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rockinjoeco · 5 years ago

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Has Coronavirus Brought Out the Tory Contemptous?

No matter where you are in the world, it’s hard to get away from the subject of Coronavirus. The new chancellor Rishi Sunak stated at the budget meeting that £30bn will be made available to tackle the virus. I’m sure conservatives everywhere will be declaring Mr. Sunak a hero, but it shouldn’t get away from the damage caused from the government over the past 10 years, such as 130,000 people dying through Tory austerity and the NHS being badly underfunded and understaffed at the expense of delivering Brexit. Even to this day, I’m still trying to work out the advantages of Brexit. Yes, there may be valid reasons as to why people voted to leave the EU, but do the arguments for Brexit outweigh the arguments against Brexit? Probably not. Has the damage caused by the Conservative party after a decade in government contributed to the coronavirus cases? Especially considering the perilous state of the NHS and those in poverty being made more vulnerable to the virus.

When Boris Johnson addressed the nation, it seemed reminiscent to the classic British slogan ‘keep calm and carry on’, which you’ll find many variations of that saying on many clothes and other merchandise. The slogan was actually from a motivational poster back in 1939 following the outbreak of World War II to keep up the morale of the British people. Boris’ speech, however, wasn’t as morale boosting as he had hoped, especially as there are many who are still dismayed at Brexit. On the Jeremy Vine show back in January, Remain activist Femi Oluwole explained to Conservative MP Mark Francois about the risks regarding the NHS surrounding Brexit. Oluwole stated to Francois that The Royal College of Nursing, The Royal College of GPs, The Royal College of Radiologists, The Royal College of Midwives and the British Medical Association (which represents over 140,000 medical professionals) all warned that Brexit could have a negative impact on healthcare, but Francois replied with; “That’s just an opinion!” And if that wasn’t cringeworthy enough to be an epic facepalm moment, he then proceeded to say; “Let’s try it!” Almost as if he was going to try a demo of a computer game or a 30-day trial on Netflix that you can cancel at any time. Brexit is no free trial, however. It is an investment of over £130bn which has particularly put the future of the NHS at stake. Mark Francois also had a heated argument with author and Remain campaigner Terry Christian, labelling Christian as “a living embodiment of why people voted to leave the EU.” This was after Christian labelled those who voted for Brexit ‘pitiable saps’ and ‘uneducated cretins’. Those scathing assessments may seem ignorant at first, but given what is happening right now due to the virus, you can’t help but feel that Christian may have had a point. The risks of leaving the EU were very well-documented and clear for all to see. Those who are opposed to Brexit had predicted a doomsday scenario, and the emergence of the coronavirus may make that prophecy become a tragic, devastating reality.

When it comes to the less fortunate, it is safe to say that the Conservative party aren’t the most compassionate political party in government. This reputation that Tory party are contemptuous is due to the more than 130,000 deaths, the rise of homelessness in the UK which has killed over 700 people each year and the millions of children who are living in poverty. On top of all that, cuts have been made from a number of public services, such as reduced funding in the NHS and in the police department, which helped spark a sharp rise in knife crime across the UK. Amnesty International produced a damning report on UK poverty last October, and you would’ve thought that would make people think twice about voting for the Conservative party during the last election. That was not the case, however, and that has caused more people to become more vulnerable, so you could argue that in the wake of the coronavirus, that has produced or exasperated any underlying health conditions that people have, making them suffer severe damage and even death by the coronavirus. The budget meeting announced an end to austerity, despite them last January appearing to abandon their pledge to end austerity by proposing more cuts, but it sadly doesn’t bring back those who have suffered in the hands of austerity. Jeremy Corbyn labelled the budget meeting an ‘admission of failure’ and has made Britain in a worse position to deal with the coronavirus. It showed that austerity and the cuts that were made completely pointless and the lives that were lost were totally unnecessary, showing utter contempt to those that have suffered from austerity and the cuts that were made. The astronomical amount that had been spent on Brexit also showed utter disrespect too.

On the Channel 4 News, NHS neurologist Dr. Jenny Vaughan warned that medical staff will be preparing to literally sacrifice their lives as they treat people with coronavirus. Vaughan said; “We will lose our colleagues; we will be burying our colleagues. We know that has happened in China and we know that has happened in Italy, but let’s make no mistake about this. The medical frontline is ready, willing and able to try and help deal with this pandemic. But we must have faster testing, more equipment and we must have the proper staffing to try and help us deal with this.” This grave interview was a tremendous display of courage from Vaughan and the staff should get nothing but praise for their noble deed. Not many people in the world would have the courage to do what they are about to do. It just makes you disgusted with how the government have treated the NHS in recent years, having struggled to cope with increasing demands and higher costs. In the financial year of 2015/16, the underlying deficit was over £3bn. This makes grave reading the wake of the coronavirus. The future of the NHS was a huge talking point as well as Brexit in the last general election in December, especially as there was speculation that Boris Johnson would sell and privatise the NHS. What’s also disgusting is the abuse of NHS staff, particularly racist abuse. Last month on Question Time, an audience member angrily said that the UK should completely close the borders and claimed that immigrants were costing public services too much money, and cited that some of the budget for the NHS were being wasted on translators for NHS workers who couldn’t speak English as their first language. It was revealed days later that the audience member was an ardent supporter of English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, who had recently been accused of making false allegations about a teenage Syrian refugee which had led to the teenager and his family to be threatened by far-right activists. Robinson has also been accused of having racist incentive to do so and subject the poor teenager to such vile abuse. It’s easy to say that those who voted Brexit are racist and as I mentioned earlier, people may have had their valid reasons for doing so, but the majority of so-called Brexiteers are known to be racist (eg. Tommy Robinson, Katie Hopkins) and racism and discrimination has risen in the UK since the first Brexit referendum back in 2016. Hence why many people will have that assumption about those who voted to leave the EU. For the incredible sacrifice that the NHS staff are making in this moment of time, the foreign doctors, nurses and other members of staff there don’t owe us anything, it is us that owes them our respect and our gratitude.

The way the government has handled the pandemic has been nothing short of farcical. While other countries have taken strong action against the virus by going in lockdown, closing down schools, shops, restaurants and many public places, however on top of the variation of the ‘keep calm and carry on’ phrase as I mentioned earlier, Boris Johnson refused to close down public spaces and just adviced everyone to wash their hands while singing the happy birthday song. There have been 21 coronavirus fatalities so far in the UK, and you hope that this figure doesn’t increase. However, my faith in this government, as well as a lot of other people’s, is rather lacking in this moment in time and the laughable yet controversial ‘herd immunity’ plan, which is to deliberately infect 60% of the UK population and then for them to become immune as a result. Herd immunity is a phrase used when children have been vaccinated from a disease, but there is no vaccination for coronavirus, making this strategy such an alarming plan to tackle this pandemic, especially as it could result with masses of lives being lost and the plan not working. The Premier League’s handling of the current situation has too been farcical, when on Thursday night they announced that the next set of fixtures will go ahead as planned, despite coronavirus being labelled a pandemic by the World Health Organisation and the Arsenal squad self isolating after coming in contact with Olympiakos owner Evangelos Marinakis who did test positive for coronavirus. However, moments after the announcement from the Premier League, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Chelsea winger tested positive for coronavirus, and then the Premier League followed suit from other major European leagues and announced the following day that the Premier League and the EFL will be suspended until at least April. There is talk that the season may be scrapped and everyone starts again the following season, providing the situation involving coronavirus doesn’t get any more dire than it currently is.

Despite my criticisms of the government, I am not for one minute blaming the virus on Boris Johnson, the Tories or leaving the EU. If we had stayed in the EU, it’s likely that the virus would still have happened anyway. However, the tories and Brexit has left the NHS in a vulnerable position in the wake of this pandemic, hence why there is a doomsday tone to what’s happening in the world right now. The media have certainly contributed to the way we’re reflecting on the situation, by sensationalising the issue just like they did during the swine flu pandemic back in 2009, which isn’t helping anyone’s wellbeing in all honesty. What we must do now is take the necessary precautions, like washing hands and keeping up our hygiene, and be aware of what the symptoms are, however mild they may be. If you need to self-isolate for instance, make sure you do so. I won’t end this blog post with a grave note, especially as someone who got through the bird flu and swine flu pandemics, but it’s important that we know the facts and do read the NHS website to understand coronavirus. I’m confident that it won’t be the doomsday scenario that everyone is fearing, especially as the devastating it’s had in other countries like China and Italy. Many people may label me a ‘remoaner’ and a ‘sore loser’ for being against Brexit, but when life and death is an issue, this is not a game. It’s a serious issue and anyone would be forgiven for thinking that the campaign was just spreading nationalist, far-right propaganda and throwing out slogans and buzzwords to appeal to the small-minded of Britons. There is nothing Britain could’ve done to prevent coronavirus, but there was a lot that could’ve been done in the way that this country was prepared for the pandemic and the way that it’s been handled in this present moment in time. Even after coronavirus is stopped, my views of the government and Brexit will not change. Boris Johnson has had a reputation of making misogynist and racist remarks and he famously hid in a fridge from a media interview, went on holiday during a looming war threat from Iran and scheduled an urgent emergency meeting about coronavirus for three days time. Therefore you can forgive myself and others for believing that Boris Johnson may not be able to handle any form of crisis, let alone a pandemic. Even his own voters are starting to doubt him, but many of us knew that he was never up to being prime minister, and also that the Tories should not be in government. They say that democracy won the election, but the reality is that sheer ignorance and complete idiocy won the election. We can now see that Brexit is having a more devastating impact than many would have hoped for, and we can see that couldn’t be any good reason for spending over £130bn to leave the EU. It seemed that austerity, poverty, cuts, underfunding the NHS and now Brexit was all for no other reason than greed.

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theliberaltony · 5 years ago

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Recall elections were once a rarely used, “break glass in case of emergency” tool to remove politicians from office. But now, several factors have conspired to make this the most active decade for recall elections in U.S. history — and there may be more to come in the next several months.

Out of 19 states (plus the District of Columbia) that allow for the recall of state officials, efforts are currently underway to recall governors in at least five.1 In New Jersey, Colorado and Oregon, elections officials have given organizers the OK to collect signatures to get a recall on the ballot. In Alaska, a group to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy has formally registered with the state and is currently circulating a petition to receive official approval. There’s also a fifth effort underway in California, but multiple observers of California politics told FiveThirtyEight they don’t consider it to be serious; after all, recall attempts are more like a fact of life in the Golden State, as there have been 49 attempts to recall a California governor in the last 106 years. And a sixth state may soon join the ranks, as opponents of Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak say they’ll kick off a formal recall effort in the fall.

However, it would be a historically rare occurrence if any of these recalls qualify for the ballot. Only four gubernatorial recall efforts have ever done so: in 1921 in North Dakota, in 1988 in Arizona (though the election was canceled after the governor was impeached), in 2003 in California and in 2012 in Wisconsin. And it’s rarer still for governors to then go on and lose their recall election: It’s only happened twice in all of American history.2

Given this, five gubernatorial recall attempts is a notably high number. But recalls have gotten more common in recent years — especially at the beginning of this decade. According to Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at Wagner College’s Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform who runs a blog on recall elections, 20 of the 45 state-level recall elections in U.S. history have taken place in just the last 10 years.

Devised as a Progressive-era reform around 100 years ago, recalls were originally intended to punish politicians who had committed crimes or other misdeeds. But they’re much more often used to express unhappiness with the officeholder’s politics. That’s certainly the case with these recalls: In four of this year’s gubernatorial recall efforts, conservatives are trying to recall Democratic governors for supporting “leftist, radical, progressive bills,” in the words of the spokeswoman for the campaign against Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. GOP opponents of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown cited her support for a cap-and-trade program and a bill granting driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants as grounds for a recall. In Colorado, recall petitions cite the state’s new oil and gas regulations, efforts to circumvent the Electoral College and a “red flag” gun-control law.3 But it’s not just conservatives attempting recalls. In Alaska, Democrats are targeting Dunleavy for massive cuts to the state budget, including 41 percent of state funding for the University of Alaska system and $334,000 from the state court system in retribution for its rulings in favor of state-funded abortions. (Under pressure from constituents, Dunleavy announced last week that he would roll back some of the vetoes, including reducing the cuts to the public university system.)

Unsurprisingly, then, intense partisanship is frequently cited as a reason for the increase in recalls this decade. Critics contend that many recalls are just attempts to redo an election after a result the other side didn’t like; for example, they have recently been a popular tactic among Western Republicans as their influence in states like California and Nevada has declined. As political scientist and FiveThirtyEight contributor Seth Masket noted in 2013, “if you have these tools lying around, they’re simply too tempting for a member of an aggrieved minority party to ignore.” But partisanship is probably not the entire story. As Spivak put it, “Increased partisanship may be a factor, but then again, it’s not like we haven’t had previous very partisan moments in American politics.”

Shaun Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California, Riverside, who studies recalls, believes a more precise explanation for the recent popularity of recall elections may be the decrease of civility in politics and a rise in anti-incumbent sentiment. “There is this general decline in regard for politics/politicians,” Bowler wrote in an email, “and the politicians themselves encourage that.” Spivak, on the other hand, told me that he thinks better technology is actually the number-one reason. The internet has simultaneously made recall campaigns cheaper and made it easier for them to raise money. Social media helps angry voters find each other; smartphones and spreadsheets make coordinating their efforts far simpler. And citizens can even download a recall petition, print it out and sign it (or get their family and friends to sign it) on the spot.

Another reason recalls may be on the rise is that power brokers are increasingly willing to put their muscle behind them. National organizations (e.g., labor unions or the National Rifle Association) have underwritten recent recall campaigns with seven-figure investments. This year, the Alaska effort is being chaired by “heavy hitters” like a wealthy coal executive and Alaska’s last living founding father. And in Colorado and Oregon, leaders of the state GOP have even supported the recall efforts, which is historically unusual. In Oregon, the state party itself initiated one of the two recall attempts of Brown and has aggressively promoted it online.

Will these factors help any of the five gubernatorial recall attempts advance to an actual election? It’s certainly a tall order for petitioners — they must collect a huge number of signatures in a short amount of time. It looks least likely in Colorado, where organizers must collect more than 10,000 signatures a day by Sept. 6 despite being grossly underfunded. The task is less daunting in Oregon, where the non-party-led recall effort said it had collected 70,000 signatures (about a quarter of the required number) in just two weeks, with two and a half months to go. And last month, recall organizers in New Jersey claimed they had collected 300,000 signatures in about three months, an impressive number but behind the pace they need to collect 1.5 million signatures in 320 days.

It’s hard to force a recall election

Number of signatures required and length of collection period to force a recall election in the five states with active gubernatorial recall campaigns

State Recall Target Signatures Required Collection Period Calif. Gavin Newsom 1,495,708 160 days N.J. Phil Murphy 1,484,358 320 Colo. Jared Polis 631,266 60 Ore. Kate Brown 280,050 90 Alaska Mike Dunleavy 71,252* N/A*

*In order to submit a recall application, petitioners in Alaska must first submit 28,501 signatures; then, they must submit an additional 71,252 to actually force a vote (though individuals can sign both the petition application and the actual petition). There is no time limit for collecting these signatures, although they must be submitted at least 180 days before the end of the governor’s term.

Sources: Ballotpedia, Media reports, Alaska Division of Elections, California Secretary of State

Numerically, it looks likeliest in Alaska, where petitioners have almost three years to collect only 28,501 signatures to submit a recall application, then 71,252 more to actually force a vote.4 Organizers say they have already reached the first goal — and in only two weeks to boot — but they will continue to gather signatures until Sept. 2. However, the effort will probably face a legal challenge. Alaska is one of only eight states that require a specific reason to recall elected officials, and it is unclear whether the Dunleavy recall effort meets one of the four criteria: lack of fitness, incompetence, neglect of duties or corruption. According to Spivak, only one state-level recall election has ever taken place in a state that requires specific grounds for recall.5

So this year’s recalls face long odds of success. But even a failed recall attempt can have lasting impacts. Some recall targets have complained that the revolts poisoned the political waters around them, damaging their relationship with voters. Political science research also suggests that elected officials may react to attempts to recall members of their party by moving toward the center. In other words, recalls may be effective at scaring politicians into taking less controversial stances in an effort to avoid the ire of opposing activists. On the other hand, they may also backfire on the side organizing the recalls. Noting that even successful recalls in Wisconsin6 and California did not stop Democrats and Republicans, respectively, from continuing to lose ground in those states, Spivak posits that the general electorate may see recall attempts against “overreaching” politicians as an overreach of their own.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Nathaniel Rakich

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takebackthedream · 7 years ago

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Budget Austerity Puts Public School Parents On Par With Criminals by Jeff Bryant

In researching an upcoming article I’m writing about the St. Louis school system, and the district’s ongoing funding crisis, I came across an astonishing example of who wins and who loses in current approaches to government budget balancing.

As a local St. Louis reporter tells it, during a public meeting about a proposed new $130 million 34-story apartment building in the city, alderman Joe Roddy used a slideshow to make a case for why the city should give the developers 15 years of reduced property taxes, a $10 million subsidy, in exchange for some additional retail space and 305 high-end, luxury apartments downtown.

In a slide show titled “How the City Makes & Spends Money,” Roddy, a Democrat mind you, laid out a hierarchy of those who “make money” for the city at the top and those who cause the city to “spend money” at the bottom.

At the top of his slide were businesses. In the middle were residents with no children and retirees. And at the very bottom – in the tier of city dwellers who place the biggest financial burden on government – were “criminals and residents with children in public school.”

When told that some might take offense at equating families with children needing free public schools to criminals, Roddy countered that the project would “target tenants who are young professionals without children. Attracting that demographic to the city is crucial, he says, and after the tax abatement ends, the revenue windfall for the city will be significant.”

By the way, St. Louis has a history of extending tax abatements for developers to longer terms.

Winners and Losers

The thrust of Roddy’s remarks is well understood by all – in a budget environment of forced scarcity, there are increasingly strong demarcations between winners and losers, and parents who plan on sending children to free public schools are increasingly losers.

To be fair to Roddy, a great deal of St. Louis’s financial constraints, particularly in relation to the city’s ability to cover the cost of education, is the fault of the state of Missouri.

A 2015 accounting of state school funding found Missouri is “underfunding its K-12 schools by $656 million statewide, nearly 20 percent below the required level.” The budget situation for families with children has not improved a lot since then, with this year’s installment cutting spending on school buses, higher education, and social services.

Missouri is one of 27 states that spends less on education than it did in 2008.

The severity of Missouri’s budget austerity seems specifically targeted at districts like St. Louis that happen to be stuck with lots of low-income families with children (Where would they fall in Roddy’s hierarchy?).

A 2016 study conducted by NPR found that St. Louis schools on average spend considerably less per student compared to the highest spending districts in the St. Louis area.

Another more recent analysis by EdBuild finds St. Louis schools have a cost adjusted revenue per student that is nine percent below Missouri’s average. The district gets only 35 percent of its revenue from the state even though the district is challenged to educate a student population in which 68 percent are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a common measurement of poverty.

The trend of financial inequity for St. Louis schools is worsening, according to Rutgers University professor Bruce Baker, who finds that the district, since 1995, is increasingly at a funding disadvantage compared to the rest of the state.

Pay to Play, and Learn

It’s not hard to see how this is going to play out for parents.

To pay for the costs of crime, under-funded local governments are “increasing fines and fees associated with the criminal justice system,” according to a report by NPR in 2014.

One community where court fines and fees “skyrocketed” to levels that made them a major revenue generator for local government is next door to St. Louis – Ferguson, Missouri, where, you recall, 18 year-old Michel Brown was gunned down by local police nearly three years ago.

As it is for the accused in the criminal justice system, parents in local schools are having to bear more of the burden of education costs.

According to an annual report, known as the Backpack Index, that calculates the average cost of school supplies and school fees, parents will have to pick up more of the tab if they want their children to participate fully in school.

The annual cost to parents is significant at a time when the majority of school children come from households in poverty: $662 for elementary school children, $1,001 for middle school children, and $1,489 for high school students.

A detail highlighted by NBC’s report on the Backpack Index notes that the biggest spike in direct costs to parents comes from fees charged for activities like school fieldtrips, art and music programs, and athletics. These fees far exceed costs for items like backpacks, pens, and graphing calculators.

Families with children in elementary schools can expect over $30 on average in school fees. For children in middle school, the average cost of fees climbs to $195 for athletics $75 for field trips, and $42 for other school fees. In high school, the fees spike much higher to $375 for athletic (often called “pay to play fees”), $285 for musical instrumentals, $80 to participate in band, and $60 in other school fees.

Also in high school, the fees extend to academic courses including participating in Advanced Placement classes, which more schools emphasize students participate in. The average fee for testing related to these courses is $92 and the costs of materials to prepare for these tests, as well as SAT tests, tops $52.

Charging Parents

In 2011, I spotlighted the practice of charging parents direct fees for school programs in five states – Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania – and connected the rationale for the fees to austerity budgets.

I noted that schools have an obligation to work with all of the varying interests and abilities of students by offering sports, clubs, after-school activities, service learning, and other programs. But states that continually under-fund education pressure schools to shift the burden of these programs from a shared cost of the community onto only those families who need the services.

The problem is getting worse.

In North Carolina, the recently passed state budget again leaves schools woefully short of what they need, and now state administrators are scrambling to pass down the millions in education cuts.

“On the chopping block,” reports left-leaning watchdog NC Policy Watch, “include offices that provide services and support for local school districts, including intervention efforts in low-performing regions.”

In what appears to be an effort to twist the knife deeper, “the state budget also bars school board members from making up the lost cash with transfers from various GOP-backed education initiatives, including the controversial Innovation School District—which provides for charter takeovers of low-performing schools—and other programs such as Teach for America, Read to Achieve, and positions in the superintendent’s office.”

In the meantime, NC’s budget has winners too, as all budget documents do: “Lawmakers continued to set aside millions for a massive expansion of a private school voucher program. The state is expected to spend $45 million on the program this year, with the plan to expand the annual allocation to $145 million in the next decade.”

Now you tell me, who is the criminal here?

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pat78701 · 8 years ago

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Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

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repwincoml4a0a5 · 8 years ago

Text

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

Tax morass

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

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#DIYS

0 notes

grgedoors02142 · 8 years ago

Text

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

Tax morass

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

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#DIYS

0 notes

exfrenchdorsl4p0a1 · 8 years ago

Text

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

Tax morass

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

#DIYS

0 notes

rtscrndr53704 · 8 years ago

Text

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

Tax morass

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

#DIYS

0 notes

porchenclose10019 · 8 years ago

Text

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

Tax morass

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

#DIYS

0 notes

marybarbara1 · 8 years ago

Text

Educational Think Tank Topics for Radio Listeners and Online Readers

Welcome to our radio present, at the moment’s matter shall be schooling and we’ll cowl quite a few aspect subjects alongside the best way. Just so you recognize the bottom guidelines, and they’re quite simple; I speak and you pay attention. After 30 minutes I’ll open up the telephone strains, or in case you are studying this transcript on-line as a web-based article that you could be depart a remark under for an upcoming future program. Okay so let’s start, as you realize I do not wish to waste time.

I assume it goes with out saying that a nation is simply as robust as its schooling system was 20 years prior. And that makes this matter essential, particularly as a result of it’s now October 25, 2012 and we’ve an election arising in solely 10 days. Although each candidates are very robust for schooling, our path ahead shall be decided by the presidential management which follows. President Obama could be very robust together with his perception within the want for schooling, particularly giving everybody a good probability, no matter ethnic background, or socioeconomic standing. In reality, he himself couldn’t have develop into president with out his school schooling.

His opponent Governor Mitt Romney can also be robust in schooling, in Massachusetts whereas he was governor they boosted their state to the primary slot, a exceptional achievement for any state. Further, each presidential candidates consider that we’d like ongoing analysis in our universities and schools, and we should rigorously concentrate on math and science for our technologically superior future. Very few might deny these are good insurance policies, nevertheless it will not be free. Local faculty districts and states have complained that the federal authorities all too typically passes legal guidelines similar to; NCLB – No Child Left behind Act, and comparable mandates with out funding them or sending cash to the faculties.

Most academics unions declare that the heavy hand of the federal authorities is an excessive amount of oversight and too restrictive for their educating within the classroom, and they’re afraid that too many academics are educating to the check to make sure that all the youngsters are capable of learn, and subsequently it turns into extra of a “no child allowed to advance” doctrine. Of course, these are hardly the one issues, as we see proper now school tuition has gone by way of the roof, and the default on scholar loans is now at 10%. Regardless in case you are a left-leaning socialist skilled educational, you solely have to take a look at that quantity to comprehend that it’s; unsustainable. To borrow a classy socialist time period, now then, the let’s go forward and speak about what is going on on close to these excessive tuition prices.

1.) Students Rally to Ensure That Budget Cuts Do Not Hurt the Community Colleges

There was an fascinating article within the Los Angeles occasions on October 16, 2012 by Carla Riviera titled; “A Dash for Classes – Community College Students Are Commuting – By Bus, Car and Train – To Multiple Campuses Because of Severe Budget Cuts.” This is just because the group schools have minimize courses and the variety of academics out in California. Therefore the scholars need to go to 2 or three totally different group schools to get the courses they want, and then merge the transcripts later to allow them to graduate. Interestingly sufficient this drawback has been happening for many years and it was even an issue after I graduated highschool from what I keep in mind.

Now the academics are gathering with the scholars in protest. They are telling the California legislature that they’re indignant, and if they do not get their cash, they may present up en masse to vote towards people who have minimize, or will minimize the group school finances sooner or later. There was one other article a bit over every week earlier than on October 14, 2012 in the identical newspaper titled; “Prop 30 Inspires Student Voter Drives – Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax hike proposal is being touted as the only way to avoid tuition hikes,” by Larry Gordon. So what we have now now’s the academics union which is lobbying for extra money, and the scholars who have been going to vote to get extra school at a decrease value.

Do you realize what this implies? It signifies that the taxpayer will now should pay extra to subsidize these school college students, however I ask as a taxpayer; why it is my drawback, I am not going to high school? Why ought to I’ve to subsidize another person’s schooling? There are scholar loans out there, everybody else is getting scholar loans, and the group schools do not value that a lot anyway. Further, why do not a few of these college students exit and get a job? Well, it simply so occurs that there are usually not that many roles obtainable as a result of our financial system is in shambles, principally as a result of the financial stimulus did not work, because the Obama Administration spent the cash on issues which didn’t drive employment numbers as was deliberate.

Another factor I discover unlucky is that if these college students get away with registering to vote in giant numbers, then they’ll understand that the squeaky wheel will get the oil, and that socialism can work for no less than them and so long as they proceed to demand extra issues from the federal government sooner or later, having different individuals pay for it, that their protests and activism will assist them over others. This is a nasty message for our future. They are principally voting to boost taxes on everybody else to allow them to get decrease prices for school for themselves. Do you see the issue with this?

In different phrases, what I am saying to you is that if I get an entire bunch of associates collectively, and we inform the federal government that we would like free iPads and new Corvettes, and we’ll solely vote for the politician that guarantees us this stuff so we will have them? No matter that everybody’s taxes might be raised so me and my pal get what we would like. You may assume that that was an outlandish instance, and I’ve taken this argument too far, however primarily it is the identical factor is not it?

Further, what bothers me about paying for everybody else’s school, if these school college students often find yourself voting for left-leaning politicians, as a result of most of the school professors and academics vote that approach, and subsequently they’re turning into indoctrinated to vote a democrat straight ticket, and that indoctrination I’m paying for as a taxpayer as nicely.

Well as you possibly can see, we simply cannot get away from the politics of schooling, and the strains to the politics are all over the place aren’t they? Right now the unions are lining as much as help the Democrats, and the taxpayers are getting uninterested in paying for underfunded pensions, Cadillac well being care advantages or authorities staff, and the calls for of a few of these unions. It’s virtually an outright road brawl, and in some locations it is already come to blows. At some level we’ve got to understand that it isn’t concerning the academics unions, or the voters, it is a few good wholesome schooling system to propel this nice nation ahead.

2.) Why Don’t We Teach Kids Economics in High School, and Make Sure They Can Balance a Checkbook earlier than Graduating?

Have you ever thought-about that maybe we might have foregone the actual property debacle if individuals had simply understood easy curiosity, and amortized loans? What if individuals knew methods to make a household finances, knew learn how to do their very own taxes with out taking them to a tax preparer, or had higher understood enterprise cycles and economics? If so, fewer individuals would’ve engaged in liar loans, or no doc loans, to purchase houses they might’ve realized that if you borrow cash, you must pay it again. If you lie about how a lot cash you make, and take the mortgage anyway, that you simply will be unable to repay it.

Worse, many people took out ARM loans, that is the place the funds begin out low, and improve after a number of years. Those sort of loans are actually good for business development as a result of corporations can construct a constructing akin to a carwash, restaurant, or another business constructing and make decrease funds till they get the enterprise occupied, and up and operating and earning money. There are plenty of good causes for these kinds of loans, however they are not so good for single-family dwellings, particularly to low revenue individuals, or individuals who might barely qualify anyway.

Some of the individuals who purchased houses on these ARM Loans did not even manage to pay for to purchase a hen coop for $1400 a lot much less a $400,000 house. However, with loans straightforward to get, and so many individuals prepared to take these loans considering they might flip these houses and promote them for extra because the market stored pushing costs up – you’ll be able to see why that was unsustainable, even when Wall Street discovered a strategy to repackage these loans which weren’t well worth the paper they have been printed on to promote them as funding automobiles.

The entire factor was sure to crash, and even Alan Greenspan talked about; “I can’t believe bankers would act like that,” and sure, neither can I besides; these bankers solely held these mortgages for a really brief period of time earlier than they have been bundled and bought once more. Of course, this additionally will get again to non-public duty, monetary administration, and an understanding the worth of cash. One might ask what on earth are we educating within the faculties, and why did individuals take these loans out within the first place?

Well, there was an fascinating article the Wall Street Journal on October 20, 2012 by Matthew Dolan which was titled; “Teaching the ABCs of College Costs – As Rising Tuition Puts More Students Deeper in Debt, Schools Offer Courses to Explain Their Budgets, Financial-Aid Plans.” Well, that is good is not it? Why do I say that? It’s as a result of I see a bubble brewing with school tuition and the trillion dollars of scholar debt which is now excellent, 10% of that’s in default. That means $100 billion, and that is the beginning of the large bubble burst.

All the whereas, these youngsters are getting out of school typically with $100,000 value of scholar loans, however no jobs. Next, we now have the Obama Administration telling everybody they should go to school, and that each one of our excessive faculties want to organize youngsters to go to school. Why I ask? If there are not any jobs once they get out, we have primarily put them into financial enslavement, and they will be unable to pay their scholar loans. There is not any honor in recommending that to the subsequent era of youngsters arising.

Further, the place it’s good that a few of these schools are doing this and providing these programs, any prudent, affordable, and accountable shopper, school scholar, or mother or father ought to have already thought-about all this. Are individuals actually that dumb, that they can not determine this out with out somebody educating a category to elucidate it to them? I discover that slightly unlucky. After all, the identical individuals are voters, which could make sense now seeing as half of our inhabitants are busy voting for socialists who’re promising them issues which can by no means happen on the time once we are approaching a monetary debt cliff. Do you see my level but?

four.) Politicians and Sociologists Tell Us That the Path to Success Is Going to College and We Must Not Deny Immigrants or Minorities the Opportunity

But once more, I ask; goes to school actually a chance? Or is it simply a chance to enter financial enslavement? There was an fascinating article within the LA occasions on 10-14-2012 which was titled; “Some Are in Denial About Precarious State of Schools – rate readers blame illegal immigrants, union, officials and more. But if prop 30 and 38 fail, the situation will be dire,” by Steve Lopez. Nevertheless, why ought to taxpayers give extra money to an unsustainable state of affairs? It’s not working as it’s, why throw extra money at it? And understand that is out right here in California, however the identical situation are happening throughout the nation.

The presidential candidates appear to assume that the federal authorities might help out? But within the final 4 years the Obama Administration has already been deficit spending by $1 trillion per yr. The federal authorities cannot even bail itself out, how is it purported to bail out our faculties until our financial system will get again on its ft? And how can our authorities get again on its ft if everybody retains voting for socialist sort initiatives, getting free stuff, extra social packages, all paid by the federal government? Who’s paying for that? If we maintain elevating taxes, individuals may have fewer dollars to spend on items and providers subsequently there will probably be fewer individuals employed making these items or offering service.

That means all of the individuals getting out of faculty will not have jobs, they won’t be out there, however these youngsters will nonetheless have $100,000 in scholar tuition debt. Can anybody see this is not working? Do you recognize why? It’s as a result of socialism does not work, and we have to get the federal authorities out of our faculties, however as a result of that is such a critical situation. Since mother and father and communities do not get satisfaction regionally, they’re wanting for the federal authorities to step in. But might I ask; when has the federal authorities ever executed something proper in any program they’ve ever finished nationwide?

That big blob of paperwork cannot run our faculties, nor ought to we want them to attempt from a centralized level out of Washington DC. All they provide us is mandates, and they do not fund them to our satisfaction, which is supplies extra paperwork in our faculties, and meaning much less educating. Why would anybody comply with that? There needs to be a greater method? So I ask; can know-how repair these challenges?

5.) What about More Technology within the Classroom, Coupled with More Online Learning?

There was an fascinating article on October 21, 2012 in my native paper; the Desert Sun. The article was titled “Teaching with Technology – Schools look to boost use of computers, other gadgets without breaking the budget,” by Michele Mitchell. Could a mixture of academics and know-how permit for these bigger class sizes with extra studying outdoors the school rooms? What about extra on-line movies, utilizing those self same applied sciences? What if these youngsters might take residence these iPads, tablets, and laptops? What in the event that they use their very own private tech units on their very own time, and come to high school much less typically?

Is there a method to do extra on-line supervised studying, is that the reply? Can our college students study quicker, in such accelerated packages? The sensible youngsters typically say that faculty is boring, that they’re slowed down by youngsters that do not study as quick or perhaps do not even converse English that nicely as a result of they’re ESL or “English as a Second Language”. Is know-how actually the best way out? In my space a few of the faculty districts are asking for a vote on what they name; “Measure X” which would offer for “a $41 million bond for improving the district’s high-speed Internet service and infrastructure, also to purchase teacher laptops and an iPad for every student.”

Still, is floating a bond and borrowing extra money actually the best way to go? When you borrow cash you must pay it again, and the bondholders are assured a return on their funding. The drawback is that many of those faculty districts are already laden with legacy value, underfunded pensions, and budgets which aren’t solely unsustainable, they are not working proper now. Improving Internet service, and buying extra pc infrastructure, and even shopping for laptops which might be out of date in two years. Or buying iPads which can get destroyed, damaged, and even be out of date, or be riddled with hacking challenges might grow to be a waste of $41 million could not it?

What about greater schooling? There appears to be a revolution happening with on-line lectures, and on-line educating. Another fascinating article to learn was written by L. Rafael Reif titled; “What Campuses Can Learn from Online Teaching,” revealed on October three, 2012 which famous; “searching for that sweet spot where cyber students around the world pay a small fee that helps make the residential college more affordable.” In different phrases, universities and schools can subsidize a few of their prices by promoting cheap on-line schooling lectures and programs to individuals in different nations, or people that may’t afford to go to school, however want that info to placed on their resume to allow them to get a job, or development at their present employment. That��s fascinating idea is not it?

6.) Special Education Case Law Is Also Challenging the Budgets of School Districts

The fee of autism in youngsters is skyrocketing and that is placing an enormous burden on our Okay-12 faculties. The query now’s; what is acceptable schooling, and can these faculty districts afford one-on-one instruction? Many mother and father of autistic youngsters say that is the one strategy to do it, if they’re to get it proper. Parents of normal college students say that their college students additionally deserve one-on-one schooling particularly relating to pc expertise. Who’s proper and who’s mistaken? Well, they’re each proper, the issue is we will not afford it. What’s the reply?

It seems that know-how may be the reply, and one-on-one instruction for autistic youngsters could possibly be executed with avatars. In reality, some autistic youngsters study faster this manner, and the avatar attracts them out of themselves and helps them with their socialization, making studying a lot simpler. What about for common youngsters studying on the pc? Well, synthetic clever avatar instruction is getting higher at answering questions, even anticipating the questions that the scholar may need, serving to them alongside ensuring they perceive every thing as they go.

Perhaps you doubt that the know-how and synthetic intelligence has come this far, nicely then, I recommend that you simply learn a really fascinating article in Smithsonian Magazine July-August 2012 situation by Bryan Christian which was titled; “Rise of the Chat Bots – Could You Be Fooled by a Computer Pretending to Be a Human? Probably.”

There was an fascinating article, an editorial within the Wall Street Journal on September 10, 2012; “More Isn’t Better for Special Ed,” which said; “a new study shows how school districts can get better results,” which means there are different methods to get all this completed, however typically it is troublesome when the mother and father are arguing, the varsity district is bathed in paperwork, and there’s case law, legal professionals, and federal mandates which are unworkable for any particular person given scholar, instructor, father or mother, or faculty district. Do you see my level?

7.) Is the Old Way of Teaching Going to Work within the New Paradigm of the Information Age?

If you ask me, and I do know you did not, however I might say that the previous means of educating the place youngsters sit in rows of desks dealing with ahead wanting behind a instructor writing on a chalkboard is just not going to chop it sooner or later. These youngsters need to be entertained, and their consideration span has dropped as a result of video video games, TV, and computer systems. With all these digital toys, devices, and cell phones, they want fixed stimulus. Not boring lectures, monotone speeches, or the previous principle of depositing info into the brains of little people by means of rote memorization, and fixed testing. That is not working, and everyone knows it.

The youthful youngsters will study quicker if they’re concerned, for occasion I might wish to advocate an article within the July-August problem of Smithsonian Magazine 2012 which was titled “Why Play Is Serious” by Allison Gopnic which said “a leading researcher in the field of cognitive development says when children pretend, they’re not just being silly – they are doing science,” it additionally had a well-known quote from Edmund Burke “The first and simplest emotion we discover in the human mind is; Curiosity.” And so, as soon as once more I might wish to level to know-how to unravel that drawback.

Engaging these youngsters in virtual-reality ought to be the way forward for educating. Not a lot a participatory augmented actuality gaming middle on the faculty, however relatively an immersion state of affairs whereas studying. Okay, however now we’re getting again to prices aren’t we? We already famous earlier than that one faculty district, close to me was floating a $41 million bond simply to hurry up the Internet service and present iPads for the youngsters. Now I am suggesting a full on virtual-reality within the classroom, is that proper? Yes, that is true. Now then, first we’re going to have to deal with the legacy prices.

eight.) More Money for Schools Will Not Necessarily End Up within the Classroom My Friend

What lots of people do not perceive is that a good portion of the cash spent in our faculties doesn’t go into the classroom. It goes for administrative prices, faculty bus gasoline, transportation budgets, new buildings, air-conditioning, faculty meals, campus upkeep, and the most important value appears to be paying for all of the instructor advantages, and legacy prices. Still, if we arrange a digital actuality system, we might reduce instructor prices and the fee for instructor aides.

In schools there is no purpose that these lecture rooms couldn’t run 17 hours per day. At night time they might be used to point out films like an IMAX, and throughout weekends they might be used for conferences. These lecture rooms may be used for simulated coaching by firms which have been additionally faculty sponsors. They can be used for analysis. We need to do one thing with the prices in our schools.

There was an fascinating article within the USA Today on October 24, 2012 which was titled “College Costs Up – At Slower Rate,” by Mary Beth Marklein. The article had a graph which confirmed that school tuition prices have been up by 6.5% in 2008-2009, 7% in 2009-2010, eight% in 2010-2011, eight.four% in 2011-2012, however solely by four.eight% for this present faculty yr 2012-2013. Still, this present faculty yr we’re at four.eight% in elevated tuition prices, and meaning we’re proper at 7% on common over that span between 2008 and now. That’s nonetheless too excessive, and it is unsustainable.

Okay so, let me ask you; “why do we need a professor” one who’s giving the identical lecture 2-times annually, that he’d given for the final 10-years? Why not simply use a professor who’s a hologram, pre-taped? And why not lease out that hologram to individuals at house of their front room virtual-reality gaming middle? And would not it value quite a bit much less to arrange a digital actuality gaming middle in your personal residence, then it will be to ship your child off to school figuring out that once they got here again they’d be in debt for $100,000, otherwise you’d be out that sum of money for those who needed to pay?

Seriously, perhaps we have to rethink the entire thing? Not solely that however the college students can study at their very own tempo, in the event that they needed to do a marathon of lectures, they could be capable of end a whole course in every week. You could be laughing once I inform you that, however I can inform you once I was in school I did 33 credit in a single semester, I went to 2 totally different schools to merge the transcripts in order that they’d sync up. Today, I studied simply as arduous as I did once I was again in class, regardless that at present I’m retired. It’s not unattainable, and our college students and younger individuals have to take duty for their future.

Those who work more durable will end faster and they may have the information, schooling, and even really feel as if they’ve the job expertise as a result of they discovered in a digital actuality setting. What extra do they want? Are we sending youngsters to high school simply to have a superb time, hold them out of the job market, and spend cash – propping up an previous antiquated schooling institutional system which is not working for us, or are we going to get busy and get on with the 21st century? If one thing is not working, and you proceed to do the identical factor over and over once more whereas anticipating totally different outcomes, everyone knows that to be the definition of madness.

Do you recognize what’s much more insane? $1 trillion in collected scholar debt in our society, youngsters graduating with $100,000 value of scholar loans however no job, and no method to pay that cash again, and rising tuition prices of over 7% per yr. Folks that is not working, it is a dangerous joke. It’s one we have to maintain and do one thing about. These college students do not want extra debt, they want extra choices, and we have to leverage our know-how to make this occur. If we really need to put together our college students for the longer term, we need not educate them prior to now, doing issues the previous means.

Well, apparently my 30 minutes are up now (minus business breaks), and I am carried out speaking as we’re on the prime of the hour, and now it is time for you to chime in, to deliver some mental discourse to those arguments, and your educated opinion into this ongoing discourse.

The guidelines as you realize are fairly easy; no preaching to the choir and no apparent speaking factors of opposition. In different phrases I do not want to rehash previous arguments; we already know what they’re. Rather, I want to concentrate on recent concepts. That’s your mission in the event you select to simply accept it, now I’ll open up the decision strains. If you’re studying this radio present transcript in a web-based article you might submit your feedback and questions under. Okay, let’s take that decision;

“Caller 16, you are on the air. What questions, concerns, or innovative concepts do you have for the future of education?”

Source by Lance Winslow

The post Educational Think Tank Topics for Radio Listeners and Online Readers appeared first on Utah Business Lawyer.

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jazminebritney1 · 8 years ago

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Educational Think Tank Topics for Radio Listeners and Online Readers

Welcome to our radio present, at the moment's matter can be schooling and we’ll cowl numerous aspect subjects alongside the best way. Just so you realize the bottom guidelines, and they’re quite simple; I speak and you pay attention. After 30 minutes I’ll open up the telephone strains, or in case you are studying this transcript on-line as an internet article that you could be depart a remark under for an upcoming future program. Okay so let's start, as you realize I don’t wish to waste time.

I assume it goes with out saying that a nation is just as robust as its schooling system was 20 years prior. And that makes this matter essential, particularly as a result of it’s now October 25, 2012 and we now have an election arising in solely 10 days. Although each candidates are very robust for schooling, our path ahead will probably be decided by the presidential management which follows. President Obama could be very robust together with his perception within the want for schooling, particularly giving everybody a good probability, no matter ethnic background, or socioeconomic standing. In reality, he himself couldn’t have turn out to be president with out his school schooling.

His opponent Governor Mitt Romney can also be robust in schooling, in Massachusetts whereas he was governor they boosted their state to the primary slot, a exceptional achievement for any state. Further, each presidential candidates consider that we’d like ongoing analysis in our universities and schools, and we should rigorously concentrate on math and science for our technologically superior future. Very few might deny these are good insurance policies, nevertheless it won’t be free. Local faculty districts and states have complained that the federal authorities all too typically passes legal guidelines corresponding to; NCLB – No Child Left behind Act, and comparable mandates with out funding them or sending cash to the faculties.

Most academics unions declare that the heavy hand of the federal authorities is an excessive amount of oversight and too restrictive for their educating within the classroom, and they’re afraid that too many academics are educating to the check to make sure that all the youngsters are capable of learn, and subsequently it turns into extra of a "no child allowed to advance" doctrine. Of course, these are hardly the one issues, as we see proper now school tuition has gone by means of the roof, and the default on scholar loans is now at 10%. Regardless in case you are a left-leaning socialist skilled educational, you solely have to take a look at that quantity to comprehend that it’s; unsustainable. To borrow a classy socialist time period, now then, the let's go forward and speak about what's happening close to these excessive tuition prices.

1.) Students Rally to Ensure That Budget Cuts Do Not Hurt the Community Colleges

There was an fascinating article within the Los Angeles occasions on October 16, 2012 by Carla Riviera titled; "A Dash for Classes – Community College Students Are Commuting – By Bus, Car and Train – To Multiple Campuses Because of Severe Budget Cuts." This is just because the group schools have reduce courses and the variety of academics out in California. Therefore the scholars need to go to 2 or three totally different group schools to get the courses they want, and then merge the transcripts later to allow them to graduate. Interestingly sufficient this drawback has been happening for many years and it was even an issue after I graduated highschool from what I keep in mind.

Now the academics are gathering with the scholars in protest. They are telling the California legislature that they’re indignant, and if they don’t get their cash, they may present up en masse to vote towards people who have minimize, or will reduce the group school price range sooner or later. There was one other article slightly over every week earlier than on October 14, 2012 in the identical newspaper titled; "Prop 30 Inspires Student Voter Drives – Gov. Jerry Brown's tax hike proposal is being touted as the only way to avoid tuition hikes," by Larry Gordon. So what we have now now’s the academics union which is lobbying for extra money, and the scholars who have been going to vote to get extra school at a decrease value.

Do you recognize what this implies? It signifies that the taxpayer will now should pay extra to subsidize these school college students, however I ask as a taxpayer; why it's my drawback, I'm not going to high school? Why ought to I’ve to subsidize another person's schooling? There are scholar loans obtainable, everybody else is getting scholar loans, and the group schools don’t value that a lot anyway. Further, why don’t a few of these college students exit and get a job? Well, it simply so occurs that there aren’t that many roles out there as a result of our financial system is in shambles, principally as a result of the financial stimulus didn’t work, because the Obama Administration spent the cash on issues which didn’t drive employment numbers as was deliberate.

In different phrases, what I'm saying to you is that if I get an entire bunch of associates collectively, and we inform the federal government that we would like free iPads and new Corvettes, and we’ll solely vote for the politician that guarantees us this stuff so we will have them? No matter that everybody's taxes shall be raised so me and my pal get what we would like. You may assume that that was an outlandish instance, and I've taken this argument too far, however primarily it's the identical factor shouldn’t be it?

Further, what bothers me about paying for everybody else's school, if these school college students often find yourself voting for left-leaning politicians, as a result of most of the school professors and academics vote that means, and subsequently they’re turning into indoctrinated to vote a democrat straight ticket , and that indoctrination I’m paying for as a taxpayer as properly.

Well as you’ll be able to see, we simply cannot get away from the politics of schooling, and the strains to the politics are in all places will not be they? Right now the unions are lining as much as help the Democrats, and the taxpayers are getting uninterested in paying for underfunded pensions, Cadillac well being care advantages or authorities staff, and the calls for of a few of these unions. It's virtually an outright road brawl, and in some locations it's already come to blows. At some level we now have to comprehend that it's not concerning the academics unions, or the voters, it's a few good wholesome schooling system to propel this nice nation ahead.

2.) Why Do not We Teach Kids Economics in High School, and Make Sure They Can Balance a Checkbook earlier than Graduating?

Have you ever thought-about that maybe we might have foregone the actual property debacle if individuals had simply understood easy curiosity, and amortized loans? What if individuals knew learn how to make a household finances, knew how one can do their very own taxes with out taking them to a tax preparer, or had higher understood enterprise cycles and economics? If so, fewer individuals would've engaged in liar loans, or no doc loans, to purchase houses they might've realized that whenever you borrow cash, you must pay it again. If you lie about how a lot cash you make, and take the mortgage anyway, that you simply will be unable to repay it.

Worse, many people took out ARM loans, that is the place the funds begin out low, and improve after a couple of years. Those sort of loans are actually good for business development as a result of corporations can construct a constructing comparable to a carwash, restaurant, or another business constructing and make decrease funds till they get the enterprise occupied, and up and operating and being profitable. There are numerous good causes for most of these loans, however they don’t seem to be so good for single-family dwellings, particularly to low revenue individuals, or individuals who might barely qualify anyway.

Some of the individuals who purchased houses on these ARM Loans didn’t even manage to pay for to purchase a hen coop for $ 1400 a lot much less a $ 400,000 residence. However, with loans straightforward to get, and so many individuals prepared to take these loans considering they might flip these houses and promote them for extra because the market stored pushing costs up – you possibly can see why that was unsustainable, even when Wall Street discovered a approach to repackage these loans which weren’t well worth the paper they have been printed on to promote them as funding automobiles.

The entire factor was sure to crash, and even Alan Greenspan talked about; "I can not believe bankers would act like that," and sure, neither can I besides; these bankers solely held these mortgages for a really brief period of time earlier than they have been bundled and bought once more. Of course, this additionally will get again to non-public duty, monetary administration, and an understanding the worth of cash. One might ask what on earth are we educating within the faculties, and why did individuals take these loans out within the first place?

Well, there was an fascinating article the Wall Street Journal on October 20, 2012 by Matthew Dolan which was titled; "Teaching the ABCs of College Costs – As Rising Tuition Puts More Students Deeper in Debt, Schools Offer Courses to Explain Their Budgets, Financial-Aid Plans." Well, that's good is just not it? Why do I say that? It's as a result of I see a bubble brewing with school tuition and the trillion dollars of scholar debt which is now excellent, 10% of that’s in default. That means $ 100 billion, and that is the beginning of the large bubble burst.

All the whereas, these youngsters are getting out of school typically with $ 100,000 value of scholar loans, however no jobs. Next, we have now the Obama Administration telling everybody they should go to school, and that each one of our excessive faculties want to organize youngsters to go to school. Why I ask? If there are not any jobs once they get out, we've primarily put them into financial enslavement, and they will be unable to pay their scholar loans. There is not any honor in recommending that to the subsequent era of youngsters arising.

Further, the place it’s good that a few of these schools are doing this and providing these programs, any prudent, affordable, and accountable shopper, school scholar, or mum or dad ought to have already thought-about all this. Are individuals actually that dumb, that they cannot determine this out with out somebody educating a category to elucidate it to them? I discover that moderately unlucky. After all, the identical individuals are voters, which could make sense now seeing as half of our inhabitants are busy voting for socialists who’re promising them issues which can by no means happen on the time once we are approaching a monetary debt cliff. Do you see my level but?

four.) Politicians and Sociologists Tell Us That the Path to Success Is Going to College and We Must Not Deny Immigrants or Minorities the Opportunity

But once more, I ask; goes to school actually a chance? Or is it simply a chance to enter financial enslavement? There was an fascinating article within the LA occasions on 10-14-2012 which was titled; "Some Are in Denial About Precarious State of Schools – rate readers blame illegal immigrants, union, officials and more. But if prop 30 and 38 fail, the situation will be dire," by Steve Lopez. Nevertheless, why ought to taxpayers give extra money to an unsustainable state of affairs? It's not working as it’s, why throw extra money at it? And understand that is out right here in California, however the identical concern are happening throughout the nation.

The presidential candidates appear to assume that the federal authorities might help out? But within the final 4 years the Obama Administration has already been deficit spending by $ 1 trillion per yr. The federal authorities cannot even bail itself out, how is it purported to bail out our faculties until our financial system will get again on its ft? And how can our authorities get again on its ft if everybody retains voting for socialist sort initiatives, getting free stuff, extra social packages, all paid by the federal government? Who's paying for that? If we hold elevating taxes, individuals could have fewer dollars to spend on items and providers subsequently there will probably be fewer individuals employed making these items or offering service.

That means all of the individuals getting out of faculty won’t have jobs, they won’t be out there, however these youngsters will nonetheless have $ 100,000 in scholar tuition debt. Can anybody see this isn’t working? Do you already know why? It's as a result of socialism doesn’t work, and we have to get the federal authorities out of our faculties, however as a result of that is such a critical challenge. Since mother and father and communities will not be getting satisfaction regionally, they’re wanting for the federal authorities to step in. But might I ask; when has the federal authorities ever completed something proper in any program they've ever completed nationwide?

That big blob of paperwork cannot run our faculties, nor ought to we want them to attempt from a centralized level out of Washington DC. All they provide us is mandates, and they don’t fund them to our satisfaction, which is offers extra paperwork in our faculties, and meaning much less educating. Why would anybody comply with that? There needs to be a greater means? So I ask; can know-how repair these challenges?

5.) What about More Technology within the Classroom, Coupled with More Online Learning?

There was an fascinating article on October 21, 2012 in my native paper; the Desert Sun. The article was titled "Teaching with Technology – Schools look to boost use of computers, other gadgets without breaking the budget," by Michele Mitchell. Could a mixture of academics and know-how permit for these bigger class sizes with extra studying outdoors the school rooms? What about extra on-line movies, utilizing those self same applied sciences? What if these youngsters might take residence these iPads, tablets, and laptops? What in the event that they use their very own private tech units on their very own time, and come to high school much less typically?

Is there a solution to do extra on-line supervised studying, is that the reply? Can our college students study quicker, in such accelerated packages? The sensible youngsters typically say that faculty is boring, that they’re slowed down by youngsters that don’t study as quick or perhaps don’t even converse English that nicely as a result of they’re ESL or "English as a Second Language". Is know-how actually the best way out? In my space a few of the faculty districts are asking for a vote on what they name; "Measure X" which would offer for "a $ 41 million bond for improving the district's high-speed Internet service and infrastructure, also to purchase teacher laptops and an iPad for every student."

Still, is floating a bond and borrowing extra money actually the best way to go? When you borrow cash you need to pay it again, and the bondholders are assured a return on their funding. The drawback is that many of those faculty districts are already laden with legacy value, underfunded pensions, and budgets which aren’t solely unsustainable, they don’t seem to be working proper now. Improving Internet service, and buying extra pc infrastructure, and even shopping for laptops which can be out of date in two years. Or buying iPads which can get destroyed, damaged, and even be out of date, or be riddled with hacking challenges might turn into a waste of $ 41 million couldn’t it?

What about larger schooling? There appears to be a revolution happening with on-line lectures, and on-line educating. Another fascinating article to learn was written by L. Rafael Reif titled; "What Campuses Can Learn from Online Teaching," revealed on October three, 2012 which famous; "Searching for that sweet spot where cyber students around the world pay a small fee that helps make the residential college more affordable." In different phrases, universities and schools can subsidize a few of their prices by promoting cheap on-line schooling lectures and programs to individuals in different nations, or people that may not afford to go to school, however want that info to placed on their resume to allow them to get a job, or development at their present employment. That's fascinating idea shouldn’t be it?

6.) Special Education Case Law Is Also Challenging the Budgets of School Districts

The fee of autism in youngsters is skyrocketing and that is placing an enormous burden on our Okay-12 faculties. The query now’s; what is acceptable schooling, and can these faculty districts afford one-on-one instruction? Many mother and father of autistic youngsters say that's the one strategy to do it, if they’re to get it proper. Parents of normal college students say that their college students additionally deserve one-on-one schooling particularly with regards to pc expertise. Who's proper and who's flawed? Well, they're each proper, the issue is we cannot afford it. What's the reply?

It seems that know-how could be the reply, and one-on-one instruction for autistic youngsters could possibly be carried out with avatars. In reality, some autistic youngsters study faster this manner, and the avatar attracts them out of themselves and helps them with their socialization, making studying a lot simpler. What about for common youngsters studying on the pc? Well, synthetic clever avatar instruction is getting higher at answering questions, even anticipating the questions that the scholar may need, serving to them alongside ensuring they perceive the whole lot as they go.

Perhaps you doubt that the know-how and synthetic intelligence has come this far, properly then, I recommend that you simply learn a really fascinating article in Smithsonian Magazine July-August 2012 concern by Bryan Christian which was titled; "Rise of the Chat Bots – Could You Be Fooled by a Computer Pretending to Be a Human? Probably."

There was an fascinating article, an editorial within the Wall Street Journal on September 10, 2012; "More Is not Better for Special Ed," which said; "A new study shows how school districts can get better results," which means there are different methods to get all this achieved, however typically it's troublesome when the mother and father are arguing, the varsity district is bathed in paperwork, and there’s case law, legal professionals , and federal mandates which might be unworkable for any particular person given scholar, instructor, mum or dad, or faculty district. Do you see my level?

7.) Is the Old Way of Teaching Going to Work within the New Paradigm of the Information Age?

If you ask me, and I do know you didn’t, however I'd say that the previous approach of educating the place youngsters sit in rows of desks dealing with ahead wanting behind a instructor writing on a chalkboard is just not going to chop it sooner or later. These youngsters need to be entertained, and their consideration span has dropped as a result of video video games, TV, and computer systems. With all these digital toys, devices, and cell phones, they want fixed stimulus. Not boring lectures, monotone speeches, or the previous concept of depositing info into the brains of little people by way of rote memorization, and fixed testing. That just isn’t working, and everyone knows it.

The youthful youngsters will study quicker if they’re concerned, for occasion I'd wish to advocate an article within the July-August challenge of Smithsonian Magazine 2012 which was titled "Why Play Is Serious" by Allison Gopnic which said "a leading researcher in the field of cognitive development says when children pretend, they're not just being silly – they are doing science, "it additionally had a well-known quote from Edmund Burke" The first and simplest emotion we discover in the human mind is; Curiosity. " And so, as soon as once more I'd wish to level to know-how to unravel that drawback.

Engaging these youngsters in virtual-reality must be the way forward for educating. Not a lot a participatory augmented actuality gaming middle on the faculty, however relatively an immersion state of affairs whereas studying. Okay, however now we're getting again to prices will not be we? We already famous earlier than that one faculty district, close to me was floating a $ 41 million bond simply to hurry up the Internet service and present iPads for the youngsters. Now I'm suggesting a full on virtual-reality within the classroom, is that proper? Yes, that's true. Now then, first we’re going to have to deal with the legacy prices.

eight.) More Money for Schools Will Not Necessarily End Up within the Classroom My Friend

What lots of people don’t perceive is that a good portion of the cash spent in our faculties doesn’t go into the classroom. It goes for administrative prices, faculty bus gasoline, transportation budgets, new buildings, air-conditioning, faculty meals, campus upkeep, and the most important value appears to be paying for all of the instructor advantages, and legacy prices. Still, if we arrange a digital actuality system, we might reduce instructor prices and the fee for instructor aides.

In schools there's no purpose that these lecture rooms couldn’t run 17 hours per day. At night time they could possibly be used to point out films like an IMAX, and throughout weekends they could possibly be used for conferences. These lecture rooms may be used for simulated coaching by firms which have been additionally faculty sponsors. They can be used for analysis. We should do one thing with the prices in our schools.

There was an fascinating article within the USA Today on October 24, 2012 which was titled "College Costs Up – At Slower Rate," by Mary Beth Marklein. The article had a graph which confirmed that school tuition prices have been up by 6.5% in 2008-2009, 7% in 2009-2010, eight% in 2010-2011, eight.four% in 2011-2012, however solely by four.eight% for this present faculty yr 2012-2013. Still, this present faculty yr we’re at four.eight% in elevated tuition prices, and meaning we’re proper at 7% on common over that span between 2008 and now. That's nonetheless too excessive, and it's unsustainable.

Okay so, let me ask you; "Why do we need a professor" one who’s giving the identical lecture 2-times annually, that he'd given for the final 10-years? Why not simply use a professor who’s a hologram, pre-taped? And why not lease out that hologram to individuals at house of their front room virtual-reality gaming middle? And wouldn’t it value lots much less to arrange a digital actuality gaming middle in your personal house, then it will be to ship your child off to school figuring out that once they got here again they'd be in debt for $ 100,000, otherwise you 'd be out that sum of money in case you needed to pay?

Seriously, perhaps we have to rethink the entire thing? Not solely that however the college students can study at their very own tempo, in the event that they needed to do a marathon of lectures, they could be capable of end a whole course in every week. You is perhaps laughing once I inform you that, however I can inform you once I was in school I did 33 credit in a single semester, I went to 2 totally different schools to merge the transcripts in order that they'd sync up. Today, I studied simply as exhausting as I did once I was again in class, regardless that at the moment I’m retired. It's not unattainable, and our college students and younger individuals have to take duty for their future.

Those who work more durable will end faster and they’ll have the information, schooling, and even really feel as if they’ve the job expertise as a result of they discovered in a digital actuality surroundings. What extra do they want? Are we sending youngsters to high school simply to have a very good time, hold them out of the job market, and spend cash – propping up an previous antiquated schooling institutional system which is not working for us, or are we going to get busy and get on with the 21st century? If one thing isn’t working, and you proceed to do the identical factor over and over once more whereas anticipating totally different outcomes, everyone knows that to be the definition of madness.

Do you realize what's much more insane? $ 1 trillion in collected scholar debt in our society, youngsters graduating with $ 100,000 value of scholar loans however no job, and no option to pay that cash again, and rising tuition prices of over 7% per yr. Folks that's not working, it's a nasty joke. It's one we have to deal with and do one thing about. These college students don’t want extra debt, they want extra choices, and we have to leverage our know-how to make this occur. If we really need to put together our college students for the longer term, we don’t want to teach them up to now, doing issues the previous method.

Well, apparently my 30 minutes are up now (minus business breaks), and I'm carried out speaking as we’re on the prime of the hour, and now it's time for you to chime in, to deliver some mental discourse to those arguments, and your educated opinion into this ongoing discourse.

The guidelines as you recognize are fairly easy; no preaching to the choir and no apparent speaking factors of opposition. In different phrases I don’t want to rehash previous arguments; we already know what they’re. Rather, I want to concentrate on recent concepts. That's your mission in case you select to simply accept it, now I’ll open up the decision strains. If you’re studying this radio present transcript in an internet article you might submit your feedback and questions under. Okay, let's take that decision;

"Caller 16, you are on the air. What questions, concerns, or innovative concepts do you have for the future of education?"

Source by Lance Winslow

The post Educational Think Tank Topics for Radio Listeners and Online Readers appeared first on Utah Business Lawyer.

from http://www.utbusinesslawyer.com/educational-think-tank-topics-for-radio-listeners-and-online-readers/ from Utah Business Lawyer http://utahbusinesslawyer1.blogspot.com/2017/03/educational-think-tank-topics-for-radio.html

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takebackthedream · 7 years ago

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Trump Offers Fool’s Gold to Fund Infrastructure by Leo Gerard

Donald Trump surrounds himself in gold. The signs on Trump buildings shimmer in it. His penthouse in New York is gilded in it.

He claims now to have found the alchemy to conjure $1 trillion in infrastructure gold. He plans to put up a mere $200 billion in federal funds and stir it together with $800 billion in private investment and state dollars.

That is fool’s gold. A falsely-funded infrastructure program is a massive broken promise. America needs real improvements to roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, airports, water systems and railways. That requires a commitment of real tax dollars, not the relinquishment of America’s public assets to profit-seeking private Wall Street entities. Americans should not be charged twice for maintenance of the public good, once through tax breaks to investors and again in outrageous tolls and fees the investors charge.

On Wednesday, standing on the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Trump reiterated the pledge he made repeatedly on the campaign trail to put $1 trillion into infrastructure. He said “restoring America” is a promise that Washington, D.C., has broken. “It has not been kept, but we are going to keep it,” he said.

“Taxpayers deserve the best results for their investment,” he said, “and I will be sure that is what they get.” But the plan to turn over public assets to private corporations for tax-supported investment is gold only for the 1 percent who can afford to invest.

The Wall Street Journal reported last fall that to raise the private funds, Trump planned to give massive tax breaks of 82 percent of equity to investors that help pay for infrastructure repair. For citizens, that’s a crappy deal – giving Wall Street control over public assets in addition to being forced to fork over the taxes that rich investors will not pay.

That financial alchemy creates poison, not gold.

In addition, there is no profit in many types of infrastructure that need repair, like schools and hospitals. A corporation can’t collect tolls from children entering their elementary school each morning.

Despite Trump’s promise in Cincinnati that he would take care of rural areas, there’s no profit in many crucial infrastructure projects in such regions. Investors won’t pay for a highway needed to connect two isolated towns in West Virginia.

And the profit in some projects is highly questionable. Several corporations that have bought or built toll roads have filed for bankruptcy. This includes highways in Texas, California, Indiana and Alabama.

In other cases, the profits reaped are outrageous. After Chicago sold its 36,000 parking meters to Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street bank doubled the parking rates and charged the city tens of millions annually for meters Chicago took out of service for street repairs, mass transit stops and safety. A city inspector general report on the deal says Chicago under-priced the meters by nearly $1 billion when former Mayor Richard M. Daily signed the 75-year contract in 2008. The bank is expected to make back its $1.15 billion investment by 2020, giving it 60 more years to rake in pure profit on the backs of Chicago taxpayers who paid to install the meters and who feed them daily.

That’s gold for Morgan Stanley, grief for taxpayers.

Another part of Trump’s financing plan is to shift infrastructure costs to states and towns. This also cheats too many citizens. Sure, some places high on the hog like Silicon Valley might be able to afford that. But too many will be left out.

That’s because large numbers of cities and states are facing fiscal crises. Chicago sold its parking meters to fill a budget shortfall. In Oklahoma, where there’s a $900 million budget gap, schools are so underfunded that 96 of the state’s 513 districts have reduced the school week to four days and another 44 may be forced to do that in the fall. The state has shuttered rural hospitals, overcrowded its prisons and limited state troopers to 100 miles of driving a day.

In Kansas, with a $1.1 billion budget deficit, the state Supreme Court just ordered the legislature to properly pay for its schools. The court said Kansas’ under-funding meant inadequate education in basic reading and math for students in one fourth of its public schools. The state shortchanged half of the state’s black students and a third of its Hispanic pupils.

Illinois hasn’t had a budget for two years. The state’s credit rating has been downgraded eight times. It has accrued $14.5 billion in unpaid bills. As a result, more than 1,500 public university and community college workers have been laid off and untold numbers of social service agencies have closed or severely curtailed services.

Other states, including Connecticut, Kentucky, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, face massive pension shortfalls after years of failing to properly pay into the funds.

These places aren’t going to be able to jump up and take on the federal government’s responsibility to invest in infrastructure.

Even the $200 billion that the Trump administration is saying the federal government will provide is in question. It’s in the budget Trump submitted to Congress, but also in that budget is $206 billion in cuts to existing infrastructure programs, including those conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation and Army Corps of Engineers. That’s the very Corps of Engineers that would pay for the river lock and dam projects that Trump complained Wednesday in Cincinnati were grossly underfunded, causing costly breakdowns.

That kind of budgeting is bad alchemy. That’s not $1 trillion in infrastructure gold.

Trump said Wednesday, “We will build because our people want to build and because we need them to build. We will build because our prosperity demands it. We will build because that is how we make America great again.”

That sounds wonderful. But to build, projects must be properly paid for. And so far, the Trump administration has offered only pyrite.