibly could earn in the private sector.”….”Public schools fail for the same reason that all socialist enterprises fail: lack of information. In marketplace transactions, prices communicate critical information about who is producing what, who is consuming what, and what it is that producers and consumers want and need.”
I have not done justice to the quality of Williamson’s work in this brief outline summary and therefore urge a reading of the complete article, his book and indeed a subscription to the National Review. I do think that we need to revive the federal structure this country was founded upon. In other words make the “central planning” dramatically less central! This and an emphasis on the principle of subsidiarity, pushing the satisfaction of social needs to the lowest competent level, will more than justify the term American Exceptionalism.
Let’s Hire More Government Workers
Posted by Tom in Academics, Deficit, Economics, Education Facts & Policies, Fiscal Policy, Nevada, Taxation, Unions on January 12, 2011
It’s wrong to pick on public workers, so I hesitate to write this post; but when the public workers profess to teach students at college and post graduate levels, pick on ‘em we should, and hard!
I speak of an op-ed in today’s edition of that bastion of elite journalism, the Reno Gazette Journal, by Tom Harris and Elliott Parker. Harris is a professor of “resource economics” and more frighteningly “director of the University Center for Economic Development.” Parker is a professor and chairman of economics at UNR’s College of Business.
The article, What is the effect of taxes on state economies? compares Nevada’s GDP growth to the “share” of GDP “provided by state and local governments” during the past 45 years and concludes that Nevada’s small government did not cause it to be the fastest growing state! No correlation here. Yeah, how about that?
Being economists, however, they struggle and find a strong correlation between real GDP growth and and “lagged growth rate of its state and local government!” Whew! I was worried about that.
Perhaps our good professors don’t realize that Nevada’s state and local government spending has grown more than the population growth plus inflation with little to show for it save deficits and unfunded liabilities. Or perhaps they aren’t aware of the slight deficit problem here caused to a great extent by public employee unions at the local level. Or perhaps they don’t read the Wall Street Journal which published the following chart in discussing spendthrift Illinois and the great migrations away from the tax, borrow and spend fools in state governments.
Anyway, back to the article, our authors continue searching for a reason for the non correlation in one case and strong correlation in the other. “One way to look at it is that state and local governments provide essential public goods that cannot be adequately provided by the private sector, such as roads and education. While higher taxes might create some disincentives for private investment and growth, many of these public goods are necessary investments for the private sector to function.”
I love that “essential public goods that cannot be adequately provided by the private sector.” And they use education as an example, later stating that “without good public education, the private sector lacks the educated work force it needs.” Nevada public education is at the bottom of the barrel and the more money we throw at it the worse it gets. Oh, but our professors are in the education business, a business whose prices dramatically outpace inflation and in truth outpace value delivered.
But what’s the point of the article, well it’s an exposition of the Keynesian multiplier. You know the one Obama rolled out for his stimulus billions. Government spends a dollar which creates $1.50 in GDP. It’s as if that dollar comes out of thin air. In truth that dollar is taxed currently or borrowed and repaid with later taxes (grandchildren look out!). In either case there has been a misallocation of what could have been productive capital.
Ah, but our good professors use the Keynes multiplier in reverse, a dollar reduced in state or local government spending will diminish GDP by $1.62! “Firing a school teacher means less money is spent by that teacher on rent, food and other goods!” They fail to mention that the teacher might be deadwood kept on in tenure by the infamous teachers union which accounts for a significant portion of the current deficit and unfunded liabilities. But the real sin is that the dollar saved by firing that non productive teacher might have been invested and produced $10 dollars in GDP.
Finally they elevate the sin to the level of a crime in discussing the multiplier effect. “Economists teach this to every first-year student in macroeconomics, and estimates from real data consistently find it to be true.” This of course is not true, not even a half truth as Obama has demonstrated.
Besides, if this were true we should all go to work for the government, since there is no “essential public good” it doesn’t seem to have its hand in.
Elites and Their Faux Certainty
Posted by Tom in Education Facts & Policies on December 18, 2010
Ryan Costella’s RGJ op-ed suggests needed remedy for the educational system. This is amply demonstrated by the faux certainty and hubris of the political elites.
Ryan Costella: We need a little more Socratic wisdom in our system
Our new governor and Legislature have a lot to tackle, especially on the education front. As they develop their plan, they will carry on their shoulders the recent news of a failing U.S. school system contrasted with the soaring achievement of those in Asia, particularly in China.
These studies make catchy headlines, but they don’t necessarily mean that China’s system is superior to ours just because their kids have better mastered filling in the correct bubbles on exams.
Does the Chinese system create innovators and thinkers on a regular basis?
Does it produce empowered citizens who challenge the status quo by asking questions and performing new experiments, whether in the world of science or human rights? Where are their Washingtons, Jeffersons, Edisons and Einsteins and, equally important, where are their dissenters?
For China to rival the United States in education, the system must produce thinkers who, as George Bernard Shaw articulated, “”»don’t look at the world as it is and say, why?” but instead “”»look at things that never were and say, why not?” (And not be persecuted for it.)
Andrea Batista Schlesinger’s book “The Death of Why: the Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy” is an honest assessment of our own system. Are we preparing young people to be independent, responsible members of this democratic republic who think for themselves, form their own opinions and aren’t afraid to question and challenge the status quo? Are we ensuring that our kids aren’t just robots that produce the “right” answers on standardized tests? Are we sustaining the USA’s position as the incubator for the best ideas the world has to offer?
Schlesinger’s book is timely as we consider China’s educational system compared to our own. After a recent trip to China, I reflected on an excerpt about Socrates and wondered if China’s system could really value someone like him.
Upon hearing from the Delphi Oracle that he was the wisest man in the world, Socrates went to speak to an already established wise man. After his conversation with the wise man, he realized, “”»I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.” He accepted his own ignorance, and he believed in the power of asking questions. Ultimately, Socrates was put to death for it (something that tends to happen in authoritarian systems).
Schlesinger put it best, as we look to recultivate excellence in our own educational system: “Now, more than ever, as ‘knowledge’ multiplies before our eyes on several billion new websites each day, as even the means by which we can know new things evolves at lightning speed, we need to worry less about knowing everything. We need to concern ourselves more with asking questions, with the process of critical thinking, with personal and community deliberation. We need a little bit more Socratic wisdom in our lives and a little less faux certainty. We need a little more why.”
Ryan Costella is a 2000 graduate of Carson High School and currently resides in Reno. He holds a master of philosophy degree in modern Chinese studies from the University of Cambridge (U.K.) and is president of the political organization Empowerment NV.
Chilling Comparison-Will History Repeat?
Posted by Tom in Business, Economics, Education Facts & Policies, Entitlements, Financial Policy, Monetary Policy, National Character, National Debt, Taxation, Welfare on October 4, 2010
Donald Luskin, chief investment officer of Trend Macrolytics, LLC posted an interesting chart in his WSJ op-ed, The Trade and Tax Doomsday Clocks. It charts the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the 1930s against the same average from mid 2009 to today with the depression forward, 1932 to 1936, as a scary warning. Here’s the chart:
The article points out that Obama’s upcoming tax increase, allowing the Bush cuts to expire on those most able to invest productively, is dangerously close to the Roosevelt tax increases of the 30s. FDR tipped the economy into a “depression within a depression.” Obama is close to the same thing.
Luskin then shifts to trade noting that the House passed the “Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act” which adds dangerous new powers to the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the proximate cause of the Great Depression. This bipartisan vote is a shame. 99 Republicans participated in this homage to Herbert Hoover; they should know that his name “lives in infamy” for erecting those tariff barriers. Hopefully the Senate Republicans will hold out. If not, another source of economic growth will wither.
These observations alone are frightening enough, but when coupled with the WSJ front page article, Americans Sour on Trade, portend something akin to an upcoming depression. In essence a majority of Americans tend to favor protectionism or, at least, are against the economies of outsourcing. Understandably economic ignorance is prevalent, fostered by our leftist institutions of higher education. But, in fairness, conservatives have not convincingly explained the compelling economic benefits of free trade.
Finally and in nail-in-the-coffin fashion, we have the growing international trend of beggar thy neighbor competitive currency devaluations. Japan is the most recent example. The Fed with its impending QE2 threatened is another. What is the dollar worth, the pound, the Euro? If world trade stops or dramatically slows, depression or worse is assured.
I say that as a layman with no credentials. But it is becoming obvious that the socialized world cannot sustain itself in its current level of consumption without productive investment and growth. The U.S. is trending away from that growth regimen. Obama is penalizing productive investment and limiting growth by increasing the size of government.
So, we must economically educate the ignorant products of our universities, vote for leaders who have the guts to reform our unsustainable entitlements, and decrease the size and take of our government.
Meanwhile, one of my Irish friends sums it up nicely, “…guns and gold, Tom, guns and gold!”
Primary Cause of Inflation
Posted by Tom in Centrally Managed Economy, Deficit, Economics, Education Facts & Policies, Entitlements, National Character, Nationalized Health Care on May 13, 2010
I’ve been on vacation this past week and enjoyed some interesting discussions during that time. One on inflation: it occurs strictly speaking from excessive demand or inadequate supply, push-pull inflation. With one of our friends graduating from Notre Dame this weekend it struck me that inflation in education is excessive, that is way out of line with general inflation.
Gordon Wadsworth’s article, Sky Rocketing College Costs, presents this data which is about a year old but conveys the messarg well:
Another area of significant above average inflation is medical care. John Commins post, Costs of Medical Care Outstrips Inflation, pegs hospital service inflation in the last 12 months at 8.6% almost quadruple the 2.3% increase in the overall CPI. Physicians services was up 3.2% and prescription drugs up 4.9% for comparable periods.
I submit that the major reason for the off the chart inflation in each of these areas is the government involvement in each. There is not a true market in either. If there were price increases would be more in line with general inflation.
The leftist progressives from Dewey on have mandated public education which has evolved to public employee unions, outrageous non-market compensation, and an uneducated public.
The leftist progressives from Roosevelt on have pushed socialized medicine subsidized with tax policy and out of control Medicare/Medicaid bureaucracies. Obamacare is the final nail in this coffin.
How have we allowed ourselves to get to this inflated entitlement oriented society? While I’m hesitant to use comments from foreign nationals, this one by Peter Lakatos from Hungary to Mark Toomey sadly seems to get to the heart of the matter:
“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.”
“The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”
Now back to education. For all its inflated costs how good is it? Would it be better if government were completely out of it? Would our society have more common sense? And, would that society be foolish enough to elect another Obama?
For the sake of our grandchildren’s future we need to get the monster government on a starvation diet and get it out of our lives!
NJ’s Chris Christie-”No More Road Down Which To Kick the Can”
Posted by Tom in Economics, Education Facts & Policies, State Finances, Unions on March 6, 2010
Another honest politician telling it like it is, Chris Christie told 200 of New Jersey’s mayors that the old game of tax and spend is over. See Ron Smith’s Baltimore Sun post, A leader opts for painful honesty in the Garden State.
“We have no time left,” said the governor, “We have no room left to borrow. We have no room left to tax. So we merely have time left to do this. We are all reaching the edge of a cliff. And it reminds me a bit of that part of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ where he had the seminal decision to make. So what did they do? They held hands and jumped off the cliff. We have to hold hands at every level of government, state, county, municipal, school board. We have to hold hands and jump off the bridge.”
“Governor Christie has wasted no time in implementing budget freezes through executive action. No doubt there will be a political firestorm in New Jersey as the pinch is felt by politically powerful entities such as the teachers, police and firefighters unions. Whether he can survive tackling the growing fiscal crisis with actual solutions is the question. He told the mayors to get ready for cuts in state aid in his upcoming budget, which will be presented March 16, but he promised he would give them a hand by implementing pension, benefit and arbitration process reform, something that will be bitterly opposed by the aforementioned unions.”
Ya gotta like this guy. We need a lot more like him–telling it like it it is. Hopefully voters will be smart enough to listen!
Tom Motherway
Tenure, Unions, Administrative Bloat=Public School Education
Posted by Tom in Education Facts & Policies, State Finances, Unions on February 22, 2010
Today’s WSJ editorial, No (Tenured) Teacher Left Behind, addressed the problem of tenure in our public school systems. Tenure, the contractual right not to face employment termination without just cause, has been used in colleges and universities to insure academic freedom. It’s used in the federal judiciary to guarantee judicial independence. It has become a handicap to competent jurisprudence and quality secondary public education.
While academic freedom at the university level can arguably be justified given the variety of disciplines and research orientation, there is no possible justification for tenure at the secondary level. At the university level tenure is earned by research and publication over several initial years of work; if not granted after a stated period it is never granted. At the secondary level public employee teachers are granted tenure as a matter of course, typically after three years. No real qualification is required other than not showing up on a police blotter during those initial years! Public school administrators typically find less than 2% of new teachers unsatisfactory even though students fail to meet basic academic standards year after year and even in LA where the drop out rate is 35% and growing. Finally, “academic freedom” at the primary and secondary levels is an oxymoron!
Tenure as fostered by the teachers unions begets the mediocrity for which unions are generally known. There is no striving for excellence only striving for conformity and strength in numbers. As I have said ad nauseam, public employee unions have no place in our political system; the unholy alliance between union members and politicians will bankrupt our society. This is especially true in education where we are dealing with our most precious resource, our future!
What about Nevada? We spend way in excess of inflation, a 48% increase in Nevada’s education spending from 2006 to 2009! Yet we consistently have test scores lower than the national average. (See the National Center for Education Statistics)
We need a system in which excellent teachers can be retained and financially rewarded. We need a system in which the deadwood, protected by tenure and teachers unions, can be discarded.
So when you hear cries against education cuts please remember that spending has grown dramatically beyond the combination of population growth and inflation over the last several years. Student progress as measured by test scores has not kept pace. So a logical conclusion would be to look for educational barriers elsewhere. I submit that tenure along with teachers unions would be good places to start.
Tom Motherway
Health Care, Public Education Employment Better Than Average!
Posted by Tom in Deficit, Democrats, Education Facts & Policies, Nationalized Health Care, Nevada on February 15, 2010
Did you ever wonder why the inflation rates in health care and public education are higher than general inflation? Simple answer is that some one other than the patient or student is paying the bill. In some cases this is called welfare in others loans and in still others grants. In all cases some one else is paying.
Who is that some one else? YOU, OF COURSE! Taxpayers are paying but not consuming. So who is checking to see that health and education services are delivered efficiently? NO ONE!
Here’s the data comparing employment costs: All workers 2005=100, December 2009=111.2, 2.8% per year. Health care hospitals 2005=100, December 2009=113.3. 3.3% per year. Education services 2005=100, December 2009=113.1, 3.3 per year. See the Bureau of Labor Statistics report here.
As in the case with other third party payers, the real consumers, the patients and the students, don’t shop options and question prices and charges. The providers know this and know with certainty that they can charge what the “market” will bear. There really is no true market in the sense of competitive pricing. Where public employee unions are involved the situation is exacerbated. Salaries and benefits are raised by the politicians who are supported by the unions whose members’ salaries and benefits are raised. A vicious and unholy alliance!
So, in the case of Obamacare, the unions elect the Democrats, the Democrats raise their salaries, wages and benefits creating deficit spending and unfunded liabilities, the Democrats then claim we have a problem with the costs of healthcare so they propose to exacerbate that problem with Obamacare adding to the deficits, national debt and unfunded liabilities. Hell of a deal for the taxpayers! And a worse deal for their grandchildren!
Tom Motherway