Providing equal rights for all

In Public Pulse on Friday

Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray said, "We want to make sure people are protected no matter who they are, where they come from or what they consider their gender to be."
When our Constitution was created, it was earth-shattering. Sovereigns were no longer kings, queens or elite bodies of leaders, but individuals. Each individual had sovereign rights, which we were born with.

In Europe, Marxism worked, as class structure existed. Marxism was not so easy here. We had to be convinced there was no American dream of success with hard work, planning and setting goals. We had to be divided.

Today, we have almost every special-interest group imaginable, from age, color, race, sex, sexual identity, disability, veteran and on and on - divided mostly by groups we cannot choose to leave - I can't be young, male or Hispanic.
Groups now vie for favor of the government to gain their rights - rights we gave away in our fervor to be fair to all.

Separation of School and State

Ezra,

Hotly debated issues on education are created BECAUSE we do not have separation of school and state. Forget separation of church and state==its the schools as political footballs that are causing the quality of education of our kids to be relegated to the bottom of the adults' priority list. I'm listening to the Florida governors debate on C-SPAN and much of their discussion is how to 'RULE' education in their state. Top down cannot work as one size NEVER fits all. Their mortgages are teetering on the edge, says a reporter, but often that mortgage includes hundreds a month for education taxes.

If all schools were immediately unfunded by all level or agency of government, and only funded privately by tuition (or education stamps explained later,) property taxes would plummet, overhead costs at all levels and lobbyist groups would crumble, principals at existing public school buildings would need to negotiate tuition with parents and learn, as private schools do, that all resources must be used in classroom for teaching the kids including the head master. Most children would stay in their current school. The only difference would be the parents being empowered and education of children becoming the primary goal of schools again. I would abolish dept of education and In a five year phase out, have election of parents advisory board done at each school to work with the principal during transition.

What about the poor? Well, I think food stamps pro-rated by income is a good model as a tuition supplement for poor. I would base the amount on an average tuition for the county of residence. After all, we don't care whether grocery stores are owned by Jews, Catholics, Muslims or atheists for food stamps.

Justice Sotomayor's widowed mother worked two jobs to send her daughter to private Catholic school in NYC. In fact, Kagan attended Hunter College exclusive K-12 and Roberts attended Notre Dame K-12. Clinton, GW and Obama all benefitted from private K-12 school along the way. If the Justices who benefitted from private K-12 excused themselves from cases about public schools, how many would be able sit?

Bill & Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett's foundation as well as others interested in education could dive in to assist large city school districts (explaining business practices) during transition. Everything would begin to focus on one issue... only one.. the education of the child.

Certifications would be of no consequence. Either a teacher is teaching or they are not. If a neighbor has decided to stay home to teach their children, taking a hit in their double salary income, that teacher can now accept (for tuition) other children from the neighborhood. In my neighborhood we have an autistic child who could easily succeed with his siblings and neighborhood friends in a small class setting around the kitchen table.

States may decide it is in their interests to test children at set points to identify neglect, and absolutely test to certify 8th grade and high school diploma requirements have been met. Colleges and universities would no longer have to bear costs of the growing number of remedial classes. The ability to sit for annual testing can identify a need for coaching if a child is falling behind. As with college entrance exams, coaching programs will arise from free market.

Trades can once again be removed from community colleges and rolled into a high school focused on the borderline academic, who may be kept in school given the ability to work with their hands part of the day. In Omaha, our former Technical High, where interwoven with their classes, (given the sexism of the times) boys worked on their cars, and girls learned to type and take shorthand, has over 300 non-teaching staff and is being used as the district's headquarters.

The Prussians designed public education to create a class of citizens who respond to orders without question and are trained to endure long periods of boredom. Even the USSR did not fall for that standard. Public Schools are teaching our children that government is their friend and only has their best interests at heart. How many times has that worked out in the past? Was Uncle Joe Stalin a good guy? or Mao, or the politburo?

I say, separation of school and state is our best solution for education in the USA today.

My opinions are my own.. but It might be interesting to hear comments/questions.
Sent to wonkbook@gmail.com Washington Post

Schiff on Economics

Peter Schiff can spout more common sense economics in a minute then most do all year.

Schiff's podcast

includes an explanation about the current mess and why savings is always what created growth, not spending.

Midlands Voices/2005

Nebraskans understand issues have more than two sides. This is certainly true of the current attempt of the Unicameral, supported by the education establishment, to force Nebraska’s hundreds of Class I school districts to merge with larger school districts. Right now the choice is black and white. The Class I school districts will surely resist and the outcome is unknown. But why not allow the parents of children attending Class I schools a third choice?
Nebraska’s constitution requires we educate our children but has no barriers to a Charter school fulfilling that requirement. What is a Charter school?
A school stands alone as a Charter school by guaranteeing students meet certain educational outcomes. The operators of the school, generally the teacher(s), sign the contract. Charter schools receive tax moneys for the children in attendance. Traditionally, it is much less than the state average spent per child and if outcomes are not met, the contract is pulled and the school closes.
An administrator in Bellevue told me of a sandhills school near North Platte that was closed. The ranchers purchased a trailer and the teacher now teaches their children in the trailer. The other difference is that the ranchers pay her salary. This is the perfect example of the benefit of a Charter school option. The need was there, the desire was there and the teacher was there. It was the legislative option that was missing.
Parents have an option of sending their children to a traditional public school or setting up a Charter school system. In this respect, it is a win-win situation. Parents choosing the Charter school elect a parental advisory board, and often expect to volunteer, help with maintenance, provide transportation, etc. The rural Charter school is much like those of our past. My mother taught in rural schools and answered directly to the parents. Parental control gets defused as control moves up the bureaucracy.
And Charters are not only for rural school choices. Here are other options to increase choices and extend outcomes for kids:
• To attract quality professional staff, a large medical facility provides day care. Extending this facility to a K-6 Charter school might serve the same purpose.
• An international engineering firm recruits engineers by giving them summer jobs during college. A highly challenging math and science curriculum taught to 17 and 18 year olds on site in a Charter school could serve the same purpose.
• A teacher promises to cut the drop-out rate in half if given a Charter school in an inner city neighborhood. If she succeeds, she keeps her school and her Charter. And, she saves some kids from certain poverty and lives of lower fulfillment.
Charter schools offer a choice for parents. They offer competition to the existing monopoly of public schools. Charter schools are public schools, too, but they are run by parents, not administrators or bureaucrats. If no parents send their children to a Charter school, it closes.
--> not included in newspaper: Running for the Unicameral taught me the power of the Education establishment. The teachers union can and does deliver votes. Their questionnaire for candidates is much more about finance and control and much less about improved student outcomes and choices. I’m pro-education for our kids and I want more choices, not less. Hopefully, LB 126 can be amended to include Charter schools as an option. School Charters can be co-signed by a mayor, a county board or a school district board.
Reagan said it best: "Our system freed the individual genius of man. We allocate resources not by government decision but by the millions of decisions customers make when they go into the market place. If something seems too high-priced, we buy something else. So resources are steered toward those things people want most at the price they are willing to pay." Today, too many of our education decisions are made by government not by the customers of education --the parents.

Define Progress

Progressive policymakers moved single mothers to projects like Cabrini Green's high rises [see below] and lumped them together by the thousands -- miles from the father and extended family-- left to foment for 20/30/40 years. Men called 'dad,' attempting to stay with their families, became 'cheaters.' When the drugs, crime and gang problem resulted, they bulldozed the site and scampered off to hatch a new plan to help the poor.

All the neighbors in the projects had failed at personal responsibility in one way or another. The children in this situation seldom if ever saw their father, their grandparents, or any individuals that might be classified as 'responsible,' and had only lonesome, dejected, and often depressed moms to raise them.

With hindsight, we should be able to see how this process, implemented across the US, destroyed the family structure for scores of millions of children over the years.

Why would anyone vote for progressives or for a way forward after observing social planners abject failures over the years.

a Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) public housing development on Chicago's Near North Side, ..At its peak, Cabrini–Green was home to 15,000 people,^[1] living in mid- and high-rise apartment buildings. Over the years, gang violence and neglect created terrible conditions for the residents, and the name "Cabrini–Green" became synonymous with the problems associated with public housing in the United States.

Is all this history of failure down the memory hole? Didn't we learn anything? I hear day after day, young voters asking for a 'way forward' and 'progress' from their elected representatives.

Unless they look back at what prior social engineers created with their good intentions, before listening to current plans from politicians, they will risk more unintended consequences.

The Fourth Turning, Headed Our Way

When the first Bush was President, Brian Lamb hosted followers of possible effects of Fourth Turning in America and I bought the book. The authors are careful not to predict events but only to show based on history how 4 generational archetypes following in succession 20-25 years apart identify trends based on history. The book predicts we jump from WWII hero generation, Reagan/Bush, to Boomer generation, Clinton/Bush which we did.
You can learn more by purchasing the book but this article also lays out what could very well be our short term future:

William Strauss and Neil Howe published The Fourth Turning in 1997. This was before the internet bubble, before the housing bubble, before 9/11, before the two wars in the Middle East, and before the financial collapse of 2008. They made a strong case for their generational theory of history. Everything that has happened since 1997 supports their theory. We are currently in the early stages of the Fourth Turning. In the last two chapters of their book, they describe the possibilities during a Fourth Turning. In the last section of the book they provide guidance on how to prepare responsibly for a Fourth Turning. Without preparation, the Fourth Turning is much worse. Below is a description of Fourth Turning possibilities, the preparations that were recommended by Strauss & Howe, and my assessment of how prepared we are as a country.

"What will America be like as it exits the Fourth Turning?

History offers no guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong – the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to uncurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high tech dictatorship. We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin. Since Vietnam, many Americans suppose they know what it means to lose a war. Losing in the next Fourth Turning, however, could mean something incomparably worse. It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence – and perhaps even our nation – might never recover.

If America plunges into an era of depression or violence which by then has not lifted, we will likely look back on the 1990s as the decade when we valued all the wrong things and made all the wrong choices."

"However sober we must be about the dark possibilities of Crisis, the record of prior Fourth Turnings gives cause for optimism. With five of the past six Crises. it is hard to imagine more uplifting finales. Even after the Civil War, the American faith in progress returned with a new robustness. As a people, we have always done best when challenged. The New World still stands as a beacon of hope and virtue for the Old, and we have every reason to believe this can contine.

By the middle 2020s, the archetypal constellation will change, as each generation begins entering a new phase of life. If the Crisis ends badly, very old Boomers could be truly despised. Generation X might provide the demagogues, authoritarians, even the tribal warlords who try to pick up the pieces.

History is seasonal, but its outcomes are not foreordained. Much will depend on how tall we stand in the trials to come. But there is more to do than just wait for that time to come. The course of our national and personal destinies will depend in large measure on what we do now, as a society and as individuals, to prepare."

Preparations Needed (1997–2006)

In their chapter on preparations for the Fourth Turning, Strauss and Howe essentially tell Americans to grow up. Give up the bad habits that had become part of our life during the Unraveling. We needed to prepare as if a blizzard was headed our way.

"Reflect on what happens when a terrible winter blizzard strikes. You hear the weather warning but probably fail to act on it. The sky darkens. Then the storm hits with full fury, and the air is a howling whiteness. One by one, your links to the machine age break down. Electricity flickers out, cutting off the TV. Batteries fade, cutting off the radio. Phones go dead. Roads become impossible, and cars get stuck. Food supplies dwindle. Day to day vestiges of modern civilization – bank machines, mutual funds, mass retailers, computers, satellites, airplanes, governments – all recede into irrelevance. Picture yourself and your loved ones in the midst of a howling blizzard that lasts several years. Think about what you would need, who could help you, and why your fate might matter to anybody other than yourself. That is how to plan for a saecular winter. Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted."

... Finish the article

Dichotomy

by Rex May
baloocartoons.com