Bureaucrat Beat
Written by Benett Kessler Tuesday, 05 January 2010 10:34
How do you go from "Sexiest Man Alive" in the eyes of People Magazine to the Mad Hatter? Ask Johnny Depp. The ways of Hollywood mystify, let's face it. In the new year, Depp will play the Mad Hatter in a new version of Alice in Wonderland. I guess for a guy who filled the role of Edward Scissorhands nothing is too weird.But, ask some of the folks in Montana how they feel about the movie star brigade, and they will not find the darlings so ginger peachy. Seems that with a huge influx of celebrities - movie and sports stars, plus international CEOs, property values have sky-rocketed. More significantly, so have property taxes. The LA Times wrote about one man who paid $35,000 for his family's home in 1967 in Whitefish, Montana. Now, according to the State of Montana, the man's property has jumped to a value of more than $2.6 million because the rich and famous will pay that much. He has to fork over more than $9,000 for this year's property taxes.
We in California can, in the new year, send our silent thanks for Proposition 13. Thank you, Howard Jarvis, may you rest in
peace. Politicians want to get rid of Prop. 13 so they can fleece us out of more property taxes to do God knows what in their government antics. They can't as long as we refuse to vote Prop. 13 out. Remember Montana. While the new year will not bring more obscene property tax bills for us, it may produce 3-D glasses to watch movies at home. Wooo! Hoooooo!! This week in Las Vegas at the big Consumer Electronics Show, several big companies will show off 3-D enabled TV sets and other gear. Manufacturers promise that the newly designed 3-D glasses will hugely out class the old red and green ones we used to pull out of cereal boxes. We're ready. Hey, maybe these glasses would even make the Supervisors and Town Council meetings more exciting. Probably not.
Now, here's an exciting development for the new year. Seems a British company plans to make light-producing wallpaper. They want to come up with LEDs to coat wallpaper material. This would replace conventional light bulbs and save energy. I don't know. Glowing walls might give us the heebie-jeebies. We'll try to keep an open mind, but we just can't imagine glimmery walls in the dark cave we call the Bureaucrat Beat Newsroom. Maybe just one wall.
We read about a new use for computer software. Seems the Jefferson County Sheriff in Imperial, Missouri, tried a new computer program that shows kids what they will look like after use of methamphetamine. As you may guess, it's not pretty. The kids who saw their faces morph into ugly, sunken sags said this was the most convincing evidence against drugs that they had ever seen.One of our website readers asked if we could come up with information on how our Congressman and Senators voted on things like healthcare reform and raising the government debt limit. Here's what we found. California Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein voted for HR 3590, called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Inyo-Mono Congressman Buck McKeon voted against it. We can't comment on whether their votes were good or bad. We have not read the some 2,000-page bill. We do know through our talks with people here and research on the subject that America needs a change in the health care business. Insurance companies charge too much and try to withhold benefits. Drug companies charge too much. Health care itself costs too much. So, we can only say that we find major fault with legislators who do nothing but let the big corporations get away with theft at the expense of peoples' pain.
As for the vote to raise the debt limit in the United States by almost $300 billion, Congressman McKeon voted no on HR 4314. Senators Boxer and Feinstein voted yes.
On the health care scene there was some good news. The California Court of Appeal in Los Angeles ruled that local prosecutors can sue health insurers over the way they treat consumers. This opinion came down in a lawsuit that accused Anthem Blue Cross of California of violation of state business laws by "selling the promise of insurance but rescinding coverage after policyholders submit claims for costly medical care." The high court said government prosecutors can sue.
So, folks, this means if a health insurance company refuses to pay for your health care when you need it most, you can go to Inyo District Attorney Art Maillet or Mono District Attorney George Booth and ask them to sue. You don't have to take corporate abuse. This is a heads-up for our local DAs.
And, with that, this is Benett Kessler signing off for Bureaucrat Beat where we await your word on our lives in the Eastern Sierra and beyond.
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written by Dave S. , January 06, 2010
written by Dave S. , January 06, 2010
Say .... we need a way to vote down the original post, and vote up the Editor's Notes.
I seem to run into this dilemma often.
Votes: +0
I seem to run into this dilemma often.
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written by Matt , January 06, 2010
written by Matt , January 06, 2010
Paco-
While I believe that increasing property tax another .5% would not have a devastating impact on people's pocketbook and would go miles in resolving our state's budget crisis and able it to increase spending on important programs like education, more spending in education will not solve that problem. The US shells out a 28% share of the money spent on education globally even though we only have 4% of the scholastic population. That is almost twice as much money per student as other developed countries that far outrank the US in standardized tests like Japan. I forget the exact data and had a hard time finding it on the Internet just now but last I saw the US was in the middle of the bottom tier of developed nations in student performance. This can be attributed to many things, but the point of my statement is not to single out the problems with our education system in general but simply to highlight that more spending will not fix the problems in our education system. California may dip below par with education spending according to US standards but looking outward our spending is not the problem.
Editor's Note:
Matt,
I'd be interested in your views of what you think the problems are. We agree with you that money is not the real problem. It seems that the general lack of emphasis on reading in families in the U.S. and serious discipline in the home and schools may contribute more.
BK
Votes: -1
While I believe that increasing property tax another .5% would not have a devastating impact on people's pocketbook and would go miles in resolving our state's budget crisis and able it to increase spending on important programs like education, more spending in education will not solve that problem. The US shells out a 28% share of the money spent on education globally even though we only have 4% of the scholastic population. That is almost twice as much money per student as other developed countries that far outrank the US in standardized tests like Japan. I forget the exact data and had a hard time finding it on the Internet just now but last I saw the US was in the middle of the bottom tier of developed nations in student performance. This can be attributed to many things, but the point of my statement is not to single out the problems with our education system in general but simply to highlight that more spending will not fix the problems in our education system. California may dip below par with education spending according to US standards but looking outward our spending is not the problem.
Editor's Note:
Matt,
I'd be interested in your views of what you think the problems are. We agree with you that money is not the real problem. It seems that the general lack of emphasis on reading in families in the U.S. and serious discipline in the home and schools may contribute more.
BK
report abuse
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written by Matt , January 07, 2010
written by Matt , January 07, 2010
Benett-
Finally something we agree on! I wanted to avoid going into detail about the problems in our education system because that was rather off subject, but since you asked I will be happy to dispense some facts and personal opinions I have as to where the real problems lie. When I started writing a response I realized it was going to be way too long, so I am just going to highlight some parts without going into too much detail.
Personally I believe that the biggest problem is that the nation's perception of the roles of teachers and students in the classroom is totally distorted. This explains several other major issues that stem directly from it like the discipline issue and why the US ranks second among other nations in how boring school is for students. To begin with, teachers are professionals trained in courses beyond your basic BA or BS, administrators typically have a doctorate. They are versed in the history of education, different education philosophies, skills in how to present curriculum. But oftentimes in the eyes of many parents, teachers are more closely viewed as babysitters or interim parents than trained professionals, and that reflects in the behavior and expectations of students. This explains the general trends of disrespect, the constant complaints that school is not "fun enough", some of the feelings as to why an education may not be important, and some of the frustrations and frictions between students, teachers and parents. The role of the classroom and those within its walls should more closely resemble that of a workplace rather than quacks barking at some punks.
The discipline issue is the biggest hindrance to a young person's education. Students with disciplinary issues lack the focus to actually learn and distract other students from learning as well. Teachers blame parents for the lack of discipline in the home. Parents blame teachers and the state for not raising their children. No one really takes responsibility. Parents need to set a base for expected public behavior (if you go into any McDonald's it is obvious parents fall behind in that area) and the discipline structure of our nation's classrooms needs to be re-evaluated. Reintroducing paddles and the like are not what is needed, but there needs to be more constructive strategy than sending a student home for a free day.
Parents need to take more responsibility and play a bigger role in their child’s education. They need to do learning activities outside the classroom and get them involved in early education. They need to read to their children on a daily basis and hold their children accountable for reading and doing activity by themselves when they are older. More involved parents help solve a lot of issues.
I would also argue that No Child Left Behind needs to be either revised or completely cut out. This bill is one of those that are great in theory, poor in practice. When a teacher teaches, they teach to the lower third of the class. The first third get the concepts and are left twiddling their thumbs, the middle third can do the work but take some time, and the lower third struggle and constantly need assistance. No Child Left Behind brings in more students that struggle and those students bring the learning potential of the whole rest of the class down.
Sorry I didn’t go into too much detail but apparently there is a cap on how many characters I can post. There is obviously so much more but let’s start there.
Editor's Note:
Thanks for that, Matt. We need a revolution in our homes and classrooms that will bring back respect for learning, for adults and for the process of education.
There are always exceptions of fine students, but we have witnessed bad classroom behavior, no discipline by teachers and rude students who visit businesses. It's not doing kids a favor to allow them to behave out of control.
BK
Votes: +0
Finally something we agree on! I wanted to avoid going into detail about the problems in our education system because that was rather off subject, but since you asked I will be happy to dispense some facts and personal opinions I have as to where the real problems lie. When I started writing a response I realized it was going to be way too long, so I am just going to highlight some parts without going into too much detail.
Personally I believe that the biggest problem is that the nation's perception of the roles of teachers and students in the classroom is totally distorted. This explains several other major issues that stem directly from it like the discipline issue and why the US ranks second among other nations in how boring school is for students. To begin with, teachers are professionals trained in courses beyond your basic BA or BS, administrators typically have a doctorate. They are versed in the history of education, different education philosophies, skills in how to present curriculum. But oftentimes in the eyes of many parents, teachers are more closely viewed as babysitters or interim parents than trained professionals, and that reflects in the behavior and expectations of students. This explains the general trends of disrespect, the constant complaints that school is not "fun enough", some of the feelings as to why an education may not be important, and some of the frustrations and frictions between students, teachers and parents. The role of the classroom and those within its walls should more closely resemble that of a workplace rather than quacks barking at some punks.
The discipline issue is the biggest hindrance to a young person's education. Students with disciplinary issues lack the focus to actually learn and distract other students from learning as well. Teachers blame parents for the lack of discipline in the home. Parents blame teachers and the state for not raising their children. No one really takes responsibility. Parents need to set a base for expected public behavior (if you go into any McDonald's it is obvious parents fall behind in that area) and the discipline structure of our nation's classrooms needs to be re-evaluated. Reintroducing paddles and the like are not what is needed, but there needs to be more constructive strategy than sending a student home for a free day.
Parents need to take more responsibility and play a bigger role in their child’s education. They need to do learning activities outside the classroom and get them involved in early education. They need to read to their children on a daily basis and hold their children accountable for reading and doing activity by themselves when they are older. More involved parents help solve a lot of issues.
I would also argue that No Child Left Behind needs to be either revised or completely cut out. This bill is one of those that are great in theory, poor in practice. When a teacher teaches, they teach to the lower third of the class. The first third get the concepts and are left twiddling their thumbs, the middle third can do the work but take some time, and the lower third struggle and constantly need assistance. No Child Left Behind brings in more students that struggle and those students bring the learning potential of the whole rest of the class down.
Sorry I didn’t go into too much detail but apparently there is a cap on how many characters I can post. There is obviously so much more but let’s start there.
Editor's Note:
Thanks for that, Matt. We need a revolution in our homes and classrooms that will bring back respect for learning, for adults and for the process of education.
There are always exceptions of fine students, but we have witnessed bad classroom behavior, no discipline by teachers and rude students who visit businesses. It's not doing kids a favor to allow them to behave out of control.
BK
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From: http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/N...comparison
"California has more than 6.2 million students, almost 2 million more than Texas, the next most populous state. Besides dealing with the complexities of running a school system of this magnitude, California educators face other challenges. The state has the highest percentage of English learners in the nation and is near the top in the proportion of children living in low-income families.
At the same time, funding and staffing levels in California schools lag behind other states. Although teacher salaries are comparatively high, the state is an expensive place to live, and this high cost of living is reflected in teacher salaries. California has been consistently below the national average in per-pupil spending and above the national average in the number of pupils per teacher and pupils per staff. As a result, California’s educators are each responsible for considerably more students than their counterparts in most other states. "
Editor's Note:
If we know that more money should be spent on schools, look for a way to do it. This does not mean higher property taxes must be levied. The people of California can only afford so much.
We have a feeling that untold dollars are wasted in bureaucracy. How about we start there.
Thanks for reading,
Benett Kessler