About: Jeff Pruitt
- pruitt@fortwaynepolitics.com
- Profile
- I am a lifelong Democrat that likes to call myself a populist Democrat. In this sense I think more power should be shifted to the people and away from politicians and the elitist interests that attempt to control them. Philosophically I suppose I would classify myself (if I must) as a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. In general I believe in ALL of our inalienable rights and thus by definition realize they are not provided or doled out by the government. I'm originally from Kansas and a graduate of Kansas State University with a degree in Physics and I moved to Fort Wayne in the summer of 2000. I don't claim any special expertise in the government arena other than I follow it very closely and always have. In that sense I suppose I'm a pundit - I'll leave it up to others to decide if I'm any good at it...
Posts by Jeff Pruitt:
Kansas City Harbinger For FWCS
3/13/10 @ 6:21 pm
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
Filed Under Featured, Local Politics | Leave a Comment
Quick Thought On “Reforming” Medicare
3/13/10 @ 5:48 pm
Every time I see someone talking about Medicare “reform” I get that “ugh” feeling where you want to throw up in your mouth. The reason is because fixing Medicare simply isn’t possible - at least not if you want to keep it as anything that resembles its current form. The entire program has been a sham from day one.
Just think about what the program promises - unlimited medical care at essentially no cost from retirement age until you die. Oh and now we’ll go ahead and throw in prescription drugs as well. It’s asinine. At least social security has a defined benefit and thus you can actually budget for future expenses. Does anyone pretend to know what medical costs and/or life expectancy will be 50 years from now? Of course not. This doesn’t mean that Medicare isn’t a noble cause but if you want to “fix” it then people are going to have pay more - A LOT MORE.
I would bet anything that 99% of the people on Medicare today will have paid in less than they will use. How in the world can anyone think that is sustainable? It’s a pyramid scheme that requires ever larger numbers of people to pay for those using the services. But those contributions aren’t tied to costs so bankruptcy is the only outcome…
Filed Under National Politics | 1 Comment
A Nickel’s Worth of Free Advice for Huntington Mayor Updike
3/7/10 @ 2:45 pm
When the JG’s Tracy Warner comes to talk austerity measures for your city - well the best thing you can do is politely decline. Warner and the JG have championed every single tax increase proposed in the city of Fort Wayne and they are certainly no friends of fiscal discipline.
His column, which read as a plea from your administration to raise taxes, isn’t going to help. The people of Huntington are tapped out and they simply can’t afford to let you and your cronies tax them to oblivion to support more government jobs. So let me offer a few suggestions in place of your whining:
“But if you don’t have enough money to plow the streets, to pick up the garbage, if you don’t have enough firefighters to put out fires … where does it end?”
It ends where the taxpayers want it to end. And obviously they don’t want, or can’t afford, to pay anymore. Why does the city need to provide trash services in the first place? The entire city’s trash service should be privatized. This was the case in the city I grew up in with a population of over 400,000 and it worked just fine there. There’s obviously a market for trash service and a private company (or two) will fill the need. It will also likely do it more efficiently and the cost will be born by the users directly.
As for firefighters, more and more cities around the country are moving back to volunteer firehouses. Has Huntington considered this? If not, why not? According to the article, 15% of property tax payments are delinquent. Why not get some of these people to pay their debts by plowing the streets, hauling garbage or volunteering at a firehouse?
You might be surprised at how much people are willing to chip in when they can see the results and it doesn’t go to an ever-increasing black-hole of government spending…
Filed Under Local Politics | 1 Comment
FWCS Transportation Costs Are Out of Control
3/6/10 @ 3:11 pm
The total transportation budget is ~$19.5 Million. With roughly 30,000 students that comes out to $650/student! That’s not only students riding the bus - that is ALL students. And 70% of that cost, or $13.7 Million is in salary and benefits for transportation employees.
Good grief.
That is absolutely out of control. Cutting that budget by merely 25% would save $5 million per year. That’s $5 million that could be transfered into the general fund (assuming the state legislature approves such transfers come next week) to eliminate teacher layoffs and reduce classroom sizes.
This district simply can’t afford to pick up every kid that lives just a few blocks away from school. Indiana guarantees every child the right to a free education but that should not include a chauffeur service to and from school paid for at taxpayer expense. The vast majority of the district’s transportation budget should be born by the riders. If you want your kid to take the bus then you have to pony up something to help pay for it.
We need to drastically reduce the bus program at FWCS, privatize it if necessary, and put the savings into areas that will improve academic achievement.
Filed Under Uncategorized | 18 Comments
An Open Letter to FWEA & its Membership
3/6/10 @ 2:49 pm
To FWEA & Members,
The entire community is struggling right now and your membership is certainly no different. Unfortunately your struggles are being compounded by the lack of leadership from the FWCS administration and poor oversight from the board. Bad financial and academic decisions from years past are coming back to haunt the district, but what you are starting to see is that the administration has no real plan to turn things around. They flailed away blaming teachers in hopes of scraping out some of the “Race to the Top” funds but that pipe dream is now squashed.
The administration’s inability to turn around this struggling district has bred a level of mistrust and apathy into the heart of taxpaying residents. Now they are attempting to drag you down with them and somebody is going down for the lack of academic progress so who do you think they want that to be? Think they will point the finger at themselves? Have you seen any such thing lately? Of course you brought much of this on yourself through your blind support of the administration and their hand-picked members on the school board.
The financial crisis this district faces is not a some sort of classic corporate union squeeze where concessions are being asked for in order to support bonuses and other forms of looting for upper management. Nor are these concessions being asked for in order to appease Wall Street in the hopes for a 50 cent increase in the stock price. No, what we are all facing in this community is a new baseline of economic conditions.
Filed Under Featured, Local Politics | 11 Comments
Former County IT Manager Speaks Out Against Commissioners’ Political Meddling
3/1/10 @ 2:37 pm
Another ex-county employee lashed out against the commissioners as former County IT Project Manager Phil Pease penned a letter describing (sort of) the issues surrounding his resignation. As usual you can expect the typical establishment-biased coverage of this in the traditional media. If anything they will interview Commissioner Nelson Peters or Bill Brown for a passing sound bite. Here at FWP we try (probably futilely) to tilt the playing field back towards the individual citizen and taxpayer by bringing you a different perspective - one that is anti-establishment most of the time. You can download Pease’s the full letter here (PDF).
During more than 4 years serving as a Project Manager for Allen County the most prominent impediment was not a lack of processes or poorly articulated needs from requestors nor was it inadequate funding. In point of fact the largest impediment was a pervasive undercurrent of various forms of punishment should questions or actions not remain in alignment with the power structure.
[...]
It widely known that the top leadership in local government (elected officials) are largely driven by political motivations, so what do you think happens when some foolhardy employee seeking to introduce efficiencies winds up shedding light on areas not necessarily in alignment with said political motivations?
Filed Under Featured, Local Politics | 6 Comments
Salary Compression at FWCS?
2/25/10 @ 12:12 am
I loved this quote from Fort Wayne Community Schools’ Superintendent Wendy Robinson:
Robinson said it’s possible the community didn’t understand the idea of salary compression, a concept she believed was laid out clearly when the board discussed her contract but something that didn’t translate to the other administrators.
District officials have said they’ve been seeing some salary compression between the high school principals and the top administrators, who have more responsibilities, and to keep the higher positions competitive and alluring, it’s necessary to have them pay more.
The top administrators of this district have been failures by any reasonable measure. Yet because a couple of principals are overpaid we have to pay these failures even more? And if we don’t then we’re to believe that these top administrative positions wouldn’t be competitive and alluring? I can’t believe they have the gall to even suggest this when faced with a $15 million budget cut.
Just like looting bankers on Wall Street, the FWCS administration runs the district into the ground all the while demanding more and more of the taxpayers’ money. Here’s a challenge for the board to determine whether or not we need to raise wages to keep the positions “competitive and alluring”:
Go ahead and cut the salaries by 20% and post them as open positions. If 10 or more qualified people apply for any given job then fire the current administrator and hire a new applicant at the reduced rate. If less than 10 qualified applicants apply then go ahead and give them their raise.
Is there ANY doubt what would happen if they did this?
Filed Under Uncategorized | 13 Comments
Revisionist History Regarding the City’s “Fiscal Responsibility”
2/24/10 @ 11:58 pm
I’ve been looking at public pension obligations lately (another post on this coming soon) and it has reminded me how lucky the city was to have the state assume it’s pre-1977 pension obligations. These pensions were massively underfunded with the total liabilities over $90 Million. The city had saved up $20+ million in its general fund to pay down these debts but clearly they were in a precarious situation moving forward.
The state assumed these obligations as part of the property tax reform legislation that city officials continually bitch and moan about. Yes the state reduced the city’s levy by the same amount, BUT the city got to keep it’s $20 million! So that is where the highly touted “fiscally responsible” city got its bankroll from.
It wasn’t because they were particularly wise - quite the opposite. It’s because they were so far in the red regarding their unfunded pension obligations that they had to start saving cash. And then they got a lucky break because the state was stupid enough to come along and assume those obligations without taking any of the banked cash with them. Also, keep in mind that the actuarial assumption for rate of return on these pensions was 6% - think they’ve seen that over the last 3 years? Fat chance. The city would likely be dead broke right now had the state not foolishly saved their bacon…
Filed Under Featured, Local Politics | 1 Comment
Be Careful About Reading Too Much Into the State of the City Address
2/19/10 @ 5:36 pm
Yea, yea, I’m late to the party with this - what can I say? I’ve been busy.
I thought this was an excellent piece of speech writing. The delivery was off, but let’s face it, the mayor isn’t the best public speaker (he’s getting better). I thought last year’s speech was well written as well, but this year’s was by far the best of the three. Although to be fair, there was a little bit more to talk about this year than last which always makes the writer’s job easier.
In general, the speech did a great job touting his accomplishments but I think there’s one particular point that hasn’t been appropriately dealt with anywhere else in the media. There had been some talk about forcing non-profits to pay fees/taxes for their services as way to increase revenue for cities and towns. Henry backed off that position during his speech with this statement:
That does not mean I am not concerned about property tax caps and how they will affect our future budgets, but Fort Wayne is well positioned financially. Other Indiana cities are discussing new revenue streams, but this is not needed in Fort Wayne. Let me reassure you, I will not put any additional burdens on our nonprofit organizations, who are creating jobs and delivering important services.
I would be very cautious about reading too much into this statement. It seems to me that it was crafted explicitly to make it sound like he’s against tax increases without actually saying that. What Mayor Henry says is that new revenue streams are not needed but he didn’t quite go as far as saying that additional revenue won’t be needed. Until he says otherwise there is no reason to believe the mayor isn’t fully committed to raising the income tax if that’s what he has to do to balance the budget…
Filed Under Featured, Local Politics | 3 Comments
A Quick Thought on Evan Bayh
2/19/10 @ 5:18 pm
I’ve been anti-Bayh for a long, long time now for a variety of reasons. Some of the biggest reasons were his vote for the Iraq war (he was also a major champion drumming up support wherever he went), his support of the flag-burning amendment and his vote for the industry-written bankruptcy bill.
Having said that, it’s kind of refreshing to see somebody retire who isn’t drawing Social Security or under federal indictment…
