New Jersey Schools Need To Face Reality

The following is a letter I wrote to my local paper in an effort to convince folks to vote down the upcoming school budget. It was published in the Examiner.

[Note: I just saw a documentary, "The Cartel: Education + Politics = $", that more eloquently makes the same points I was trying to make in this blog].  The documentary has an informative web site that provides some ideas on how parents can help make things better.]

According to the Examiner, Millstone’s proposed 2010-11 budget puts perpupil spending at around $13,000. That’s just a number. To understand whether we’re paying too much, that number needs to be put into context. According to the Census Bureau, the average spending per student in the U.S. in 2006 was around $9,138 and for New Jersey a whopping $14,630. Considering that the 2006 figures are higher than Millstone’s 2010-11 budget, and New Jersey ranks pretty high among the 50 states, it appears that we’re almost getting our money’s worth. Unfortunately, when our students graduate, they don’t just have to compete with other Americans. They have to compete with workers from other countries.
So let us compare that $13,000 spending to another highly developed country — Germany. This country spends about $7,700 per student in 2006 dollars. That’s nearly half of what New Jersey spent the same year and about $1,500 less than the average U.S. spending. Given that Germany outscores the U.S. in literacy, math, and science, things don’t look very favorable. Developing countries like China and India whose students score much higher than the U.S. in math and science spend a fraction per student of what the U.S. does.

So where does the money go? Looking at average teacher salaries for both Germany and the U.S. reveals that starting salaries in Germany are higher than in the U.S. So clearly the teachers in Germany aren’t being shortchanged. Having attended both German and U.S. schools, I suspect the money is wasted in “administration.” Germany, a country of 80 million people, doesn’t have 600 individual school districts as New Jersey does and, thus, it doesn’t have the expense of redundantly paying for the same administrative tasks 600 times. (Incidentally, if you look at another U.S. state, North Carolina, with the same number of students as N.J., you will find that that state only has 100 districts. Not surprisingly, their perstudent spending is much less than N.J.’s.)

Given the above, it is clear to me that the solution to New Jersey’s educational budget woes is not to keep firing teachers, laying off custodians, or firing bus drivers. The solution is to consolidate administrative functions across the school districts. Think about it. We have 600 superintendents making $200,000 each and they all do pretty much the same job. On top of that, thanks to Gov. [Jon] Corzine, we have another 21 county superintendents, which, ostensibly, were supposed to replace those 600 superintendents. If the 600 district superintendents were eliminated and we let the county superintendents do the job, it would save N.J. $120 million dollars per year. Many of these superintendents have their own personal secretaries. Eliminating those positions will probably save another $50 million. Those secretaries often have their own secretaries (also known as clerk typists) — more millions saved. Many, if not all the districts, develop their own curricula. Why? Can’t N.J. come up with a single curriculum for all its schools? Does every district need its own director of curriculum ($140,000)? Does every district need multiple curriculum advisers? There are probably another several hundred million dollars in savings to be had by consolidating curricula across the state. And all these savings can be had without firing a single teacher, without cutting a single academic program, without negatively affecting our children’s education.

I don’t know why school districts do not consider this alternative way of saving huge sums of money. I do know that I will not vote for tax increases until those obvious savings are taken. Tax increase proponents’ cries that a no vote is a vote against the children is a hollow one when those same individuals cut teachers and academic programs rather than redundant administrative functions.

A Piece Of Gum Stuck To the Bottom of a Shoe

My daughter was asked to write about what it would feel like to be a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of a shoe. Here is what she wrote - I think it's hilarious:

"I am a piece of bubble gum stuck to the bottom of a shoe. I am being squished every two seconds. It really hurts my...whole body. I think I was just dipped in mud. Now I feel as if I am flying and landing on grass and dirt every once in a while.

As the shoe I am on is being lifted up, I see a girl behind me, running. She seems to be chasing me. I can't really see anything on the ground because I am smushed down too quickly. When whoever owns the shoe walks slowly, I sometimes get quick glimpses of carpet or pavement. When my shoe is taken off, it is thrown down, so I can see what the inside of a person's house looks like.

Inside the house, I hear a dog barking. It sounds like it is coming closer. Thankfully, I hear a girl say, "No Pixie, don't lick my shoes!" Now the girl walks over and puts her shoes on. I hear a "thwack!" as her other shoe goes down.

It smells like french fries in this car. When the girl gets out, I get a big breath of fresh air. She walks in an open door and suddenly a whiff of Italian food comes at me. It smells delicious. I hope I can get a taste.

While the girl, whose name I learned is Amy, walks to her table, I taste some spaghetti that had fallen on the floor. It tastes a lot better than my usual dinner menu - mud soup. I just figured out that if I wanted a snack, I could just lick myself. I am JuicyFruit bubble gum. Being gum on the bottom of Amy's shoe is a full-time job."

Happiness

Are you happy with your life?

I ask myself this question sometimes. Recently, I heard the most beautiful rendition of an old song by Tears For Fears - Mad World - sung by Adam Lambert on American Idol. For some reason, the melancholic, almost chilling lyrics caused me to think about the topic of happiness again. I came up with some observations and conclusions. I'm not schooled in philosophy and don't know too much about the various religions of the world, so I can't comment on how unique these notions are, but by writing them down in this blog, I hope to at least share them.

What is happiness anyway? I don't know if anyone can answer this question completely, authoritatively. I choose to define it as a state of being in which a person's mind is at peace with his surroundings. Thus, happiness has little to do with positive things such as how much a person laughs or smiles at others, how much time he spends helping the unfortunate, how successful his career, or how much material wealth he accumulates. I think happiness can also be achieved when coming to grips with the darker moments of life - e.g. the death of a loved one or the realization that ones disease is incurable. The key is acceptance. And we can accept anything.

But society doesn't often teach us this. More likely, society advocates that we can only be happy if our lives have "purpose" - and for most this means achieving certain things: a good career, wife, children, money, material possessions, helping the less fortunate, etc. But is such a life of "purpose" really the way to achieve happiness? To me, it seems, that for most people it leads to lots and lots of disappointments - after all, in a world of shrinking resources, not everyone can be rich, famous, parent, etc. The "purpose-driven life" inevitably leads to competition and, thus, to the unhappiness of others. To boot, if you are not successful at accomplishing your purpose(s), it also leads to your unhappiness.

I think the religions of the world may be able to teach us something in this regard (even if's not an intended goal): Hinduism, via the concept of karma (everything is pre-determined) advocates acceptance. Christianity, by proposing a heaven, promotes the acceptance of the current life (everything's ok here, as long as we get to heaven eventually!) My thesis is that such an "accepting life", if not combined with a "purpose", has a much better chance to not negatively impact the lives of others. It has a much better chance to make you happy.

I can imagine that you're still rumbling about how one could combine acceptance with a purpose-filled life. After all, isn't that what some of our greatest people (Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Mandella, etc.) did? I don't know. Sure, these people accomplished great things - but was it their goal, their purpose to achieve them? Isn't it just as likely that "greatness" was a side-effect of the activity (making others' lives easier) these people felt compelled to partake in? Somehow I find it difficult to believe that these people woke up one morning and said to themselves, "I will make black people free" or "I will feed the hungry". But, then again, perhaps they did...

When I speak of the virtues of an "accepting" life, I, in no way, am advocating living an uneventful one. A life without experience is a life truly wasted. Today, I'm happily sitting here on the patio writing this blog, nursing a cold, while a bird is on a nearby bird feeder selectively choosing among the different kinds of seeds we've provided. Tomorrow my wife and daughter want to go hiking - I'll have to see if I'll be over the cold by then. If so, I'll be experiencing hiking on the Appalachian Trail for the first time; if not, I'll be experiencing more cold symptoms and maybe my friend the bird again :-) Most times, you don't have to look for experiences - life brings them to you!

I try to live every day with eyes open and pursue whatever fancies me at that moment. I have no grand plan, no career goals, no grudges to grind...and I am happy - most of the time (and these are the times that I forget to be accepting :-)

Government Employment - The New Welfare

Government is the fastest growing employer in the US - no small feat, given that it's already the largest employer (counting both federal and local government). It makes you wonder what all these employees actually do! Well, even years ago, when government was a lot smaller than it is today, most people believed: not too much! So, as people are drowning in debt, losing their jobs, their home's value is decreasing along with their salaries, it is not surprising that they don't take too kindly to the ever increasing cost of government.

The fact that government employ is a safe haven from the crumbling economy has not gone unnoticed by the masses: more and more people are flocking to Uncle Sam's warm employment embrace. Why not? They're hiring. Government workers are still getting pay increases. People working for Uncle Sam (or for the State) don't have to worry about health-care costs! The government doesn't have to live on a budget - it can either increase taxes on its citizens or borrow money (which will eventually increase taxes on a future generation).

Since most government workers don't do much at all, it can be described as an extremely lucrative form of Welfare. It's extremely nice for the people on it, but not so nice for the people having to pay for it. And it can't go on forever. Before this great recession, the parasites growing within government went unnoticed - the population was relatively upbeat about the future - salaries were increasing faster than inflation and they people's prime asset - their home - appeared to be increasing in value even faster than that! But now, things have changed. Citizens in financial straits do tend to notice when their disappearing wealth goes even faster thanks to the unrestrained spending in government.

I am amazed that US citizens are not up in arms over their government's lack of financial restraint. Although I'm an Obama supporter, I'm beginning to doubt even he can restructure this growing house of cards. Think about it: if 1/3 of the US population works for the government and they all vote NO on legislation that would cause them to lose benefits, what chance does such legislation have of passing? Voter turnout in the US is too low to compete with such an enormous "special interest group".

The US can be a great country again - if it addresses some fundamental problems. Below is my list of problems and possible solutions:

Problem #1: Too many "leeches" and not enough "producers".
An economy cannot survive if not enough of its citizens produce useful goods or services. Government workers do not produce anything. Why, then, is government (federal and state) the biggest employer in the country? Because everyone is flocking to government employ as a way to make a cushy, stable, and lucrative living. Some, don't even do any useful work whatsoever - betting on the fact that one rarely gets fired by the government. Government is not the only place where "leeches" have proliferated. Just look at the number of lawyers and tax accountants in this country. There's a saying - we have 5% of the world population but 95% of the world's lawyers. And most of them only exist off the backs of "producers". Tax accountants exist mainly because of our overly complex tax system - created by "leech" government workers trying to justify their salary.

Solution: make government workers as accountable for their work as private workers. If workers don't perform, let them go! If workers have no meaningful work to do, let them go or re-assign them!

Problem #2: Too many lawsuits.
With the government as our shining light of proper behavior (see #1 above), we've become a country of unresponsible people. Nothing is our fault - everything is someone else's. So why not "leech" off others and make a quick fortune by suing them for perceived wrongs?

Solution: Tort reform. If someone brings on a lawsuit and loses, they need to pay the defendants' legal fees. This would immediately eliminate the many frivolous lawsuits clogging our legal system. Lawyers would have to start pursuing more productive pursuits.

Problem #3: An inferior K-12 educational system.
This is due to a combination of no accountability on the teachers (bad teachers can't be fired - they just stay on 'til they get to retire) and insufficient funds due to "leech" workers around them (e.g. superintendents of only 1-2 schools sipphoning off monies that should go to the teachers.

Solution: Just as with problem #1, accountability is the answer: teachers who don't teach effectively (as measured by national, standardized tests), should be let go. Similarly, superintendents need to show that they're managing a sufficient number of schools to justify their job (e.g. as managers, they have to manage at least 5-7 schools!) On the other hand, pay the most effective teachers and administrators more!

Problem #4: An unhealthy healthcare system. Many inefficiencies due to lack of computerization raise costs. Even more so, frivolous lawsuits (see problem #2) tremendously raise costs (costs of litigation, settlement, resultant liability insurance for doctors, etc.)

Solution: Some of the high costs would be brought down by fixing problem #2. Computerization is also pretty straight-forward with the only "stumbling block" being the need to keep citizen data private. Perhaps the solution is one in which the government keeps citizens' medical data on an ultra-secure data center which can only be accessed by the citizen! They would be able to download their medical data onto a portable device (e.g. flash drive) to take it to their doctor. Updates by the doctor are also stored on the device and, at the citizen's convenience uploaded back to the government's data center. In other words, the citizens have full control over their medical data and the government's servers act as a "backup".

Can Any President Save the USA?

Every four years we have presidential elections and just as regularly, the nominees from both parties make promises which they must know they cannot keep. And so it is with this, the 2008 Presidential Elections: both Obama and McCain promise lower taxes for the majority of us; they both promise better health care, better security for the elder; blah, blah, blah. Yet both acknowledge that our economy is weak, we have too large a national debt, and our reputation abroad is weak.

How can we take these characters seriously? Our economy is indeed weak. Our national debt is greater than 9.5 Trillion dollars (each man, woman, and child in the U.S. now owes more than $31,000 dollars - more than a year's worth of the average US salary!) With so much debt, with so little GDP growth and demand for our products overseas at an all-time low, how can the American people be promised *MORE* and *BETTER* things?

Both candidates claim they will be able to do so by eliminating waste and unnecessary programs. But neither explicitly identifies what exactly is up for cutting. Rightly so. Since neither knows what they will be able to cut - that depends on the holders of the purse strings: Congress. And the politicians there are all beholden to their masters: the voters of their respective states. And nobody wants to give up their pet benefits and/or subsidies -a.k.a. "pork". The farmers in the farming states will not let their congressmen eliminate the federal farm subsidies - despite the fact that farmers are making more money than ever before; large multi-nationals will not let the congressmen in their pockets (via lobbyists) eliminate the large tax breaks they enjoy....the only programs that end up getting cut are those that have no powerful constituencies....which are also not worth cutting, since they don't cost much!

The problem is moral corruption. Politicians, never held in that high a regard in the first place, have hit new lows with regards to their level of integrity and honor. Not only are their services (i.e. their votes) for sale, but their personal ambitions now always completely overshadow the needs of the community/country. Added to the corruption of politicians is the ever growing army of parasitical public servants: folks that see service in the federal or state governments not as a priviledge, but as a means for the easy life - a place where they can get paid, get excellent benefits, vacations, pensions, etc. and where they're essentially immune from being fired (thanks, there to our "great" Union laws). Since they can't be fired, many don't even bother doing any useful work. Since work *does* need to be done, more and more federal and state agencies are turning to private consultants to do the real work...which, of course, costs alot of money.....but, that is never a problem, since taxpayers can always be fleeced for another tax dollar.

So, what can the next president actually do to help this morally bankrupt nation? To be honest, I'm not sure. The only thing I can think of is public humiliation of those that oppose his proposals. How would this work? It seems to me that the president could put up a Web site on which he posts a very specific list of things he wants to get cut, including when these proposals will make it to Congress, and, if it does not get approved, who voted against it. The president should go on TV, during prime time, and announce that Congress denied one of his proposals and read out the names of the people that voted against it - and urge the voters to vote these people out of office. Sounds extreme? Perhaps - but it's really the only way I can think of to make those politicians listen to the people!

Of course, this *solution* presumes that the president is honorable. But assuming the moral integrity of one person is alot easier than believing the piety of all of Congress.

What do you think? Would something like this work?

Why BMW sucks

In July of 2005, I fulfilled my childhood dream and purchased a brand new 2006 BMW 330i (with sports package and navigation system). The car's performance and handling was everything I hoped it to be. The styling was beautiful.

But then the disappointments began:

• Just a couple months after taking delivery of the car, the "Passenger Airbag Off" indicator light came on - while my wife was sitting in the passenger seat! I took it to the dealership. They kept the car for 12 days and declared the problem fixed after replacing the passenger seat sensor mat. A few weeks (or days? I can't remember) after I got my car back, the indicator light turned on again :-( I brought it back to the dealership....they kept it again - this time for 10 days and declared the problem fixed. I took it back....and the problem came back again. When I took the car back to the dealership the third time, I told the technician that I would consider letting them keep the car (under the lemon law) if they didn't fix it this time. And fix it they did (apparently, some software update did the trick :-(
• Within a year of owning the car (25k miles on it), three of the run-flat, low-profile tires developed bubbles on the side walls - presumably the result of driving on NJ's pothole-ridden roads. I checked the dealership and found out the cost of these suckers: $399/rear tire and $349/front tire...about $1600 for all four tires! I checked the Internet for alternatives and found....NONE. Although Tire Rack carried the Bridgestones (the only run-flat for BMWs) and they were a bit cheaper than the BMW dealership, none were in stock, since there was a shortage and the BMW dealerships had priority on Bridgestone's production....I ended up waiting for 2 months for my tires :-(
  Now I'm at 58k miles and my second set of tires has bubbles again - I dread getting new ones.
• After only 1 1/2 years, I was getting close to the end of the free maintenance agreement (I was at 40k miles). Since I already had to have the brake pads and rear brake rotors replaced (normally a $1800 cost), I thought it wise to purchase the extended maintenance plan for the "low" price of $1600.
• At 46k miles, my daughter's rear windshield would not come back up after it was lowered all the way. When I stopped the car, turned off the ignition and removed the key, re-inserted it and restarted the car, the windshield came back up. When this happened again on a Saturday and it began to rain (car was at 48k miles), I took it to the dealership...but of course, the technicians had already gone home for the day - but I showed the problem to my service representative. Since the windshield came back up after I started the engine, I went home...and forgot to bring it Monday - big mistake! Because the next time I remembered - because it happened again - the car was at 55k miles. When I took it to the dealership, they said that the extended maintenance contract I purchased didn't cover these kinds of problems and the warranty ran out at 50k miles!....but because I was a valued customer, they might be able to do a one-time fix for "free". Golly gee! Well, anyway, I left the car there and was called back a few hours later and told the car was fixed and ready - according to the technician, the problem was caused by some stickers my daughter had put on the windshield which had gotten into the mechanism. They took it out and that fixed it. Strange - the next day, the problem occured again. As I was tired of dealing with my car and potentially having to pay for a repair that was clearly a warranty issue, I decided to ignore the problem.
• Today (07/29/2008) - another big problem: I parked my car and when I took out the ignition key, the navigation system screen went all WHITE and stayed that way - despite the fact that there was no key in the ignition! I tried starting the car again to see if the problem would go away (sometimes, that helped with BMW's bug-ridden electronics) - but no luck. The damn thing just stays on! I thought: ok - maybe I can just disconnect the car battery so that it doesn't get drained overnight and tomorrow I'll take it to the dealership....but, of course, I have no idea how to do that on this car - the f$cking battery is hidden beyond view somewhere and the owners manual doesn't tell you how to get to it! Can you believe this? The battery is totally hidden with only a "terminal" for the positive and a "ground" nut exposed so the car can be jump-started (or help give someone a jump start). So, now the damn battery is slowly draining while I wait for tomorrow....when I'll probably be told that the navigation system broke outside the warranty period and that I'm responsible for who-knows-how-much to fix it.

If that happens, f#ck BMW. I'm going to trade this piece of sh#t in and get a car with less problems. A Honda may not be as fun to drive - but it sure as hell will be more maintainance free and cheaper to fix when it does break.

Just another case of reality falling far short of the dream - or the advertisements.