Wednesday, June 9, 2010

What Toyotas can teach us about public education

Imagine this: The government institutes a new program whereby it will begin confiscating money from citizens via taxation in order to help them buy a car the next time they need one. The car will be "free" but you have to take whatever the government determines is best for you. And right now that car is a Toyota.

"But wait," you say. "Aren't Toyota's having all those accelerator problems right now? I don't want a Toyota right now." Well… yes, but too bad. A Toyota is what you get, accelerator problems or not. Or you could buy the car of your choice – that is permitted – but you are not able to get the money back that the government already taxed away from you for that Toyota.

Fair? Of course not. No American would stand for it. Except that actually we do – every day in fact. We accept this exact same process when it comes to one of the most important aspects of our lives: The education of our children.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported today that statewide 145 schools missed one or more "adequate yearly progress targets" with regards to the federal "No Child Left Behind" law. In other words, they have "accelerator problems." Now, I'm no fan of NCLB for several reasons, but that's not the point of this post, so I won't digress. But the fact remains: Many Wisconsin schools are under-performing.

So what is a parent to do? It's fair to point out that under the state's open enrollment law, parents can choose another public school in another district, space permitting. Some local districts will even allow you to enroll in another school within your same district – again, space permitting. But this is like saying you can get the Corolla if you don't like the Camry. Either way, it's still a Toyota.

It baffles me that state lawmakers and school boards recognize and accept the fact that it may be in a student's best interest to enroll in a school other than his or her assigned neighborhood school, yet on the other hand continue to restrict that student's options. Private schools are off limits, and charters are frequently stymied or have wait lists. Indeed, monopolies rarely like to relinquish control, because with control comes money.

Americans know that it would be unfair to dictate to consumers what brand of car they must purchase. More importantly, they realize that the service levels provided would inevitably deteriorate from any company that was granted such a monopoly, while prices would skyrocket.

It's only a matter of time before they realize that this same logic applies to far more important concern of educating children.

Friday, June 4, 2010

While you were sleeping

Sometime while we were all sleeping last night, the U.S. National Debt quietly surpassed the $13 trillion mark. That's over $42,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country. $42,000 is your personal share of that debt.

Unfortunately, that is not the worst part. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that under current Democratic policy proposals and projections, we are on pace to borrow $1 trillion each year over the next decade. That means we will be borrowing more over the next ten years than we borrowed cumulatively from the years 1776 through 2000, our country's first 224 years of existence.

Since the Democrats took over Congress in 2007, the national debt has increased by more than $3.5 trillion, a 35% increase in just four years. And this despite the following promise from Nancy Pelosi in her January 2007 acceptance speech to become Speaker of the House for the new Democratic majority:

"After years of historic deficits, this new Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: pay as you go, no new deficit spending. Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future generations, not burden them with mountains of debt."

Since she made this statement, what have we witnessed? New deficit spending. Mountains of debt for future generations. I don't know that it would be possible to find a more fitting example of hypocrisy and broken promises than this.

The sad thing is, the state of affairs was no better under Republican rule or Republican leadership. President Bush presided over a more than $2.5 trillion increase in the national debt during his eight years in office. The only thing that makes him look frugal is the fact that his successor eclipsed that mark in just his first two years in office.

Many have asked me why I am running as an Independent. To answer that simply, all I can say is I'd rather say what I mean and follow through on it, than tie my fate to any party that says what voters want to hear, and then spends recklessly. And this latter group includes both of our major political parties. We need more people loyal to doing what is right, rather than simply being loyal to a party.

Now you'll have to excuse me as I get back to work – I've got a $42,000 debt to pay off.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Somewhere between “hell” and average

As the end of the school year quickly approaches, our children will soon be bringing home their final report cards of the year. Now imagine your child comes home and presents you with a report card full of C's straight across the board. I would suspect you would smile, pat him or her on the back, and say "Great job kiddo. Middle of the pack. Nothing wrong with that! Now go on out and play and have some fun…"

Oh – I'm sorry. You say you wouldn't?

Neither would I. So why are we so apt to do it in other areas of our lives?

Lately I have been reading a lot about our state's financial situation, specifically with regards to overall government spending and tax burden. Now there are as many ways to slice and dice state spending and tax data as there earmarks in the current state budget, so getting a good read on the overall picture and its implications for future policy is somewhat nebulous. In addition, as Mark Twain pointed out so eloquently over one hundred years ago: "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics."

In delving into the data, and articles summarizing the data, one finds arguments ranging from Wisconsin being a "tax hell" to Wisconsin as a middle-of-the-pack average state. But what you don't find are arguments for Wisconsin being in the upper echelon of fiscal responsibility – or even close to it. That's an important point.

I'm a fan of statistics, and have readily reported some that I feel show we're on the wrong path and that we need to scale back the size and scope of state government. Those who disagree with me may point to other statistics that show things may not be as bad as the rest of us might think, and our state is about average in terms of spending and tax burden. And the reality is… we're both right to a certain degree, depending on which stats you want to focus on.

But just to clarify, so that we can correctly frame the debate going forward: The debate is now over Wisconsin government spending and taxes being somewhere between "hell" and "average." Are we really comfortable with that?

Most parents won't accept "average" when it comes to their children, yet so many of us continue to accept "average" (or worse) from our state legislators.

I don't know why this is, but it needs to change if we are to show real material progress as a state. We don't accept excuses defending mediocrity from our children, and we certainly shouldn't accept them from our state government and other defenders of the status quo.

We can do much than somewhere between Hell and Average. Our children's future depends on it.