How to Promote Effectiveness?

I posed a question over at MN Publius Unexpected to the Liberals that keep vilifying Conservative "CUTS". (G2A Slow Growth Down) Unfortunately I have gotten no real answer yet. I have received some examples of why more money is needed, but no ideas for influencing an improvement in effectiveness. (ie effectiveness = doing right things efficiently)

Below are the lead in comment from CommonSense and my reply.

"One observation I have of the right, where they have a major misperception (or maybe I mean misconception- shades of GW) of the left, is that the left wants to take all their money and give it away to people that don't deserve it. The typical person on the right needs to understand that taxes are lower now than at any point in their lifetime and that you do not get anything for nothing!

When governors cry budget problems right after they cut corporate taxes (again), of course a reasonable person will ask how ANYONE can think it is ok to hack away at government to the point that it doesn't work, then cut more funding BECAUSE IT DOESN'T WORK! The proposals put forth by the right are absolutely ridiculous- turning local government over to private companies - firing ELECTED OFFICIALS; selling power companies at the governor's whim,.... each day gets more outrageous.

The thing about taxes is that there is a minimum that is necessary to run a government responsibly and deliver good services. When money is tight, you don't cut family expenses until you starve and freeze to death- you INCREASE revenue by asking family members to contribute according to their means.

We just want the rich, yes I said rich, to contribute to the government that has made it possible for them to live the high life while the rest of us hope we don't get fired or perhaps have our union rights legislated out from under us."

That said, which state parks should we close (which is your favorite, let's start there) and just how should we adjust the public school budget that has been cut, cut, cut?

My Response and Question:

If you do not like controlling the budget? (manage and slow growth, ~ CPI)

How would you proposed we citizens promote wise prioritization and year after year productivity gains from our Government/Social systems?

I truly believe that we could double their budget and they would find "good" ways to spend it all.

An example in Schools, exactly how many foreign languages need to be offered? Or exactly how many bike paths do we need in out state MN? Or why is the Public supporting radio broadcasts? Or why is the DNR buying land for wildlife habitat?

I like Common Sense's analogy, except I think we are cutting back on the family's cell phone and cable usage. Not their food and heating. Probably don't need that second job yet."

Thoughts?

Libya No Fly Zone

Is our decision to help enforce the "No Fly Zone" a sign of our Fascist ways or something else. I vote for something much better and more compassionate... Maybe not Smart, but surely compassionate and maybe a bit idealistic. Thoughts? Obama Warns Gadhafi

From Ellen's Places: 14 Points of Fascism
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism Ruling elites always identified closely with the military and the industrial infrastructure that supported it. A disproportionate share of national resources was allocated to the military, even when domestic needs were acute. The military was seen as an expression of nationalism, and was used whenever possible to assert national goals, intimidate other nations, and increase the power and prestige of the ruling elite.

What about Afganistan? Or Iraq? Or Korea?

Wisconsin: Temp Restraining Order

I'll file this under another waste of Wisconsin's public funds... Just like when the Democrats delayed the inevitable by leaving the state. A temporary restraining order based on whether adequate notice was given seems wasteful and pointless. (WSJ Wisconsin Blockage) Here are the possible results I see happening:

• The court says they violated procedure and rules the law not valid. At which time they do it again while paying more attention to the clock. Then it is a law again.
• The court says "close enough" and it is still a law.

Unless of course you think those "recalls" will happen sooner than later. Which of course I do not see happening at all. The Liberals continue to say how much support they have. However I did a little looking and found that Wisconsin has 5,000,000+ citizens, and the Public employees only number ~120,000. That means there are 4,800,000+ citizens that may like lower taxes more than higher paid Public employees.

Now there is apparently one benefit of delaying the inevitable. The School Boards and Teacher's Unions have a few more weeks to conspire against their tax payers... (otherwise known as set their Contracts) Thoughts?

Wisconsin Race to Contracts

Capitalism, Fascism, Socialism, Communism

Well folks, I am overdue on this post. I promised a commenter named Richard at MN Publius that I would do it last week. Then all kinds of exciting things happened and I put it off.

Now, I am an unrepentant Capitalist and a huge fan of Ayn Rand's Objectivism. As such I am pretty comfortable when the more Liberal or Socialistic folks are critical of these beliefs. However, Richard stunned me with a new label that I had never been called before. As usual, I was promoting shrinking Government, making it more effective, and minimizing any tax increases on all citizens. (ie especially on job providers and risk takers) This is when he called me a Fascist... Then I actually needed to ask him what that meant to him, since to me it was something that went away after WWII. So he sent me this link regarding the 14 points of Fascism.

Well apparently Richard thinks that the USA is quickly moving towards becoming a Fascist country. As compared to the many other Liberals that see the USA as being far to Capitalistic and not having enough safety nets. And the Conservatives that are worried that we are heading full speed ahead toward the destruction of becoming Socialistic or Communistic. As you know, personally I am in the Conservative camp on this one. My thoughts are in the ( ) below.

14 Points of Fascism (see descriptions in link above)

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism (I think Nationalism is important, but am a huge fan of Free Trade. I just don't see the fear of foreign people or products being an issue. We seem to have a healthy concern regarding the people that blew up our bldgs and citizens... Seems like a rational response.)
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights (The ACLU is as strong as ever. Don't confuse Rights and Privileges. If you take advantage of Privileges they can and should be cancelled.)
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause (We have Poor and Middle Class folk picking on Rich. We have Tax payers picking on Public employees. And everyone else is picking on someone else or their least favorite Politician. It seems as chaotic and non-unified as ever. And Lord knows anyone can disseminate any information they want at any time.{even me})
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism (We have a Democrat as Commander in Chief. Enough said... Though it may have been valid under the previous Administration.)
5. Rampant sexism (Pro-Choice is still the law of the land, our Sec of State is a Woman and we have Women running for President. Don't see it.)
6. A controlled mass media (You've got to be kidding. See number 3)
7. Obsession with national security (some validity)
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together (Which Religion and what tie? Don't see it.)
9. Power of corporations protected (Enron, Arthur Andersen, Global Crossing, Bethlehem Steel, Lehman Brothers, Many Others. We still punish firms that fail to perform.)
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated (Unions are fine: just don't force the workers to join or pay dues. And don't kill the golden goose.)
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts (Government may not pay for it, but I do not see any control of it. Let those that value it pay for it.)
12. Obsession with crime and punishment (Don't see any outspoken Political folk in jail. Maybe on a few talk shows, or walking around Madison WI.)
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption (I can't argue this one too hard given the Private Sector / Public Sector job swapping that goes on in both Parties. And the outrageous lobbying and "contributions". However I would argue it is pretty well out in the open. We just seem to put up with it as the way it is, as we re-elect the same folks. We can put an end to it at any time.)
14. Fraudulent elections (Don't see it after the number of recounts we have endured in the last 10 yrs)

So you can see that Richard has not convince me... So:

• What do you think?
• Where are we heading?
• Why do you believe this?
• What scares you the most about this future?

Health Care Cost Control (5)

Well now seems a good time to continue this series, since the endless growth of Health and Human Services seems to have been identified as the Juggernaut that is overwhelming the MN budget.

This post is regarding why we would not set maximum Liability Limits and expedite Tort Reform in the USA. We mostly agreed that a Life does not have an infinite value, yet we choose to not limit Court Settlements. Instead we allow huge settlements that cost our society big dollars. (ie malpractice insurance, lawyers, courts, settlements, product cost, service cost, etc)

One example:

• An accident occurred, a man died, and his wife launched a law suit.
• During the trial, expert witnesses review the issues relevant to the case in front of the jury. (sounds good so far)
• Next the wife is put on the stand to explain how much she misses her husband, and the hardships that she and her children are enduring. (what does this have to do with if someone was negligent?)
• The jury tries to be impartial and focus on the facts and fault... Yet there is that image of the broken wife that keeps floating into their thoughts... I mean someone should pay her something... And that large corporation can absorb the cost... Right?

Wrong !!! That is why all of us are paying higher costs !!! (ie healthcare insurance, taxes, etc)

• Ruling regarding negligence and reward must be separated. (ie Technical, then Emotion)
• Rewards must be capped. (based on severity and situation)
• Lawyer compensation must be capped somehow, so the Ambulance and Class Action chasers lose some of their incentive.

Thoughts or other good examples of this failed system? Or thoughts regarding the linked past posts on the topic?

G2A Healthcare Cost Control: Physician Assisted Suicide
G2A Healthcare Cost Control: Save Everyone?
G2A Healthcare Cost Control: Value of Life
G2A Healthcare Cost Control: Personal Responsibility
G2A Healthcare Thoughts
G2A Healthcare, Ethics and Cannibals

MN Budget Baseline (Try 2)

The upper table is from the MN budget office. (see prior post for link)
The lower table is my creation and shows if the yr over year spend was/is held at 3%. (one time exception for FY 2011)

Here are some questions I have:

• What drove up our revenues and expenditures so much in FY 2011? (ie spend up 9.7% when inflation was nil) The Federal one time stimulus/jobs spend?
• Then is FY2011 a good benchmark for FY2012 or is it inflated due to stimulus funds and efforts?
• Shouldn't the budget target for FY 2012 be $30,139,823 per the lower table? (~6% over FY2010)
• Why is the planned spend going down in FY2013? More games or do we have a few more fed dollars that we are committed to spend in FY2012?

Thing to note:

• Total Resources Available in FY 2013 is down because of the negative Budget balance at end of FY2012 on the MN chart.
• If we can live with a 3% annual budget increase, the budgetary balance stays positive. We can even start paying back the shift...
• If some things like Health care expenses go up more than 3%, then the Government will need to increase less than 3% in some other area to offset it.

Thoughts?

MN Budget Starting Point?

With all these budgets talking cuts and additions, and no one talking totals. I think I found the starting point.
MN Budget Related Documents and Forecast
MN Consolidated Report (ie actuals and budgets)

Checkout pg 6. To me it looks like the baseline has about a 6% yearly increase built into it. ($31,188,123 to $33,040,995 = $1,852,872 increase) To offset the negative 2013 forecasted Budget Balance of (-$3,824,012) we would need to to freeze spending and make a slight cut for the next 2 years. [-$3,824,012 + 2($1,852,872 {freeze}) + $118,268{real cut})

Of course that does not factor in the reality of inflation. If inflation is 3% per yr, then we are making significant cuts. (ie 3%($31,188,123) = $935,643/yr increase needed just to stay even... If that is true then we probably do need some additional revenue (ie taxes) in order to stay even... Though if the citizen's income is increasing with inflation, no tax rate increases would be need to achieve this...

For a bunch of interesting Education Legislation updates, checkout Parents United This Week at the Capital.

Thoughts?

The AdSense Decision Matrix

I have been pondering turning on Google's AdSense software for at least a year. I have been hesitant because I was concerned that it may slow down G2A, or display content that may not be appreciated by my readers. On the other hand I am feeling very guilty for paying them exactly $0 for 2.5 yrs of system usage and ~410 posts.

I have decided that this incredible software and the infrastructure it runs on has great value to me, and that I should try to help pay for it. I mean it let's people from all over the world read my posts and your excellent comments. (definitely worth supporting) So this weekend I am going to study up on how to use Adsense, and hopefully turn it on.

At my current hit rate, it may generate $5/mth for me and $10/mth for Google... But I guess some contribution is better than none. I only ask that you are patient as I go through another blog learning curve. And send me feedback if it creates any access problems for you.

Now for today's lesson: Below is a very simple decision matrix that I used to score my options. This is a very simple and useful tool that you can use when you are facing a decision with multiple options and criteria. It is especially useful when 2 or more people are involved, because it forces you to document the options, criteria, weighting and scores. These require some very collaborative and sometimes tense discussions as people work toward a common model.

This may sound very painful to some folks... However, it is critical to get a team to a common view if you truly want to attain a consensus driven decision that will hold over time. My wife and I actually used this when we were trying to decide if we should move to a new school district or not. She of course thought I was being far too analytical at first, but it took a lot of emotion out of the discussion and helped us make the right decision that has held for 6+ years.

Finally, if you have worked with AdSense and learned lessons the hard way. Please drop me a note or leave a comment so that I can learn from your experience instead of blunting my nose on the same walls. Thanks as always !!!!

Creativity in Wisconsin

Thank Heavens !!! It finally passed !!!
CNN Wisconsin Update

Now I don't know if the bill is good or bad, but I do know it is unacceptable to have the Democrats flee the state instead of showing up at their jobs. And it is incredibly unprofessional for teachers that "care about the students" to not show up at work... (especially if they were getting paid - sick days)

So it may or may not be overturned in the courts, but at least the people that were elected to represent the Wisconsin citizens were able to take the action they think and feel is necessary. Due process is no longer being stalled by the minority's acts of unprofessional extortion.

Thoughts?

Libya: To Help or Not to Help?

Well Libya has me thinking again... CNN NATO starts 24/7 surveillance What should the United States role be in the world? Should we involve ourselves in "civil wars" in the name of saving civilians, or should we just let them kill each other and anybody unlucky enough to be caught in the cross fire?

I mean there are enough people that are critical of the mess in Iraq and Afganistan. They are either worried that we are the war mongers. Or they are worried that it is costing too much. Or worried that American Military personnel are being killed or maimed without a direct threat to the USA. As for myself, I am worried about the military personnel, their families and the financial cost.

However, given that Sadam was a power hungry killer, and it did not make sense to keep him in the no fly zone box forever, something needed to be done. And given Taliban's terrible treatment of women and their allowing terrorist training camps to thrive, it seemed something needed to change. My biggest concern is that the folks in that region have been fighting on and off for ~5,000 yrs, and I don't have a lot of hope for them finally seeing the light. Mesopotamia wiki

Often, I wonder what the Pacifists and Peace Lovers would have done with Sadam and the Taliban? Would they have let Saddam keep Kuwait? Would they have kept him in the No Fly Zone box forever? Would they have let him keep killing and torturing his people? Would they have let him destabilize the Middle East? (ie high fuel prices) Would they have let the Taliban continue providing Al Queda a base of operations? Would they allow the Taliban to keep all their women uneducated?

Since we are spending too much, it does seem that we will need to really consider whether we can afford to maintain this global foot print and be the world's primary Police.

Zfacts Debt Clock
Cost of Iraq and Afganistan (~1.2 trillion)
US Armed Forces Wiki (Overseas: 820 installations in 135 countries)
Unknown News Casualty Estimates (take with a few grains of salt?)
G2A China... America's Banker
G2A Korea Challenges and USA Wealth
USA 2010 Budget by Category wiki

So what do you think?

• Should we keep our strong overseas presence?
• Should we pull our troops back to the USA and jack up security? (ie screw em all...)
• Will we be America if we turn our backs on these situations?
• How would the world and American economy be affected?
• Where do we go with Iran and N Korea?
• Open microphone time... Thoughts?

Teacher Tenure NBC News Report

Now this being covered in the main stream media (NBC) gives me hope !!!
NBC News: States Struggle with Teacher Tenure
Boise Weekly: ABCs of Teacher Pay
Time: A Brief History of Tenure
Huffington Post Teacher Tenure Debate
American Progress Teacher Tenure Reform
Education Tech News: Email save Tenure
Hoover Institution: Teacher Quality, Teacher Pay

As always... Thoughts?

MN School Funding

As you may be aware, I went to the St Louis Park "MN School Funding" forum last week. As expected they were mostly focused on how to maintain and possibly grow funding. Now I have no real issue with that since if one does not lobby for their slice of the pie, one is likely to go hungry. It just seems to be the way American politics works. (ie many good and not so good causes chasing after constrained funding)

It was interesting that only the DFL speakers showed up... Apparently the invited Republicans had something more important going on, or they were scared to set foot in a school given their current obsession with no increase in State taxes. One of the DFL speakers did ask for a show of hands of people who thought the gap should be closed with taxes only, cuts only, or a combination. One voted for taxes only, and everyone else including myself voted for a blend.

This linked presentation that was presented by Mary Cecconi from Parents United was fairly interesting. (especially slide 11) Also, she noted that this was based on the traditional Consumer Price Index, not the higher Implicit Price Deflator Index. If this chart is correct, it does look like the state and it's tax payers are falling down on the job.
2011 Legislative Kick-Off Realities, Rumors and Reactions

Especially when you look at pg 2 of this linked document that shows a huge growth in the number of local referendums that had to be passed to make up for the shortfall. Which of course means that schools in poor neighborhoods are less likely to pass the referendum to make up the difference. And if they do, it is at a higher tax rate because their properties are typical not worth as much.
A History of School Excess Operating Referendum Levy

This was especially scary when I wandered across some graphs that showed how many more kids we have that are classified as poor, non-English speaking and/or Special Ed... These all drive huge extra costs and are all way up from just 10 yrs ago. (unfortunately I lost the web pg address, oops)

The only thing that did frustrate me is that the Speakers and Mary seemed to truly believe that we had cut and tried everything, and that effectiveness and efficiency gains were unlikely. Which seemed odd since a few came to me as I sat there:

• Terminate the worst ~3-5% of Teachers (Supt and Principal's choice with no tenure constraints)
• Reduce the number of Districts from 360+ down to ~100.
• Convert the pensions to self directed 401k's.
• Pool more purchases across districts, or buy at the state level. (ie volume discounts)

I don't think we have tried any of them yet, and I think they would help. Thoughts.

MN Miracle Info
MN School Finance Guide
E-12 Education Finance
Legislative Education Links

Federal Employees Thrive w/o CB

Here was a fascinating thing I did not know... Thoughts?

Fow News: Feds Thrive with NO Collective Bargaining

Public Employees: Over or Under Paid

After hearing all about the vastly Overpaid/Underpaid Wisconsin Public employees, I chose to do a bit of Google searching. My opinion after briefly reviewing these is that they are probably compensated similar to the Private employees with similar educations. This makes sense to me.

EPI Briefing Paper: Debunking Myth of Overpaid Public Employee
PolitFact: FOX news claims
Out of Balance: Public vs Private

The problem is that I have found no weighting of the data for hours worked and other key factors that would justify paying the Public Workers less in Monetary Compensation. Here are some of them that occured to me:

• High Job and Compensation Security: Public employees with seniority are virtually guaranteed continuing employment and increasing compensation. Their productivity, their efforts, economic recessions , etc have only a minimal effect on them. Whereas the Private employees accept additional risk in these areas. The Public employees security must be worth something, and the Private employees risk acceptance should be rewarded.
• Shorter Hours: I could not find anything that discussed the number of hours Public Employees worked to earn that stated compensation. Let's assume that many of them are Teachers that work ~9.5 mths per year. Whereas the vast majority of full time Private employees work 12 mths/yr, and they are certainly not paid for not working. If this is true, then these Teacher's should be paid 20% less than the Private employee. (~$16,000 less on $80,000 in total compensation)
• More Responsibility: They noted that Private employees are often rewarded more generously than their Public counterparts for earning degrees and gaining experience. However they seemed to miss noting that Private employees only gain this compensation by taking on more responsibility, working more hours and delivering bigger profits. (ie oversees more projects, dollars or people) As compared to a Teacher who has 20 yrs of experience, a Masters Degree and a Doctorate, and still only teaches one class at a time... (ie similar responsibility and productivity to a starting teacher? 3 times the comp?) Of course Private employees who take on more Responsibility should be paid higher than Public employees who are still doing the same job as when they started.
• Extra Real Interesting Benefits: Teachers and some other employees have some very interesting benefits that are not typically available to Private employees. The ones that I find fascinating are "Leave of Absences" and "Sabbaticals". This is when an employee can take off up to 5 yrs for some personal reason or education goal, and be guaranteed a job when they decide to come back to work... With these kind of unique benefits, the Public employees should be paid less than their Private employee peers.

So it seems that what is on paper may be somewhat misleading. I would be the first to support Private / Public employee compensation equity once some of these other inequities are resolved. Until then I believe the Public employees are definitely over compensated, all things considered.

With this in mind:

• Let's pay Public employees based on performance/results/responsibility, and not on years of experience and amount of education.
• Let's give Managers the freedom to fire employees that are not performing or meeting other job expectations.
• Let's ensure we are comparing equivalent compensation per hour worked.

Then we can actually compare apples to apples. Besides, then the Public Bureaucracies will improve as the ineffective employees are weeded out and forced to pursue careers that better fit their capabilities. Thoughts? How can these improvement ideas not make sense?

RAS Achievement Gap Update

Some useful links from the 23Feb11 School Board Mtg.

Winter Elementary MAP Reading and Math Test Scores PowerPoint
Notes & Comments:

• Best to watch the video because the presn is slightly different, you can hear Gayle and Cheryl's comments, and the Q&A after the presn. (see link below)
• Summary: It seems scores are slightly better in most groups. This is great, however it means the gap is not changing much.
• Gayle noted that the gap has been stubborn for 5 yrs and it will take dramatic action to start it shrinking.
• My Question: Why do they use Race rather than Income? (ie Caucasian and People of Color)
• It makes no sense to me since I believe the relationship between Race and Academic scores are correlated but not causal... (ie students do not score poorly because they are White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, etc)
• Where as I believe the relationship between Free and Reduced Lunch and Academic success is much more Causal. (ie students often do score poorly if their family is poor) And yes: not because they are poor... They are often poor because they have less education, don't speak English, have personal problems, etc, etc, etc)

Resolution Regarding Hennepin County Dropout Recovery Efforts
Disability Nondiscrimination Policy 402 - Second Reading
Public and Private Personnel Data Policy 406 - Second Reading
Link to Meeting Video

Thoughts?