[Vision2020] Minimum wage

Wed Aug 9 07:27:23 PDT 2006

Question:  Specifically speaking, how is the Moscow School District “wasting
money in our current school system?”

Mr. Arnold stated:

“Second, they can get the private sector to help out in many job fields. A
company wants nothing more than a bunch of highly trained workers straight
out of school.”

Question #1:  Who are “they”?

Question #2:  Specifically speaking, how can they “get the private sector to
help out in many job fields?”

By “straight out of school”, do you mean high school or college?  Judging by
your daunting support for a WalMart Super Center, I assume that you mean
“straight out of high school” as most (if not all) college graduates are
seeking jobs that evolve into professional careers.  If this is true,
perhaps you would strongly support the concept of vocational high schools
(which are fairly common in Europe) which would produce “highly trained
workers straight out of school”

Your thoughts?

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

"Only by going too far can one possibly find out how far one can go."

- Jon Dyer 

  _____  

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Donovan Arnold
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 7:10 AM
To: Tom Ivie; keely emerinemix; gweitz at moscow.com; ringoshirl at moscow.com;
vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Minimum wage

Tom,

You can pay for it by getting the MSD to stop wasting money in our current
school system. Second, they can get the private sector to help out in many
job fields. A company wants nothing more than a bunch of highly trained
workers straight out of school. Third, if the MSD would come up with a
proposal that didn't sound like something contrived during a high school pot
smoking circle they might be able gain community support. 

Best,

_DJA

Tom Ivie <the_ivies3 at yahoo.com> wrote:

How do you pay for that when we can't even pass bonds for buildings and the
state has to step in to fund that?

Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> wrote: 

. . ."under Donovan's plan, parents will have tons more free time -- 
what with being excused from the kinds of things most of us signed up for as

parents -- and will then form roaming street gangs or start smoking or 
having sex."-- Keely Mix

Keely,

I know you are the expert on education being on the school board and all.
But, as I understand it, all parents have already been having sex. 

_DJA

keely emerinemix <kjajmix1 at msn.com> wrote: 

Of course, under Donovan's plan, parents will have tons more free time -- 
what with being excused from the kinds of things most of us signed up for as

parents -- and will then form roaming street gangs or start smoking or 
having sex.

keely

From: Donovan Arnold 
To: Jerry Weitz , Shirley Ringo , 
vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Minimum wage
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 07:55:21 -0700 (PDT)

Jerry,

I agree with you 100% regarding the workforce training. The school system 
needs to start kids one year earlier, let them out one year later ,and use 
those two extra years to train youth a job skill, good work ethic, how to 
search for and find a job, keep a job, and advance in that field.

They also need to teach youth how to do taxes, be a responsible member of 
the community, build social skills, know first aid and establish healthy 
eating habits, and all about how credit and debit works.

In other words, schools need to teach youth the things they are going to 
need to know about living in modern society and doing well. So many things 
you learn in school today seem pointless when you get out and never use it. 
You also find yourself hurting in other areas when you are expected to know 
how to do something in life but nobody ever taught you.

Thanks for your email.

Best,

_DJA

Jerry Weitz wrote:
Raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.15 will not help in real 
inflation-adjusted buying power--it is too small of an increase. So let’s 
discuss the fundamentals. As Virginia’s former Democratic governor Mark 
Warner’s track record illustrates, skills training in our high schools 
would help increase wages for Idaho’s workforce and encourage more jobs. 
With the push for community colleges in the urban areas of Idaho, I believe 
that our local high schools could become the rural equivalent of community 
college. This would cost money and would require a willingness to change 
the current high school structure.

The state legislature’s current focus on shifting school funding from 
property taxes to the sales tax (the current maintenance and operations 
debate) misses the point. Instead of focusing on ways to shift funds, I 
would urge consideration for increased funding for the creation/maintenance 
of skills centers in local high schools. Rather than seeking a balanced 
taxation approach, the Idaho Education Association has promoted a tax shift 
to the sales tax, which sends a confusing message.

When one examines France, with a high minimum wage, a large 
under-skilled/inexperienced segment of its youth, guaranteed employment 
contracts, unbending unionization, top down regulations, etc., one observes 
high unemployment, a high cost of living, and extreme social unrest.

What works: 1) create/maintain superior education for both the 
college-bound and the non-college-bound, 2) invest in infrastructure, 3) be 
friendly to business, 4) be environmentally wise, and 5) do this without 
going deeply into debt, which requires prioritization. Ireland has 
followed the above policies with exceptional success. We should follow the 
lead of former governor Warner and Virginia’s Republican legislature and 
make these policies non-partisan. From what I’ve learned, Larry Grant, our 
district’s Democratic candidate for Congress, seems to understand this 
non-partisan, middle of the road approach.

Jerry

At 11:11 AM 8/7/06, Shirley Ringo wrote:
Visionaries:

I cannot resist the urge to weigh in on the minimum wage issue. I 
proposed legislation during the most recent legislative session to raise 
the minimum wage to $6.15. It received very little support from 
Republicans. (Our District 6 Republicans did support it, and 
Representative Trail will co-sponsor the effort with us again next year.)

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We plan to try again next year, at an amount above $6.15.

Without getting into the usual arguments, it’s unacceptable to have a 
minimum wage that leaves those paid at that level in cruel poverty. 
Lawmakers have neglected maintenance on minimum wage levels. In 1968, the 
minimum wage meant something positive to families. In inflation-adjusted 
dollars, it has lost nearly 40% of its value between 1968 and now.

According to polling, the vast majority of Americans believe the minimum 
wage should be higher. I believe eighteen states have a minimum wage 
higher than the $5.15 federal level, which has not been raised since 1997. 
Some of these states have used the initiative process to get results, where 
state legislators would not act on it. In some of these states, there has 
been significant help from Republican leaders.

Many claims of negative consequences do not seem to be true. One of the 
claims is that jobs will be lost. In the majority of states that have 
raised the minimum wage, there has in fact been an increase in jobs. (We 
can’t claim the wage increase caused more jobs, but the decrease some 
predicted didn’t happen.) An increase in employee productivity and less 
absenteeism was reported where the pay level increased.

On the inflation issue, "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/>Florida reported after 
raising their minimum wage a very minor increase in some prices. Since a 
relatively small percent of the employed receive minimum wage, one might 
not expect a dramatic increase in prices. (We can expect a “ripple effect” 
though, where employers will raise wages to be more competitive.) One year 
ago in Idaho, according to the Department of Commerce and Labor, 32,000 
Idahoans received a wage between $5.15 and $6.15 per hour. While Idaho 
State Government employee pay is entirely too low, almost none of them 
receive pay as low as $5.15 per hour. I don’t consider it an undisputed 
fact that there will be significant inflation, but we can certainly study 
the issue in the states that have raised the minimum wage.

Workers who receive minimum wage live from paycheck to paycheck. (If 
they can make it stretch.) They have no discretionary money. What are 
they to do when their taxes go up? Just more water in the gravy, I guess. 
At the minimum wage, it takes more than one full day to earn the money to 
buy fifteen gallons of gasoline.

While I continue to study the issue, I am convinced that some of the 
negative consequences of raising the minimum wage are over-stated. I am 
also steadfast in my belief that it is unacceptable to value people and 
families so little that we allow such a low level of compensation for their 
efforts and to address their needs.

Shirley

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