Harriet occasionally receives education-related commercial appeals. Most go into the trash folder. Harriet elevates this offering to a post. The future has arrived. Perhaps this advertisement contains the seeds of a rebuttal to Neal McCluskey's argument against free degrees from US Service academies.
jsr solution the software developing company is going to organize an entrance test for free software training. the test is held on 14 November 2009 at quest institute of Chandigarh mohali (landra) . this test is absolutely free. and the students who will pass out this examination will get free software training. for the registrations please visit following link:-
php training
2009/11/09
2009/11/08
The Burris Challenge
Harriet left a comment at the Akamai Politics post of 2009-10-31 ("Furlough Mess Gets Worse"), correcting the New York Times figure for the DOE budget. The Times put the budget at $1.8 billion, while the Commerce Department, using DOE figures, put it at $2.9 billion. While waiting for the comment to pass moderation (it must be all the vulgarities, like "and" and "the"), Harriet browsed the Akamai Politics archive.
In a post of 2009-10-25, "Furlough Game of Bluff", Mr. Burris writes:
What does "should" mean? Why is $15,000 per pupil-year insufficient?
Harriet announces the Burris Challenge: In the entire archive of "Akamai Politics", find any figure for "Total Revenues to Education" or " Total Current Expenditures" for the Hawaii DOE with a cite from an official US government (Commerce Department or Department of Education) statistics repository. Find any comparison between Hawaii and international per-pupil spending.
The comments which Mr. Burris has not yet (2009-11-08-1620 GMT) passed through moderation:...
...and...
(2009-11-05-11:59 HST):
In a post of 2009-10-25, "Furlough Game of Bluff", Mr. Burris writes:
There is nothing to stop the DOE and the teachers from shifting some of the furlough shifts to non-instructional days. And there is nothing to stop Lingle from working with Democrats in the Legislature to find money to restore some of the lost funding to the DOE.
That’s what should happen.
What does "should" mean? Why is $15,000 per pupil-year insufficient?
Harriet announces the Burris Challenge: In the entire archive of "Akamai Politics", find any figure for "Total Revenues to Education" or " Total Current Expenditures" for the Hawaii DOE with a cite from an official US government (Commerce Department or Department of Education) statistics repository. Find any comparison between Hawaii and international per-pupil spending.
The comments which Mr. Burris has not yet (2009-11-08-1620 GMT) passed through moderation:...
(2009-11-05-0814 HST): The New York Times editorial: "The governor, who had ordered the Department of Education to cut its $1.8 billion budget by 14 percent, now says she had not expected the union to take its furlough days from instruction time."
They're only off by $1 billion. In 2007 (the last year for which complete figures are available), the Hawaii DOE reported "total revenues to education" of $2,985,593,000 and a total enrollment of 180,728, which works out to more than $16,000 per pupil-year, and current expenditures (total minus capital improvements and debt service) of $2,199,604, which gives a per-pupil budget over $12,000.
Why is this insufficient? Even with a 20% cut, this is more than enough.
...and...
(2009-11-05-11:59 HST):
Sorry. Add three zeros. That's $2,199,604,000 current expenditures for fiscal 2007-2008. Google-search "Public Education Financial Survey".
Homeschool. Parents do not need to sacrifice an income to homeschool. Nothing in Hawaii Revised Statutes requires that homeschool instruction occur between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Pool resources with five or six other families extend day care to age 17, then take the GED.
2009/11/05
Don Your Hip Boots
Former Honolulu Advertiser editorial page editor Jerry Burris, who used to write the Advertiser's education-related editorials, notes the national attention which the Hawaii DOE furlough policy has attracted. Mr. Burris cites the criticism of US Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the New York Times editorial page.
From 1993 to 1997, reporters and editorial writers of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Honolulu Advertiser (that would include Mr.Burris) bemoaned "cuts" to the DOE budget. Harriet gave to Education writers and editorial writers of both papers copies of reports which the Hawaii DOE makes to the US DOE which showed budget increases, both in aggregate and per-pupil terms. Writers for both papers continued to complain of "cuts" to the DOE budget. They lied. Harriet eventually called in to Rick Hamada's morning talk show and related the above facts. The papers temporarily stopped lying about "cuts" to the DOE budget.
Secretary Duncan's Department suppressed a favorable review of the DC voucher program before the program came before Congress for reauthorization. As Superintendent of the Chicago School district, he claimed credit for illusory performance gains.
No matter how mistaken or deliberately deceptive an argument, most attempts at persuasion proceed from assertions which the proponent believes his/her audience will accept. Secretary Duncan's criticism of the Hawaii DOE's furlough policy combines trite truisms with bald assertions and bait-and-switch misdirection. He writes: "...we need to invest in our future (1). Too many of our schools are not preparing students for success in college and careers.(2)...On international tests, American students are struggling to compete with their peers around the globe. Twenty-seven percent of the nation's ninth graders don't finish high school within four years. In Hawaii, 36 percent of freshmen don't complete high school on time...(3)...now is not the time to decrease investment in education(4)."
1. Like, we can invest in our past? What a maroon.
2. Why give this failing institution more money?
3. Okay. See point 2, above.
4. Not ("school"="education"). Cuts to the DOE budget and to the span of compulsory attendance do not equal cuts to education.
From the NYT: "The governor, who had ordered the Department of Education to cut its $1.8 billion budget by 14 percent, now says she had not expected the union to take its furlough days from instruction time."
They're only off by $1 billion. In 2007 (the last year for which complete figures are available), the Hawaii DOE reported "total revenues to education" of $2,985,593,000 and a total enrollment of 180,728, which works out to more than $16,000 per pupil-year, and current expenditures (total minus capital improvements and debt service) of $2,199,604, which gives a per-pupil budget over $12,000.
Why is this insufficient? Even with a 20% cut, this is more than enough.
Remember when, as a child, you got caught in a lie, and tried to cover that lie with another, and another, until the fable collapsed? The persistent lies about "public education" proceed from the false assumption that society at large benefits from a State (government, generally) role in the education industry.
Beyond a very low level, the education industry exhibits no economies of scale at the delivery end. Education only marginally qualifies as a public good as economists use the term, and the "public goods" argument implies subsidy and regulation, at most, not State operation of schools. The State cannot subsidize education without a definition of "education", but then the State's definition binds students, parents, teachers, and taxpayers. Since oversight of State functions is a public good which the State itself cannot supply, State sssumption of responsibility for the subsidization of public goods transforms the collective action problem at the root of "public goods" analysis but does not eliminate it.
The Hawaii "public" (i.e., government-operated) school system originated in anti-Catholic bigotry. The "public" schoool system has become an employment program for dues-paying members of the NEA/AFSCME cartel, a source of padded construction and supply contracts for politically-connected insiders, and a venue for State-worshipful indoctrination. If this is not so, why cannot any student take, at any time, an exit exam (the GED will do) and apply the taxpayers' age 6-18 education subsidy toward post-secondary tuition or toward a wage subsidy at any qualified (say, has filed W-2 forms on at least three adult employees for at least the previous four years) private-sector employer?
Update (2009-11-06): I left a comment at Mr. Burris' blog supplying a correction to the NYT budget figure. That comment sat in moderation until it evaporated.
From 1993 to 1997, reporters and editorial writers of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Honolulu Advertiser (that would include Mr.Burris) bemoaned "cuts" to the DOE budget. Harriet gave to Education writers and editorial writers of both papers copies of reports which the Hawaii DOE makes to the US DOE which showed budget increases, both in aggregate and per-pupil terms. Writers for both papers continued to complain of "cuts" to the DOE budget. They lied. Harriet eventually called in to Rick Hamada's morning talk show and related the above facts. The papers temporarily stopped lying about "cuts" to the DOE budget.
Secretary Duncan's Department suppressed a favorable review of the DC voucher program before the program came before Congress for reauthorization. As Superintendent of the Chicago School district, he claimed credit for illusory performance gains.
No matter how mistaken or deliberately deceptive an argument, most attempts at persuasion proceed from assertions which the proponent believes his/her audience will accept. Secretary Duncan's criticism of the Hawaii DOE's furlough policy combines trite truisms with bald assertions and bait-and-switch misdirection. He writes: "...we need to invest in our future (1). Too many of our schools are not preparing students for success in college and careers.(2)...On international tests, American students are struggling to compete with their peers around the globe. Twenty-seven percent of the nation's ninth graders don't finish high school within four years. In Hawaii, 36 percent of freshmen don't complete high school on time...(3)...now is not the time to decrease investment in education(4)."
1. Like, we can invest in our past? What a maroon.
2. Why give this failing institution more money?
3. Okay. See point 2, above.
4. Not ("school"="education"). Cuts to the DOE budget and to the span of compulsory attendance do not equal cuts to education.
From the NYT: "The governor, who had ordered the Department of Education to cut its $1.8 billion budget by 14 percent, now says she had not expected the union to take its furlough days from instruction time."
They're only off by $1 billion. In 2007 (the last year for which complete figures are available), the Hawaii DOE reported "total revenues to education" of $2,985,593,000 and a total enrollment of 180,728, which works out to more than $16,000 per pupil-year, and current expenditures (total minus capital improvements and debt service) of $2,199,604, which gives a per-pupil budget over $12,000.
Why is this insufficient? Even with a 20% cut, this is more than enough.
Remember when, as a child, you got caught in a lie, and tried to cover that lie with another, and another, until the fable collapsed? The persistent lies about "public education" proceed from the false assumption that society at large benefits from a State (government, generally) role in the education industry.
Beyond a very low level, the education industry exhibits no economies of scale at the delivery end. Education only marginally qualifies as a public good as economists use the term, and the "public goods" argument implies subsidy and regulation, at most, not State operation of schools. The State cannot subsidize education without a definition of "education", but then the State's definition binds students, parents, teachers, and taxpayers. Since oversight of State functions is a public good which the State itself cannot supply, State sssumption of responsibility for the subsidization of public goods transforms the collective action problem at the root of "public goods" analysis but does not eliminate it.
The Hawaii "public" (i.e., government-operated) school system originated in anti-Catholic bigotry. The "public" schoool system has become an employment program for dues-paying members of the NEA/AFSCME cartel, a source of padded construction and supply contracts for politically-connected insiders, and a venue for State-worshipful indoctrination. If this is not so, why cannot any student take, at any time, an exit exam (the GED will do) and apply the taxpayers' age 6-18 education subsidy toward post-secondary tuition or toward a wage subsidy at any qualified (say, has filed W-2 forms on at least three adult employees for at least the previous four years) private-sector employer?
Update (2009-11-06): I left a comment at Mr. Burris' blog supplying a correction to the NYT budget figure. That comment sat in moderation until it evaporated.
2009/10/31
Furlough Friday
Hearing Notice
To: Special Senate Committee to Consider Approaches to Teacher Furloughs
From: Malcolm Kirkpatrick
In re: DOE budget
2009-10-30
How the DOE can address the projected revenue shortfall depends on what caused the shortfall. If the shortfall is a natural (though extreme) instance of the business cycle, then it might make sense to use special funds, like the hurricane relief fund. If government policy caused the downturn in business activity then it is reasonable to suppose that legislators and government administrators must address problems in government policy. Regardless, the Legislature has an obligation to use tax revenues effectively and to avoid waste.
Here are two links to US government sources of school system finance data. Search "Public Elementary-Secondary Finance Data".
This source gives a Hawaii DOE total revenue figure for fiscal year 2007 (latest available) of $2, 985,593,000.00 and a 2007 enrollment of 180, 728 (Table 1). The table calls this figure "total revenues", whcih would include construction (capital improvements) and gives a per-pupil budget of $16,519.00. By some magic of accounting, the table gives a per-pupil budget of $11,060.00. This table also contains a figure for total current expenditures of $2,199, 604.00.
This source gives a "total revenues (2007)" figure of $2,950,803.00. Search "Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2006-07 (Fiscal Year 2007)".
One response which the legislature might consider is load shedding. Just as a hospital in a budget pinch could save money through greater use of outpatient care, the DOE could reduce costs to taxpayers by reducing the age at which students may take the GED. In Switzerland, students may leave school for apprenticeship programs after sixth grade. In Germany, students who intend a non-academic career may leave school before the end of Hocshule, for aprenticeship programs. It does not take 12 years at $15,000/pupil-year to teach a normal child to read and compute. Most vocational training occurs more effectively on the job than in a classroom.
The DOE could reduce its demands on taxpayers by adopting policies more friendly to homeschoolers. Richard Arkwright was homeschooled. James Hargreaves was homeschooled. Thomas Highs was homeschooled. Thomas Edison was homeschooled. Bertrand Russel was homeschooled. Yehudi Menuhin was homeschooled. Benjamin Franklin attended school for two years and apprenticed at age 12. Abraham Lincoln attended school sporadically for two years. David Farragut joined the US Navy at 9, went to sea at 11, and commanded his first ship at 15. Robert Fitzroy, the Beagle captain who took Charles Darwin around the world and founded the British Weather Service attended the Admiralty school from age 12 to 14 and went to sea.
I tutored Eugene So from 3rd through 6th grade. His parents homeschooled him after 7th grade, which meant that they went to work and Eugene went up to the University and sat in on Math classes. He took the GRE before he turned 17 and entered the UH Math program as a graduate student. He earned his MS (Math) before he turned 19. He skipped high school and college, and saved Hawaii taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.
Short of radical modifications to compulsory attendance policies, I suggest that the Legislature eliminate programs (and staff) outside of school complexes, such as the Ellison Onizuka Space Center and the Teacher Standards Board. The Space Center is dead weight, and the Teacher Standards Board inflicts evpensive and counter-productive credential requirements across the DOE.
Cutting non-school programs, however, is like looking for quarters under the sofa cushions. You will likely not find enough to cover the shortfall. It will also be politically difficult, as the people who occupy these high-paid, do-nothing jobs got these jobs in the first place through political clout.
"What works?" is an empirical question which only an experiment can answer. Numerous small school districts or a competitive market in education services will provide more information than will a State-monopoly school district. A State-monopoly provider is like an experiment with one treatment and no controls, a retarded experimental design. The Legislature put itself in this box when it allowed Senator Sakamoto to kill decentralization in conference. The Legislature nailed the box shut when it killed the Governor's decentralization proposal and passed Act 51, which further centralized DOE functions. I cannot honestly say that I sympathize with your discomfort, as the Majority has for years sacrificed students, parents, taxpayers, and real classroom teachers to politically connected construction contractors and to the HSTA/HGEA/UPW/UHPA cartel.
Whatever the legislature decides, it will likely not solve the problem of the revenue shortfall or of waste in the Hawaii DOE. Hawaii (and the US) has not hit bottom yet and the parasites responsible will ride this collapsing enterprise into the ground. Parents should homeschool. This does not require that parents sacrifice an income. Nothing in Hawaii Revised Statutes requires that homeschool instruction occur between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. It is perfectly legal to extend daycare to age 18.
Thank you for this chance to testify.
The legislature will raise the General Excise Tax. Revenues will continue to drop, as Arthur Laffer would predict.
THE SENATE
THE TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE
INTERIM OF 2009
SPECIAL SENATE COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER APPROACHES TO TEACHER FURLOUGHS
Senator Brian Taniguchi, Chair
Senator Will Espero, Vice Chair
NOTICE OF MEETING
DATE: Friday, October 30, 2009
TIME: 12:30 p.m.
PLACE: Auditorium
State Capitol
415 South Beretania Street
A G E N D A
The purpose of this meeting is to receive public input regarding the options available to address the issue of teacher furloughs and the loss of instructional days in our public schools.
Testimony will be limited to 4 minutes per person. Written testimony is highly recommended and can be emailed to senespero@capitol.hawaii.gov . Please indicate the measure, date and time of the meeting.
In person: 1 copy of their testimony to the committee clerk, Room 207, State Capitol.
By fax: Testimony may be faxed if less than 5 pages in length, to the Senate Sergeant-At-Arms Office at 586-6659 or 1-800-586-6659 (toll free for neighbor islands), at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. When faxing, please indicate to which committee the testimony is being submitted and the date and time of the meeting.
If you require special assistance or auxiliary aids and/or services to participate in the meeting (i.e., sign language interpreter or wheelchair accessibility), please contact the Committee Clerk at 586-6823 to make a request for arrangements at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. Prompt requests help to ensure the availability of qualified individuals and appropriate accommodations.
For further information, please call the Committee Clerk at 586-6823.
To: Special Senate Committee to Consider Approaches to Teacher Furloughs
From: Malcolm Kirkpatrick
In re: DOE budget
2009-10-30
How the DOE can address the projected revenue shortfall depends on what caused the shortfall. If the shortfall is a natural (though extreme) instance of the business cycle, then it might make sense to use special funds, like the hurricane relief fund. If government policy caused the downturn in business activity then it is reasonable to suppose that legislators and government administrators must address problems in government policy. Regardless, the Legislature has an obligation to use tax revenues effectively and to avoid waste.
Here are two links to US government sources of school system finance data. Search "Public Elementary-Secondary Finance Data".
This source gives a Hawaii DOE total revenue figure for fiscal year 2007 (latest available) of $2, 985,593,000.00 and a 2007 enrollment of 180, 728 (Table 1). The table calls this figure "total revenues", whcih would include construction (capital improvements) and gives a per-pupil budget of $16,519.00. By some magic of accounting, the table gives a per-pupil budget of $11,060.00. This table also contains a figure for total current expenditures of $2,199, 604.00.
This source gives a "total revenues (2007)" figure of $2,950,803.00. Search "Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2006-07 (Fiscal Year 2007)".
One response which the legislature might consider is load shedding. Just as a hospital in a budget pinch could save money through greater use of outpatient care, the DOE could reduce costs to taxpayers by reducing the age at which students may take the GED. In Switzerland, students may leave school for apprenticeship programs after sixth grade. In Germany, students who intend a non-academic career may leave school before the end of Hocshule, for aprenticeship programs. It does not take 12 years at $15,000/pupil-year to teach a normal child to read and compute. Most vocational training occurs more effectively on the job than in a classroom.
The DOE could reduce its demands on taxpayers by adopting policies more friendly to homeschoolers. Richard Arkwright was homeschooled. James Hargreaves was homeschooled. Thomas Highs was homeschooled. Thomas Edison was homeschooled. Bertrand Russel was homeschooled. Yehudi Menuhin was homeschooled. Benjamin Franklin attended school for two years and apprenticed at age 12. Abraham Lincoln attended school sporadically for two years. David Farragut joined the US Navy at 9, went to sea at 11, and commanded his first ship at 15. Robert Fitzroy, the Beagle captain who took Charles Darwin around the world and founded the British Weather Service attended the Admiralty school from age 12 to 14 and went to sea.
I tutored Eugene So from 3rd through 6th grade. His parents homeschooled him after 7th grade, which meant that they went to work and Eugene went up to the University and sat in on Math classes. He took the GRE before he turned 17 and entered the UH Math program as a graduate student. He earned his MS (Math) before he turned 19. He skipped high school and college, and saved Hawaii taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.
Short of radical modifications to compulsory attendance policies, I suggest that the Legislature eliminate programs (and staff) outside of school complexes, such as the Ellison Onizuka Space Center and the Teacher Standards Board. The Space Center is dead weight, and the Teacher Standards Board inflicts evpensive and counter-productive credential requirements across the DOE.
Cutting non-school programs, however, is like looking for quarters under the sofa cushions. You will likely not find enough to cover the shortfall. It will also be politically difficult, as the people who occupy these high-paid, do-nothing jobs got these jobs in the first place through political clout.
"What works?" is an empirical question which only an experiment can answer. Numerous small school districts or a competitive market in education services will provide more information than will a State-monopoly school district. A State-monopoly provider is like an experiment with one treatment and no controls, a retarded experimental design. The Legislature put itself in this box when it allowed Senator Sakamoto to kill decentralization in conference. The Legislature nailed the box shut when it killed the Governor's decentralization proposal and passed Act 51, which further centralized DOE functions. I cannot honestly say that I sympathize with your discomfort, as the Majority has for years sacrificed students, parents, taxpayers, and real classroom teachers to politically connected construction contractors and to the HSTA/HGEA/UPW/UHPA cartel.
Whatever the legislature decides, it will likely not solve the problem of the revenue shortfall or of waste in the Hawaii DOE. Hawaii (and the US) has not hit bottom yet and the parasites responsible will ride this collapsing enterprise into the ground. Parents should homeschool. This does not require that parents sacrifice an income. Nothing in Hawaii Revised Statutes requires that homeschool instruction occur between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. It is perfectly legal to extend daycare to age 18.
Thank you for this chance to testify.
The legislature will raise the General Excise Tax. Revenues will continue to drop, as Arthur Laffer would predict.
2009/10/13
2009/10/10
2009/10/08
College Costs
In a small way, Harriet has participated in a discussion of college costs. Though a theoretical separetion of the concepts of K-12 and post-secondary schooling may not hold (each industry sustains the other), Harriet contends that the post-secondary education industry is more corrupt (though less destructive) than the K-12 education industry.
Neal McCluskey piqued Harriet's interest with this comment. Harriet commented here on McCluskey's objection to college support. McCluskey responded here. Harriet is mulling a rebuttal.
Cato initiated the most recent iteration of the ongoing discussion with a forum on college costs. A Professor of Education rose in defense of her employer: The Education Optimists: New Tune, Same Stupid Key and Neal McCluskey addressed these objections here. Harriet left the following comment on the professor's blog. It has not survived moderation (evidently--as of 2009-10-09-1837 GMT it has not appeared).
................................................................................
I would add a few comments on the language used in this discussion.
1) You call educational freedom "the freedom not to be helped by the government".
"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun"--Mao Tse Tung
Eduardo Zambrano
"Formal Models of Authority: Introduction and Political Economy Applications"
Rationality and Society, May 1999; 11: 115 - 138.
2) "Ideological" is an uncomplimentary way to say "systematic" (the antonym is "scatter-brained").
3) "Simplistic" is academicese for "stupid". William of Occam cautioned long ago against unnecessary complications. To people of an instrumental bent, simplicity is usually a virtue.
Neal McCluskey piqued Harriet's interest with this comment. Harriet commented here on McCluskey's objection to college support. McCluskey responded here. Harriet is mulling a rebuttal.
Cato initiated the most recent iteration of the ongoing discussion with a forum on college costs. A Professor of Education rose in defense of her employer: The Education Optimists: New Tune, Same Stupid Key and Neal McCluskey addressed these objections here. Harriet left the following comment on the professor's blog. It has not survived moderation (evidently--as of 2009-10-09-1837 GMT it has not appeared).
................................................................................
I would add a few comments on the language used in this discussion.
1) You call educational freedom "the freedom not to be helped by the government".
"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun"--Mao Tse Tung
Eduardo Zambrano
"Formal Models of Authority: Introduction and Political Economy Applications"
Rationality and Society, May 1999; 11: 115 - 138.
Aside from the important issue of how it is that a ruler may economize on communication, contracting and coercion costs, this leads to an interpretation of the state that cannot be contractarian in nature: citizens would not empower a ruler to solve collective action problems in any of the models discussed, for the ruler would always be redundant and costly. The results support a view of the state that is eminently predatory, (the ? MK.) case in which whether the collective actions problems are solved by the state or not depends on upon whether this is consistent with the objectives and opportunities of those with the (natural) monopoly of violence in society. This conclusion is also reached in a model of a predatory state by Moselle and Polak (1997). How the theory of economic policy changes in light of this interpretation is an important question left for further work.The government of a locality is the largest dealer in interpersonal violence in that locality (definition). The State (government, generally) cannot subsidize education without a definition of "education", but then students, parents (in the case of pre-college education), teachers, and taxpayers are bound by the State's definition. Tax-supported tuition "help" comes at great cost, in money, in time (e.g., the expansion of required core curricula, the proliferation of classroom-required occupational licensure), and in the opportunity cost to society of the lost innovation which a competitive market in education services would generate.
2) "Ideological" is an uncomplimentary way to say "systematic" (the antonym is "scatter-brained").
3) "Simplistic" is academicese for "stupid". William of Occam cautioned long ago against unnecessary complications. To people of an instrumental bent, simplicity is usually a virtue.
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