Quote of the Day
When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally.
Lao Tse
Education: A Look at New York
I saw an interesting short interview on Fox News covering the current New York state kerfuffle with Catholic and other private schools. Archbishop Dolan has made a forceful appeal regarding New York state's discriminatory treatment of private schools, in some glaring ways: for example, long-delayed reimbursements for mandated services and an MTA payroll tax exemption available to public schools. Mandated services include things like standardized test administration and evaluation, attendance records, and miscellaneous education data collection efforts. Governor Cuomo is already proposing a haircut in ongoing reimbursements, but Archbishop Dolan notes that the state is already delinquent on some $230M accumulated since 2003, and the MTA tax is costing private schools $7M a year.
These put additional constraints on Catholic schools in terms of what they can do; Archbishop Dolan points out that if the Catholic schools weren't in operation, based on current public school costs per pupil, New York would incur at least $8B more in costs. Archbishop Dolan claims that Catholic schools charge somewhat less than half of the $10,000 per public school student; how do they do that? A number of ways: minimal administration costs, lower teacher costs, and greater use of volunteers and parental involvement. (Since many Catholic families are large (like mine is), one could well wonder how it's possible because not many middle-class families can afford tens of thousands in tuition. Usually school administrators work out a plan on an individual family basis, with deep discounts for additional students, sponsorships, service contributions, etc.)
Does quality get short shrift? Not according to Archbishop Dolan:
These put additional constraints on Catholic schools in terms of what they can do; Archbishop Dolan points out that if the Catholic schools weren't in operation, based on current public school costs per pupil, New York would incur at least $8B more in costs. Archbishop Dolan claims that Catholic schools charge somewhat less than half of the $10,000 per public school student; how do they do that? A number of ways: minimal administration costs, lower teacher costs, and greater use of volunteers and parental involvement. (Since many Catholic families are large (like mine is), one could well wonder how it's possible because not many middle-class families can afford tens of thousands in tuition. Usually school administrators work out a plan on an individual family basis, with deep discounts for additional students, sponsorships, service contributions, etc.)
Does quality get short shrift? Not according to Archbishop Dolan:
Among the other points he made, he said that students 98 percent of students who begin their Catholic school education in kindergarten and stay with it will graduate from high school, and 95 percent of them will go on to college. Also, he said that classrooms in Catholic schools are a “rainbow” of ethnic groups, races and religions and in some schools most of the students families are below the poverty line.
What about the formulaic objections to Catholic schools, i.e., they don't provide certain services (e.g., special education) and (among the usual allegations) Catholic schools can skim the cream of the crop of the student pool, not having to deal with problem students and the like. Archbishop Dolan persuasively argues that Catholic schools don't have the scalability and resources to deal with high-maintenance students (e.g., special education), although with state subsidies, they could cover the same services at a much lower cost.
I have not done research on the topic; it's clear that parents know they are entitled to free public education for their kids and they are willing to bear the extra cost. Parental involvement and commitment in their children's education intuitively seem to be important factors in educational success. But in my admittedly anecdotal experience (I spent primary and some middle school with a mixture of public and Catholic school education), the student mix and basic school curriculum seemed comparable.
I have not done research on the topic; it's clear that parents know they are entitled to free public education for their kids and they are willing to bear the extra cost. Parental involvement and commitment in their children's education intuitively seem to be important factors in educational success. But in my admittedly anecdotal experience (I spent primary and some middle school with a mixture of public and Catholic school education), the student mix and basic school curriculum seemed comparable.
From a philosophic standpoint, I've become more skeptical about free or heavily subsidized public education for the same basic reasons I feel about our progressive tax structure where nearly half of workers pay a penny towards government operations. (Payroll taxes fund mandatory benefit programs.) Half the people who don't pay for the government have no intrinsic interest in balancing the budget. (I can still recall my amusement while I was at the University of Texas: some outraged student at some meeting was yelling that his dad spent a lot of money for him to attend, and he didn't think his dad was getting his money's worth--while I was paying for all of my own expenses.) I don't think local or state governments are ever going to directly subsidize the secular aspects of parochial education, which I regard as fundamentally unjust and discriminatory. But Archbishop Dolan is spot on when he implies that Catholics are essentially subsidizing public education (half of Catholic school students from closed Catholic schools (for financial reasons) end up enrolling in public schools).
How ironic almost 60 years after Brown v Board of Education, when "separate but equal" education was thought to be oxymoronic in concept, we find according to NY Education Commissioner David Steiner (because of property tax bases) that the amount spent by pupil can range from $9000 in inner city schools to $30,000 in the suburbs (or Gov. Cuomo's average of $17.2K) You would think that Governor Cuomo would find a way to leverage the results of high quality, cost-effective Catholic (or other private) schools, but his labor union bosses won't let him. So much for leadership....
Judge Maryann Sumi: A Work Stoppage Isn't An Illegal Strike? Thumbs DOWN!
I had to double-check what I read when, in the current Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) kerfuffle with the public sector unions vehemently opposing putting high-cost benefits out of the collective bargaining list, Wisconsin school districts tried to get a temporary restraining order against teachers calling in "sick" and order them back to the classroom in accordance with their contract. (Public sector employees, by law, cannot go on strike.) But Judge Maryann Sumi has a simple solution for that: she arbitrarily defines the legal issue away. I found a prior reference on a Democratic website which confidently boasted that Sumi is a reliable political liberal. No kidding...
I looked at some of the other related stories. A couple of union leaders suggested that if Walker backed off the collective bargain issue, they would agree to his proposals to up the teacher share of the same health care and pension contributions. Too little, too late: the larger issue is giving local governments more control over their budgets. Another item noted that the senate Democrats, by their decision to leave the state to prevent the senate from voting because of a quorum call, has, if anything, solidified Republican unity on the issue.
How ironic almost 60 years after Brown v Board of Education, when "separate but equal" education was thought to be oxymoronic in concept, we find according to NY Education Commissioner David Steiner (because of property tax bases) that the amount spent by pupil can range from $9000 in inner city schools to $30,000 in the suburbs (or Gov. Cuomo's average of $17.2K) You would think that Governor Cuomo would find a way to leverage the results of high quality, cost-effective Catholic (or other private) schools, but his labor union bosses won't let him. So much for leadership....
Judge Maryann Sumi: A Work Stoppage Isn't An Illegal Strike? Thumbs DOWN!
I had to double-check what I read when, in the current Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) kerfuffle with the public sector unions vehemently opposing putting high-cost benefits out of the collective bargaining list, Wisconsin school districts tried to get a temporary restraining order against teachers calling in "sick" and order them back to the classroom in accordance with their contract. (Public sector employees, by law, cannot go on strike.) But Judge Maryann Sumi has a simple solution for that: she arbitrarily defines the legal issue away. I found a prior reference on a Democratic website which confidently boasted that Sumi is a reliable political liberal. No kidding...
I looked at some of the other related stories. A couple of union leaders suggested that if Walker backed off the collective bargain issue, they would agree to his proposals to up the teacher share of the same health care and pension contributions. Too little, too late: the larger issue is giving local governments more control over their budgets. Another item noted that the senate Democrats, by their decision to leave the state to prevent the senate from voting because of a quorum call, has, if anything, solidified Republican unity on the issue.
Political Humor
The Colombian military seized a submarine loaded with tons of cocaine. Oh, Charlie Sheen. - David Letterman
[Well, it's good to know the hard drug business is underwater.]
A survey found that 61 percent of people are more afraid of outliving their money than dying. The other 39 percent have already outlived their money and have faked their own death to avoid creditors. - Jay Leno
[... The remaining 39 percent are Democrats afraid of outliving OTHER PEOPLE's money.]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
The Bee Gees/Dionne Warwick, "Heartbreaker"
