Tax policy and income inequality are hot topics in today’s economy. I just came across this article from the San Francisco Chronicle and thought I would share it. The situation in California is interesting because of their huge state economy.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/08/BAR91M9JKN.DTL
The Department of Education has announced hearings for the public to voice their ideas on creating educational standards for the state rather than using federal standards. There will be a hearing in Bangor and in Portland as well as an online version. The hearings are are scheduled Dec. 8 in Bangor; online on Dec. 13; and Dec. 14 in Portland. The Department is also seeking feedback through an online survey and in an ongoing online discussion in which the Commissioner and other staff will participate.
I urge everyone to participate!
Recently, Governor Lepage held a conference (gripe session?) in Auburn to hear from business owners about their problems with regulations and other handicaps on businesses here in Maine. I can applaud his desire to do that and to create a better economy. That is what we all want. When I found out about that meeting I made a request for an invitation. I work in the economic development field and have taught strategic management, entrepreneurship and other related courses so I have a keen interest in how we can move our economy forward. I really wanted to hear from the businesses so that I could be of more help to our small business community. Perhaps it could also help me in terms of working on legislation in the upcoming session.
However, that was not to be. The Governor’s office declined my request, saying it was only for business owners. Of course I knew that the Governor had refused to allow the press to attend, but wouldn’t it be a good thing to have representatives from the legislature there? Strategically it would seem that it might be a way to try and build more consensus. Wouldn’t the business owners like to have a chance to voice their concerns to more policymakers? Try and build more support?
But no, I have a D after my name, so I couldn’t know. So, if the press can’t hear what is being said, and the legislators can’t hear what the concerns are, is it only the Governor who really knows what is being said? Does he believe he is the only one that matters in the process?
So much for the Governor’s promised transparency in his administration!
Governor Lepage has presented an interesting tactic in how to manage the legislative process. You go out and find two constituencies that you can pit against each other and create a more divisive atmosphere in Augusta. Then tell the state that it is either give me what I want (cuts to welfare) or I will make cuts to education. Education is a top priority of Maine voters according to polls that have been done, what better tool to use in splitting the state further! This is probably one of the most divisive tactics, threaten the one department (Education) that most people really value if you don’t get your way on another department (DHHS).
Of course, there is more than one way to look at this. The governor’s supporters say it is just a matter of setting priorities. Perhaps so, but putting in those terms leads to more division Of course, the issue of the tax cuts passed earlier this year should be on the table as well. But this administration is not as transparent and as it could be, or promised to be and playing one group off against another isn’t what Mainers want!
The other day I posted on the costs of higher education and student loans. Here is another perspective, from Bowdoin College’s newspaper.
http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2011-11-11§ion=1&id=3
Earlier this week I was listening to NPR as I was driving to an appointment and I heard two separate news clips that made me wonder. The first piece was on the cost of higher education and the amount of student loan debt we have in this country. The student loan debt in this country now exceeds the level of credit card debt, and it is gaining on that lead. Tuition costs were up another 5% this year (well above the cost of inflation) and there is no sign of that slowing down.
In addition, they pointed out that most students in state universities are graduation with a high level of debt than those attending some of our most prestigious private universities. This is because of the higher levels of assistance that many of the private schools can offer. The first issue is the question of whether students are mortgaging their futures with the level of student debt, especially in the current economy. This was driven home by a poster I saw from the Occupy movement that asked the question of “Is your college education worth your student loans?”. The issue of those going to the more prestigious university students graduating with less debt may be tied to increased aid, but also to the economic class that attends schools like Yale, Harvard, and Princeton.
More ironically, the second piece was a former economic adviser of George W. Bush who now teaches at Harvard. The controversy surrounding him and his comments was based upon the fact that many of his students walked out of his economics class at Harvard. His comment was that there was plenty of financial aid for college. My first thought was that he just didn’t get it! But then I realized that perhaps I needed to know more about. So who is Greg Mankiw? He went to Princeton, MIT and Harvard. He is a conservative economist who was and adviser to George W., and is how tied to Mitt Romney. So perhaps he really doesn’t get it, because he hasn’t experienced what the typical student goes through, or the student loan debt they have to carry. So is this the right attitude and should we be listening to him? Perhaps not.
The other aspect to this issue that I think we have to consider, is that education is an area where we are falling behind as a nation. Perhaps it is time we looked at other countries and see what is working. For example, a family friend in France is going to be graduating with her doctorate. Total student loan debt? $0.00! Higher education has been free for her, all she had to do was pay her living expenses. I also looked at Germany, the economic powerhouse of Europe. The majority of higher education is free here also, although some schools do charge modest amounts of tuition. Yes they have affordable higher education, as well as national health care, higher union membership, a vigorous manufacturing sector, and higher taxes.
I was fortunate. When I went to school I was able to work and pay my way through school. I took an extra semester and graduated in January, but paid my last bill in February. When you look at college costs now you know that isn’t even possible today. So the question is, do we need to revamp our current model of higher education and find a way to make college affordable? When I say college I mean community colleges as well as universities. Personally, I believe we need more education that isn’t asking our families and students to mortgage their futures!
Yesterday I had an opportunity to catch up with Tom Tracy. I’ve known Tom for some time, but many of you might not know of him, or just recently learned about what he is doing to move eduction forward here in Maine. Tom’s name appeared in a recent column by Chuck Lawton in the Maine Sunday Telegram as one of those people who are working hard to influence education and the future for our students and our state.
Tom has two publications that are distributed around Maine. His first publication is a free newspaper that is distributed to students around the state. “Navigating the Real World” is meant to help students make better choices by being able to read about others, not much older than they are, and their challenges and the life lessons they have learned. In addition to the newsletter there is also a web site with hundreds and hundreds of video clips from student interviews that serve as an online way for students to listen to their peers. It is a great resource for students, and may help them make better choices in the future, as well as right now in how they are looking at their education. If this is new to you I strongly urge you to go online and review their site and it’s contents. The link is http://navigatingtherealworld.org/
The second publication is very closely tied to the first, but it is aimed at a different audience – parents! It is still part of Navigating the Real World, but it is a parents guide. It contains topics to help parents make their children’s transition from middle school to high school and beyond. This helps parents in preparing their students and helping them (if needed) in making some important choices about their future.
We have been hearing about the skills gap, about the need for a more skilled workforce, and how we need to prepare our students for the “Real World”. For all of you parents out there, this is a resource worth checking out. Will it be right for everyone? Of course not! Will it help you as a parent or as a student? I hope so!
For those of you who may have missed Chuck Lawton’s column, here is the link to the article!
http://www.pressherald.com/business/a-few-hardy-pioneers-working-to-yoke-education-work_2011-10-30.html
With all the flack over the Governor’s comments on cutting funding to communities that do not match state standards in terms of regulation, I stopped to think of who would be impacted and how it would affect communities.
Certainly cities like Portland and Bangor would be impacted, as would most service center communities. If the state were to take that step, would all of those communities just change all of their local homegrown standards to comply? Probably not! How could we offset such an event?
I would propose that the service centers should be given the right to put in place local taxes on some of those services. For example, if Portland were to place a tax on hospital stays (most of the patients are not from Portland but Portland bears the responsibility for proving all of their services) the city could replace the lost state money. After all, service center communities provide services to many other cities and towns across the state. Perhaps we should propose that as an offset to the governor’s comments about cutting general aid to communities!
Reading about how Paul Ryan told a student that he should work three jobs to pay for his college tuition rather than rely on Pell grants made me sad, angry, and it made me laugh. It made me sad because it appears he actually believes the nonsense he talks about on this issue. He obviously doesn’t want to really understand the issue, he just wants to spout the Republican view that Pell grants are a bad thing. Everyone talks about the importance of education and here is someone who wants to put it further out of reach for all but the wealthy. To say he is misguided is a phenomenal understatement.
It made me angry because this is a man who likes to think he is a leader, yet he is trying to take us just the opposite direction of the rest of the developed world and the countries that lead in education. Education is free in much of Europe, and we are falling behind already.Why would we think our system is better if in fact we are losing ground? Will making it less and less affordable move us back to the front of the pack?
I was fortunate enough to be able to work part time, and sometimes full time, all the way through college and pay my own way. I took an extra half year, graduated in January, and paid my last bill in February. But that was more years ago than I would like to think about. Today college costs are far beyond the ability of students to pay by working part time while they are in school! With many colleges having total annual costs that exceed the per capita income in the US does anyone really think a part time job will cover it?
And finally, it made me laugh. This is a man that is absolutely clueless in terms of what the average family goes through to send one (not to mention three or four) kid to college. Are we seriously going to give this man any credence?
I read this article and thought I would share it because it covers not just education and not just entrepreneurship, but looks at one possible method to change our educational system and help build our economy through entrepreneurship at the same time!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/whats-the-big-idea-replace-high-school-geometry-with-entrepreneurship/2011/10/24/gIQAhYfSCM_story.html
