Teacher salary comparison
The local school districts have to cut costs; due to this the pay and benefits of local teachers has underwent a lot of scrutiny.
I have decided to compare my wife and her earnings to that of the average local teacher. I think this comparison will surprise many of you!
Senator Bayh
Senator Evan Bayh, in a news conference just before the filing deadline to run in the primary, announced his retirment from the US Senate.
Reaction from Indiana Democrats has been interesting to say the least. Senator Bayh’s announcement appears to be a shock to the entire Democratic establishment. Senator Bayh kept his retirement secret and shocked even his own campaign manager.
Nadia Bashir called me today and I did a short interview with her in my office; part of which will be aired on WFFT-TV tonight on their 10 PM news on channel 55.
I have several observations about this retirement:
1. His last minute retirement is a slap in the face to The Indiana Democratic Party and to Indiana voters. Now the Democrats will have to appoint a candidate and there will not be a Demcoratic primary. That is shameful.
2. I think it is very likely that Evan Bayh would have won re-election. I personally think the only Indiana Republican that could have beat Senator Bayh was Mike Pence. Unfortunately Mike Pence decided not to challenge Bayh.
3. I now think the Republicans will win a second Indiana Senate seat in November 2010.
4. I think Bayh’s “retirement” will serve to energize the Indiana Republican Party and will tend to hurt the morale of the Indiana Democratic Party. I think whoever wins the Republican Primary for US Senate will win in November fairly easily.
Mike Sylvester
2010 Senate race in Indiana
I do not want to see either Indiana Senator re-elected when they next run for office. Neither has impressed me and both often vote in favor of programs and policies that I oppose.
Democratic Senator Evan Bayh is the incumbent Democrat that is up for re-election in 2010. I cannot imagine very many circumstances where I could possibly vote for him. He is not an effective Senator and I am highly offended that his wife; who is completely unqualified to sit on any large corporate board, currently sits on several corporate boards just because her husband is a US Senator. That is wrong on many levels and I think Indiana voters should be outraged by this.
I have yet to decide which Republican I will support in the primary; however, it is likely that I will support whichever Republican manages to win the Republican primary.
With that being said I just do not understand the media’s interest in the likely candidacy of former Senator Coates. Former Senator Coats was a reasonably good Senator, he is a reasonably conservative Republican, and he and I actually lived in the same neighborhood for several years (Walden). He lived around the corner from my parents house on Vance and lived maybe ten houses away from my family when I was enrolled in FWCS.
Senator Coats moved away from Indiana to Virginia where he has been a lobbyist for most of the last twelve years.
Why would any Indiana Republican be excited about electing a DC lobbyist to the US Senate who has not lived in this state for the last twelve years?
Seriously, are any of the readers of this blog excited about a Coates candidacy for US Senate?
If so, why are you excited?
The only reason I can think that anyone would be excited is that they think former Senator Coates could win the race…
I was excited when I thought Mike Pence might run. Mike Pence is an awesome Republican who I wholeheartedly support.
Mike Sylvester
State Budget Director Says Proposed Tax Increase Isn’t Really a Tax Increase
Governor Daniels is looking to balance the budget by eliminating 8 tax credits. Now whether or not this is a good idea is really not the point of this post. What I want to point out is that Republicans have become so scared of “tax increases” that they won’t even admit when they propose to increase taxes.
Here’s an example from the state budget director Chris Ruhl:
INDIANAPOLIS – Gov. Mitch Daniels wants to suspend millions of dollars in tax credits given every year to individuals, non-profits and Hoosier companies as part of his proposed administrative cost-savings measure. This comes despite his urging lawmakers in his State of the State speech not to “make this recession worse by adding one cent to the tax burden of our fellow citizens.”
The tax credits that would be affected include the Neighborhood Assistance Credit, Enterprise Zone Investment Cost and Loan Interest Credits, the Community Revitalization Enhancement District Credit and several business credits for offering health benefits and a wellness program to employees.
[...]
According to the fiscal impact statement on the bill, the suspension of the various tax credits could save more than $8 million per year.Ruhl said Daniels does not consider it a tax increase. He noted that one taxpayer or another can always see his liability go up or down in any given year due to changes.
Wait a minute there professor - let’s just think about that statement a bit. You want to change the rules so that you collect $8 million more per year. That’s not a situation of some taxpayers’ liability goes up and some go down. That’s a net tax increase of $8 million. But it gets worse for Ruhl:
“It’s a balancing act,” he said, noting that something that affects one-tenth of 1 percent of the people is not a tax increase.
I’m not sure I even need to point this out but that’s probably the dumbest statement I’ve heard in quite some time. Why not just tax the wealthiest top 0.1% at 100% of their income then? After all it wouldn’t be a tax increase. Or wait, I’ve got it! We’ll only increase the taxes for everyone with the last name Ruhl or Daniels. That probably affects less than 0.1% of taxpayers.
Ruhl should just quit embarrassing himself. What the governor has proposed is (gasp!) a tax increase. If they want to argue the merits of that decision then fine go right ahead but don’t insult our intelligence by suggesting it’s something that it’s not…
Mike Sylvester’s plan for fixing the failed public education system in the United States
By any reasonable definition the public school system in the United States has failed as a whole. Our international ranking on education is abysmal.
In real terms (adjusted for inflation) we spend more than twice as much money on education as we did 35 years ago; that being said test scores have remained basically the same. All of this extra money has done nothing to improve student performance.
The United States spends the second most in the world per student on secondary education at $11,152 per student (Switzerland spends $11,334 per student). We continually hear that we must spend more on education. There is no reason to spend more money on our education system. We need to spend the money that we have already allocated on teaching children rather than on layers of bureaucrats, regulations, and administrators.
If I were King I would enact the following policies to help fix our education system:
- Immediately abolish the entire Federal Department of Education. This group of bureaucrats create piles of needless rules and regulations that prevent local school districts from innovation as well as cost the country hundreds of millions of tax dollars each and every year.
- Immediately suspend all Federal programs that subsidize Education in any way shape or form. (Read 1 above). Steps one and two would remove the largest barriers to educational innovation in this country. It would return control of the schools to the States and to local school districts. It would allows States and school systems to experiment with programs. Those programs that worked would soon be copied by other districts and States. One size does not fit all in education. The remaining steps would have to be taken by various states with each state implementing a system in accordance with the wishes of its citizens. I WOULD THEN DO THE FOLLOWING IN INDIANA WERE I KING:
- Implement a better teacher evaluation system that uses student performance as well as other factors to evaluate teacher performance. Teachers would be paid (or in the worst cases fired) based on their actual performance rather than their seniority.
- Evaluate schools in a meaningful way. Schools that fail need to have changes made in their Administration and each schools Administration should be held accountable for their student performance.
- Evaluate parental performance in a meaningful way. If a child has ten or more unexcused absences from school in a year than the County Prosecutor should bring charges against the parent. This should help ensure parents ensure their children attend school.
- Evaluate students in a meaningful way. Students who refuse to do their homework on a chronic basis, disrupt school on a chronic basis, etc. should be removed from the school system. Further schools should be allowed to discipline children and disruptive children should be removed from the class room. Education is a privilege not a right.
- Per a comment in a previous post (from a teacher I might add) I feel that students should NOT be able to obtain a driver’s license prior to their 18th birthday unless they have passed the 10th grade ISTEP exam. This would provide students a certain amount of motivation…
I think those changes would vastly improve our education system!
What do you think?
Mike Sylvester
P.S. Yes I know there would be funding issues. I think each State should funds their own education system. In Indiana I would like to see the state provide something like $5000 per student. I would like to see a flat rate per student with no exceptions!
Why do people read The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette?
As the readers of this blog know I cancelled my subscription to the JG quite awhile ago. I prefer the News-Sentinel. I get the NS every day of the week except Sunday; when I get the JG.
The Editorial in the December 13th JG was typical of the liberal JG and makes me sick to my stomach.
The article is called “ Address the real tax problem.”
As the readers of this blog know my firm prepares tax returns; heck we will prepare over 500 individual and over 200 corporate tax returns this next year.
The gist of the article is that Indiana does not have a progressive income tax. The JG is correct, Indiana does NOT have a progressive income tax.
Indiana instead has a proportional tax; meaning that each Indiana resident gets a few MINOR exemptions and then each Hoosier has to pay a 3.4% on their Indiana taxable income.
This system makes perfect sense; everyone pays the same percentage of their income in taxes.
The poor pay less than anyone else by this system since they make less to start with.
A progressive tax system instead penalizes the rich by making the rich pay a higher percentage of taxes than those who make less.
I feel that we need to make MORE people pay taxes; not fewer. Everyone utilizes State services so everyone should pay State income taxes.
The below example from the article really irritates me:
Per the JG a family with a single parent and two children making $17,165 per year has to pay a paltry $108 in Indiana income taxes.
The JG feels that $108 is too much for a family of three to pay.
Indiana should leave its tax system alone; it is one of the best things about the State of Indiana. The Indiana tax code is simple, it is fair, and it is proportional.
In fact the Federal Government should scrap their insane progressive tax code and adopt a system similar to Indiana’s.
Every American should have to pay income taxes.
Mike Sylvester
Indianapolis Takes Six Sigma to its Illogical Conclusion
I’ve been an ardent opponent of Six Sigma and the alleged “savings” it has generated for Fort Wayne. Having said that, the bozos down in Indy have taken it to a whole new level:
Motorists who receive minor parking or traffic tickets in Indianapolis, Indiana are being threatened with fines of up to $2500 if they attempt to take the ticket to court.
[...]
The city made explicit the threat of additional fines for challenging parking tickets in a November 30 press release announcing a deal between Indianapolis and a private firm, T2 Systems, to hand over operations of a parking ticket court to increase municipal income.“Using Six Sigma process improvement strategies, it is estimated that under this program the city may collect an additional $352,000 to $520,000 in parking citation revenue over the next 12 months,” the city press release stated.
Bilk your citizens for every dime they have by issuing outrageous fines that don’t even remotely serve the public good. Brilliant! Indianapolis is a borderline failed city and is becoming more of a laughingstock by the day.
And just in case you think the outrageous fines are only going to the worst offenders:
Toshinao Ishii received a ticket for driving 63 MPH in a 55 zone in February. Had he paid the ticket without challenge, the fine would have been $150. After Judge Young sided with the police officer in court, Ishii was fined $550. Motorist Matthew Stone was told by his doctors not to wear a seatbelt over his chest as it could damage his cardiac pacemaker. He received a $25 ticket for not wearing a seatbelt. After court officials threatened Stone with a $500 fine, he gave up his intention of challenging the citation. Adam Lenkowsky, who did not receive a ticket, attempted to attend a traffic court proceeding on September 23, 2009. He was barred from the court, despite the state constitutional requirement that court proceedings be open.
Mitch Daniels is slashing expenses to deal with lower revenues
Every politician in this country could learn something from Mitch Daniels. Each and every time the state revenue forecast decreases Mitch Daniels cuts expenses. That is what any prudent leader should do; however, a frightening number of political leaders have proven unable to grasp this simple concept.
Consider this statistic; The State of Indiana has 14% FEWER workers today than it had in January of 2005.
That is amazing and it is encouraging.
We should get every government agency in the country to cut their staff by 14%…
Mike Sylvester
President Obama taking on the teachers unions?
President Obama implemented a 4.4 billion dollar program that will distribute money to schools nationwide as long as states link student performance to teacher performance.
Indiana can get up to 250 million dollars in Federal stimulus money if Indiana changes its rules so that teacher performance is linked to student achievement on standardized test scores.
This is truly interesting since President Obama’s Race to the Top plan (that spends 4.4 billion dollars) comes from a Democratic President and was approved by a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate.
The teachers unions have long resisted any attempt to use student achievement to evaluate teacher performance. The teachers unions have long supported Democrats…
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
As an Indiana taxpayer I certainly want Indiana to get 250 million dollars in Federal stimulus money and so I want to see Indiana link teacher performance to student achievement.
Mike Sylvester
A Little Corporate Communism with your Beverage?
Just so you know - this is the opposite of capitalism:
The Interim Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Issues voted 7-4 against Sunday carryout sales, and voted unanimously against recommending that carryout cold beer sales be allowed in places such as drug stores, grocery stores and convenience stores.
[...]
But allowing Sunday sales is opposed by many package liquor store owners, in part because they believe any business gained would be canceled out by additional costs for being open another day.They say big-box grocery stores and drug stores could easily absorb any extra costs, and Sunday sales would change alcohol buying habits in those retailers’ favor. They also argued Tuesday against cold beer sales in venues other than liquor stores.
Once again, a group of businesses that can’t compete in the open market lobby government to grant them special privileges so they maintain market share. The big loser, as usual, is the consumer. Here’s a gem of a quote:
“The dramatic expansion of cold beer sales being proposed would destroy the package-store industry in every corner of this state,” said John Livengood, president of the Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers
To that I respond - GOOD! Why the hell do we have special stores just for selling liquor anyway? It makes absolutely no sense. If they can find efficiencies that allow them to sell their product cheaper than everyone else then they should go for it. But unfortunately they only exist because they are wards of the state - a government-created monopoly. Clearly this distorts the market and causes everyone to pay more for their alcohol.
