By Matthew Ladner, Ph.D.
Goldwater Institute
Education is on the verge of a shakeup every bit as profound as that facing the newspaper and music industries, according to Harvard business professor Clayton Christensen, who has written in Education Next that online learning is a disruptive technology that will change education permanently.
Disruptive technologies begin by competing against the lack of consumption of a dominant technology. The disruptive technology benefits the very consumers who were not using the original product and eventually evolves into a more desirable product than the original.
The personal computer, for instance, began as an inferior but more accessible product to the then-dominant mainframe. Over time, through the normal process of incremental improvement, people realized that the disruptive technology was superior to the dominant technology. Suddenly, everyone wanted a PC and most mainframe makers went out of business, which is explored at some length here. This is a fascinating and complex argument.
Is there any evidence that we will actually ever view technology-based learning as better than the old-fashioned kind? A recent headline in the New York Times says it all “Study Finds that Online Learning Beats the Classroom:”
Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile.
Nine national percentile points, or an 18 percent margin, is a very large difference. Need more proof? The Arizona public school with the largest value-added learning gain scores in both math and reading is a charter school in Yuma called Carpe Diem E-Learning Community.
I’ll write more about Carpe Diem another time, but for now, suffice it to say a disruption of our failing education system comes not a moment too soon.
Dr. Matthew Ladner is vice president for research at the Goldwater Institute.
The future of education is online
Kudos to Ward
Interesting observation at the LD 20 District meeting last night.
Arizona newcomer and CD-5 candidate, Jim Ward, was asked whether or not he would have voted to refer Jan Brewer’s sales tax increase to the ballot.
To some who view Ward as a closet moderate carpet bagging into Arizona from the bay area, his answer might be surprising.
Ward said he would have voted against referring it to the ballot.
Good for Ward.
Napolitano Does Jesse Kelly
No, not that Napolitano!
Here is a recent interview in which Fox New’s Judge Andrew Napolitano interviewed Congressional candidate Jesse Kelly on his internet-based show “Freedom Watch.”
Private School Students More Tolerant and Politically Accepting
Goldwater Institute News Release
September 9, 2009
Phoenix—Are Arizona’s high school students better served by private or public schools? We asked those who know best: the students.
The Goldwater Institute surveyed students in public and private high schools about the academic environment and racial and political tolerance in their schools. The results are being released in two reports. The first, “Tough Crowd: Arizona High School Students Evaluate Their Schools” measured students’ satisfaction with their schools and the schools’ academic environments. The second, “Better Citizens, Lower Cost: Comparing Scholarship Tax Credit Students to Public School Students” examines student perceptions about civic tolerance, diversity and volunteerism within their schools.
The survey shows that by a four-to-one margin, students in private schools report a greater sense of civic responsibility, look forward to going to school, volunteer in their community and value diversity over their public school counterparts.
Survey responses include:
“My school teaches me to value, respect and tolerate differences in others.”
76 percent of students in private school agree with that statement, compared with 51 percent of students in public school.
“My school treats all students with respect regardless of race.”
64 percent of students in private high school agree with that statement, compared with 40 percent of public school students.
“My school has high expectations of me.”
71 percent of students in private high school agree with that statement, compared with 48 percent of students in public high school.
“I look forward to going to school.”
66 percent of students in private high school agree with that statement, compared to only 47 percent of students in public school.
“This survey punches semi-truck sized holes in the old arguments against private school education, and in turn, the value of the tuition tax credit program,” said Goldwater Institute Vice President of Research Matthew Ladner, Ph.D. “Students are in the best position to tell us what’s really going on in the classroom, and the results show students in private schools are getting a better education and adopting better civic values, all at a lower price tag to the taxpayer.”
“Tough Crowd: Arizona High School Students Evaluate Their Schools” and “Better Citizens, Lower Cost: Comparing Scholarship Tax Credit Students to Public School Students” are both available online. The Goldwater Institute is an independent government watchdog supported by people who are committed to expanding free enterprise and liberty.
AZ CAP and TAX Dams Uphill Battle
by Gayle Plato
CAP has another key meaning here, The Central Arizona Project. The CAP took 20 years and $4 billion to complete, and uses coal to work. Coal creates the electric power used to move the millions of gallons of water around Arizona and the West. The CAP will be hammered by Cap and Trade legislation as coal-burning plants, specifically the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) is the only energy producer supplying the CAP power for the pumps. Water does use gravity to travel but in Central Arizona, much of the water must travel uphill and that requires electricity from the Native American power plants. Nearly a quarter of all the power generated by the NGS goes to the CAP. Imagine the slam to the economy the Navajo and Hopi Nations will face, the costs for the state, and the reality of the Cap and Trade mandates?
“The CAP is the largest single source of renewable water supplies in the State of Arizona and the largest single end-user of power in the State. The CAP uses about 2.8 million megawatt hours of energy to pump about 1.6 million acre-feet of water each year from the Colorado River…Today, CAP’s energy costs are about $50 per acre-foot of water delivered. A $200 per acre-foot increase in CAP energy rates would represent a 400% increase to our water users.” http://tinyurl.com/le3noz
But don’t get confused about what Cap and Trade really is. This is not about greening the environment. Carbon credits including the regulation of emissions, is the creation of a truly green currency. The trade of a new currency, that is a carbon emission credit, is the real story and every publication seems to drop that lede. There will be huge profits for the scam artist carbon credit brokers. One metric ton of greenhouse gas equals a carbon credit. The traders of these, on the international scene, follow the greenhouse gassy Kyoto agreement plans dropped down from on high at the United Nations: this is one pile of steaming crap for trade. The best part- a tree must be planted in turn for the credit. Think of the movie Bugsy recalling how Benjamin Siegel sold shares of The Flamingo over and over, ending up in a dire situation with a few bullets in his head. When the trade of credits and subsequent trees being planted cannot be tracked, outright fraud will prevail. But, what a great money maker it will be for the few years is flies.
Coal burns but people shouldn’t be burned as the new greening of the world leaves many cooked. Whether water, food, or people needing to move around the country, power matters. If the POTUS administration REALLY wants to help the environment, get off of the incredibly useless solar and inefficient wind power ideas. Get the country drilling. Drill baby drill– for what we have most of- Natural Gas. Help the natural gas drilling happen and stop blocking it. Listen to a leader who knows a thing or two about energy:
“In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase…We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.
In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history. Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America. We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats.Westerners literally sit on mountains of oil and gas, and every state can consider the possibility of nuclear energy…We have an important choice to make. Do we want to control our energy supply and its environmental impact? Or, do we want to outsource it to China, Russia and Saudi Arabia? Make no mistake: President Obama’s plan will result in the latter.”- Governor Sarah Palin”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/13/AR2009071302852.html?sid=ST2009071302882
County Attorney A. Thomas Launches Potential Run for Attorney General
Proven Crime Fighter Andrew Thomas Launches Exploratory Committee for Arizona Attorney General
Maricopa County Attorney Touts Results, Effective Change in Potential Bid for State’s Top Law Enforcement Job
PHOENIX, ARIZONA. SEPTEMBER 9, 2009. Having presided over a reduction in crime and illegal immigration during his tenure as Maricopa County Attorney, Andrew Thomas is interested in setting his sights on the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, where his long-standing focus on protecting the public and securing the border might benefit all Arizonans.
Thomas will file his paperwork this morning with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, establishing his exploratory committee.
Thomas was nominated by Republicans in the 2002 race for Attorney General, a primary election in which he swept all of Arizona’s 15 counties. He was subsequently elected twice as Maricopa County Attorney, in 2004 and 2008.
Perhaps best known for his tough-on-crime stance and related policies, Thomas has established a reputation throughout the region for improving the overall safety of Maricopa County. And the numbers don’t lie. Since taking office in 2004, overall countywide crime per 100,000 people has dropped 18 percent, violent crime has dropped 8 percent and property crime has been reduced by 21 percent. Additionally, during the same time period, the number of criminals sent to the Department of Corrections has increased by nearly 30 percent, while vehicle thefts have steadily declined by up to 30 percent in metro-area cities.
“County Attorney Thomas has dedicated his life to a successful fight against crime,” said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. “If he ultimately runs for Attorney General, I will do whatever I can to help elect him.”
Thomas has implemented innovative policies to fight crime, such as ending plea bargains as they had been customarily used for serious violent criminals, fighting human smuggling, sponsoring programs to prevent crime and drug abuse and putting a greater emphasis on identity theft cases. Thomas also successfully prosecuted two of the Arizona’s most notorious criminal cases, the so-called “Serial Shooters” and “Baseline Killer” cases.
“Whether it’s taking a stand against illegal immigration before doing so was politically safe, working with police officers to take serial killers off our streets, or standing up to powerful lobbies, I have never hesitated to defend the public interest, no matter the personal cost,” Thomas said. “The changes and results have meant better protection for our citizens through reduced crime.”
Should he choose to run for Attorney General Thomas said he would continue his tough-on-crime policies for violent and repeat offenders and identity thieves, but also focus on issues such as offering common-sense environmental protection and upholding constitutional values in state government.
In previous campaigns, Thomas has been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, Phoenix Law Enforcement Association and Border Patrol Agents Association.
Thomas and his wife, Ann, have four children. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School. Prior to being elected Maricopa County Attorney, Thomas served as an assistant attorney general for Arizona, a prosecutor for Maricopa County, and chief attorney for the Arizona Department of Corrections.
To arrange interviews with Mr. Thomas, please call Jason Rose or JP Twist.
-30-
PAID FOR BY THE THOMAS FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE
Contact:
Jason Rose
Rose & Allyn Public Relations
Work: 480.423.1414
JP Twist
Rose & Allyn Public Relations
Work: 480.423.1414
Three steps to prevent future budget debacles
by Byron Schlomach, Ph.D.
Goldwater Institute
The Arizona Republic recently ran a series of editorials on the state’s budget crisis castigating legislative leadership for the budget debacle. The editors should have focused on the institutional structures that permit Arizona’s legislative and executive branches to ignore their constitutional duty to balance the budget.
The state constitution could be clearer, but there is an expectation that policymakers will balance the budget when it says: “Whenever the expenses of any fiscal year shall exceed the income, the Legislature may provide for levying a tax for the ensuing fiscal year sufficient, with other sources of income, to pay the deficiency.” Left unsaid is that the policymakers also may reduce expenses to meet income.
For three months, one-quarter of the fiscal year, we have operated with an unbalanced budget. In June, Governor Brewer vetoed specific spending cuts and conforming legislation, not to balance the budget, but that further drove up expenses. The result was pressure on the legislature to increase taxes.
While General Fund revenues have fallen at least 30 percent, expenditures have been reduced from their high-water mark by only about 8 percent. State spending has only begun to come down to a level that might be sustainable in the long run. In the short run, it’s still completely unsustainable.
Several checks should be put in place in order to avoid these kinds of problems in the future. First, the constitution should state clearly that it’s illegal for the state to operate without a balanced budget, and a statewide elected official other than the governor should certify that the budget is balanced. Second, the legislature needs to draft budget bills straightforwardly, stating spending for the next year rather than specifying spending changes relative to earlier years. This would protect against line item vetoes of spending cuts. Finally, it is abundantly clear that a spending limit based on population growth and inflation would have prevented much of the budget debacle. Such a limit imposed at the 2001 spending level would have ensured a $2.5 billion balance by 2008.
Policymakers should act now to prevent future budget debacles.
Byron Schlomach, Ph.D, is director of economic policy at the Goldwater Institute.
Supervisors want deputy county attorneys to swear a loyalty oath to unelected DAVID SMITH?
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And the Children Shall Lead Them …
Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.“ Vladimir Lenin
Evil Always Hides behind Children … Today “The One” is speaking directly to your children. And their teachers will guide them … direct their thinking … suggest what to think. They are being used as a tool of the state.
Stay in school and do well are material for public service announcements on television – not prime time messages from Der Fuhrer or Chairman Mao.
Building the Cult of Obama, Starting with Kindergarten
by Clint Bolick
When his public approval ratings are plummeting, what’s a president to do? One possible answer: address a captive audience of millions of highly impressionable young minds, and follow it up with educational “lessons” that induce a positive image of the president.
That is what is happening today with President Obama’s unprecedented address to the nation’s schoolchildren. Preaching personal responsibility and perseverance–positive qualities, to be sure–the speech nonetheless contradicts them by disrupting the school day.
The blitzkrieg approach to the national message caught parents and school officials unaware. Some districts are leaving the choice whether to air the speech to individual schools. Others are allowing parents to opt their kids into alternative activities. Still others, including the Tempe Elementary School District, are offering no opt-outs at all. My son’s charter school, Benchmark School, is telling parents if they want their kids to see the speech, they should TiVo it: math and reading will be taught during the school day instead.
While many view the speech as a useful civics lesson, others such as Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne aren’t so sure. Horne helpfully posted the lesson plans put out by the U.S. Department of Education to precede and follow Obama’s speech. Discussion points include:
“Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us?”
“What resonated with you from President Obama’s speech?”
“Why is it important that we listen to the President?”
“What do you think it takes to be President?”
“What other historic moments do you remember when the President spoke to the nation?”
Civics or indoctrination? For once, a Latin phrase I learned in law school comes in handy: res ipsa loquitor–the thing speaks for itself.
Clint Bolick is director of the Goldwater Institute Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation.
Would he take credit for a good rain?
A m e r i c a n P o s t – G a z e t t e
Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona
Smith and Wilson
Taking potshots at elected officials
He was born in Illinois, Land of Corruption, and blew into town in 1994, direct from New York, ready to take on the Arizona hayseeds. His name is David Smith. You might know him as the County Manager of Maricopa County, but there are those who believe Smith is the second coming of Bernie Madoff. However, no one has ever seen Smith and Madoff together – sort of like Superman and Clark Kent, but with bad guys.
The big question is, what does the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors think of their hero? Smith has used his well-honed, east coast, smoke and mirrors tricks for years to pull the wool over the eyes of his “small town” bosses. When the economy in the county turned around in the mid-nineties, Smith took the credit, but it was the normal uptick in the business cycle that did the heavy lifting, not anything that he did. Is it possible that the BoS is finally beginning to realize that Smith might be a clone of Bernie, the master of all Ponzi schemes, Madoff?
Quick to take advantage of his “hero” status, Smith embarked on a program of writing plans, policies and procedures with little, or no, input from the other elected officials, the ones that do the actual “hands-on” work for the citizens of Maricopa County.
The Supervisors let Smith spend big bucks to get name brand accounting and management consulting firms to put their names on his work so each would have a pedigree, and, of course, each and every plan would result in big money savings. Next, he persuaded the supervisors to adopt the plans along with numerous resolutions to allow him to enforce them.
Smith and his deputy, Sandi Wilson who is also the head of the Office of Management and Budget, do not hesitate to blackmail the elected officers to force them to accept his way of doing things. (OMB is often referred to around the County Complex as “Sandi Wilson and her goons”.) This is the same Sandi Wilson that called members of the legislature “abusive parents”. Smith prefers “Somali Pirates” when referring to members of the legislature.
Smith has used (abused) this power to take over functions of other agencies that are the responsibilities of duly elected officers, causing them to unite and begin to push back. Several lawsuits have been filed against the Board, and the light may have come on. The county is a mess, and the Board seems to be catching on that Smith is the cause.
The cure requires a rather simple decision; does the Board want to accept the dysfunctional situation that has existed for most of the past year as the new normal, or do they want to get the County back on a harmonious track? If it is the latter, then they have to unload Smith and Wilson.
Toxic Circus: Are Bank Books All Cooked?
“From the FDIC: Sunwest Bank, Tustin, California, Assumes All of the Deposits of First State Bank, Flagstaff, Arizona
First State Bank, Flagstaff, Arizona, was closed today by the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Sunwest Bank, Tustin, California, to assume all of the deposits of First State Bank.
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As of July 24, 2009, First State Bank had total assets of $105 million and total deposits of approximately $95 million. …The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $47 million. …. First State Bank is the 89th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the third in Arizona. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Union Bank, National Association, Gilbert, on August 14, 2009.” (http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/)
A Lesson For Brewer & Her Advisors
While Team Brewer’s re-election strategy seems to be based on appealing to moderate voters and gaining favorable coverage from the media, her “I love education and will protect you all from the big bad Republicans” message will not gain her any real support. While education officials will offer praise to her every time she violates the constitution and uses her line item veto pen to increase education funding, those same AEA voice boxes will crucify her come election time while singing the praises of Terry Goddard or whoever is the Democrat candidate. We expect it to be Goddard, but the point is that they don’t care who it is. They will fight to the death for the Democrat candidate regardless. Team Brewer has not figured this out.
That leaves her the media, as she seeks approval and affection from somewhere, anywhere. Saturday’s editorial in the Arizona Republic should pop that balloon for her as well. Entitled “State Suffers From Leadership Deficit“, the op-ed takes virtually everyone to task for the failures at the Capitol, yet does so mostly by blaming the election of conservative Republicans. It declares that the stage was set for all that has occurred when Steve Pierce beat Tom O’Halleran and Al Melvin beat Pete Hershberger. Naturally, the Republic refers to O’Halleran and Hershberger as “middle-of-the-roaders” because they don’t use words like “liberals”. Then it added Brewer taking Napolitano’s position and PRESTO! the stage was set for gridlock.
The op-ed is intellectually dishonest because it has to be in order to serve the Republic’s real purpose, which is to bash Republicans under the guise of “Come on folks, we can do better!” The Republic has largely approved of Brewer’s legislative package and largely approved of the compromise package that fell one vote short in the Senate after having passed the House. And while the Republic likes to create the impression that hard-headed conservatives like Pierce and Melvin are to blame, both of them were Yes votes on the package.
Oddly enough, the only three legislators not singled out for coverage, not named, and not included in any of the groups mentioned, were Senators Carolyn Allen, Ron Gould and Pamela Gorman. Why does the Republic ignore the three votes who blocked the passage of the bill that the Republic was largely alright with? Because it would have distracted from their desired hit on Brewer and conservative Republicans in general.
Team Brewer should learn their lesson from this. Like the AEA, the Republic and much of the media will be pimping for the Democrat candidate regardless of who it is and regardless of who the Republicans nominate. They cannot be won over and their affection cannot be bought, no matter how many taxpayer dollars you lavish on them.
What is Your Pledge?
This video has gone viral again. For the most part, these members of “the cultural elite” aka, “the beautiful people,” have some great pledges like being respectful and picking up after oneself and not being wasteful. But I seriously have to ask if these same people would have made this video if John McCain had been elected? And where were they when George W. Bush was President. You see, they’re just not consistent.
So I have to ask what is your pledge?
Mine is a pledge to fight the current assault on our Constitution and American values which are articulated in our Declaration of Independence as the unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
What’s your pledge?
Congressman Jeff Flake, Survivorman
This is awesome.
My congressman, Jeff Flake, was recently interviewed by Chandler Councilman, Jeff Weninger on the Chandler’s cable show Chandler in Focus. The interview was the regular superfluous listing of accomplishments and updates but then it gets very interesting.
During the last three minutes of the interview, Congressman Flake reveals that he recently spent seven
days on a 50-acre deserted island in the south central Pacific. During his island getaway, he took a pole spear, a water desalinization pump, and some salt and pepper and his snorkling gear. For seven days he remained completely alone on an island in the middle of the Pacific. He ate lots of fish and even swam with the sharks.
Flake made no mention of bringing a volleyball along on his getaway.
Giving Obama’s Healthcare the Finger, Literally
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you, here’s the video from the recent incident where the Obama supporter bit off the finger of a gentleman who opposes the Obama healthcare takeover.