The Wine Commonsewer

Flunked II (update)

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

In my furor, I failed to mention that Mrs TWC provided much of the impetus and connectivity that went into the making of the documentary Flunked (trailer below) . You'll see her name in the credits and she appears in the outtakes.

BTW, I just got a text that she was zipping down Splash Mountain at the Magic Kingdom, which [gasp] stays open until the bars close here in the Golden State (2:00 AM). Can't say that about the Mouse House in Anaheim.

UPDATE from Mrs TWC:

You can't believe how uncrowded Magic Kingdom is compared to Disneyland. I have never in my life seen Main Street this  empty on a Friday night in summer. I've also never seen so many angry, screaming, frazzled parents dragging around their melted-down shrieking children at midnight.

Quality family time I suppose.

As Ever,

TWC

Mr Mom & The $700.00 Bus Ride

Gentle Readers,

Mrs TWC is in Fla for a few days at the Foundation for Education Excellence conference. Pretty sure those guys are focused on Florida schools and reforming some of the legal impediments to implementing tiny little bits and pieces of school choice.  I think she's interviewing a New Jersey Senator for something else. John Stossel is a keynote speaker. Mrs TWC is moderating the panel on school finance. I try to keep up.....

Just thinking about school and finance in the same sentence flames me out. Californicate spends over $22,000.00 A YEAR to educate my two kids. Yet I get a letter (Mrs TWC hid it) from the school district explaining that this isn't enough to cover the cost of busing. They want me to cough another $700.00. For busing. I'm hopping mad, apoplectic. And where's the notice of the school board meeting where this was discussed? Didn't get to my house.

It's simple math really, and when we're done, you'll see what I mean.

34 kids per classroom
$11,000.00 per kid in education spending

Follow along boys and girls, that's.....

$374,000.00 per classroom.

Peel off a hundred grand for teacher salaries and benefits and that leaves.....

$274,000.00 per classroom, per year. For that kind of folding long green I'd expect a limo out front at 7:30 AM every weekday.

What, exactly, are you people doing with that money?

Yes I'm aware that school funding is complex. Why is that?

The conference is also screening this:

As Ever,

TWC

Virtual Education is the Future

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Mrs TWC is speaking today at UCSD about the exciting future of virtual education.

PDF is here.

As Ever,

TWC

No Child Left Behind ('cept if you live in a bad part of town)

Gentle Readers,

Mrs TWC was in Sacramento today for a press conference and to testify in favor of a bill that would give lower income parents a tax credit to help out with private schooling if their kids are stuck in failing public schools by virtue of the neighborhood they live in.

As modest a proposal as this was, the teacher unions and other assorted cohorts rolled out the howitzers. Prognosis: Likely to be stillborn in committee, but it's for the children you know.

Mrs TWC is Director of Education at Reason Foundation, a free-market libertarian think tank. I don't know where those guys came up with that picture, but it doesn't look much like the chick I'm married to. She looks more like this.

As Ever,

TWC

Mr Mom

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Mrs TWC's off carpetbagging in Carson City for a couple of days, arguing, er, debating school choice. You know how it is, everybody's pro-choice except when it comes to education. Then it's their choice, not yours, and boy howdy, they DO know what is best for Johnny.

Last time she got to the Silver State, her picture got drawn by Bob Beers, R-Henderson (not you Rick Henderson, Henderson Nv).

Carson City is still small-town Americana where most people at least know of each other and Mrs TWC gets treated pretty well when she's in town.

I know her Hopper Plane (her term, not mine) got off okay because I got a text message.....

On Plane. Please change over laundry. Love. Lisa.

Back in some other life, traveling north on Highway 395 outside of Carson City, TWC liked to froze to death, I ain't kidding you, neither. Wasn't even snowing, but every last trace of warmth had fled a deathly still and cloudless night sky. Sure, the car heater worked, it's just that by the time the engine coolant circulated to the heater core, it was twenty degrees. Found my way into the Carson Nugget about zero-dark-thirty AM and called out for hot coffee with a side of steak and eggs. Never been happier to be anywhere in my born days. We So Cal boys can't take anything vaguely resembling winter.   

uncirculated Morgan silver dollar minted at the Carson City Mint

As Ever,

TWC

Drew Carey, Mrs TWC, & Locke High School Final Score: Kids 1, UTLA Thugs 0

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Mrs TWC is in Old Town Charleston comfortably ensconced in some luxe hotel. Last weekend it was Scottsdale. I know this because it is 4th and Goal to April 15th and, of course, she's traveling. Good Old Murph.

She's written extensively about Locke High School in LAUSD, which is sort of a poster child for all that's wrong with public education in America.

On March 17, 2005, 15-year-old Delusa Allen was shot in the head while leaving Locke High School in Los Angeles, sending her into intensive care and eventually killing her.

Despite what you may think about the state of public education, it ain't your suburban school. It's the schools at the margins, the kids who've been kicked to the curb and are locked into a system where it's a good week on campus if no kid bloodied the restroom tile. The mind numbs in disbelief at the callous disregard for the welfare of these school kids.   

Mrs TWC provided the fodder and then got Steve Barr together with the boys at Reason. The result is this stunning video, which awed the IHS crowd last weekend. If this don't bring a tear for the children (or a tear of joy for the children) you got ice in your heart, man.

The film was written, produced, and edited by Ted Balaker (one of John Stossel's wunderkinds). Ted likes a nice glass of the red now and again and I'm really, really, trying to get past the name dropping here. Sorry. I believe Paul Feine shot some of the footage as did ace cinematographer, PF Bentley. More about the Drew Carey project here.

UPDATE: Just got a text message that this morning's presentation went well.

Mrs TWC is Director of Education at Reason Foundation, a free-market libertarian think tank. I don't know where those guys came up with the picture for her bio, but it doesn't look much like the chick I'm married to. She looks more like this.

If you can't see the video, it's here.

As Always,

TWC

Student Achievement In America

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

As predictable as Ted Kennedy's five o'clock date with a gin bottle, it always happens at tax time. Mrs TWC will be home for weeks on end, tippity tapping at her laptop on the dining room table, and then, right when things explode into white hot flame, she has to leave town.

Actually, although I'm certain I must have been smoking opium at the time, TWC had originally planned to tag along with her to Scottsdale this weekend. That worked out. What was I thinking? It's tax time.

Institute for Humane Studies is throwing a big donor shindig in Scottsdale and the Missus caught a plane at zero-dark-thirty this morning. She'll treat the throngs to her shocking and awesome tales of education woes in America sometime later today.

One of the more salient arguments she'll make is that while student achievement in the US may not be as high as other nations, it doesn't matter as much as you think. I hear your eyebrows going up. That's because (paraphrasing) it doesn't do Chinese kids any good to be smart because the system doesn't allow them to do much with the knowledge they've acquired.

In the US, we still have a relatively free market system in place, freer than most western nations. The resulting productivity and creativity gains more than offset any competitive disadvantage of lower test scores.

Fascinating stuff and I hope I got it right (here at home she talks fast and waves her arms around a lot and sometimes her voice is a bit muffled when she's throwing clothes into the dryer and I'm at my desk).

IHS is a liberty oriented organization that provides opportunities for students and recent college grads.

Do something new this summer! Don't miss out on an opportunity to discuss ideas that matter with students from around the world at one of our 14 free summer seminars. The cost of participation, housing, and meals is covered. Application Deadline: March 31 Details...

Mrs TWC is Director of Education at Reason Foundation, a free-market libertarian think tank. I don't know where those guys came up with that picture, but it doesn't look much like the chick I'm married to. She looks more like this.

As Always,

TWC

Mrs TWC on Reforming LAUSD

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Over at the LA Times all week, Mrs TWC debates  Los Angeles Unified School District  Board Member,  David Tokofsky, about the future of the nation's poster child for public school reform.

The debate comes on the heels of an LA Times opinion piece calling for the school district to essentially turn most of its schools into charter schools.

Parents have warmed to the promise of safer, more rigorous education and are voting with their feet: One charter operator with several L.A. schools has a waiting list of 6,000 children.

Testimony enough to the promise of actual education.

Mrs TWC is the Director of Education at Reason Foundation.

As Ever,

TWC

The 09-11 Memorial Sorry, No Lessons of Liberty Today

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

As if letting parents get close enough to actually see the kids perform patriotic tunes would violate the fargin' Patriot Act, the principal shooed us away like some maniacally polite bantam rooster.

Mind you, the kids were surrounded on all sides by grass or concrete and no parent has even a passing interest in videotaping anybody but Junior, so the whole thing sort of policed itself last year. As each class finished, the parents cleared out of the good spots or made for the exits in droves, leaving room for the next batch of amateur Ansel Adams' angling for just the right shot to email grandma.

We were so far out in the cheap seats that I ended up with video of two different 4th grade girls, neither of whom was The House Blonde. One wasn't even in Katie's class, much less singing. At least they were both blond. Never did see Jake belting it out but I got it on video.

They introduced the cops and the soldiers, we had our moment of silence, the second graders sang God Bless America and the third grade followed with God Bless the USA (no word from the ACLU about any injunctions from the 9th Circuit).

Early on the morning of September 11, 2001 Jake knew in his heart that the televised images weren't Hollywood special effects but he asked anyway. Is that real, daddy? Then he raced downstairs only to reappear momentarily in his Spiderman tee shirt, announcing that he, Tanner, and Gavin were going off with the Power Rangers to save the people in New York. My son's a stand up guy.

At the time Mrs TWC said......

I would rather be on a highjacked airplane with someone inoculated by Power Rangers than someone who believes the message of every school institution: that weapons are bad and that the authorities and the government will solve all problems and protect you.

In the wake of 09-11 Mrs TWC was one of very few to ask hard questions about the educational establishment's handling of the tragedy.

There were also stories in Education Week's coverage about "lessons" schoolchildren could learn from the tragedy. Reported lessons include geography, lessons about letter writing, and lessons about making civic contributions to our nation.

Sadly, I have yet to see any newspaper or school specialist call for lessons about liberty, about constitutional guarantees, about how these terrorist acts will test fundamental values of freedom versus safety. Schools will not ask schoolchildren to think about how it came to be that only the terrorists had weapons while flight crews, pilots, and ordinary citizens did not.

Whole thing here and well worth another look.

Emphasis mine.

And Scott Beiser's.

The Sept. 11 mass-murder could not have occurred had airline crew and passengers been able to exercise their civil right to bear arms, as emphasized in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Or, at the very least.....

As Ever,

TWC

Pre School Reality Check

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Mrs TWC's column on universal preschool in the Abbott Districts ran today in the Bergen Record.

For those of you following along at home you will recall that Mrs TWC was the primary reason why the Meathead Initiative in California failed to materialize. But, like Schwarzengroper, it will be baaaaackkkkk.

And speaking of Ahnold, does anyone besides me realize that Californicate is arguing over a budget of 140 Billion dollars? We kicked Gumbi out of office for spending a trifling amount less. Like 40 Billion less. That strikes me as upside down. And what do we have to show for it? Pretty much the worst roads in the country.

Here is the skinny boys: We're on a financial sled to hell with greased runners. It don't matter who's steering, the end destination remains. So, what say? Paying enuff taxes? Nah, dig deeper, my friends.

Mrs TWC blog post is here.

So? Are we going to Jennifer's party?

As Always,

The Wine Commonsewer