[Vision2020] Response to Hansen

Wed Aug 9 12:50:37 PDT 2006

Hansen,

 MSD is wasting a great deal of money in everything  they are doing. 1) Not having year around school. 2) Starting teachers  off at starvation wages then raising them to 2x times the average  household makes in Latah. 3) Requiring courses that are useless in  modern society. 

 Answer to question two. Every business  invests money in hiring and training employees. The public can split  the cost with the businesses. We train a student to be a nurse, truck  driver, HVAC, etc, upon hirer, that business pays half the cost of the  education of that student for that specific skill learned, that money  goes to the school to educate the next student for a job. Many business  have to front this whole cost of training and educating themselves. It  would help both the schools and the businesses. 

 Answer to  your third question: I would combine the first two years of college  with are regular education. You do that by starting the children in  school one year earlier and letting them out one year later. When  students went to college for a four year degree, two years would  already have been completed. Every student would leave school with a  skill that would translate to employment upon graduation. This is what  school was originally for, but somehow lost its purpose and focus.

  Best,

  _DJA 

Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:              v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}              st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }                    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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