Quote of the Day
Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn.
Miguel de Cervantes
Some Miscellaneous Notes
- David Galland notes that even if you confiscated all of the income of the top 10% of earners for the federal government, you would end up with $1.3T in revenues--not enough to close the $1.65T Obama deficit.
- State Budget Quote of the Day:
The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist said state budgets have received a puzzling lack of scrutiny and have been "riddled with gimmicks" aimed at deferring or disguising the true costs of public employees' health care and pension obligations. "[R]eally, when you get down to it, the guys at Enron never would have done this. This is so blatant, so extreme," Gates said of state governments' accounting practices generally. "Is anyone paying attention to some of the things these guys do? They borrow money -- they're not supposed to, but they figure out a way -- they make you pay more in withholding to help their cashflow out, they sell off the assets, they defer the payments, they sell off the revenues from tobacco." Gates argued that government accounting practices should be more like private accounting.
Education and Public Sector Compensation Studies
Over the past week, I've mentioned a couple of prominent progressive studies from California and Wisconsin which have been used to compare the salaries of private sector and public sector workers. The studies argue that when you factor out variables like age, education, and experience, public sector workers make less in salary than private sector and/or just over in total compensation.
Part of what methodology critics, including myself, have focused on is how variables like education are operationalized for statistical purposes. Some degrees are "more equal" than others (in terms of majors or schools). Some majors or degrees are notoriously rigorous: pre-med, accounting, mathematics, economics, any hard science (physics, etc.), engineering, computer science, philosophy, and the MBA, just to mention a few. These majors or degrees often require a long list of mandatory, tough courses. (For example, an MBA requires courses in finance, economics, marketing, organizational behavior, statistics, information technology, production/logistics, accounting and business strategy.) I know two graduate engineers whom barely survived their first semester in college. I don't intend to pass a judgment call on other majors or degrees, but the fact is that attrition can be quite significant in these areas. I simply don't believe from a standpoint of academic rigor, an MEd or an EdD has a comparable reputation.
Moreover, take the case of information technology, I've met a number of entrepreneurs whom never finished getting their degrees or others whom dropped out during the Internet bubble and developed highly marketable skills and I have had or met managers without a degree. A friend I had in San Antonio around the late 1970's had already finished his major field requirements but had not yet completed his "boring" lower division work. Many of these people are extraordinarily able people whom simply didn't have or feel the need to finish their degree.
Another point I want to point out is that you can get hired into a position where you do not directly use your academic credentials. For example, I need my PhD for purposes of teaching in an AACSB-accredited business school, but most DBA's don't have a PhD. It may be the case if I applied to the public sector (for non-teaching positions), the PhD would be considered a plus (in many countries, like India, civil service has been considered the gateway for a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, and academic credentials have been key). But technically speaking, I would not be using my business school credentials because public sectors are monopolies. The square peg in a round hole is an issue, as I've discussed in the past regarding mismatches in pay for skills between the private sector and the federal government.
The reason I've been doing through all this discussion is the fact these considerations have to be taken into account in terms of how you encode education in relevant models. And that really involves matters of supply and demand. This sounds abstract, but a simple example from my experience will illustrate the point. From a standpoint of information technology, the market value of an Oracle DBA in the federal sector would be directly related to things like the server platform, version of the Oracle database, the server architecture and Oracle technology used, etc. (I am ignoring other factors, like the market value of existing active security clearances to government contractors for the federal worker.) I have worked on older, even obsolete Oracle software for certain government clients, and these assignments did little to enhance my market value to the private sector. So if I saw a study that said, for example, federal Oracle DBA's make less than private sector Oracle DBA's, that doesn't mean that the federal Oracle DBA is making unfairly less (market value is directly related to product/version and a likely more limited DBA supply): I would have to control for the technology stack.
Are Public School Teachers 34.1% Better than Private School Teachers?
TABLE: 2007-08 Full-Time Teacher Data, US Dept. of Education
TEACHERS | NUMBER (000) | AVG YEARLY PAY | AVG BASE PAY |
|---|---|---|---|
Public School | 3114.7 | $53,230 | $49,630 |
Private School | 386.8 | $39,690 | $36,250 |
From one of my favorite libertarian sites...
Governor Walker, I think it's time we need to start talking privatization of education....
Personally, I think the teacher union thugs need to be given a timeout...And the Wisconsin State Assembly Democrats must have been looking into a mirror...
Political Humor
A few originals:
- Congressman Charlie Rangel compares what Governor Walker (R-WI) is trying to do in attempting to constrain collective bargaining and the public unions to slavery. After all, the very essence of freedom is being required to join a union and pay dues in order to work as a Wisconsin public school teacher...
- The Westboro Baptist Church, flush off their Supreme Court victory protecting their right to picket funerals of American soldiers whom die in Iraq or Afghanistan, is set to appeal Pope Benedict XVI's ruling that Jews are not collectively responsible for the death of Jesus. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to file an amicus brief.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Group
Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb/The Bee Gees, "What Kind of Fool". Barbra, a Brooklyn-flavored imitation Aussie accent? I don't think so....
