Idiots abound in the Indiana State Legislature
Indiana’s Unemployment Fund is bankrupt.
In 2000 the Indiana Unemployment fund had a positive balance of 1.6 billion dollars. Due to mismanagement by Democrats and Republicans the state of Indiana has collected less in Unemployment taxes every year since 2000 from employers than it has paid out to former employees who are unemployed. At the end of 2009 the Indiana Unemployment fund was 1.5 billion dollars in the red. Per the Indiana Legislative Services agency the Indiana Unemployment Fund had an operating deficit over 1.3 billion dollars.
More FWEA Idiocy
Really FWEA members? Really? This guy is your leader?
Al Jacquay, president of the Fort Wayne Education Association, suggested adopting an employee incentive program, using geothermal heating and relying on wells instead of city water.
Giving more money to employees will somehow cut the budget - I think he must’ve learned that at Dick Cheney’s “Budget Deficits Don’t Matter” School of Accounting.
And geothermal heating and well water? That’s the FWEA solution for solving a massive budget crisis. I would point out how stupid this is but I don’t think that’s even necessary. Did people burst into laughter when he made this comment?
Good grief…
Agreeing with Congressman Souder
Since it’s a rare occurrence I thought I would point out two recent instances in which I whole-heartily agree with Congressman Mark Souder. The first is this silly notion of “earmark reform”. People seem to think this will reduce spending - it won’t. All it does is change who hands out the money, elected officials or federal bureaucrats. Souder gets this distinction:
Souder said the system should be changed, but not all spending decisions should be made by the federal agencies, which are run by the president’s team.
Also, he said, ending earmarks – whether it’s for a year or indefinitely – won’t cut federal spending.
“It’s important for people to understand all sides agree (that) to eliminate earmarks will not save the taxpayer one dollar,” he said. “This is about the process of how you earmark and who earmarks.”
Next, was his recent questioning of education secretary Arne Duncan where he points out that his plans are not going to work, because as I previously pointed out here at FWP, they are all stick and no carrot:
The congressman asked about the narrow approach the proposed law would take in addressing the lowest 5 percent of schools, including plans to fire administrators and replace most of the teachers.
“Why would anyone ever choose to teach in one of these schools if they think there is a 50 percent chance they are going to be fired?” Souder asked. “Why would a principal go there? How are we assured these same schools are going to be measured fairly and get the improvements?”
Duncan told Souder that there are “heroic” teachers and principals who want to go into struggling schools and make a difference, and that he’s seen the results of their work in some schools.
“I agree with that wholeheartedly, and we have schools inside Fort Wayne where teachers actually move to those schools,” Souder said. “But the bottom line is, some of those schools – where they’ve really put their effort in – they get marginal change, even working weekends and so. And those highly motivated teachers didn’t move to those schools thinking 50 percent of them could be fired within a certain number of years.”
The congressman told Duncan that the success stories often could be attributed to factors outside of instruction, including an influx of new students. He also questioned how long those turnaround schools could sustain the improvement.
In an interview after the hearing, Souder said he’s also concerned that the consequences for struggling schools – firing the principal and most of the staff, transforming it to a different model, closing it or converting to a charter school – are too prescriptive. States need more flexibility to find the right approach, he said.
FWEA Arrogance
Faced with a minimum of $6 million in teacher cuts the Fort Wayne teacher’s union had an opportunity to acknowledge their role as public servants and make extremely minor concessions in order to save jobs and focus on academic achievement. A salary freeze coupled with an increase in insurance premium payments would’ve saved nearly the full $6 million.
Unfortunately the FWEA doesn’t give a damn about any of that and negotiated a contract that guarantees a large number of teacher firings while giving absolutely nothing to try and solve the district’s budget woes. Here’s an example of the FWEA leadership’s arrogance:
Association Director Steve Brace and Jacquay acknowledged teachers are concerned about how the salary increases and health benefits could affect future layoffs, particularly among younger teachers.
The union leaders hoped the district could find ways of slashing the budget without widespread layoffs of younger teachers.
“At some point we have to decide where to draw the line,” Brace said. “If you give up compensation, you never make it up. … It shouldn’t be on the backs of teachers. This is a community problem.”
Slashing the budget without any layoffs isn’t possible given that teacher salaries and benefits make up 60% of the budget and he damn well knows it. Pray tell, why would any young teacher join the union after this - they voted to eliminate your job and they don’t care one iota.
As for drawing the line? Is he kidding me? This is a community problem and you are part of the community - in fact a bigger part of it than anyone else. The problem simply can’t be solved without your help yet you push it on the backs of everyone else. The line about “giving up compensation” is bogus as well. A salary freeze in an era of deflation is not giving up anything, it’s maintaining, something the majority of taxpayers are trying to do right now. And having to pay 20% of your insurance premium instead of 10% is also a benefit the rest of “the community” would love to have.
Somebody should tell these people that these cuts are only the beginning - there will be more next year and probably more after that. What is the plan for ending the death spiral of poor academic achievement coupled with poor finances? The FWEA had an opportunity to take a major step towards solving those problems but they failed. There is now a very strong possibility that the death spiral will end in a state takeover of the district and a dismantling of the union.
The FWCS board needs to reject this contract. If the FWEA won’t stand up for students then the board needs to. You were elected to turn this district around and kowtowing to the union by firing more and more teachers every year is NOT a solution. Of course most of the members are bought and paid for by the union so expecting a vote that would take courage is probably foolish…
Same Asshole Lawyer, Same Dirty Tactic
The Chestnut Group is trying to get its Cherry Hill development approved by the city council and now that they are facing resistance they have resorted to an old tactic - threatening lawsuits against the council.
Tom Niezer, attorney for the Chestnut Group, which wants to build a three-building, $1.6 million office park on St. Joe Center Road near the Cherry Hill neighborhood, wrote a letter to Council members last month saying their apparent opposition to the project could be considered “arbitrary and capricious” – and, hence, illegal.
The attorney for Chestnut Group, Tom Niezer, is the same asshole that sued the members of the Allen County Plan Commission as individuals after they rejected his client’s plan for the Canyon Cliffs development. This is nothing more than yet another strong arm attempt by developers to intimidate public officials into doing their bidding.
I really didn’t care about this issue but now I hope Niezer gets his ass handed to him. And as far as I’m concerned I hope he doesn’t get any development approved in this city from now until eternity. Awful jackass…
Burmese Silliness
After some local employee who probably makes damn near minimum wage put up an intolerant sign at a local business it was removed and the owner apologized. Case closed right since surely everyone knows there will always be an isolated case of bigotry here and there no matter what? Well don’t tell that to the local Burmese population who have reacted to the incident like it was some sort of hate crime. They staged a protest at the courthouse Sunday and made some odd statements such as:
Organizers said the rally was a response to the government’s lack of reaction to a controversial sign posted at Ricker’s City Laundry on South Calhoun Street several weeks ago.
[...]
“The government has been silent,” said Maung Maung Soe, one of the event’s organizers. “If the government does not take action, we will take legal action.”
What the hell is this blowhard talking about? Does the mayor need to publicly denounce every single incident of racism and bigotry in this community? If so, he’s going to be mighty busy. And the Metro Human Relations Commission has already opened an investigation.
Just what “legal action” are they going to take? They considering sueing the city? Good luck pal. Maybe we should all just come together for a silent vigil and pray for the plight of these local persecuted immigrants.
You know, there are real injustices in this country worthy of public attention but one ignorant employee putting up a sign at some hole-in-the-wall business ain’t one of them…
The State of Indiana is Dead Broke
I know many of us (including Governor Daniels) like to point at the budget troubles in California and snicker; laughing at the clueless fools who seem to have spent themselves into oblivion. But as the saying goes, those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. And when it comes to state finances, Indiana is certainly living in a glass house.
You may not know this because nobody talks about it much, and the Governor and state legislators certainly aren’t going to bring it up, but the state of Indiana is flat broke. Yea, you’ve probably heard about the $1.6 Billion we borrowed from the feds for unemployment benefits - of course the state legislature just kicked the can down the road by delaying the unemployment contribution increases for another year. But the problem is MUCH, MUCH worse than that.
JG article in today’s paper is a must read
The article is entitled “ Quarter of state grads need help in college.”
Indiana has started tracking the number of students who attend college in Indiana who need remedial coursework. In other words they are tracking the percentage of students who failed to get a proper high school education by specific high school. The results are not pretty for Allen County, not pretty at all. Consider these percentages:
Bishop Dwenger, 20%
Homestead, 22%
Snider, 35%
Northrop, 40%
South Side, 50%
Wayne, 57%
Elmhurst, 62%
North Side, 64%
Harding, 76%
How is it possible that as a nation real spending on education has tripled in the last twenty years and we have quite a few local high schools who produce students who graduate and then half or 2/3 of those students cannot take a beginning English and/or math course at a local 2 or 4 year university?
I am just as surprised that 20% of the students who graduate from Bishop Dwenger and attend college need a remedial course. You have got to be kidding me.
How do these students graduate from high school?
Mike
We are so screwed
I am getting a little more depressed about the future of this country each week. The more research I do the more that I think that the United States and most of the industrialized world is largely “screwed.”
I cannot believe that I am going to say this. The New York times has a must read article. Believe it or not this piece in the New York times widely quotes the work of a Libertarian economist from the Cato Institute.
Basically the premise of the article is that almost all of Europe and the United States are completely screwed because they have unfunded pension obligations that are monstrous.
There may be hope yet. Even the ultra liberal New York Times realizes that the unfunded pension obligations in this country are unsustainable.
Mike
Kansas City Harbinger For FWCS
The Kansas City School Board voted to close 29 of it’s 61 schools because after years of dropping enrollment several of them are only half full. Many people are outraged of course but the truth is there is no money to keep them operating - these closings should’ve been done years ago as enrollment began to shrink.
Facing potential bankruptcy, the board that governs the once flush-with-cash Kansas City school district is taking the unusual and contentious step of shuttering almost half its schools.
Administrators say the closures are necessary to keep the district from plowing through what little is left of the $2 billion it received as part of a groundbreaking desegregation case.
The Kansas City school board narrowly approved the plan to close 29 out of 61 schools Wednesday night at a meeting packed with angry parents. The schools will close before the fall.
The article briefly mentions the $2 billion worth of funding for desegregation but what it fails to mention is what a dismal failure that was. Taxpayers were forced to pony up unprecedented amounts of money and years later they had absolutely nothing to show for it - dismal test scores remained and the acheivement gap between white and black students remained.
This is the same sort thinking that the FWCS administration uses to justify its racial balance fund and the failed building plan. None of it works but it won’t stop them from pretending that schools (and more specifically teachers) should be able to solve all of society’s problems and inequities. Here’s the executive summary from a report on the failed Kansas City desegregation experiment:
For decades critics of the public schools have been saying, “You can’t solve educational problems by throwing money at them.” The education establishment and its supporters have replied, “No one’s ever tried.” In Kansas City they did try. To improve the education of black students and encourage desegregation, a federal judge invited the Kansas City, Missouri, School District to come up with a cost-is-no-object educational plan and ordered local and state taxpayers to find the money to pay for it.
Kansas City spent as much as $11,700 per pupil–more money per pupil, on a cost of living adjusted basis, than any other of the 280 largest districts in the country. The money bought higher teachers’ salaries, 15 new schools, and such amenities as an Olympic-sized swimming pool with an underwater viewing room, television and animation studios, a robotics lab, a 25-acre wildlife sanctuary, a zoo, a model United Nations with simultaneous translation capability, and field trips to Mexico and Senegal. The student-teacher ratio was 12 or 13 to 1, the lowest of any major school district in the country.
The results were dismal. Test scores did not rise; the black-white gap did not diminish; and there was less, not greater, integration.
The Kansas City experiment suggests that, indeed, educational problems can’t be solved by throwing money at them, that the structural problems of our current educational system are far more important than a lack of material resources, and that the focus on desegregation diverted attention from the real problem, low achievement.
H/T: Mish
