It's A Great Day

Whenever we go to NYC I visit the Whitney museum. I like the Whitney for a couple of reasons. First, it has the most extensive collection of Edward Hopper's art and he is my favorite artist. The Whitney was an early supporter of Hopper and so when he died in 1967 his wife left all of his art that she had to this museum. The second reason is that, although I'm really not a fan of contemporary art, I like the spirit of the shows that the Whitney puts together. The place has a real New York feeling to it; lots of activity both in the building and on the walls and you will see sights that you will not see other places.

Every two years the Whitney showcases up and coming artists from around the U.S. in its Biennial. This retrospective is almost always panned by art critics. However, this year's, which is on exhibit now, has received extremely favorable reviews. Today I came across a well thought-out article on the Wall Street Journal's on-line opinions page by Tyler Green about how this exhibit can be improved. He also has his own interesting blog about contemporary art.

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Within the next couple of days those seniors who have applied for college in the Fall will hear about their applications. David Brooks offers some advice for those who are going through the process.

I'm not sure I agree with all of his points. I do believe it is important which school you attend. Getting into a college with higher GPA and SAT requirements means that you will generally be around some very smart kids. Yes, you will also find them at schools which are less competitive, they just will not be there at the same concentration.

And I do not think that it is what you learn but the way you learn that is important in high school. I had poor study skills before I went to college which hampered me when it came to my university courses. It was not until I went to nuclear medicine school that I figured out how to master what I was being taught. I was also very fortunate to study at the Bethesda Naval, maybe the best school for this subject in the country.

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In 2 speeches U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas laid out his views on his confirmation hearings and the role of the federal govement. You will not be disappointed.
Be Not Afraid
The Virtue of Practical Wisdom

Post dedicated to my daughter Amy.

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Interesting article today about the efforts of millionaire Joe Robert, Jr. to bring vouchers to the nation's capitol. Joe Robert is extremely involved in Children's Hospital and 2 of my friends now work for his organization Fight For Children; Kaleen Caire, who I first met as head of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, and Casey Lartigue, a former education policy analyst at the CATO Institute.

Both gentleman are associates of Clint Bolick, author of Voucher Wars, who I undestand has left the Institute for Justice to form his own charter school advocacy group.

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I almost missed this excellent editorial yesterday regarding the Clinton Administration's failure to recognize the threat posed by Al Qaeda and Bush's reaction to 9/11. Its worth reading.

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From the Washington Post's story on the testimony of Richard A. Clarke yesterday before the commission investigating 9/11:

"To the loved ones of the victims of 9/11, to them who are here in the room, to those who are watching on television, your government failed you," he said. "Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. And I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn't matter, because we failed. And for that failure, I would ask, once all the facts are out, for your understanding and for your forgiveness."

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Ever since 9/11 there has been a public debate over whether it was the Bush or Clinton administration that failed to recognize the threat from al Qaeda and properly protect America from terrorists. In my opinion there is plenty of blame to go around. Apparently, it was far from a secret that airline security was full of holes and that there were some very evil individuals who wanted the United States to disappear from the face of the earth.

As I've pointed out before, the federal government is distracted as our elected representative worry about all sorts of things beyond their legitimate authority as granted in our constitution. The President and Congress have one major responsibility and that is to protect our ability to pursue the rights of life, liberty and happiness (the founders believed that our right to own and dispose of property was inherent in our right to life). Everything else they spend their time on, from gay marriage to HIPPA to prescription drugs to ergonomic safety in the workplace is extraneous, and as we learned a couple of years ago, dangerous to our health. Its time Americans demanded that the government get out of our lives and focus on preserving our ability to live.

Now we have word (again, nothing we didn't already know) that social security and Medicare are going broke. Let's you and I predict whether we will have an honest discussion of privatizing social security and using medical savings accounts to avert the coming fiscal catastrophes.

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Below are two articles explaining an upcoming case before the Supreme Court. The piece by Linda Greenhouse, who follows the Court for the New York Times, explains the Bush Administration's position and Tim Lynch offers an alternate point of view. Guess which side I take.

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Libertarian organizations often do not see eye-to-eye with teacher's unions. Libertarians fight for the right of students to attend the private or public schools of their choice and organizations like the NEA see choice as a threat because private or charter schools often use un-certified teachers who don't join their union and therefore don't pay dues. In fights over school choice in the past the unions have used whatever financial resources they have in an effort to stop students from escaping the government's monopoly over elementary and secondary education.

But in a move that shocked even those of us familiar with the tactics of the protectors of the status-quo, the Michigan Education Association (MEA) sued the Machinac Center in 2001 over a fundraising letter issued by the free-market group. The mailing quoted the head of the MEA praising the fine research work of Machinac, even though the MEA and Machinac have for years publicly aired their strong disagreements over public policy issues.

Machinac defended the content of the letter as a right to free speech. The union said that the 1st Amendment was not applicable because the quotation was used in a commercial attempt to raise funds.

Last week an appeals court dismissed the lawsuit, agreeing with Machinac that they had a constitutional right to include the MEA President's quote. Machinac was defended by the Institute for Justice.

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Today, my very favorite television station is 25 years old. In their honor please see Ruth Marcus' perfect reflections of a c-span junkie. One of the best experiences I ever had was in 1992 discussing libertarian politics on a remote learning course on the American presidency taught from C-span studios to students at the University of Denver. I had gained this opportunity through my association with Susan Swain, C-Span's COO. It also led last year to Secretary of Education Ron Paige appearing in front of students at the Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School for Public Policy.

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Let's award it to Walter Williams.

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Here's my viewpoint regarding the bombing in Spain printed in the Post today. At least they were only a day behind.

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My daughter Amy brought to my attention an extremely interesting article regarding education in NYC. The Times reports that Mayor Bloomberg fired three of his own appointees to the board that governs city schools in order to pass a strict graduation requirements for third grade students. It seems that any child who gets a 1 (out of a possible 4) on a standardized test is not promoted to 4th grade. No exceptions, even for kids who may be learning disabled or who speak English as a second language.

It was certainly a controversial move by the Mayor, as you can see by the details in the story. But it is something that all schools should be doing. Social promotion is what has destroyed public education in this country. If students cannot keep up due to learning a new language or because of a physical or mental handicap then there does need to be a way to make exceptions. However, education in the U.S. has gone in the completely wrong direction for too many years. Why do you think so many parents yearn for alternatives to traditional schools?

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The editorial pages are filled today with analysis of the election for Prime Minister in Spain and its impact on the war on terror. Frank Gaffney in The Washington Times, Robert Kagan and George Will in the Washington Post, and David Brooks in the New York Times all come to the conclusion that the behavior of the electorate is a big win for al Qaeda (with David Brooks, living up to my comments about him the other day, making the most cogent argument). However, I believe each of their opinions are slightly off the mark.

In this case the Washington Post editors come closest to framing the issue correctly in understanding what the voters were saying loud and clear the other day in Spain. They were reacting most strongly to their government's insistence that the killing of 200 people was the work of ETA, the Basque militant organization. But it was clear to me (and therefore clear to many people) that this was the work of al Qaeda. Ten different explosions timed to detonate simultaneously occurring exactly 911 days after our September 11th said that this was not the work of locals. A hint that the government was trying to hide the truth about this horrible event so as not to face criticism of its support for the war in Iraq tipped the scales in the minds of voters as to who should be in power.

The outcome of the election may have been different if Jose Maria Aznar had pointed right at al Qaeda and boldly asserted that his country would never allow murderers to dictate his nation's foreign policy. This stance may have allowed him to keep his job and, more importantly, made the world a much less dangerous place.

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Wow, I've finally made it. The only commentary I liked from last Sunday's papers was by Fareed Zakaria, who writes on international affairs for Newsweek and appears frequently on the television show This Week with George Stephanopoulos. He talks about the fact that while in the past terrorist groups committed violent acts to make a point, today terrorism is committed just to terrorize. It is an excellent article that I pointed out to my wife.

Today, I notice that Virginia Postrel has posted a blog on the same subject! She used to be editor of Reason Magazine and I admire her opinions greatly. Please take a look at her blog site and follow the link to the column.

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Today I've decided that my future goal is to write exactly like David Brooks. Take a look at his satirical analysis of John Kerry's positions on U.S. military intervention.

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As someone who writes a lot of letters to the editor, I enjoyed this one appearing in today's Post. Its positive message is a great way to end a long and tough work week.

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The Martha Stewart case brings to center stage the whole issue of insider trading. As Stephen Moore points out, libertarians for years have called for the end to laws which prevent people from taking advantage of information they may have but others do not. If you were to study the issue you would find that the line between what counts as insider information and is what is excluded is almost impossible for a rational person to gage.

The major problem these laws present is that success in a capitalist system depends on information. Companies profit by knowing how best to efficiently produce a product, by meeting consumer demand, and by reacting quickly to what competitors have to offer. In fact, Frederick Hayek thought that the entire field of economics was characterized by the disbursement of information, the exchange of which he called the discovery process. To have a system in which profit depends on the use of knowledge and then to penalize efforts to benefit from its use is contradictory.

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Sure, I admit that I have been thinking about the water taxi accident in Baltimore, Maryland. Whenever there are strange events in which people suddenly lose their lives, don't we all wonder why it was them and not us? Nothing emphasized this point more than the terrorist attack of 9/11/01.

These thoughts in the back of my mind, added to the fact that I just learned that this recent tragedy involved individuals with ties to an organization I love, brought the incident instantly much too near to my world. I empathize with those closest to these young adults who were beginning their futures together, and I realize that there is nothing anyone can say or do to aid in our understanding of why there is so much profound sadness sometimes. The information below was posted today on the CATO Institute's web site:

Corinne Schillings
"The Cato family today mourns the loss of our webmaster, Corinne Schillings. As webmaster, she was responsible for all of the updates and daily changes to the Cato website. Corinne was a wonderfully good-natured and amiable colleague. She was a diligent worker, a bright young mind, and a friend of freedom. Corinne perished in a Baltimore ferry accident on Saturday, along with her fiancee, Andrew Roccella. She was originally from Homewood, Illinois, near Chicago, and was pursuing her master's degree in international finance at George Mason University. Corinne and Andrew were in Baltimore with their parents to celebrate their engagement. Both were 26 years old."

Please also see remarks by colleague Radley Balko.

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My wife points out that she is the only one in our family without a personal blog. That may not be a bad thing according to Whitney Pastorek.

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I'm disappointed with the commentaries recently coming out of our major news sources so today we'll discuss something extremely important - my future.

For years, my wife and I have talked about moving back into D.C. to live. Our favorite address was when we had an apartment on Connecticut Ave. across from the Zoo. Then we had a kid, the place was too small and there was no were no other stay-at-home moms to talk to. So we re-located to Reston, which for years proved to be an excellent place to raise a family.

But now we are done with the suburbs. In the many discussions my wife and I have had on the subject we have decided that if we could we would reside in the Penns Quarter area around the MCI Center. My wife's dream is to have an apartment in the Landsburg, work in her home office with views of the city, and order lunch delivered from Jaleo, which is located on the first floor.

But, of course, we are not the only ones thinking of moving back in. The Washington Post today talks about all the activity around this part of town and the high prices that are now being charged for rentals and condos.

It looks now like our dream may remain just that - a dream.

PermaLink | 10:45 AM | |

Of course, it is important to understand the opinions of those with whom you don't agree. This tests and strengthens your arguments. One of the liberals I frequently read is E.J. Dionne, Jr. from the Washington Post. His book "Why Americans Hate Politics" is typical of his work. The first part includes insightful political analysis and the second consists of his conclusion with which I couldn't disagree more. The same is true of his views on the speech. Also, his take on the Republican Party has previously been presented here (see archived comments on Howard Dean on February 19.)

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At first, John Edwards campaign message about the two America's was emotionally appealing. As I'm sure you know, it's central conceit was that we have two healthcare systems in America, two educational systems, two tax systems, two (you fill in the blank) systems; one for the tiny percentage of the wealthy and one for the rest of us. Never mind the fact that his solution is to turn to the same benevolent government for help that is strangely the malevolent one that put us here in the first place (through high taxes, regulations, intrusion into healthcare, education, employment law, zoning, welfare rights, etc.). But I think the bottom-line problem in his stump speech was that when he was trying to ignite the fuse of class-warfare, he was actually striking a cord in the minds of the audience. When he spoke about the advantages of being rich in America I could see Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen saying to themselves, "I want to be like them. I really want to be like them."

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Usually as a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute he is busy exposing the myths surrounding the fear of global warming. But last Sunday he opined in the Washington Post's Outlook section about recent FDA efforts to make it more difficult to obtain the pain-killer hydrocodone. He is a passionate writer who has makes his case directly from his personal experience.

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The Washington Post reports today that two of Virginia's ex-governors have gone on the record as against the move by Virginia's state politicians to raise taxes. All I can say is that its about time someone did. At first it may seem odd that the democratic Wilder and the republican Allen would agree on this issue. However, the CATO Institute has supported both men in the past and Ed Crane, CATO's CEO, once supported a run for President by Wilder. My wife Michele and I attended the announcement at Ed's house.

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I received a tremendous compliment today when I learned that a letter I recently had published in the Washington Post was referenced by the editors of the Washington Times. See below:

February 15, 2004

Wanted: school buildings

The federal government recently allocated $14 million for voucher scholarships and another $13 million toward charter schools for the District of Columbia. Whereas demand for a seat in a charter school greatly exceeds the availability of such opportunities, the city should seriously consider using a portion of these funds to address the shortage of suitable facilities for new and existing charter schools.

Because of the District's notorious failing schools, children and parents are understandably fleeing them once given the alternative of school choice. But even with the resulting shrinking enrollment at D.C. Public Schools (DCPS), the school board refuses to consolidate their classrooms to free up facilities for charter schools, which have disappointingly long waiting lists. And they don't want to share, either: To date, only two schools, Maya Angelou and Evans Middle School, have engaged in space-sharing schemes.

Even worse is the fact that, at last count, there were approximately 60 school-owned buildings declared surplus. Although the School Reform Act gives public charter schools the first opportunity to acquire any of these buildings, only nine of them now house charter schools. School officials say they're holding the facilities for an emergency; but in the meantime, the space could be put to much better use educating children whose parents want an alternative to their schools. Officials evidently prefer to allow these buildings to remain vacant, while students remain stuck on charter-school waiting lists.

Real estate in Washington is too expensive and available land too meager to make new construction a realistic alternative. Common sense also dictates that there is no need to finance new buildings when existing (and city-owned) properties are lying around unused.

The situation has become so desperate that Mark S. Lerner, a board member at the William E. Doar Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts, wrote to The Washington Post on Tuesday. Mr. Lerner's letter to the editor suggested that perhaps the Old Post Office could be turned into a charter school.

It's time for the city to wake up and apply plain old common sense to the facility shortage problem. Federal funds allocated to education in the District can go toward opening doors of currently empty buildings. Children who wish to attend charter schools should have an opportunity to take a seat in a classroom other than the broken one of DCPS.

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On the same day I posted my feelings about the Davey case, the Institute for Justice sent out a very optimistic email contending that the decision did not hurt the cause of school choice because it was reached over the narrow issue of public funds used for training clergy. Well, the organization must have received a lot of criticism over the message because today I received another email explaining in detail their original findings. I wanted you to be able to see it also so I have included it below:

M E M O R A N D U M

TO: School Choice Allies
FROM: Chip Mellor and Clint Bolick
RE: Candid Thoughts on Davey
DATE: March 1, 2004

Many of you have read our fairly optimistic assessment of the U.S. Supreme
Court's decision in Locke v. Davey. In light of doom-and-gloom reactions
among some in the media--and even some of the lawyers on our side (not to
mention Justice Scalia's dissenting opinion)--some of our friends have asked
us, "What do you really think?"

As "happy warriors" for freedom, we will always emphasize the positive--what
can be salvaged from an adverse decision, how a single decision is not the
end of our fight, and so on--but never to the point of misrepresenting or
obscuring the truth. Our initial statements are not spin. Though popular
perception may differ--and certainly our adversaries have a stake in
that--this decision, by its terms, does not hurt K-12 school choice
programs.

We had hoped the Court would take on the issue of the Blaine Amendments and
issue a broad ruling that states may not discriminate against religious
educational options, period. In light of hostile questioning by many of the
justices at the oral argument where lawyers for the American Center for Law
and Justice presented the case, we feared the worst. But, the actual
decision was not nearly as bad as it could have been. The Court went out of
its way to issue a narrow decision, and it preserved for another day the
issue of the Blaine Amendment and discrimination against religious options
in general.

Just as he did in Zelman, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote for the
majority. He framed the issue very narrowly: whether a state can exclude
students who wish to use scholarship funds to pursue "religious instruction
that will prepare students for the ministry" from otherwise available
student aid programs. This issue, he said, falls into the gray area between
what the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment forbids and the Free
Exercise Clause requires. As a baseline principle, citing Zelman, he
declared that "[u]nder our Establishment Clause precedent, the link between
government funds and religious training is broken by the independent and
private choice of recipients... As such, there is no doubt that the State
could, consistent with the Federal Constitution, permit [scholarship
recipients] to pursue a degree in devotional theology." It is very
noteworthy that all justices have signed off on that proposition. There
were no separate concurring opinions quibbling with that point. That means
Zelman stands on the same ground it did before this case.

Rather, the question the Court addressed is whether states are required to
offer scholarships to students preparing for the ministry when they offer
scholarships to other students, and that is where the decision is narrow.
The decision mentions at least 28 times in only 12 pages the issue that they
felt concerned them in this case: taxpayer money being used to fund training
for the ministry. The decision spends a great deal of time on the history
of state prohibitions against funding the clergy, which resulted from
"popular uprisings against procuring taxpayer funds to support church
leaders," and resulted in state constitutional provisions that "prohibited
any tax dollars from supporting the clergy." The opinion observes that
apart from the ministry exclusion, the program "goes a long way toward
including religion in its benefits." The Court is thus implying that a
broader exclusion might present a different question. It made the limits of
its decision explicit: "We need not delve further into this difficult area
in order to uphold the [program]."

The Court did make the debatable decision that the Washington provision was
not a Blaine Amendment. By taking the state at its word on that point, the
Court left open the very real possibility that a case presenting a Blaine
Amendment with its history of bias against religion would receive a higher
level of scrutiny. That might help to explain why Chief Justice Rehnquist
and Justice Anthony Kennedy, both of whom joined an opinion by Justice
Clarence Thomas a few years ago condemning the Blaine Amendment in the
strongest possible terms, could join the majority opinion here.

None of this is to say that the decision will not present an obstacle. Our
opponents will undoubtedly misrepresent it and hostile judges will likely
cite it and expand upon it to rationalize anti-school choice decisions.
Nevertheless, the decision, by its terms, is clearly limited to education
for the ministry. The majority was exceedingly careful in that regard.
Thus, even if we receive adverse decisions under Blaine Amendments in other
states, we will still have a potential avenue of appeal in the U.S. Supreme
Court. For now, the battle goes back to the state courts where litigation
remains a central part of the school choice landscape.

Please contact us if you'd like a copy of the decision. Reading it will
reassure school choice advocates that the opinion is far from the disaster
that our opponents are portraying it.

As always, with thanks for your support, and best wishes. We look forward
to continuing the fight for educational freedom alongside you!

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