Big Business and Republicans Part Ways
I’ve written about this before, and Newsweek notes it in a recent article: big business is parting ways with the Republican Party. I think this is long overdue, frankly.
Take health-care reform. From the time the bill hit Congress, Republicans found themselves opposite big industry interests. From the drugmakers to the doctors to the insurers, every major player in the health-care battle declared themselves willing to work with Democrats to enact some variant on reform. Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, were almost universally opposed. Health-care reform advocates eventually dug up a handful of Republican notables to support reform, and in a radio address, President Obama singled out four for special notice: former health and human services secretaries Louis Sullivan and Tommy Thompson and former Senate majority leaders Bill Frist and Bob Dole. But, as reported by The Washington Examiner’s Timothy Carney, it turned out that each of those Republican defectors had direct financial connections to the health-care industry, either as lobbyists or corporate consultants. In other words, these were folks whose allegiances to industry trumped their allegiances to their political party.
Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator Jim DeMint make the case for why…
That’s souring relationships on the Hill. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, one of the House’s most economically conservative members, says that he’s talking tougher with corporations than ever before. The problem, he argues, is that industry has drifted away from its support of free enterprise. "As long as big business was defending free markets, we didn’t have a problem," he says. The trend now is for individual businesses and industry groups to push for regulation that is structured in such a way that they come out ahead—or make competitors worse off.
Ryan and DeMint believe that the Republican Party bears the blame for the current state of affairs. While in power, Republicans became too used to making bargains with business, such as the Medicare prescription-drug benefit, which provided the pharmaceutical industry with a windfall at taxpayers’ expense. As a result, the party got "caught up in trying to win different industries by doing something for them," says DeMint. Now "established firms are used to cutting deals with the party in power."
Free markets are the key driver of prosperity for all and are the foundation this country has been built upon. Cutting deals for regulations that promote one industry or one company over another has nothing to do with either capitalism or free markets.
Brilliant Professor
I’m not sure if this is a true story or not, but the underlying principle is infallible: you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. Special thanks to my friend Allison for sending this my way!
A college economics professor made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.
That class had insisted that the free market had failed, and under a “fairer system” no one would be poor and no one would be rich – a great equalizer.
The professor replied, “OK, we’ll have an experiment in this class using that system.”
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A, unless those were the averages.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who had studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were quite pleased with themselves.
As the second test rolled around, the students who had studied little studied even less and the ones who had studied hard decided they wanted the free ride they were entitled to as well, so they also studied very little.
The second test average was a D!
No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was, you guessed it, the average grade was F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
To their great surprise, every student failed the class, and the professor told them that their system of economics, socialism, would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great. But when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Chuck Whitten of KNCO NewsTalk 830 did a story on the Sierra College budget challenges. They helpfully post their radio pieces on the web in written format, so I thought I’d share it here.
The Sierra Community College District Board of Trustees has heard public comment on proposed cuts in district jobs, salaries, programs and services. The board needs to cut ten-point-seven million dollars from the budget for the fiscal year that begins July first. The proposed cuts include a five percent across the board salary cut, six unpaid furlough days for non-teaching staff, elimination of 35 jobs, elimination of six sports, and elimination of three programs. District Board Member, Aaron Klein, says the board questions the choice of programs to be eliminated, "The issue that the board had on this past Tuesday evening was, we don’t quite understand why the three programs that were slated for closure, construction, agriculture, and automotive technology are the correct choices."
Klein says the board has sixty days before it has to make a decision. He says the board has asked the administration to take another look at the proposed program cuts, "What we requested of our staff was to go and review our options and come back to us with alternatives, different cuts, maybe private industry support for those programs, and find a way that we could potentially save those programs, or at the very least, keep them in some kind of skeletal form, so that we can bring them back when better fiscal times come back to our budget."
Klein says a crowd of several hundred people showed up at Tuesday’s board meeting, and about 85 of those expressed their concerns to board members. He says he’s worried that this is not the end of cuts for community colleges in California, especially since the state is facing a 20-billion dollar shortfall going into budget negotiations for the coming year.
What Declining Enrollment Means
I want to tackle an important issue and clear up some confusion about the issue of “declining enrollment” with this post.
As you know, Sierra College’s governance groups recommended the closure of three programs to the Board of Trustees. The Board is willing to make tough choices to ensure that we budget sustainably and protect access to college for the largest number of students possible. Yet the Board didn’t feel it had enough data to approve the recommendation, so it ordered a 60-day review of our options to try and save the programs.
There were a variety of criteria that the governance groups used to come up with those recommendations – including unfunded equipment needs, our ability to fund a program that prepares a graduating student for the jobs that will exist over the next ten years, the productivity and cost of delivery in the program, and enrollment trends.
For the programs in question, there is undeniably a trend of declining enrollment. That alone doesn’t mean a program should close. (If a program can be streamlined to better prepare students for the jobs that exist on the other end, it can often be saved – but that does take resources.) But there is no question of the trend.
I’ve heard from many people, including this letter to the editor, that the programs can’t have declining enrollment, because the classes are full. This sounds convincing, but it’s not true. Let me try and help clear it up.
Let’s take a fictional career training program called “Underwater Basket Weaving.” Three years ago it had 400 students enrolled, two years ago 350, and last year 300. Can we agree that is declining enrollment?
In our fictional program, let’s say we had 6 different classes that we offered in the program – covering all the different facets of becoming an underwater basket weaver. Then assume that we offer many of those classes multiple times, at different hours of the day, to handle the demand. Let’s say there are a total of 20 course sections in this program. 400 students, divided by 20 sections, is 20 students per section.
Let’s pause for a minute and consider what happened at Sierra College in the 2009-10 fiscal year (all the cuts we are talking about now are for the 2010-11 fiscal year).
In 2009-10, the state passed massive cuts as well, but we were able to fill the hole in three ways: (a) cutting spending in the operational areas of the college, (b) the one-time use of rainy day reserves, and (c) cutting about 600 course sections across all of our disciplines.
When I was first elected to the Board, we had 82% of our seats filled – one of the state’s worst productivity rates. In effect, we were paying teachers 100% salary to teach 82% of the seats in their classroom. Last year, that number reached 96% and today, that number is 99%.
Back to underwater basket weaving. Let’s assume that last year, because of the enrollment declining from 400 to 300, the college reduced the number of available sections from 20 to 10. (They might even have the same six classes, but they are offering some of them once and only a few of them twice.) Now, divide 300 students by 10 classes. You get 30 students per class, or a “full” class.
So now you can see the difference. The fill rate of a class is not an indicator of a program’s enrollment trend.
Our job at Sierra College is to make sure we’re offering job training programs that are training students for jobs that actually exist, will pay livable wages, and will build our economy. We also have the responsibility to ensure that the programs are targeted at people trying to get job skills, and not just folks pursuing a hobby.
The final determination for the three programs in question is still unclear, but I’m hopeful they will each offer our management team a workable plan to shrink their costs, build private sector support or dependable revenue streams, refocus and streamline their curriculum, and return to growth. If we can find the resources to give them that chance, it’s my guess the Board would love to do so.
Cheering Many Teams in the Olympics
As many of you know, we have an international multi-cultural family and we love it. My son Spencer was born in South Korea…my daughter Emma was born in Ethiopia…and my sister Dora was born in Romania.
So last night at the Olympic opening ceremonies, we were cheering for all four teams that our family represents as they walked into the arena in Vancouver. It’s going to be a fun Olympic games to watch!
Bethany’s Forever Family
This photograph has reached “iconic” status in my mind. Just days after the earthquake in Haiti, Ted and Tina Knox (family friends for many years) flew to Miami to meet a plane that brought their little girl Bethany home.
I just got to meet Bethany last Sunday at our church. She was adorable, giggling and shyly waving when I stroked her cheek and declared her “the cutest Knox ever.”
Now the Colfax Record has just run a beautiful front page story about Bethany, and how she is finally home with her forever family.
In the midst of devastating news following the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti stories of hope have emerged.
One of those miracles is 6-year-old Bethany, who has found a “forever family” with local residents Ted and Tina Knox.
The first step in the lengthy adoption process began a few years ago when the Knoxs’ 21-year-old daughter, Shanley, volunteered to spend a month working with Three Angels Children’s Relief in Haiti.
“While she was there she began writing about her experience and about the different kids,” said Tina Knox, who grew up in Newcastle.
What really pulled on Tina’s heart, though, was when her daughter wrote about the orphans longing to have a “forever family.”
…
“She literally came out of Haiti with the clothes on her back and a small ragged blanket,” explained Tina, who admits the arrival of a six-year- old is a big adjustment for their entire family.
“We got the call on Monday morning, took a red-eye flight to Florida on Monday night and landed in Florida on Tuesday morning,” recounted Tina. “When I got to the place where she was staying, I said, ‘I am here now. I am your mama.’ She just put her arms around my neck and wrapped herself around my waist and clung to me. She just hung on and hasn’t really let go.”
Enjoy this great piece of weekend reading!
UPDATE: Bethany’s sister Shanley is on the front page of Biola University’s student newspaper with her story about “Expecting Miracles from Haiti.”
Photo Credit: Elizabeth Huijskens (top), Colfax Record (middle)
My Interview with Examiner.com
A blogger named Brandon Prezepiorski, calling himself the “Placer County Republican Examiner”, recently posted a bit of a rant filled with “questions” about Sierra College’s budget. I commented that it was unfortunate he hadn’t reached out for answers to his questions, and offered to answer them. He took me up on that offer. Here’s the e-mail interview he just posted.
Q: What will happen to students currently pursuing degrees in the programs slated to be removed?
If students are pursuing a degree and we are forced to close the program, they would have to either change the degree they are pursuing, or fulfill the remainder of the classes they need for the degree at another college. That’s a very difficult problem and one we hope no student has to contemplate, but all of the “easy” options have been exhausted to solve the immense budget problem we find ourselves in.
Q: Won’t cutting said programs end up impacting current programs and make it harder for students to find classes adding to the current problems students face?
Theoretically possible. At the end of the day, the dysfunctional State Legislature is reducing the number of students it will fund to educate in the community college system. Do I agree with this policy choice? Heavens, no. But I’m not in the State Legislature – the Board of Trustees has to do the hard work of deciding how to implement these cuts in the way that protects the largest number of students possible.
Q: Are there any programs the Sierra offers that are not required to receive state funding such as (GED classes or ESL classes)?
Sierra receives state apportionment funding for all of its for-credit classes.
Q: If so, do these programs produce a profit or cause a deficit?
Very few of our classes “produce a profit” per se, but all of our lecture-type classes, from English to History to ESL, in effect subsidize the career and technical education like nursing, automotive and mechatronics, which have large equipment costs and are very expensive to deliver. These vocational programs are a critical part of powering our economy, so this dual focus of general AND career/technical education is very beneficial to our community.
Q: Is it possible to reduce the number of maintenance workers and replace them?
If you’re talking about groundskeepers and janitorial employees, I don’t think so. We’re barely staffed at the minimum levels to keep the campus clean and functional for our students and staff.
Q: Has Sierra thought about allowing corporate advertising (such as on campus billboards) as a way to increase revenue?
That we have. Local ordinances are a problem, but the other issue is that we could turn the Rocklin campus into the Las Vegas Strip and that still wouldn’t generate even a fraction of the revenue we’d need to solve these problems.
Q: Will work-study students be affected by the budget cuts and operating hours being cut?
Every student and every staff member will be affected by the budget cuts. When the state cuts $13 million out of a $96 million budget, there are no easy answers and there is no way that every single person at Sierra College won’t be affected.
One thing to remember is that the Board of Trustees made some big changes back in 2005 by balancing the budget and preparing for a rainy day. Little did we know there would be a fiscal hurricane – but as a result of our fiscal discipline, we were prepared. Had we not built those new reserves, these cuts would have happened last year, and this year’s cuts would have been even worse.
It’s sad to see the State Legislature force these difficult measures, but California’s mismanagement is finally coming home to roost. Sierra College is making the best decisions possible for its students given the choices that it has.
The Sacramento Bee covers the changes that state funding cuts are driving in our community colleges across California.
At the board meeting that drew 500 people last week, trustees voted to send preliminary layoff notices to all instructors in those programs. They asked college administrators to come back with alternative cuts to close the school’s $11.2 million deficit so they might be able to save the vocational classes.
But no matter what they cut in the end, board members acknowledged the school won’t be able to serve everyone it always has.
"This…stinks because if you’re going to cut the budget of a community college by $10 million, you are going to be impacting the mission," said Trustee Scott Leslie.
…
The Legislature and the chancellor of the state’s community colleges recognize that budget cuts mean the schools will be paring back what they do and whom they serve, but they want schools to keep teaching job skills, remedial academics and classes that prepare students to transfer to a four-year university.
"Now is the time to eliminate courses that are primarily avocational," Chancellor Jack Scott said at a community college convention in November. "It is not our job to provide physical exercise for adults who don’t want to pay the fees to join an athletic club or provide a course for those who want to learn quilting."
Chavez, the Sierra College president, said he’s trying to follow that advice by teasing out who’s taking classes and for what reasons. He said he recently talked to a woman who was angry she couldn’t get into an Italian class. When he found out she wasn’t working on a degree at Sierra but wanted to take the class because she and her husband were planning a trip to Italy, he decided that keeping her out of the class was fair.
At the end of the day, the State Legislature is sending a message with their budget cuts, and I think it’s likely that the community colleges will by necessity become much more focused on two core areas: career and technical education that leads straight to jobs in the private sector; and general education for students fulfilling degree requirements or transferring to four year universities.
Photo Credit: SacBee
The Republicans had four solid years of controlling the House and Senate (albeit, never 60 votes in the Senate) and I have been quite disappointed by President Bush’s record on spending. If conservatism doesn’t stand for sustainable fiscal practices, than what does it stand for?
This is a chart from the minority staff of the House Budget Committee. I get that the 2008 budget bar was for fiscal year 2009, but I’m still not sure I buy that you can count it as a “Democratic budget.” That being said, paint the 2008 line blue and it barely changes the effect of this chart.
President Obama can blame his predecessor all he wants for “leaving him a mess to clean up.” What nobody is buying is the idea that this is the medicine that will cure our ills.
The President’s budget is like saying you have a headache and you’re curing it by hitting yourself in the head with a baseball bat.
Am I missing something here? Fill me in using the comments below.
What Now?
This is the question we confronted while traveling through Ethiopia, in the process of bringing our little girl home.
The words of a Steven Curtis Chapman song came to mind entitled “What Now” and it seemed to encapsulate our trip and the incredible opportunities to make a difference that we were seeing before our very eyes.
We can’t say it better than his words do.
I saw the face of Jesus / in a little orphan girl,
She was standing in the corner / on the other side of the world.
And I heard the voice of Jesus / gently whisper to my heart,
‘didn’t you say you wanted to find me? / Well, here I am, here you are.’
So what now? / What will you do, now that you found me?
What now? / What will you do with this treasure you found?
I know I may not look like what you expected,
but if you remember / this is right where I said I would be…
You found me / what now?
So the “What Now” video that I told you I was working on is finally here. And we also finished this year’s version of “Christmas cards” – our 2009 Letter – as well. Hope you enjoy it!
(Mobile, feed and e-mail readers: the embedded video is above.)
UPDATE: I should note that the photos in the video are all taken by Cacey and me, with the exception of the three amazing ones taken by Mandy Morello, who was there in the middle of the night at Sacramento International Airport!
