Speed Gibson

Continuing Education

Reading this Minneapolis Star Tribune article I'm about to fisk brought back memories of the sanctimonious Jim Boyd, then deputy editor of the Editorial pages.  Newspapers have editors and fact checkers he would tell us, gate keepers that we bloggers didn't have.  And yet piece after piece would slide past those goalies, as did Closing the Skill Gap Key to Solving Job Crisis in Wednesday's (10/26) edition.  As it should, the lead paragraph portends what follows.

The key to jump-starting Minnesota's economy may lie in how well it tackles a bedeviling problem: a growing skills gap that has left some Minnesotans unfit for jobs that employers have to offer.

This is a political press release, not a serious news article.  The journalist's big government point of view is plainly visible.  Not seeing anything he disagrees with, there was no need to seek alternative views or review past attempts to do what's proposed today.  There isn't a word of skepticism.

Even the diction is that of a political piece.  Jump-starting for example is trite, and an oblique reference to President Obama's 2009 stimulus plan.  An economy does not tackle problems per se.  Calling some Minnesotans "unfit" instead of simply unqualified adds unwanted bad connotations but wanted reaction to justify action.  Notice the bureaucratic phrasing, talking of "the key" and a "skills gap" that doesn't just widen, it grows. Notice also the assumed context, that this is a local problem when so obviously a mostly national problem.  The key to solving that of course is voting out President Obama in 2012.

Governor Mark Dayton has been holding summits around the state, asking what can be done to spur job growth.  The reporter seems unconcerned about Dayton's record, unaware of his modus operandi: I Bought, I Sat, I Left.

The consensus: Businesses need help getting access to capital and new markets, and the gap between available workers and jobs must be narrowed.

To that end, Dayton has made $ 100 million available for small business loans but that hardly matters if there are no customers let alone new markets to purchase the goods and services those small businesses provide.  And once again, that "gap" word is misused, at best a statistic, a symptom, not an actual cause of unemployment as this phrasing implies.  But as I said, this is a political piece as the next paragraph so clearly shows.

Years of recession have left the state with persistent budget deficits, deep program cuts and billions of dollars in loans. More red ink means more cuts and testy political fights with Republican legislators who have demonstrated an ironclad resistance to tax increases that Dayton wants.

That's right, it's the Republicans' fault, not all those DFL double digit spending increases the past 20 years.  A threadbare coalition led by Governor Pawlenty and House Minority Leader Marty Siefert held off most of what could have been a staggering $ 7 billion tax increase.  Dayton initially wanted the same, a $ 7 billion increase in general fund spending.  Of course, we'd be hurting all the more had these massive increases passed.

Where this is all going is worker education, as in retraining.  We have a glut (another demeaning term) of unemployed, now unqualified workers says the article.  Does that include all the construction workers sidelined by the housing collapse?  We have to invest, spend more, faster, oh but smarter don't you know.  All it takes is money, somebody else's money, like from those who didn't major in eco-tourism and who took it on themselves to keep their skill set current.  You needn't have aptitude or a career interest, just go back to school.  It's reverse "Flashdance" where the unemployed dancer finds her new career as a welder. 

If Minnesota's leaders are worried about a decline in the quality of Minnesota's workforce, how about taking a page from the liberal notebook and go after the root causes, first among them our public K-12 schools?  We're a national leader in achievement gaps and 1 in 3 "graduates" need remedial work when they attend college.  The reporter might wonder why if post secondary enrollment is so high, why are so many graduates finding themselves immediately in that "glut" of "unfit" workers?  If these problems persist because we won't confront the unions and bureaucrats and yes, Democrats involved, nothing else matters.

To Market, To Market

I can't believe even a Governor Dayton will be so equally foolish and obvious to push day care unionization.  Rather than lose another industry to the usual blend of higher costs and lower quality, we should instead be asking how to take back some of the professions we've already lost.  And there is no better place to start than K-12 education.

Consider this excerpt from Grading The Teachers, a Wall Street Journal piece by Bill and Melinda Gates.  (Hat tip once again to District 279 United!)

It may surprise you—it was certainly surprising to us—but the field of education doesn't know very much at all about effective teaching. We have all known terrific teachers. You watch them at work for 10 minutes and you can tell how thoroughly they've mastered the craft. But nobody has been able to identify what, precisely, makes them so outstanding.

This doesn't surprise me.  Go to any car dealer or real estate firm.  It often is literally true that 20% of the the salespeople make 80% of the sales.  And there is little if anything on any of their employment applications that predicts such success or failure.  Like the good teachers, you can readily identify the good producers even without seeing their sales totals.  Figuring out what they do right or better is another matter, of which hundreds of books have been written.

The sounds like an impossible situation.  How can we train people to be successful in such roles if we can't figure out the keys to success?  That doesn't stop us from trying.  Managers send their charges off to various professional development programs and lofty-sounding symposiums.  Employees seek additional training, often advanced degrees.  And beyond certain specialties like medicine, there's often no telling if it will really raise their game.

Once again, we're trying to answer the wrong question.  There is a solution.  It's called the market, the free market that is.

The market determines who we think has it, one dollar, one purchase at a time.  There's room for many winning approaches, even a few clunkers.  (Robert Goulet?)  It higgles and jiggles, sorts and sifts, and somehow the cream floats as New Coke sinks.  It will not be denied, as NetFlix found out recently.

But if not allowed to work, as in education today, as some want tomorrow in day care, the market cannot pick and reward our winners, our great teachers for example.  In fact, there will be fewer winners that are harder to find in a sea of mediocrity.  But don't worry.  Over half of of your child's teachers have master's degrees or better. Imagine what graduate school will be able to teach a certified, licensed, unionized day care worker, one you can no longer afford by the way.

It's time to go on offense.  I think the public can understand what a disaster unionizing day care would be.  With Wisconsin leading the way, maybe the way is clearing to undo the disaster that is Education Minnesota.  Eden Prairie sent their Superintendent of low expectations packing.  Even Mark Dayton had to sign off on alternative teacher licensing, given our near highest in the nation achievement gaps.

Let the market prevail!  It's for the children.

Fall 2011

October 19th marks the beginning of Fall, 2011 on the Speed Gibson calendar.  This marks 7 days in a row under 70 degrees.  Last year this was Oct 20.  It was Oct 5 in both 2008 and 2009.  Summer 2011 came in at 19.3 weeks, 9 days shorter than last year.

Winter will begin after 7 days under 40 degrees, last year that being Nov 24.

A Beautiful Mindset

 

Almanac last Friday (10/7) spent a few minutes recapping a conference among journalists and former lawmakers, the subject being whatever happened to civility in politics, at least here in Minnesota.  We of course know: the DFL happened, and the GOP is slowly, finally pushing back.  Hence there is more noise to report, though as Mitch Berg has observed over at Shot in the Dark, democracy is noisy almost by definition. 

But the most interesting quote on this Almanac segment was from the reporter herself, Mary Lahammer, the following edited for clarity:

"Many lawmakers for the first time I remember hearing are saying 'Why is comprise good? Why are you assuming compromise is good?'  Between my father and I we have been covering the Legislature for half a century and in fifty years the two of us saw lawmakers and governors who ultimately thought compromise was good."

Her facial expressions seemed to echo this incredulity.  Compromise is second only to kumbaya in her world.

Those of us with a little business experience know the difference between a deal and a compromise.  Deals are win-win or they don't happen.  Each party wishes for more than they got, but they otherwise walk away happy.  Compromises are lose-lose because they must happen, like adopting a budget or settling a labor contract.  Both sides may be glad it's over, but usually both sides are unhappy with the result.  In business it can be worse if neither side wants to own the decision.

Look how compromise played out in the 2011 Legislative session.  Had the Republicans held the line at a $32 billion general fund budget we wouldn't now be facing some cuts to rebalance it to the lower revenue estimate just released.  Had the Democrats held the line at the $34 billion passed, we would have fewer cuts to make.

But getting back to that panel and Ms. Lahammer, notice the refusal to consider the premise, that compromise may be overrated.  The corollary is this "balanced approach" nonsense we heard about all session.  (Of course, that doesn't apply to photo id voting which in fact has a wide bi-partisan consensus!)  What counts is the result, not how it was achieved.  And thanks to compromise, we got the wrong answer in 2011.

 

Still Clueless After All These Years

To follow up on the Minneapolis Foundation's study I referenced last week, we now have the Minneapolis Star Tribune's reaction, "a call to action to reduce racial, ethnic gaps."

A new Minneapolis Foundation report about racial and ethnic disparities in Minneapolis confirms something we already knew: Deep racial gaps persist in education, employment and income.

Persist is a curious word choice for this "troubling" situation.

• One in four African America students are suspended from school each year.
• The reading gap between white and non-white students was 50 percentage points in 2010.
• More than half of all American Indian, Asian and black children in the city are living in poverty.
• Only about 20 percent of families in poverty are paying for housing they can afford, making them extremely vulnerable to homelessness.
• People of color make up about 40 percent of the population in Minneapolis, yet they hold only 17 percent of the jobs.

The Editorial calls this document a study, a report, an analysis.  Actually, it's an invoice. 

These outcomes are not happenstance.  They don't simply emerge and persist.  They are the direct and long predicted consequences of decades of big government pursuing some cosmic vision of social justice, liberalism if you will.

In K-12 education, every fall we hear the promises like "making every child college ready" and new strategies that will be used to address the achievement gaps, assuming you approve the referendums.  Every spring we hear the excuses of poverty, unruly students, immigrants, unsupportive parents, crumbling facilities, unexplained high costs, and the annual revenue shortfalls.  Undeniable and unsaid are the continuing policies of grade inflation, curriculum deflation, and social promotion.  The needle doesn't move because more fundamental issues like discipline, accountability, competition, innovation, and transparency remain off the union bargaining table and off the Editorial pages.

At the end of the Editorial, the authors urge that we "focus on ... proven methods for success."  May I ask given the stark realities above, what unproven methods have we been mistakenly applying instead all these years?  And why?

Ain't Gonna Happen

I have a prediction.  The new Vikings stadium will not be built in Arden Hills.

Oh, there will be a new stadium.  But it will be in downtown Minneapolis.  It's what the Mayor, the downtown "brotherhood" and developers like the one interviewed on Almanac this weekend (10/7) want.  Why?  It's where the trains run.  I wouldn't be surprised to see it replace the Metrodome, with $150 million or so more to upgrade Target Center.  The "Downtown East" light rail station by the Dome will also be serving the Central Corridor line.

But it could also wind up around the Minneapolis Farmers market, since both the Northstar and Hiawatha tracks can be extended in that direction.  I think that was the real reason Target Field had to be shoehorned into its tiny site - it's where the trains meet!

I've mostly thrown in the Davis on this, that yes we'll wind up blowing another billion or so dollars on the Vikings.  I could at least live with this at the Arden Hills site under the Ramsey County sales tax plan.  We in Hennepin got stuck with Target Field, without a vote.  It's someone else's turn now.  I also somewhat like the idea of cleaning up the state's biggest pollution pit, since the government had much to do with polluting it in the first place.  And only Arden Hills will bring back tailgating.

We may have to wait a while, like after the recession, either 2013 or 2017 depending on the election.  And that's fine.  The Vikings aren't going anywhere.  Especially this season.

A Thing About Machines

Remember the old Twilight Zone episode where various appliances and conveniences gang up on the dour Bartlett Finchley (Richard Haydn)?  Everything from his electric razor to his car turn on him.  His telephone and typewriter tell him to get out.  He doesn't and they kill him.

I'm feeling a little persecuted myself today.  Me who loves radio old and new lost out when KTLK goes AM.  My favorite local radio show, The Late Debate with Jack and Ben, is beyond reception outside of CD6.  My portable Walkman decided to give up FM last week, now only does AM and keeps telling me how awful Donovan McNabb is playing.  Today, my car stereo went out as did our main flat screen TV in the family room.

And my cell phone says I won't be dating Scarlett Johansson anytime soon, either.

Old School

This didn't take long.  Not even a month into the new school year, excuses are already being made for another year of disappointing results at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS).  According to The Minneapolis Foundation:

More than half of Minneapolis' black, Asian and American Indian children live in poverty, a circumstance that can affect their opportunities from kindergarten to college and beyond, a new study from the Minneapolis Foundation indicates.

The OneMinneapolis report on the city's racial and ethnic disparities, released Wednesday, also found that only 36 percent of Latino students in Minneapolis are prepared for kindergarten, considerably less than figures for children who come from homes where Hmong or Somali are the primary languages.

Once again we are told that it's less about the content of your character and more about the color of your skin when it comes to education at your public schools.  Gone from the MPS website is last year's "Every Child College Ready" masthead.  Now it's just "Urban Schools. Global Citizens."  Which means what, exactly?

And once again is this nonsense about kids not being ready for Kindergarten, an unknown concept 50 years ago.  Yes, times have changed.  But today's truth is that today's Kindergarten isn't ready for today's kids.  Rather than all this hype and concern over Early Childhood & Family Education (ECFE), pre-school, and of course Head Start, how about we focus on this once in a lifetime opportunity to get these disadvantaged children on the right track?

First, some old school.  Set no academic goals for Kindergarten, which was never its purpose.  Start each student at academic zero, regardless of whatever pre-K pedigree they may have.  Use this year to acclimate the student to First Grade.  Whatever academic progress is made must be incidental to the tasks of preparation, familiarization and socialization.  Class is two hours a day, not an all day babysitting clinic.  And give them one blessed year off from political messages like about recycling and global warming.

Now, the new school part.  Test them, talk to them, and talk to their parent(s).  Provide translators for the parents if necessary, and why not hire some of those parents to do that job?  Schedule these two hour classes around the parents' needs, which means, yes, teachers and staff as well, and yes, nights and weekends if necessary.  Provide any and all supplies, clothing if necessary.  Take a field trip or two to the cafeteria but otherwise provide no meals, merely a distraction if you're only there two hours.    Find some good student ambassadors from the lower grades to encourage them.  Get them speaking English from the start; anything less is multi-cultural child abuse.

All Kindergarten used to be about was getting familiar with school and the routine, getting students ready for First Grade.  So it should be again.

Does Local Control Work?

We often hear how important local control is regarding our local public school districts.  I wonder.  Consider tiny district 286 which serves maybe one third of Brooklyn Center, including my own grown children.  In many ways it is the little district that could, but it also posts some of the most disappointing test scores in Minnesota.  For 2007, the Global Report Card lists math at 18%, reading at 22%.  Adjoining suburban districts are around 45% math, 55% reading, but these extend well into western Hennepin County and southern Anoka County.  Even the Minneapolis scores of 29% math and 34% reading are no doubt buoyed by Southwest High School.

District 286 has been in statutory operating debt legal status for years, largely due to its inability to pass any levy referendums.  It just tried and failed again, the eighth straight defeat.  With the last active levy expiring this year, they will have no "extra" levies at all next year.  Some might correlate this with another disturbing result, that district test scores have fallen by about a third since 2004, when math was 29% and reading was 36%.

So here we seemingly have the ultimate in local control, a small area, rich in diversity but otherwise relatively poor economically.  It's understandable that high unemployment and falling property values mean no levies will be approved in the near future, either.  The budget has been truly cut year over year and will be again.  And yet, the district carries tens of millions in bond debt, much of that to rebuild Earle Brown Elementary about 10 years ago.

I would argue that we actually don't have the ultimate in local control.  As I've written many times, I think it is penny wise, pound foolish not to grant school boards full levy authority just like the cities and counties.  I of course am pleased that the Pawlenty era levy limits have expired.  Levy limits provide excuses for poor performance and lead to creative accounting to get around some of those limits.

The Brooklyn Center Schools will likely try again this fall, joined by about one third of the rest of Minnesota's districts.  Beat your chest and say no if you like, but bear in mind that spending will go up anyway, one way or another.  The local control we really need is over spending and curriculum, a process made more difficult if we must play games on the revenue side.

Redistricting 101

All you need to know about the redistricting "fight" in Minnesota was made very apparent on The Late Debate with Jack and Ben Sunday (10/2) night.  It is the proverbial solution (elect more Democrats) in search of a problem (more Republicans might get elected). 

Whenever you hear one side of contention use language like "we need to have a conversation" you know who's losing the debate so far.  It reminded me of Atlas Shrugged, when railroad president Jim Taggart tries to get his vice president Dagny Taggart to bail him out of all the trouble he's caused.  By this time, she is with John Galt, on strike as it were, and refuses to help.  When she asks, "Is that all, Jim?" he says, "No, no, I want a discussion!"

Our Minnesota Constitution puts the Legislature in charge of redistricting, subject to veto and override like other legislation.  When they cannot agree, the courts settle the matter given the hard deadline of the next election cycle.  As guest Mitch Berg noted, it can be a noisy process as democracy often is but otherwise works as intended.  Rather than change the Constitution however, the left insists on "discussions" and adds what should be irrelevant considerations, some of them quite partisan, some of them frankly racist.  But of course it's OK if the left is partisan or racist since their overall intentions are pure, including the ones about putting them in charge.

If you can, download and listen to the podcast.  Pay particular attention to Ben's point demonstrating the absurdity of creating competitive districts via redistricting.  The leftist panel members from Common Cause and Draw the Line MN agreed that while some DFL areas can never be made competitive by redistricting, there are no such comparable GOP areas.  Hence, redistricting under such a guideline mathematically must "dis-enfranchise" Republican voters.

Let's be honest.  What the left means by a "community of interest" is a DFL stronghold, often a shrinking DFL stronghold.  To base redistricting on such criteria is to dictate that new boundaries for future elections must reflect prior elections under the old boundaries.  As Perry Mason would say, such conditions are incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial.

Me, I think a computer can do redistricting, using nothing more than census data and maps showing city and county boundaries.  That's all that should matter if indeed we still believe in one man one vote.