To Hell with the Proletariat

In Les Misérables, author Victor Hugo criticizes the injustices of the nineteenth century. Issues such as women’s rights, intergenerational conflict, cruelty of the justice system, and the failure of society’s institutions are all discussed in the novel, which is still resonate.

I have a four year degree from CSUN (California State University Northridge) in the San Fernando Valley. The first two years of my college experience was at a community college. The cost was $6.50 per semester. The two years at CSUN coast $42 per semester. The cost of a college degree was affordable for everyone.

I know, it was a long time ago but what happened? Why did the cost at the community college grow to $1238 per semester? CSUN now costs $7,064. I am not reporting on the cost of books or the cost or the cost of room and board.

It is no surprise that college attendance has resulted in high student debt. Since 1980, the total cost of both four-year public and four-year private college has nearly tripled, even after accounting for inflation. Federal support has not kept up: Pell Grants once covered nearly 80 percent of the cost of a four-year public college degree for students from working families, but now only cover a third. That has left many students from low- and middle-income families with no choice but to borrow if they want to get a degree. According to a Department of Education analysis, the typical undergraduate student with loans now graduates with nearly $25,000 in debt.

This country refuses to help its youth obtain a college education. Sean Hannity: “We have a lot of young people that work on my TV show, they’re not making a $125,000. They’re now eligible to get in some cases up to $20,000 and in other cases $10,000. This is New Green Deal radical socialism.”

The Rich don’t care about the rest of us. The philosophy is to hell with the Proletariat. After all they are just the working class.

The debt reduction by President Biden is a nice gesture but it does not address the issue of the excessive fees to obtain a degree.

Where was Donald Trump during those four years he was president?

Warren Buffett says public speaking is the single best investment you can ever make

Public-speaking skills will set you apart.

As graduate of Toastmasters Competent Communicator program I can confirm that Buffet’s recommendations are correct. That program changed my life.

Billionaire Warren Buffett has offered investment wisdom for five decades at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder’s meeting. Buffett didn’t disappoint the 40,000 shareholders who attended this year’s meeting, often turning questions about the stock market into tips for a successful life.

During the six-hour question and answer period, Buffett was asked twice to name the single best investment he would recommend today as a hedge, or protection, against inflation. While the two people who asked the questions expected a stock tip, Buffett gave what he considered a far more valuable opinion.

“I’ll tell you something even better than one stock,” Buffett said.

“The best investment–by far–is developing yourself.”

If you are exceptionally good at something, people will beat a path to your door, says the 91-year-old investor. If you develop the skills that others are willing to pay for, you’ll thrive despite what’s happening in the broader economy. According to Buffett, “your abilities can’t be inflated away from you.”

For years, Buffett hosted business school students who made a pilgrimage to his office in Omaha to meet with him. The students were often surprised when Buffett showed off his most prized diploma–a framed certificate from a public-speaking course.

“I have one diploma hanging in my office,” Buffett would tell them. “It’s from a Dale Carnegie course which cost me a hundred bucks back in 1951. It’s incalculable how much value I got from that hundred dollars.”

There’s nothing like working to improve your own skills, Buffett said. He then added, “I would say communications skills are the first area I would work on to enhance your value throughout life, no matter what you do, because if you can’t talk to people, you’ll have a real problem selling anything–stocks or anything else.”

Tennessee, USA

Tennessee, USA is the heart of where country music really began – Nashville! The Birthplace of Country Music Museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, tells the story of the 1927 Bristol Sessions recordings by the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest V. Stoneman, and others.

“These recordings in Bristol in 1927 are the single most important event in the history of country music.” -Johnny Cash

Sadly Tennessee is also the state that hates scientific theory and the free press.

Recall July 10–21, 1925, Dayton, Tennessee. That was the dates of the Scopes Trial, also called Scopes Monkey Trial. High-school teacher, John T. Scopes, charged with violating state law by teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The trial’s proceedings helped to bring the scientific evidence for evolution into the public sphere while also stoking a national debate over the veracity of evolution that continues to the present day.

The two sides brought in the biggest legal names in the nation, William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. Scopes was convicted and fined $100.

The film Inherit the Wind is a fictionalized account and made religious people look like fools.

Now almost one hundred years later a Tennessee school district bans “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel depicting the horrors of the Holocaust. McMinn County, Tennessee, Board of Education removed “Maus” from the eighth-grade English language arts curriculum, citing “rough, objectionable language” and a drawing of a nude woman.

Other banned books include

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Color Purple

The Catcher in the Rye

Tennessee is a state of contradictions.

The Need for Common Core Educational Standards

The U.S.A. ranks 36^th from the top in math in the world.

Common Core is the academic standards now being implemented in 43 states and Washington, D.C. Common Core was created by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. It was not created by the Federal government.

Jeb Bush was in support of Common Core until he realized that many Republicans oppose it. Now, based upon his comment at last Thursday’s debate, he only supports higher standards but not federally created ones.

The question is how does the United States compare with other nations? You can find the information you want to support your preconceived answer to this question.

I believe this organization is about as good as it gets to finding the answer to the above question. https://www.studentsfirst.org/pages/the-stats

Compared to other countries, we fail in math and science.

In the growing global marketplace, students will need to excel in both math and science to compete internationally as engineers, scientists, physicians, and creative entrepreneurs. Yet, in a 2012 analysis of student performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the U.S. placed 27th out of 34 countries in math performance and 20th in science performance.⁴

Of course you can deny studentsfirst claims. They might have an agenda that really is not intended to help students excel. I just can’t find it.

The 36^th ranking was developed by The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, results from PISA 2012. This is not news. It was discussed by Fareed Zakaria on his CNN GPS progam. The discrepancy between 27^th and 36^th probably lies in the evaluation of separate parts of China.

The leading nations or cities were:

Shanghai-China
Singapore
Hong Kong-China
Chinese Taipei
Korea
Macao-China
Japan

13. Canada

16. Germany

17. Viet Nam

25. France

26. United Kingdom

34. Russian Federation

36. United States

Those fighters against common core seem to want to defend their preference for mediocrity.

An American Education

Common Core standards were created during the George W. Bush administration. It was, in my opinion, the wisest decision made during his presidency. We now have a list of expectations for every grade level throughout the United States. Those that denounce the setting of standards are supporting mediocrity in our schools.

On December 3, 2013, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced yet again that American students were doing terribly when tested, in comparison to students in sixty-one other countries and a few cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong. Duncan presided over the release of the latest international assessment of student performance in reading, science, and mathematics (called the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA), and Shanghai led the nations of the world in all three categories. Of the 61 nations the United States came in as “average” or 31^st place.

I know that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people have written about America’s educational system. Here is my take.

The average American family faces a daunting task sending their children to college. Those children in poorer families where neither parent has a college education has a very poor chance of going to college and if they do, they have no support to reach completion. The problem isn’t just student ability there is a challenge of cost. Rather than provide everyone with an opportunity to obtain a college education we refuse to tax ourselves sufficiently to offer even a free community college education.

The cost of state run universities is high with a cost reaching $3,300 at the University of Oregon per semester to the University of California Los Angeles $6,800 per semester. Obviously private universities cost significantly more.

Is it any wonder that we have a poorly educated society? Those that want the education, whose families lack the money, will simple obtain student loans that will take decades to repay.

Where does this leave America? The U.S.A. is the giant that no longer wants to make the sacrifices to lead the world. The consequences will become apparent in the next few decades.

The American Skills Gap

The skills gap in U.S. manufacturing has hit a vast array of industries that are having trouble filling their workforce needs with properly trained workers who can step right in and help companies.

As an example, across the jobs spectrum in the laser industry, from designing equipment, to finding workers to install and repair laser machinery, to manufacturers that need skilled employees on the plant floor, the lack of workers with the necessary skills has become a major problem.

To believe an exhaustive new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the skill level of the American labor force is not merely slipping in comparison to that of its peers around the world, it has fallen dangerously behind. A new OECD study finds that the US is well behind its global competitors in math, reading, and computer skills.

The highly skilled in the United States earn a much larger wage premium over unskilled workers than in most, if not all, other advanced nations, where regulations, unions and taxes tend to temper inequality. So if the rewards for skills are so high, why is the supply of skilled workers so sluggish? The answer is not clear.

Socioeconomic status is a barrier. Not only is inequality particularly steep, little is done to redress the opportunity deficit of poorer students. Public investment in the early education of disadvantaged children is meager. Teachers are not paid very well, compared with other countries. And the best teachers tend to end up teaching in affluent schools.

To speed growth, we must close the widening skills gap that exists in all of our industries. Washington lawmakers do not appear to be inclined to take the proactive lead that is necessary. This means that large companies and industry organizations will have to take the lead. That can be accomplished through lobbyists in the capitol or sponsoring training programs. The question is will private industry take the lead when labor costs are so much lower in other nations?

Sources for this article is news.thomasnet.com/IMT/2013/12/10, The New York Times,OECD

U.S. students trail global leaders

Just what business wants – Cheap Low Paid Labor

In response to concerns raised by federal regulators, Los Angeles Unified School District and eight other school districts have filed an amended application for a waiver from a federal law requiring that all students be proficient in English and math by 2014. This was reported on May 29, 2013 in the Los Angeles Daily News. The article went on to say that Rather than using No Child criteria to gauge a school’s achievement, CORE has proposed its own accountability system, called the School Quality Improvement Index. Sixty percent of a school’s score would be based on standardized tests and graduation rates, 20 percent on absenteeism and suspension rates, and another 20 percent on campus “culture and climate.”

Yes, “culture and climate” has a 20% value, what ever that means, should be considered rather than the ability to communicate in English.

Meanwhile Scores from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 15-year-old students in the U.S. performing about average in reading and science, and below average in math. Out of 34 countries, the U.S. ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math.

Between 1995 and 2008, for example, the United States slipped from ranking second in college graduation rates to 13^th, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Paris based organization that develops and administers the PISA exam. Of 34 OECD countries, only eight have a lower graduation rate than the United States.

Our next door neighbor, Canada, ranked 4^th in Math and 6^th in Science.

Meanwhile the LAUSD and other school districts representing over 1 million students want a waiver on proficiency in English and math. If granted, the United States is on its way to a two class society. Those with English and math skills and everyone else. Everyone else will be working at McDonald’s, Target, making beds in hotels, or other low paid blue collar jobs.

Newsweek -Final print edition is December 31, 2012

Newsweek to cease print edition after 80 years

I don’t remember precisely when I started reading Newsweek but I do have the July 28, 1969 edition with a transmitted photo of the walk on the Moon. I considered the magazine the alternate to the too conservative Time. The magazine has provided worthwhile insight to the world’s problems.

Just a few years ago a commentator in BusinessWeek forecasted the end of much of the print media. That was just before McGraw-Hill sold that money losing weekly to Bloomberg. So none of this is a surprise.

I myself have been evaluating the myriad of tablet computers this past week.

Goodbye old friend!!

Cuts to Higher Education Impact California’s Economic Future

Reported today in the news is that high school Chemistry classes will be cut to one year. However, both UC and CSU schools require two years of high school chemistry to meet minimum entry requirements.

The following article was distributed from San Jose State University today.

“California, once a leader in higher education, is falling behind other states and nations in developing the highly skilled workforce necessary for our future prosperity.” This finding from a recent Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) report advises state leaders to set priorities and fund them accordingly. The CSU couldn’t agree more.

The report goes on to state that “Declines in enrollment rates [at public higher education institutions] mean that California’s future workforce will be less skilled and less able to meet the demands of an economy that increasingly rewards more highly educated workers.” Although more students are qualified for college, state budget cuts have forced colleges and universities to enroll fewer students. According to the PPIC, the number of high school graduates entering college over the last three years has dropped 12 percent despite higher demand and more students being college-ready. This translates into a loss of about 12,000 college graduates per year, representing “a significant loss of human capital to California—one that the state can ill afford.”

The PPIC also reported in an earlier study that unless enrollment and graduation rates substantially improve, by 2025 the state will fall short of the amount of graduates it needs to meet economic demand by about one million individuals.

This spring, the CSU will graduate almost 100,000 job-ready students. That picture may change dramatically given the continuing drop in state support for the CSU. Each of these graduates will enter our workforce with the education and hands-on experience they need to be contributors to the state’s economic well-being. With further budget reductions on the table, however, we are in danger of graduating fewer students. As reported by the PPIC, the state spent $1.6 billion less on higher education than it did ten years ago, even as demand for college graduates has increased.

The state and legislature need to re-prioritize higher education as a necessity for California’s ongoing and future prosperity.
The legislature has until June 15 to write a final budget. Tell your local representatives that the state must prioritize higher education and that they should reject any cuts to the CSU budget. Making your voice heard is critical for the state’s decision-makers to commit to improving higher education.

For more information and a copy of the full study, visit the PPIC’s website. (http ://www .ppic .org /content /pubs /report /R _512 HJR .pdf)