Monday, July 30, 2007

Worried About District Crime 

As Mary Beth Sheridan and Donna St. George of the Washington Post report today, last Saturday night four adults and three children were shot at the Edgewood Apartment Complex. It was the fourth shooting there in a year. One person so far has died.

The Edgewood Apartments are located right next to the William E. Doar Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts. D.C. Prep is also located over there. I'm going to call them to see if there are steps we want to take in reaction to this violence.

Meanwhile, what will the Mayor do? Remember he fired Police Chief Ramsey over his response to a crime emergency. Now his replacement has implemented her own plan which has been a total failure. Will he replace Cathy Lanier?

One more question. Will District officials be able to go up to the U.S. Supreme Court and say with a straight face that the gun ban has been a success?

PermaLink | 5:55 AM | |

Charters Still Treated Differently 

Washington Post Education Reporter Theola Labbe has been all over the process school Chancellor Michelle Rhee has been using to replace principals at DCPS schools. What about coverage regarding charter school principals. With at least 25% of all District school children in a charter why is there not equal coverage regarding leadership changes in these schools?

PermaLink | 5:11 AM | |

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Unintended Consequences 

Turns out that Virginia thieves, I mean lawmakers, either ignored or were unaware of the experiences in New Jersey and Michigan regarding the imposition of bad driver fines in those states. The impact is to force thousands to become underground drivers, people who continue to drive but do not get licenses. A quarter of the 800,000 license suspensions issued each year in New Jersey are due to people not being able to pay their fines. In Michigan 40% of suspensions are because of non-payment. Of course, the fines supported by Democratic governors are highly regressive, falling heavily on the poor.

And after living in Virginia for 20 years I can tell you that this law will place an unbelievable burden on the court system because there is a police car literally on every block in that state.

PermaLink | 6:26 AM | |

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Good Thing Guns Are Illigal In D.C. 

Three people were shot in Northwest Washington early yesterday, and a 1-year-old girl was wounded in Northeast last night, bringing to 10 the number of separate shooting incidents in the District since late Thursday, police said.

PermaLink | 8:48 AM | |

Friday, July 20, 2007

Ex DCPS Superintendent Janey Mocks Fenty 

At a party last night celebrating Clifford Janey's commitment to D.C.'s children (you don't know how hard it was to write that) the fired Superintendent got in one last shot at the Fenty Administration:

"When we did the master education plan . . . we didn't take it from anybody's head," Janey said, and the crowd gave him rousing applause. "We did it."
It may now become even harder for him to get that two year severance package he wants.

PermaLink | 6:18 AM | |

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Why Study The Arts? 

The answer is here. A perfect article in the Wall Street Journal by Dana Gioia, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, on why the arts must be studied in American schools.

PermaLink | 6:49 AM | |

If I Could Make People Disappear 

Then tonight would be the time to do so. At a gathering this evening sponsored by DC VOICE honoring of all people former DCPS Superintendent Clifford Janey will be former Mayor Anthony Williams, former DC Council Chair Linda Cropp, and current Chair Vincent Gray. All of these people are directly responsible for the sewer that is D.C. public schools. The icing on the cake would be if Marion Barry shows up. Can we issue arrest warrants?

PermaLink | 6:27 AM | |

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Education Expenses In D.C. Just Became Smaller 

The other day when I was whining about how much our capital city was spending on personnel overseeing the Mayor's educational take over I listed one of Victor Reinoso's special assistants D'Wanna Lee as making $92,700 per year. Well not anymore. Apparently Ms. Lee was fired from her position last Friday for posting nude pictures of her ex-boyfriend around the DCPS headquarters.

One down, many more to go.

PermaLink | 7:14 AM | |

Atlas Shrugged Movie Project Dead 

The saga continues on the making of this film. To get the latest click here.

PermaLink | 6:21 AM | |

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Great Day To Be A Libertarian 

Libertarians are licking their lips in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on the D.C. gun ban. Mayor Fenty announced yesterday that the City is going to try and reverse the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit which said that the law banning handgun ownership in the nation's capital was unconstitutional. Of course, the Supreme Court first as to agree to accept the case. The justices have not taken up the subject of the right to bear arms in almost 70 years.

Mayor Fenty really had no choice. If he did not bring the case to the Supreme Court then the gun ban would have ended due to the Court of Appeals decision. If he loses the next round, which he will, the City is no worse off then it would be had the case not been challanged.

Both sides on this issue recognize how important the Supreme Court decision will be.

Also today, the subject of the correct position libertarians should take on the war in Iraq gets prominent attention in the Wall Street Journal. Randy Barnett, a libertarian professor at Georgetown University, makes the argument for support of the war by free marketers.

Other libertarians, however, supported the war in Iraq because they viewed it as part of a larger war of self-defense against Islamic jihadists who were organizationally independent of any government. They viewed radical Islamic fundamentalism as resulting in part from the corrupt dictatorial regimes that inhabit the Middle East, which have effectively repressed indigenous democratic reformers. Although opposed to nation building generally, these libertarians believed that a strategy of fomenting democratic regimes in the Middle East, as was done in Germany and Japan after World War II, might well be the best way to take the fight to the enemy rather than solely trying to ward off the next attack.

Moreover, the pro-war libertarians believed there was "legal" cause to take military action against Saddam's regime--from its manifold violations of the ceasefire to firing on American planes legally patrolling the "no fly" zone and its persistent refusals to cooperate with weapons inspections. Saddam's regime was left in power after its unprovoked invasion of Kuwait on these and other conditions that it repeatedly had violated, thereby legally justifying its removal by force if necessary. Better to be rid of Saddam and establish an ally in the war against Islamic jihadists in the heart of the Middle East, the argument goes, and then withdraw American troops.
I think this is a strong argument but the notion of pre-emptive war I believe will not sit well with almost all libertarians. Interesting, however, is that the Center for Objectivist Studies came out in favor of the war before it started.

PermaLink | 6:22 AM | |

Monday, July 16, 2007

Success In North Korea Argues Against Iraq War 

I and others pointed out years ago that the way to control Iraq was through deterrence and negotiation. The President, however, declared after 9/11 that countries were either for us or against us. He used this justification, plus the threat of the use of chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein, as the reason to go to war.

But those of us on the other side of this argument wondered why the same reasoning did not apply to North Korea, especially since it was known that this country was developing nuclear weapons.

Today we have evidence that negotiating with the enemy can result in achieving our aims. International inspectors have confirmed that North Korea has shut down its only nuclear reactor in exchange for oil. As this country receives more fuel it will take further steps to terminate its atomic weapons program.

I sincerely wish we would have tried similar diplomacy with Iraq.

PermaLink | 5:50 AM | |

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Just Throw Money At It 

I hope you have not just eaten. Get a load of the annual salaries D.C.'s Mayor Fenty is paying to people to fix the city's schools:

Michelle Rhee, Chancellor, $275,000, 41,250 sign-on bonus, $27,500 performance bonus, total $343,750

Kaya Henderson, Deputy Chancellor, $200,000

Lisa Ruda, Rhee's Chief of Staff, $200,000

Victor Reinoso, Deputy Mayor, $175,000

Eric Lerum, Reinoso's Chief of Staff, $110,000

Tara Bridgett, Reinoso's Executive Assistant, $69,741

Julia Lara, Reinoso Special Assistant, $115,000

Mark Ouellette, Reinoso Special Assistant, $96,700

Bonnie Cain, Reinoso Special Assistant, $92,700

D'Wanna Lee, Reinoso Special Assistant, $92,700

Abigail Smith, Reinoso Special Assistant, $81,250

Jackie Pinckney-Hackett, Director Office of Parent and Community Involvement, $95,000

Amoretta Morris, Senior Policy Analyst $82,424

Claudia Lujan, Policy Analyst, $63,388

Rebecca Katz, Policy Analyst, $63,388

Total cost to D.C. taxpayers, so far, $1,881,041

Most interesting is that DCPS is proposing to spend $555 million to educate children next year not including those in special education. The charter schools are seeking another $320 million. At 877 million dollars we could provide all of D.C.'s 71,000 kids a great private education at more than $12,000 per student. A few years back the Cato Institute estimated that the average cost of a private school education in the nation's capital to be $4,500 per child. Therefore, by using vouchers we could save 555 million dollars and dramatically improve the education of our children.

PermaLink | 5:50 AM | |

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

What Would Make Me Really Really Happy 

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has demonstrated that it is truly conservative and has no respect for precedent, although both Justices Alito and Roberts said during their confirmation hearings that they did, it should find a case to reverse the two year old Kelo decision on eminent domain. It is time to stop governments from stealing private property by declaring them "blight."

PermaLink | 6:37 AM | |

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

D.C. Council Delays Reinoso Vote, Post Disagrees 

Nikita Stewart of the Washington Post reports today that D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray will not allow a vote on Victor Reinoso to be the Deputy Mayor for Education. Why should he?

Ms. Stewart mentions that Mr. Reinoso answered "I don't know" to many fundamental questions asked of him yesterday including when does Summer school end. He will not tell the Council who plagiarized Mayor Fenty's strategic plan for the take over of the school system from a North Carolina district and he has not been open with Gray regarding appointments Mayor Fenty has made to his education leadership team.

I have argued that Reinoso should not be confirmed. The editors of the Washington Post say that a delayed vote injects uncertainty into a crucial period for the Mayor's efforts.

I can certainly see why Mr. Gray is taking this step. He wants to approve the people that the Mayor has selected to run his administration but Mr. Reinoso has cast strong doubts about his ability to do the job through his actions and testimony. Given the circumstances Mr. Gray is doing the best that can.

PermaLink | 6:12 AM | |

Friday, July 06, 2007

Introduction To Edward Hopper's Work 


On this warm day in July how about a short introduction to the work of Edward Hopper by the curator of the show now at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts? Click here.

Interested in more? Come join my wife and I at the Corcoran Gallery of Art this Monday evening as we hear a rare lecture by author and professor Gail Levin, the world's leading authority on Edward Hopper.

PermaLink | 6:15 AM | |

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Yours Truly Quoted In Washington Post 

But did I really say "bravo?" Anyway I'm quoted today in a story about the absence of black people appointed by Mayor Fenty to leadership positions in his administration. I cannot say I'm crazy about the piece. When you read it you see that each person interviewed is identified by the color of their skin.

And it looks like after all the talk about Michelle Rhee's lack of experience in running a school system and her race her seven hours spent during her confirmation hearing before the D.C. Council went without her having to break a sweat. Looks like smooth sailing.

PermaLink | 5:57 AM | |

Monday, July 02, 2007

False Analogy 

The Editors of the Washington Post, in saying that the No Child Left Behind Law should be re-authorized despite it's flaws, make the analogy between the legislation and a house in need of repair.

No one in his right mind would demolish his home because it had a leaky basement or it needed new carpeting. But that's the approach being advocated by those who find fault with the No Child Left Behind Act.
But this comparison is wrong. Properly stated, it would be not only logical but necessary to tear down a home if it were built on land that did not belong to the homeowner. This is essentially what Congress and the President did when they passed NCLB. There is no power granted to the Federal Government by the U.S. Constitution over public education. That authority is reserved for the states. And while some may argue that localities can opt-out of NCLB by not accepting Title I money I not found such an escape valve. As I have pointed out the goals of NCLB seem incompatable to me with schools, like the Doar School, that are trying innovative ways to teach. How can you do something completely different when you are graded on whether your institutuion made AYP?

PermaLink | 6:12 AM | |

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Norton Declares Voucher Wars Over 

Our ignorant non-voting U.S. Representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton, declares today in the Washington Post that the voucher wars are over. What she means is that after one year of standardized testing it has been shown that the students enrolled in D.C.'s Opportunity Scholarship (voucher) Program score no better than those who are in traditional public schools. So after this she wants to end the program because,

1. It was imposed on D.C. from Congress. Tell that to the 1,800 participants who escaped horrible schools to attend private school. Or mention this fact to the three other applicants for every slot that wanted to enroll. I guess these students were forced at gun point to sign up.

2. Giving money to private schools violates the separation of church and state. Not according to the U.S. Supreme Court that decided this matter a couple of years ago in the Zelman Decision.

At a minimum Miss Norton can represent all D.C. residents, including those who count their lucky stars that they got into the voucher program she personally hates.

AND WHAT HAS SHE DONE TO FIX THE DESPICABLE D.C. SCHOOLS? NOTHING, EXCEPT TO PICK UP HER PAYCHECK! I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW POLITICIANS LIKE HER CAN SLEEP AT NIGHT.

PermaLink | 8:39 AM | |

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