HOUSE BILL: Return Education To the Regions Act (Passed - Sent to the VP/PPT)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Peebs is now sponsor of the underlying bill.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Status: Objection filed by Simossad, A vote is now open on the above amendment, Representatives, please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Aye


It moves us in a direction of at least having some financials in the bill. I actually think more than 1% can be cut, and I think there are more areas in which which we can devote that money towards helping provide regions with resources and support.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Oh come on!


I cannot work with this. 4 VOTES?

I am extending the vote 24 hours to make quorum.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I mean public schools with bad equipment and old and poor educational material in social flashpoints. You can not deny that the quality of public schools is better in areas where the general standard of living is higher, and that it is lower in areas where unemployment, poverty and crime plays a big role. Taking your kids out of school in exchange to a financial support does not help at all.

I agree with you to an extent.

The Regions and the Federal Gov't by necessity will have to fill in said "resource gaps" from the top. There is no doubt about that. I have always acknowledged the need for the Federal Gov't to provide the "resources and support" for successful regional action. Of course with 3 Regions instead of 5, their is likely less of a difference in resource availability since all the Regions have larger populations and economic basis, then say the Midwest or Pacific, which would have struggled do to smaller size.

It does help your kid though. And that is where it becomes a social flash point, if you can get your kid out of that failing school, your kid might have a chance at a better life. It is selective yes, but I am not a fan of sacrificing everyone, just so it is equally bad for everyone. That is why I do support school choice and think it has a role to play.

However, clearly once we have reached this point, the school in question has basically been reduced to the state of the Titanic at 2 AM, April 15th, 1912. D deck is flooding, the bow has gone under, the lights have disappeared on the horizon, the rescue ship suddenly expresses uncertainty about whether it can come at all, and all the life boats are mostly deployed, most only half full.

One of the biggest problems in our school system is that the political divide renders action impossible. For the left, it is all about money, driven largely by one of the biggest special interest groups in the Democratic Party (the Teacher's unions), they literally buy school boards in elections and thus negotiations over pay and pensions are essentially case of the "talking to yourself trope". Vast sums go to underfunded pension obligations, endless numbers of ever growing secretaries that never set foot in a classroom and teachers, often the best ones, get screwed.

On the right, it is all about the reforms. The problem is right sees every reform opportunity as a chance to gut funding to pay for more tax cuts to nowhere. So while some of the reforms in the public school system like pay for performance and innovations in the method and manner of teaching, would revolutionize the profession, the loss of resources cripples the system.

That is why I often find myself agreeing with the Republicans on structural reforms and with the Democrats on funding levels.

When we talk about fixing the public school system, we forget that there are places where that system is failing right now and their are kids losing their futures right now. It is fine to say it harms the system to pull kids out of it, but the simple fact is that structural reforms take time and in the mean time, are we just going to lock every below deck to drown?

That is how I see it at least. Homeschooling is not without problems, but like anything you have to regulate the money and have oversight and measure progress. The left loves to point to extremists, quacks and cults when it comes to homeschooling, but they never seem to remember that when you administer something, you have the ability to set standards and if those standards aren't being met, the ability to force a change in the situation. Homeschooling is only as good or bad as the regulations that go with it.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Amendment H6:20 withdrawn.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I am going to hold off on processing this amendment until we can get a better number.

I doubt many schools would be helped as few districts would have such a small operating budget.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I am going to hold off on processing this amendment until we can get a better number.

I doubt many schools would be helped as few districts would have such a small operating budget.

I agree, I used the numbers from the last amendment because I'm not that smart with numbers, and prefer if some one else handled those.

Unfortunately, I ran out of time last time to get on this and my work schedule is murderous the next few days.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I am going to hold off on processing this amendment until we can get a better number.

I doubt many schools would be helped as few districts would have such a small operating budget.

I agree, I used the numbers from the last amendment because I'm not that smart with numbers, and prefer if some one else handled those.

Unfortunately, I ran out of time last time to get on this and my work schedule is murderous the next few days.

No problem, anyone else in this house could propose some numbers.

Throwing something out there for now, my initial guess would be a number somewhere in the low millions, but that isn't based on any research or anything. That my plan originally was to basically search the lowest budget Local Education Authority, and find out what their numbers were.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I guess later is never going to come.

I am going to throw Leinad on this, since I assume he is going to be joining us sometime today as a member.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I will review the information later.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I found this: http://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-education-funding-states.html

http://247wallst.com/special-report/2015/09/25/richest-and-poorest-school-districts/7/

This is better.

It says the poorest district (by income of course) spends 2.2 million in just district funding. Several of the others in the top ten were in the 4 million range. I saw one in the 3 million range.
 

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Atlasian People's House of Representatives
Pending
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Re-offering Enduro's provisional amendment text, updated to reflect subsequent research.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Sponsor?!!!


ONEJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I'm not even the sponsor of this bill.

The implication is you are to find the sponsor.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

My main concern is cutting the budget.

The budget would, most likely, be made up through additional spending from the regions in education.

Yes, this is actually a concrete way of actually doing what Clyde1998 wants to "form a commission" to "talk about" doing.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I was expecting that to generate a response.   Work with me people!

My main concern is cutting the budget. What is the budget for education as of right now?

Here is the thing. The goal of Clyde's commission is to send issues back towards the regions. There are three means by which to do this in terms of legislation content.

1) Abrupt and total relocation of the issue to the regions. - This would cuase massive disruptions and gaps in funding for areas with less resources
2) A total relocation, phased in over time - This removes the shock effects, which could be devastating, but still leaves gaps for impoverished areas.
3) A piecemeal relocation of the responsibility, combined with a significant amount of "support" in the form of said resources - my preferred course.

However, on any issue, you will face the same big concerns.

If this Congress cannot structure such a transition, even with the 3rd path, then I have no faith that the commission's recommendations will be implemented, assuming even that the commission comes to an agreement, which would likely be a difficulty if Congress likewise is unable to act on its own.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I was expecting that to generate a response.   Work with me people!

My main concern is cutting the budget. What is the budget for education as of right now?

Here is the thing. The goal of Clyde's commission is to send issues back towards the regions. There are three means by which to do this in terms of legislation content.

1) Abrupt and total relocation of the issue to the regions. - This would cuase massive disruptions and gaps in funding for areas with less resources
2) A total relocation, phased in over time - This removes the shock effects, which could be devastating, but still leaves gaps for impoverished areas.
3) A piecemeal relocation of the responsibility, combined with a significant amount of "support" in the form of said resources - my preferred course.

However, on any issue, you will face the same big concerns.

If this Congress cannot structure such a transition, even with the 3rd path, then I have no faith that the commission's recommendations will be implemented, assuming even that the commission comes to an agreement, which would likely be a difficulty if Congress likewise is unable to act on its own.

My preferred method is for any federal program/law in the 'devolved' area remaining in place until the region decides to replace it. They'd become responsible for funding of their regional programs after a certain date; perhaps a month by month increase of their percentage funding:

Month 1 - 90% federal; 10% regional
Month 2 - 80% federal; 20% regional
Month 3 - 70% federal; 30% regional (etc.)

This way the regions are given time to pass new programs and adjust their taxation policy to ensure that funding is available for the programs. This could be achieved temporary via block grants, as well.

Option 3 is my second preference - the only issue that I have with it is that each piece of legislation would be separate and there would be no unified legislation which could get confusing after a while.

The commission would, obviously, recommend what should be devolved, but it would be for Congress to complete the process and to determine the final process for which it happens.

Keep in mind though, that comprehensive legislation has a terrible history in this game, of getting canned because "it was too complex" to follow along.

So it is a double edged sword. Multiple bills becomes confusing, one large bill can be even worse.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Okay we are going to have come up with some plan here in the next few days.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Haven't had a chance to completely look all of this over and form an opinion, but bumping this so we don't forget it exists

Has this changed in the past 10 days?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I think so.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I am sure the SoIA can, "catch up".

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I support the framework for reform proposed by this amendment, though I am curious as to how we will reduce funding retroactively from July 2017.

Clearly subsequent amendments are required.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Status: Representatives, a vote is now open on the above Amendment, please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain.