Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Slumming It In Private Schools

Here in the United States of America, Americans are constantly bombarded with the message that the failure of students in the public schools is a lack of money, or that if the State did not provide free public education, America would be filled with stupid people.  But is there actually any truth to that?  I do not think so, but the message has been so ingrained into the public conscious, attempts to break from the public education system via charter schools, or school vouchers, are met with the full force of the teachers’ unions opprobrium, including withholding of campaign funds for the candidate of the day.

But there are lessons Americans can learn from some of the poorest of the poor, the slum dwellers.

In slums around the world, from Lagos, Nigeria and Nairobi, Kenya to rural villages in Ghana and China and places in between, Tooley has discovered poor people opening small private schools that offer alternatives to dismal or inaccessible public education. The schools charge only pennies a day, and most also provide scholarships to orphans or children of the indigent. One in five students in the Hyderabad slums, for example, attends a private school on some kind of need-based scholarship. Whether in Kibera (Kenya) or Gansu (China), these schools all seem to boast committed and punctual teachers, efficient and attentive owners, and satisfied parents.

Tooley visited numerous public schools in these far-flung places as well, and they also share certain traits: a dearth of discipline; teacher complacency; and classes in which students sit and chat instead of learning. Development experts readily acknowledge the shortcomings of public schools in less-wealthy nations. But Tooley expresses bafflement at their proposed remedies—more regulation, more money, better teaching training—especially when impoverished communities have already improvised and created their own successful alternatives.

Just how successful? Do pupils in private schools for the poor actually learn more than those in public schools? To find out, Tooley assembled and trained research teams that eventually tested 24,000 fourth-graders from impoverished areas who attended a range of schools—private schools recognized by the local government, private schools not so recognized, and public schools—in India, Nigeria, Ghana, and China. His findings are stunning:

The results from Delhi were typical. In mathematics, mean scores of children in government schools were 24.5 percent, whereas they were 42.1 percent in private unrecognized schools and 43.9 percent in private recognized. That is, children in unrecognized private schools scored nearly 18 percentage points more in math than children in government schools (a 72 percent advantage!), while children in recognized private schools scored over 19 percentage points more than children in government schools (a 79 percent advantage).

Redistributed money is not the answer.  Privatization is the key to knowledge.

From a City Journal piece titled The Private Schools No One Sees, which is a short review of a book written by James Tooley titled The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey Into How the World’s Poorest People Are Educating Themselves, which is indeed worth a read.

Indeed it sounds beautiful.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/01 at 06:24 PM
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No, It's That Simple

Ed Rasimus has read the article Drudge links to under the headline Feds Hunt For Guns, One House At A Time and provides the answer to the State’s hooligans knock on the door.

Remember, the answer at the door is “NO!"

Posted by John Venlet on 07/01 at 11:16 AM
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Mortgage Redefaults

If you type mortgage modification into the Google news search engine, you currently receive six hundred and forty-five (645) possible news links to peruse.  Some, trumpet large numbers of mortgage modifications completed, while others warn of possible fraud, or the impossibility of having a mortgage modification completed due to “paper jams” or what not.

Tim Cavanaugh, at Hit & Run, notes that a very large percentage (any where between 46% and 64%) of these modified mortgages are ending right back where they started.  In default.

In general, the more loans you modify, the higher the percentage of redefaults: In the first quarter of 2008, 68,001 loans were modified, and 40,206, or 59 percent, of those have ended up 30 days late again, or worse. In the first quarter of 2009, 185,156 loan mods were done, and of those, 120,067, or 64 percent, ended up in trouble. (Check my math: to get a total-in-trouble number I’m adding up “30-59 days Delinquent,” “60 or More Days Delinquent,” “In Process of Foreclosure,” and “Completed Foreclosure.” To be sporting, I’m leaving “Short Sale or Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure” out.)

Cavanuagh’s post on this subject is titled Deadbeat: Not Just A Circumstance, A State of Mind and it provides links to all the pertinent data on this subject.

Everything’s going so well, isn’t it?

Posted by John Venlet on 07/01 at 10:48 AM
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It Happens In All Ponzi Schemes

All ponzi schemes crash, at one point or another, when the suckers are either all tapped out, or new suckers cannot be induced to fall for the utopian pitch of never ending returns.  The great ponzi scheme, which is the federal government, may be suffering from just such an eventuality.

As we near the end of June, which is supposed to be one of the four biggest months for federal tax collections (January, April, and September are the others), it is clear that the serious receipts shortfalls are not only continuing, but have caused the March 20 projections of the administration and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to be outdated.

Unfortunately, for Americans, the State has warehouses of smoke and mirrors, and a monopoly on force, which the State will use indiscriminately to maintain their illusion of beneficience and liquidity.

June Federal Receipts: The Dive Continues, As Does Media Near Silence

Via The New Clarion, in a post titled Going Galt?.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/01 at 08:04 AM
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A Real Independence Day Message to the State

Bill St. Clair notes that Larken Rose will be speaking at a tea party in Philadelphia on July 4.  Rose is preambling his speech online with a piece titled You’re Not the Boss of Me! from which I’ve gleaned the most salient point.

"Dear Federal Government, you’re fired! We’re not paying your taxes anymore, not obeying your laws ever again, and from now on we will resist your thugs when you try to enforce your will on us."

Unfortunately, as Rose notes,

How many Americans would dare to even THINK such a thing, much less say it out loud, or write it down and send it to the feds? Very few, indeed. The truth is, the spirit of resistance is all but dead in this country. Even among those in the pro-freedom movement, the vast majority of efforts revolve around begging the masters to be nice, petitioning for or against this or that legislation, arguing over WHICH politician should run our lives and take our money.

“very few, indeed,” would be so bold as to make such a statement.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/01 at 07:21 AM
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Earn It

In a post titled Civil Frights, Scooter Oi comments on the State’s forcing financial institutions to lend.

I’m trying to figure out when credit became a civil right.

I was taught that credit was something that one acquired after years of hard work, saving money and being financially responsible. When you had accomplished all that to the satisfaction of a bank, they would give you a credit card. If you didn’t screw that up after a while, them might give you a car loan. If you paid that off in good order, you might be able to qualify for a loan for a house…

Getting a loan for something you can’t afford is not a right...

Posted by John Venlet on 07/01 at 07:15 AM
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

David Mayo Sentenced

I noted that David Mayo copped to a plea deal, rather than go to trial, in a post on Saturday (Mayo’s legal travails all stem from purchasing hydroponic growing equipment).  Mayo was sentenced today, and will serve no time in prison, though as a probationed inidividual, he will indeed be subject to further police state type searches.

Injustice has once again beaten down justice.

Grand Rapids Press sports writer David Mayo will return to job; judge gives no-jail-time sentence

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 03:08 PM
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GM Pipe Dream

Now that General Motors (GM) is Government Motors, with the ability to “legally” rob the American people of their hard earned monies, just how high would GM’s stock have to rise to payback the American people?

If a new General Motors emerges from bankruptcy as planned, U.S. financial aid for the company will expand to nearly $50 billion, but neither the government nor the company is forecasting how much of the public money will be repaid.

It’s sure to be a stretch. For the United States to fully recover its investment, the value of General Motors stock will have to reach levels it has never before attained. (bold by ed.)

It’s a pipe dream, that will never happen.  Americans are screwed, and there is no uncertainty about it.

Uncertainty Clouds Recovery of U.S. Investment in GM

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 03:00 PM
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Legislating Catfish Follies

I’ve often stated that laws are made for stupid people, which is true.  Laws are also often made to make one thing or another legal or illegal, or to make something that it is, is not.  Case in point, catfish.

You see, here in the United States, catfish farming is one of the largest aquaculture businesses, and the catfish farmers in the U.S., who felt that the Vietnamese were horning in our there business, wanted to put a stop to the Vietnamese catfish coming into America.  So what did the American catfish farmers do, they made nicey nice with the powers that be and had a federal law passed in 2002 which stated that Vietnamese catfish were not catfish but some unfamiliar fish such as pangasius, which is a member of the catfish family.

Unfortunately for American catfish farmers, their attempt to curtail Vietnamese catfish from making it to the American market did not work so well, and since that did not work, the catfish farmers now want the Vietnamese’s pangasius to be leglislated back into a catfish, in the hope that this new law will curtail the Vietnamese’s horning in on their catfish business.

So after years of arguing that the Vietnamese fish isn’t catfish — and winning a federal law saying as much — the U.S. farmers are now trying to have it both ways. Under their latest lobbying strategy, they want the Vietnamese imports considered catfish so that they will be covered by a new inspections regime that they pushed through Congress last year.

So a catfish is only a catfish if the State decrees it’s a catfish, and that’s only after the State’s been suckered by the catfish farmers once again.

THE INFLUENCE GAME: A catfish by any other name

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 01:09 PM
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Yeah, Make Up A Law, That'll Stop Them

In early June, I noted a story regarding Columbian cocaine producers utilizing so called “submarines” to smuggle cocaine into the United States and other parts of the world.  I titled that post Innovative Smuggling Vessel, But Hardly a Submarine.

Well, Columbian lawmakers have decided to craft a law outlawing the building and use of these semi-submersible means of conveyance.

Colombia has outlawed the construction, and use, of the semi-submersible boats used to smuggle much of the cocaine coming into North America. For those caught building these boats, it’s twelve years in prison. For those caught using these boats, it’s fourteen years.

Yeah, that’ll stop those cocaine producers dead in their tracks.

Story is here and was linked via The Sub Report.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 09:58 AM
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Reminiscent of Stalin's Cult of Personality

Is the Obamamania surrounding Obama a reincarnation of the cult of personality which Josef Stalin so ruthlessly took advantage of?  I think it could be.

Stalin, and his slavish politboro rubber stampers, saw enemies everywhere.  Whether it was kulaks, scientists, army officers, ordinary citizens, or some other association of individuals, each group, at some point, came under suspicion for treasonous or terrorist tendencies.  This is happening today in America, so far without the purges and the gulags.

While I know I’m just a low level terrrorist, and am comfortable with that designation, Karen Bass, California’s speaker of the assembly, believes conservative talk radio individuals are terrorists, while Paul Krugman believes that individuals who deny climate change and government intervention are traitors. And let’s not forget that Deparment of Homeland Security’s Janet Napolitano believes veterans are prime terrorist wannabes, and that the State of Missouri believes you maybe a terrorist if you support a political party other than the Democratic Party. While the “One,” Obama, leads the terrorist behind every corner madness by stating that foes of the cap and trade boondoggle are terrorizing for political gain.

Stalin may be dead, and the Soviet Union no more, but ironically Stalin’s legacy lives on in the West.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 07:34 AM
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Expressing Reality

"There’s no such thing as life without bloodshed. I think the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous."

Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Via Chris Horton’s blog.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 07:08 AM
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One Candle Power

So, Obama is making noises about setting energy efficiency standards for lamps.

Aiming to keep the focus on climate change legislation, President Barack Obama put a plug in for administration efforts to make lamps and lighting equipment use less energy.

“I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and businesses,”...

How illuminating.  I wonder if Obama’s lamp energy efficiency standards will utilize the candela, carcel burner, or the Hefner lamp in setting the standards?

White House announces new lighting standards

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 06:37 AM
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Monday, June 29, 2009

The New "Drug War" May Be Financial Products

In a very disjointed Reuters article titled Central banks seek rankings for financial products, we learn that the world’s central bankers want a new “drug war,” on financial products.

Financial products should be treated like medicines and sold to consumers only when they are certified safe to prevent a repeat of last year’s financial meltdown, the world’s central bankers said on Monday.

Hey, maybe we can get the FDA involved, and launch abunch of new financial pharmaceutical trials, and if the financial products don’t pass the trials, world governments can initiate a slew of drug eradication programs, or some kind of financial methadone could be developed for those who are jonesing, since the placebo “stimulus” pill is failing.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/29 at 05:57 PM
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Too True Quote of the Day

Via to herd or not to herd.

A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. It wasn’t the world being round that agitated people but that the world wasn’t flat. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic. – Dresden James

Posted by John Venlet on 06/29 at 03:17 PM
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