A Lesson In Law Enforcement.
While he won't make the next episode of COPS (thankfully), blogger Saint Paul has a write-up of his speeding-ticket encounter that makes for an entertaining and informative read. (permalink)

Stadium Tax: A Case of Cynicism Validated.
In 1996, Bruce Lambrecht and Rich Pogin created Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, an outfit that opposed taxpayer funding of stadiums. Today, the men are two cheerleaders in a plan to use the public to build a stadium for the Minnesota Twins, a private company with a near-billionaire owner and many extremely well-paid employees.

So what happened? Well, consider this: Lambrecht and Pogin just happen to own the land on which the stadium will be built--land which they hope to sell the land for $13 million.

Did I mention that the taxpayers don't even get a vote on this deal? (permalink)

Where's Newt? Transforming Health Care.
Never one to tinker at the edges, Newt Gingrich hopes to change health care policy. The grandly-named Center for Health Transformation calls for "system-wide change" that includes "information-rich health savings accounts," "secure electronic health records" and "e-prescriptions," and increasing transparency in pricing for pharmaceuticals and medical services.

In an op-ed written for the Washington Post, Gingrich advocates splitting up the Medicaid and Medicare agency within the federal government into three different agencies, based on the different needs of the healthy poor, the disabled, and the elderly.

Here's his take on eldercare:

the legislation would create a program to serve the elderly that reintegrates the family back into their care. The current system, for example, prevents a daughter whose mother is in an assisted-living facility from contributing financially to her mother's care without losing all Medicaid coverage. This either-or mentality is anti-family and leaves the recipient with a lower quality of life.

The program should also integrate modern information technology systems, home diagnostic equipment, real-time monitoring and rapid health assistance when necessary. For example, a growing company called Living Independently has created the QuietCare home monitoring system, with motion detectors that actually learn an individual's daily habits and routines. The system regularly updates a caregiver on the person being cared for and immediately highlights any atypical patterns. Caregivers use this technology to provide unobtrusive monitoring of seniors in their homes while preserving individual privacy and freedom.

Don't count Newt out. With members such as Health South on board as well as a golden rolodex, the center will be worth watching.

Labels: Medicaid

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Health: A New Blog for Insurance Policy.
One great thing about blog publishing: it's an easy way for people to offer information and analysis on the most specialized of topics, including individual health insurance. While most people rely on group coverage, individual decision-making in insurance won't be so esoteric for much longer.

Increasingly, families and individuals will make their own decisions on health care, and health insurance, and rely less on the choice of employers. We've seen that move towards consumer freedom and responsibility in retirement planning, with the move from defined benefit pension plans to defined contribution 401(k)s and IRAs.

Coming up: consumer-directed health care, in people take a more active role in selecting health insurance policies and making treatment plans. One avenue for that direction is the advent of health savings accounts (HSAs). The Individual Health Insurance blog is fairly new, and so far focuses on providing links to news reports dealing with the rollout of HSAs.

Labels: Health care

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G-File Author Comes to Town.
Last night I heard a talk by Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of National Review Online.

It was a folksy, informal talk. Goldberg sat at a desk, in front of approximately 50 people (two-thirds of whom appeared to be college students). As befits his reputation, one of his first remarks was "If I had known I would be sitting behind a desk, I wouldn't have worn pants."

Since the talk was sponsored by a student environmental group, his talk focused on environmental policy. It's not one of Goldberg's specialties (nor mine), though as a pundit, he has written about it from time to time. He took a special interest in oil drilling in Alaska (ANWR), both because it was requested by his hosts, and because he has family ties to the state.

Here are a few comments I took from his talk. They are very loosely paraphrased representations of Goldberg's remarks, not my own. It should be pointed out that he was speaking in generalities; there are obvious exceptions to characterizations of "the Left" or "conservatives."


On being a conservative humorist:
Sometimes I am described as a humorist. This is based on a stereotype of conservatives. Since they are mean and without endearing personal qualities, any conservative who makes a few jokes stands out from the rest.

On conservative environmentalists:
I thought I knew the entire conservative environmental community. We play poker together.

On debating:
Hannah Arendt observed that leftists question motives, not facts. If you disagree, it's not that you have the wrong facts; no, you are a bad person.

This is tied in with ideas of false consciousness and identity politics.

Another cheap form of argumentation is to say "It's for the children." Disagreements over means becomes disagreements over ends, with only one side ("the children") having the laudable end in mind.

Rhetorical tricks are especially strong in debates over environmental policy; pragmatic questions--how is this going to work--are seen with an evil eye by many environmentalists.

On animals:
I like animals, especially tasty ones.

On wealth and environmental quality:
If you want to fix the environment, get rich. Across time, and across societies, wealthy societies are cleaner than poor ones. They can afford to take environmental concerns into account.

On religion and environmentalism:
At the end of the day, the left makes quasi-religious arguments, not scientific ones. For example, it invokes rituals, like recycling, that have no obvious benefit. It also involves an end-of-the-world scenario common to many religions. ANWR, the oil reserve in Alaska, is "the dome of the rock of the environmental movement."

On aesthetics and the environment:
One talking point about ANWR from the anti-drilling side is that we can't drill there because it is pristine and beautiful. But pristine does not always equal beautiful. ANWR is beautiful; the north slope of ANWR is "not quite." The north slope is largely a collection of two-inch deep mud puddles. In the winter, it's a frozen darkness; in summer, it's a place where enormous mosquitos (and insects of worse reputation) hunt humans.

Environmentalism past and future:
If environmentalists want to take credit for clean-up progress from the 1970s through 2000, fine. But we're heading for new challenges, and the standard environmentalism is not helpful any more.

Do something about what you can do something about:
Global warming is real. But what can we do about it without drastically harming our economy? Nothing, and even then, the benefits are negligible. Better to spend the money we would throw away on those efforts on something that is achievable, such as ensuring clean drinking water for the world population.

On the law:
I like my constitutions dead.

On the future of the environmental debate:
We're at a tipping point; Republicans currently and will continue to control the federal government, and environmentalists are coming to terms with that.

On forests:
Do you want more trees? Subsidize logging.

On the value of libertarians to conservatives:
They are like Celtic tribes: they are useful to unleash on your enemies, but you don't one of them on the throne. (permalink)

Taxes: More Money Wasted, as Tax Money Goes to Multimillionaires.
A certain edifice complex can have an extraordinary power that causes people of left and right to abandon principles.

Conservatives, who often cast a suspicious eye on tax increases, can say "Oh yeah, a few pennies here and there for more taxes is fine."

Social democrats who normally call for "the lucky" to pay even more in taxes, can in turn endorse handing out money to multimillionaires.

What has this power? Professional sports. The desire for some vicarious glory through sports drives too many people to a "eh, why not?" attitude. Money for millionaires? Sure. We'll enjoy it.

The latest victims investors: Hennepin County, Minnesota, which includes Minneapolis, and the Mall of America.

County commissioners hope to increase the sales tax to benefit one privately owned business: the Minnesota Twins, who are owned by a multi-millionaire who employs, if not a dugout of multi-millionaires, guys who will earn more in a season than many people will learn in a lifetime. The goal: a new baseball stadium, priced at nearly half a billion dollars.

Commissioners first must get the approval of the governor, and the legislature. The "no new taxes" governor has said that tapping taxpayers is "reasonable."

As for the legislature, "no new taxes" is also the campaign cry of many in the House. But even some of that caucus may be willing to let Hennepin commissioners tax their own residents. After all, the state and the legislature off the hook--at least until the team goes crying for a roof (this is what one radio host calls Minne-so-cold, after all), which should cost at least $100 million.

Says the news account in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "the tax is projected to raise $28 million a year and retire $353 million in county debt."

You read that right. The county is going to float public debt to benefit a single privately owned company. A company with a multimillionaire owner, and quite wealthy employees.

But not to worry, for the Carl Pohlad, team owner, will "$40 million up front and $85 million more before the ballpark would open in 2009."

Actually, Pohland may not pay that much at all; he's 89 after all, meaning that his heirs--if the team is still in the family's hands by 2009--will have to pay the money.

Wonder how many advocates of the death tax support enhancing one family's wealth with taxpayer dollars.

FUNNY MATH
There's one likely scenario, however, in which even that family share won't amount to anything. Why? Having a brand-new stadium around will raise the value of the team so much that the Pohlad family will come out smelling like roses.

The Star-Tribune's Doug Grow draws out some back-of-the-envelope calculations.

Here's what makes the deal so sweet for the Pohlads: "The day the Twins would move into this new stadium, the Pohlad family likely would get back his investment -- and more."

The value of the Twins, now estimated at $127 million by Forbes, could rise by at least $111 million, covering almost all of the $125 million contribution expected from the private owner.

Throw in naming rights. Grow points out that companies now pay anywhere from $2.1 to $6 million for the right to affix their name to a stadium ("Duct Tape Park," anyone?). Accordingly, says Grow, "the Pohlads, conservatively, would receive $130 million for this $125 million investment."

Get the taxpayers to pay for most of costs of building your new factory, chip in yourself, and get that amount back over time. In short, 100 percent taxpayer financing.

Can I get that kind of deal on my house? I'll let small groups of people play bocce on the front yard--but only if I can keep the ticket sales and sell $5 beer out of the station wagon. (permalink)

Go Ahead. Hit the Blackjack Table. It's for the Children.
After having climbed out of fiscal holes by making modest budget cuts or using budgetary gimmicks, some states may double down on the idea of expanding gambling. Its attraction: more money, of course, especially for K-12 education. Kansas is one state where the idea has attracted some attention. State-owned casinos are not out of the question, having been endorsed by Governor Sebelius.

It's one thing to argue that free adults ought to be able to spend some money in a casino, even if a small percentage of people will spend the children's milk money in doing so. It's far worse, though, to stake government programs, even politically popular ones such as education, on government-owned casinos. Far better to acquire discipline in spending and the ability to drop some good (and not so good) line items in favor of the highest priority ones. (permalink)

Education: Which Branch of Goverment Decides the Tax Levels?
The battle between legislature and judiciary in determining K-12 budgets is playing itself out in Kansas.

The Free State Center for Liberty Studies joins the fray with the following essay, which accuses the members of the Kansas Supreme Court of being "judges pretending to be legislators."

The Freestate Center for Liberty Studies
827 S.W. Topeka Blvd.
Topeka, KS 66612
(785) 233-5157

EDITORIAL RELEASE
For Immediate Release, April 22, 2005
Wearing a Black Robe to Make Sausage

By Bob L. Corkins

Want to create new laws without legislators? Then watch the Kansas Supreme Court for the next few weeks to see how it’s done.

Like pride for trophies on a mantle, trial lawyers boast of cases where they convinced a court to declare the birth of a new duty. Persuade a jury that somebody owes a responsibility to someone else, even if there’s no agreement, precedent, or statute providing a basis, then collect damages after showing the duty was breached.

If the decision holds up on appeal – Presto! – a new law is born. You don’t even need to mess with a jury when a single judge is tabbed as the official “finder of fact”.

Plaintiff school districts found just the judge they were hoping for when they filed their billion dollar Montoy v. State case challenging the fairness of Kansas’ K-12 education funding plan. The trial judge ruled that the state aid formula was both inequitable and under-funded. The Kansas Supreme Court now appears ready to uphold that result, but with one major twist in reasoning.

Any discrimination of our laws is traditionally evaluated with the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. In the Montoy trial court’s opinion, disparities in K-12 funding caused “a clear denial of equal protection of the laws in contravention of both the United States and Kansas Constitutions”.

Many disagree with this conclusion and formed solid legal reasons for their disagreement. How? By applying well known standards that the Judiciary has reinforced for generations when interpreting Equal Protection.

When the Supreme Court did this for the Montoy appeal in January, it specifically reversed the trial court by writing “We conclude that all of the funding differentials as provided by the [Act] are rationally related to a legitimate legislative purpose. Thus, the [Act] does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Kansas or United States Constitutions.”

It would seem, then, that the only question left is whether Kansas’ overall spending on K-12 is enough to satisfy Article 6 of the Kansas Constitution by being "suitable." The Supreme Court agreed with the trial court that current funds are not suitable, then gave the Legislature a few months to make it good.

Further word from the Supreme Court was issued, perhaps ominously, on April 15, tax day for millions of Americans. It ordered additional briefs responding to many questions, including demands for justification of: disparities in K-12 funding between districts; the “weighting” of some categories of students more or less than others; failure to automatically increase special education funds by annual inflation; and, all disparities based on actual costs per pupil.

All are Equal Protection questions. Are these really the same judges that just gave the finance plan a clean Equal Protection bill of health? The Court throws logic out the window when it says all funding differentials are rationally related to legitimate purposes, then sneers that they are the result of political bargains.

Explanation: the Court’s upcoming decision will probably make new constitutional law.

The Court’s only remaining path of legal reasoning to indict the K-12 formula is with Article 6 which says “the legislature shall make suitable provision for finance”.

There is no legal precedent for interpreting this phrase. None from Kansas; only a couple other states that use the term “suitable” in this context and none of their cases offer guidance either.

Thus, the Supreme Court is free to declare that “suitable” means whatever it chooses. Maybe they’ll pluck from their favorite dictionary definitions. “Suitable” could easily become like Equal Protection on steroids, meaning anything the Court might eventually consider “fair”. There’s no current standard for evaluating it, so the Court can use it to reject any fix the Legislature might negotiate. At least when the plaintiffs first filed suit, they were shooting at a stationary target. And when the trial court ruled, however wrong its conclusion, at least it was using an established legal standard.

Worse still, consider the Court’s deep inquiry into the fairness of finance plan details. Its recent questions sound like those posed by someone wanting to micro-manage the Legislature’s response. But the separation of legal power is not like that strip of border grass that sometimes you mow, sometimes your neighbor does. It must be a constitutional firewall.

One of the court’s questions last week was more revealing and politically charged than the rest. What’s the “constitutional significance” of failing to name a future source of K-12 funding? The answer should emphatically be “None”. Only judges pretending to be legislators would ask that question in the first place.

# # #

Bob L. Corkins is executive director of the Freestate Center for Liberty Studies. The Freestate Center is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit, Topeka based research institute for advancing the Constitutional principles of limited government, individual liberty, free enterprise and traditional family values. Freestate is organized under IRS § 501(c)(3).

Labels: Education

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Economics: $100 to Park Your Car? What a Deal!
A principle of basic economics is that a good or service is as cheap (or dear) as what a willing buyer will pay. But that principle is often lost in a sea of populism.

Dean Barnett writes for the Weekly Standard that some Boston Red Sox fans have paid $100 for a parking spot close to Fenway Park. While the mayor thinks that's outrageous, Barnett says "parking around Fenway is a display of free market capitalism at its finest."

It's all about an individual's tradeoff between cash and convenience: not surprisingly, the most expensive lots are the ones closest to the park. Take a mass transit line, by contrast, and your parking fee is $0.

Of course, it's easy for politicians such as Thomas P. Menino to strike a populist pose by clamor for price controls. One can only be thankful they don't succeed more often than they do.

Labels: Transportation

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Taxes: Higher Tax Rates Coming Your Way.
Among the latest advocates of higher tax rates: politicians formerly known as fiscal conservatives. The Christian Science Monitor has a report.

One possible reason: these individuals have "grown in office" and have come to accept the need for higher taxes.

Another: changing one's mind is easier than winning against an iron triangle of bureaucracies, their constituents, and their allied politicians in the task of reforming or dismantling government programs and departments. (permalink)

Some Good News for Earth Day.
Tomorrow is Earth Day, the time to reflect on all that is dismal and dire about the world. Unless, of course, you are familiar with the work of Steve Hayward.

Here's the take of one reporter at Bloomberg:

For several years now, the leading lights of the environmental movement have been pretending Hayward and his index don't exist.

Why? Hayward is an optimist. His index of environmental indicators is a collection of good news. And, for the professional pessimists of the green movement, too much good news is bad news. (permalink)

Education: Legislative-Judicial Conflict in Kansas.
When the words "Kansas" and "education" appear in the same sentence, the first thought that may cross your line is "evolution."

While the endless curriculum debate does break into the newspapers now and again, a more interesting debate is going on, over school funding. In short, the state's supreme court has said that the legislature is not fulfilling its constitutional obligations by not spending enough tax money on K-12 schools, and not making sure that funding across districts is more even than it is.

The publisher of Kansas Small Business takes the court to task. Kenneth Daniel points out that since 1992, "nearly 50 changes were made in the school funding formula, all of which added money."

The court said that because of societal changes, even more money is required. Asks Daniel, "to which 'societal changes' do they refer that have taken place?"
To summarize his argument, the number of non-native speakers is up, but funding for bilingual education even more; meanwhile, the number of students in poverty is in decline, but total funding for "as-risk" students is up.

The court is expected to issue another ruling soon. Its most recent ruling is (PDF link) here. (permalink)

Education: Bilingual Education Leads to "Spanish for Native Spanish Speakers."
Is bilingual education an alternative to English-language immersion? That, and much more.

If you think that bilingual education means "take a class to learn English, take some other classes in English, and take some other classes in Spanish" (or another second language), you're behind the times.

A new trend in education is Spanish language classes for people who already know Spanish.

The rationale: many youngsters who come to this country knowing how to speak Spanish don't know how to write it. So they take classes in Spanish composition. (permalink)

Smoking Bans Advance in the Heartland
Kansas City may be the next major municipality to ban smoking in commercial settings.

While I have no fondness of tobacco smoke, bans trample the right of property owners (who may wish to offer a smoking environment to their customers). It also violates the spirit of the freedom of association: goodbye, smoker's hangout.

Such bans are typically advanced on principles of paternalism. They are sold as a way to protect the health of employees who work in what had been smoke-filled rooms. But they are rooted in the conviction that people are too stupid to make appropriate judgments about their preferred working conditions.

To show how piecemeal politics is, consider this: in some cities, a 21-year old may not smoke a cigarette in a bar, but a 16-year old can get an abortion without her parent's permission. (permalink)

Focus on Government Size, Not Methods of Operation.
Today's commentary at the Mackinac Center gives us three reminders of how government is not like business. One, there are few positive financial incentives for good or improved service; two, competition for services delivered by government is largely absent; three, businesses face the threat of going out of existence if they don't satisfy customers, while governments don't.

This is not to say that competitive contracting or efforts to make government operate more like a business are bad things. But with political (rather than market-driven) mechanisms for determining government budgets or the threat of liquidation, efforts to improve government operations without thinking about the proper size and scope of government will have limited effects. (permalink)

Santa Clause is Coming to Town.
April 15 is the day when Santa Clause comes to town. Here's what I wrote about tax day for the Detroit News:

Santa Clause will be appearing at your local post office this week. The best chance for spotting him is Friday night, from 9pm to midnight.

To quote a songwriter, Santa's Gonna Come in a Pickup Truck. In some locales, however, he might be driving a minivan, SUV, or a Ford Taurus.

Instead of landing on your roof to drop off toys for children, Santa will be mailing in the balance of income tax payments owned to federal and state (and in come cases, local) governments.

You won't see any cheeks ... like roses, as you would with the old St. Nick. Instead, you may see eyes bleary and faces weary--weary from the burden of paying taxes and plowing through the associated paperwork and their incomprehensible instructions.

For small children, Santa Clause is the man behind all the goodies of Christmas morning. Many adults believe in Santa Clause, too. In their case, Santa delivers year-round, in the form of government programs that address every desire and need of mankind.

Of course, no sane adult would actually say that he believes that Santa Clause will reduce unemployment, eliminate poverty, provide "free" health care, or promote happiness.

Yet when we call on government, at any level, to provide this or that service, we often act as if Santa Clause is out there, waiting to create goodies for us at no cost. It is easy to forget that the money required to fund government services--including those of the loftiest rhetoric--must first be taken through penalty of law from families and individual citizens, through the tax system. The costs of operating a workshop at the North Pole may be zero, but government workers can't work free of charge.

For young children, Santa Clause brings great hope on December 24.

For adults who are not yet economically literate, Santa Clause provides goodies every day.

I've never seen the Santa Clause of Christmas eve. But come April 15, I'll know where to find the Santa Clauses who fund the "gifts" that too many people expect from the public sector. (permalink)

Social Security Reform: Take a Test Drive with the Numbers
The Heritage Foundation, an advocate of Social Security reform, recently unveiled its Personal Retirement Account Calculator. Give it a whirl and see how your retirement planning could be improved through personal accounts.

You will need to enter four items: your age, sex, marital status, and income (plus that of your spouse).

By using details of what is known about President Bush's plan, as well as current law governing Social Security, historic interest rates and other factors, the calculator gives you two options at retirement.

Under the first option, all the money in the account is converted into an annuity, which is a guaranteed monthly check. In all likelihood, the check will be bigger than what you would receive through traditional Social Security, under today's law.

Under the second option, only a portion of the personal account would be converted into a monthly check. But you would still get the same monthly check that you would under today's law. What about the rest of your money, that isn't converted into a monthly check? It's your nest egg. Use it any way you like. Fund your grandchildren's college education. Blow it on eBay. It's your money.

Of course, any simulator or calculator depends on a series of assumptions. The ones used in the calculator seem reasonable to me, but decide for yourself; read the FAQ. You can find a link to it on the same page as the calculator. One of the key assumptions: when you put money into the personal account, that amount is subtracted from the number used to calculate your monthly benefits under the old way of doing things. That's to avoid "double dipping." That sounds fair.

TWO EXAMPLES

Here are two scenarios I ran to illustrate how the calculator works.

An single woman, aged 25 and earning $25-30,000 a year, would receive $1,270 a month as a result of the old formula, but also have over $34,000 left as a nest egg, thanks to her personal account. Alternately, she could use that $34,000 to augment the monthly check, giving her another $560 a month over today's program.

A married couple in their early 40s, earning $35,000 each, would have a nest egg of over $15,000 at retirement, and also get the same monthly checks as today's law allows. Or they could use their $15,000 nest egg to add to the monthly check, giving them another $658 a month over today's program.

How does this work? Everyone knows that if you put money aside today, you'll have more of it tomorrow. The personal account reform for Social Security takes advantage of that principle to make a better future for all. (permalink)

Education: School Choice Has Wide Support.
Over 90 percent of voters surveyed in Arizona support at least one of the several school choice measures now being debated by that state's legislature.

Among the other findings:

• More than 70 percent support increasing the current educational tax credit for personal tax filers;
  
• Almost half (49.5 percent) favor universal vouchers, the most ambitious of school choice plans;
  
• Embracing school choice is a winning strategy for political candidates.

More information is available (PDF link) at the Friedman Foundation site.

The poll was created by Dr. Margaret Kenski of Arizona Opinion, and conducted by DataCall, Inc. of Phoenix during late March. Its sample size was 602, and the margin of error was +/- 4 percent.

Labels: Education, School choice

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Housing Availability and Ease of Mobility in Fly-Over Land.
What are the two biggest headaches of metropolitan life? Aside from lousy schools, high housing costs and lots of traffic qualify.

Writing for the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Wendell Cox finds Oklahoma Poised for Growth.

The essay is an interesting review of how transportation and land use policies affect both housing costs and drive times.

Among the data that stand out:

• Two-thirds of the variation in cost of living across large metropolitan areas can be explained by housing prices;
  
• Cities that ration land (Denver, Portland, San Francisco) through smart-growth policies have higher than average housing costs;
  
• In metropolitan areas with 1 million or more people, those with land rationing policies score 50 percent higher on a housing cost index than metropolitan areas that do not;
  
• Cities that have been the most aggressive in implementing land-rationing policies (smart growth) have seen their traffic congestion increase the most; and
  
• The economic growth of an urban area is linked to how easily it is to travel from one side of the region to another (this makes sense when you consider that it increases the use of comparative advantage among workers).

Cox concludes that Oklahoma has a bright future both for what it does (spend money on roads) and what it doesn't (implement "smart growth" policies).

Labels: Transportation

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Taxes or Fees, the Money Ain't Free.
When is a payment to government a tax? And when it is a fee? That's a question swirling around the Minnesota capitol these days.

One legislator jokes that a $1-per-pack levy from government might be called a "cigarette health enhancement fee."

Legislation from the chairman of the House Taxes Committee defines a tax as: "any fee, charge, exaction, or assessment imposed by a governmental entity on an individual, person, entity, transaction, good, service, or other thing. It excludes a price that an individual or entity chooses voluntarily to pay in return for receipt of goods or services provided by the governmental entity." If I'm reading the language rightly, it defines licensing fees (occupational fees, business fees) as a tax as well. That's arguably defensible, since it reflects the cost of spending determined by the political process to be desirable.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which tax chairman chairman Phil Krinkie as "possibly the state's purest elected tightwad," explains paraphrases the the intent of the bill: "The average person doesn't make a distinction between taxes and fees, accelerations or any of the other labels beloved by politicians of all parties who would rather not appear to be raising taxes."

The voluntariness of a transaction, it would seem, should play a part in labeling something a tax or a fee. Also important: the significance of the transaction to daily life.

Fisherman pay for fishing licenses, but fishing is hardly essential to survival or even prosperity, unless you're a survivalist or a commercial fisherman. So for most people, the license is a fee.

Does government take a significant role in actually providing the service? If so, then perhaps it's a fee, especially if it's voluntary. Government-run golf courses are good example: not essential to survival (economic or otherwise), and provided entirely by government.

On the other hand, if government plays a minimal role, or if the role is primarily related to regulation--say, wireless telephone service--then the "fees" are really taxes.

Finally, if the fees in question, such as "impact fees" levied on new housing developments, are not accurately and consistently calculated, there's a high likelihood that they are in fact taxes.

The value of Krinkie's legislation, if enacted: it might make the cost that we choose to pay for government more transparent.

Labels: Golf

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Education: Updates to Kansas Education Numbers
The Flint Hills Center for Public Policy has released two more of my policy briefs on district-level funding levels. The briefs on Blue Valley and Topeka join previously released briefs on Dodge City, Salina, and the state of Kansas as a whole. (permalink)

Education: Schools for Students, or Students for Schools?
Over 5,400 students have left the decrepit Kansas City (MO) school district for charter schools. This article from the Jefferson City News Tribune gives a glance at parents of the students who left. Their response has been positive: [The old school had] too big of a crowd. "There are gangs and shooting and fighting all up there in that school all the time, and I don't care if they have the policemen and everything there. I'm still not happy with the school."

But most of the article focuses on the financial losses of the KC district--never mind that the district now has fewer students to be responsible for. More importantly, the tenor of the article focuses on the financial need of the district rather than the new opportunities for learning enjoyed by the charter school students.

Unfortunately, that's where discussions of school choice often lead.

Labels: Charter schools, Education, School choice

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Be Not Afraid: A Legacy of Courage and Dignity.
My (all too brief) tribute to Pope John Paul II's contribution to social and economic thorught is up at the site of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. (permalink)

On the Radio.
This morning I gave a radio interview on my upcoming tribue to the economic policy work of Pope John Paul II. Talking to someone hundreds of miles away on the telephone, knowing that your voice is going to be heard by thousands of people is certainly a different way of communicating than writing.

It wasn't my first time being interviewed, but it was the most unusual thus far. There were no commercials, for one thing. I kept waiting for that interruption, but it never came.

And there's one advantage of radio interviews over public appearances: no possibility of getting hit in the face with a pie, as recently happened to William Kristol at Earlham College.

Without any hint of irony, the Indianapolis Star noted that Earlham is "well-known for its peace studies program."

So that's what we need for peaceful dispute resolution. More pies!

They are safer than land mines. (permalink)

When Schools Get More Money For the Poor, the Number of Poor Will Increase.
That's the conclusion suggested by Kenneth Daniel.

The state of Kansas pays local districts an extra amount for each child who qualifies for a free lunch. Over the last decade, the amount of the "bonuys" has gone up. So has the number of students claimed by school districts.

There's one interesting anomaly, however: in that low-growth state, Census bureau numbers reveal that the percentage of children in low-income families declined by 28 percent during the same time. (permalink)

Taxes: Combat High Gas Prices by Cutting State Spending.
The Illinois Policy Institute offers an unusual proposal for dealing with high prices for gasoline: cut state government spending.

It's a little more complicated than that, so here's the abstract:

This spring and summer, Illinoisans will pay at least 25% more for gasoline than they did last year, giving them a true case of the summertime blues. As high as gasoline prices are right now ... just wait. Crude oil prices continue to hover above $55 a barrel, breaking past $58 in the first days of April. But unlike the refrain from the Eddie Cochran song, there is a cure for the summertime blues: it's called a gas tax holiday. Illinois' 30 cent a gallon is one of the highest gas taxes in the country, nearly double the 18 cents they pay in Indiana and 17 cents paid in Missouri. It would cost the State of Illinois approximately $377 million to suspend the Gas Tax for three months, specifically May, June, and July. This policy brief suggests ways to cut about $377 from the Governor's 2006 budget in order to "pay for" this Gas Tax Holiday. Lowering the taxes Illinoisans pay at the pump would pump more money into the pockets of Illinois' families and help keep dollars and jobs in Illinois. (permalink)

Stop School Shootings by Arming School Guards.
In the wake of the murders at a school in northern Minnesota, Jim Swift points out an anomaly: "We can allow a guard to be armed when protecting money or politicians or movie stars. But not when protecting children." (permalink)

Pope John Paul II on Economic Freedom.
While John Paul II may go down in history as the pope who helped end communism, his scholarship was significant as well. In particular, his seminal work on economics, the encyclical Centesimus Annus, is worth looking at.

Here are some excerpts of that teaching, which is about anthropology and theology as much as it is economics. The arabic numbers reflect the paragraph numbers of the original.

It is best to think of this as a compilation of discrete thoughts, since as a whole it may not flow very well. In addition, the text has been strongly edited, taking the first few words of one sentence and then skipping to the end of a sentence four sentences away, skipping three in between. Some sentences that appear to be a single sentence may have been two or three in the original. Still, the excerpting was done with a desire to not distort the meaning of the original.

The watchword of the blogosphere applies--"read the whole thing." But since the whole thing is rouhgly 50 pages (12 point font), few people will actually do that. In this case, excerpts are better than nothing.

4. Toward the end of the last century the labor became a commodity to be freely bought and sold on the market, its price determined by the law of supply and demand without taking into account the bare minimum required for the support of the individual and his family.

The prevailing political theory of the time sought to promote total economic freedom by appropriate laws or, conversely, by a deliberate lack of any intervention.

5. The pope and the church with him were confronted, as was the civil community, by a society which was torn by a conflict … between capital and labor.

As in the days of Pope Leo XIII … ideologies are being increasingly discredited. Now, as then, we need to repeat that there can be no genuine solution of the "social question" apart from the Gospel …

7. … Pope Leo XIII's encyclical also affirms … is the "natural human right" to form … trade unions: … because the right of association is a natural right of the human being.

… The encyclical affirms … the right to legitimate rest, and the right of children and women [21] to be treated differently with regard to the type and duration of the work.

8. The pope immediately adds … the right to a "just wage," which cannot be left to the "free consent of the parties … A workman's wages should be sufficient to enable him to support himself, his wife and his children.

9. Pope Leo … affirms the need for Sunday rest so that people may turn their thoughts to heavenly things and to the worship which they owe to almighty God.

One may ask whether existing laws and the practice of industrialized societies effectively ensure in our own day the exercise of this basic right to Sunday rest.

10…. Rerum Novarum" criticizes … socialism and liberalism. … … . The richer class has many ways of shielding itself and stands less in need of help from the state whereas the mass of the poor have no resources of their own to fall back on and must chiefly depend on the assistance of the state. It is for this reason that wage earners, since they mostly belong to the latter class, should be specially cared for and protected by the government." [33]

What we nowadays call the principle of solidarity … is … one of the fundamental principles of the Christian view of social and political organization.

11. … Pope Leo's encyclical on the "condition of the workers" is … on the poor and on the terrible conditions to which the new and often violent process of industrialization had reduced great multitudes of people. Today in many parts of the world similar processes of economic, social and political transformation are creating the same evils.

This should not however lead us to think that Pope Leo expected the state to solve every social problem. … inasmuch as the individual, the family and society are prior to the state and inasmuch as the state exists in order to protect their rights and not stifle them. [37]

Beyond the rights which man acquires by his own work, there exist rights which … flow from his essential dignity as person.

CHAPTER 2
Toward the "New Things" of Today

12. Socialism is … a solution which, by appearing to reverse the positions of the poor and the rich, was in reality detrimental to the very people whom it was meant to help. The remedy would prove worse than the sickness. By defining the nature of the socialism of his day as the suppression of private property, Leo XIII arrived at the crux of the problem.

13. The fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature. Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that the good of the individual is completely subordinated to the functioning of the socioeconomic mechanism.

In contrast, from the Christian vision … the social nature of man is not completely fulfilled in the state, but is realized in various intermediary groups, beginning with … family and including economic, social, political and culture groups which stem from human nature itself and [which] have their own autonomy,…

14. The pope does not… intend to condemn every possible form of social conflict. … what is condemned in class struggle is the idea that conflict is not restrained by ethical or juridical considerations or by respect for the dignity of others …

Therefore class struggle in the Marxist sense and militarism have the same root, namely atheism and contempt for the human person, which place the principle of force above that of reason and law.

15. "Rerum Novarum" is opposed to state control of the means of production, which would reduce every citizen to being a "cog" in the state machine. It is no less forceful in criticizing a concept of the state which completely excludes the economic sector from the state's range of interest and action. There is certainly a legitimate sphere of autonomy in economic life which the state should not enter. The state, however, has the task of determining the juridical framework within which economic affairs are to be conducted and thus of safeguarding the prerequisites of a free economy, which presumes a certain equality between the parties such that one party would not be so powerful as practically to reduce the other to subservience. [43]

Just reforms can restore dignity to work as the free activity of man. … protecting the worker from the nightmare of unemployment. … either through economic policies aimed at ensuring balanced growth and full employment or through unemployment insurance and retraining programs …

Furthermore, society and the state must ensure wage levels adequate for the maintenance of the worker and his family, including a certain amount for savings. This requires a continuous effort to improve workers' training and capability so that their work will be more skilled and productive, as well as careful controls and adequate legislative measures to block shameful forms of exploitation, especially to the disadvantage of the most vulnerable workers, of immigrants and of those on the margins of society. The role of trade unions in negotiating minimum salaries and working conditions is decisive in this area.

Finally, "humane" working hours and adequate free time need to be guaranteed as well.

The state must contribute … by creating favorable conditions for the free exercise of economic activity … … by defending the weakest by placing certain limits on the autonomy of the parties who determine working conditions and by ensuring in every case the necessary minimum support for the unemployed worker. [45]

The encyclical… influence is evident in … social security, pensions, health insurance and compensation in the case of accidents …

16. … the workers' movement … began as a response of moral conscience to unjust and harmful situations, … its efforts were often joined to those of Christians ….. Later on this movement was dominated to a certain extent by the Marxist ideology …

17. Pope Leo's whole magisterium … points … to … an error [of] an understanding of human freedom which detaches it from obedience to the truth and consequently from the duty to respect the rights of others.

However, it is only when hatred and injustice are sanctioned and organized by the ideologies based on them, rather than on the truth about man, that they take possession of entire nations and drive them to act. [World War II reference]

18. … For many years there has been in Europe and the world a situation of nonwar rather than genuine peace. [It was bad.]

An insane arms race swallowed up the resources needed for the development of national economies … Scientific and technological progress … was transformed into an instrument of war: Science and technology were directed to the production of ever more efficient and destructive weapons. Meanwhile, an ideology … provide[d] doctrinal justification for the new war.

The logic of power blocs or empires … led to a situation in which controversies and disagreements among Third World countries were systematically aggravated and exploited in order to create difficulties for the adversary.

The concepts of "total war" and "class struggle" must necessarily be called into question.

19. World War II, … should have reestablished freedom and restored the rights of nations, [but] ended without having attained these goals.

Following the destruction caused by the war, we see in some countries and under certain aspects a positive effort to rebuild a democratic society inspired by social justice, so as to deprive communism of the revolutionary ….

[Social democracy makes]… such attempts ... to preserve free-market mechanisms, .. [but also] try to avoid making market mechanisms the only point of reference for social life, and they tend to subject them to public control …

Other social forces and ideological movements … [are] emphasizing and increasing the power of the state[;], they wish to protect their people from communism, but in doing so they run the grave risk of destroying the freedom and values of the person, the very things for whose sake it is necessary to oppose communism.

The affluent society …. seeks to defeat Marxism … by showing how a free-market society can achieve a greater satisfaction of material human needs than communism, while equally excluding spiritual values. …. In reality … it agrees with Marxism in the sense that it totally reduces man to the sphere of economics and the satisfaction of material needs.

20. During the same period, a widespread process of "decolonization" occurred … however … decisive sectors of the economy still remain de facto in the hands of large foreign companies … Political life itself is controlled by foreign powers, while … tribal groups not yet amalgamated into a genuine national community. Also lacking is a class of competent professional people capable of running the state …

Given this situation, many think that Marxism can offer a sort of shortcut for building up the nation and the state …

The overall balance of the various policies of aid for development has not always been positive.

The United Nations, … has not yet succeeded in establishing as alternatives to war effective means for the resolution of international conflicts..

CHAPTER 3
The Year 1989

23. Among the many factors involved in the fall of oppressive regimes … was the violation of the rights of workers. … It was the throngs of working people which forswore the ideology which presumed to speak in their name.

The fall of this kind of "bloc" or empire was accomplished almost everywhere by … peaceful protest, using only the weapons of truth and justice. …. appealing to the conscience of the adversary and seeking to reawaken in him a sense of shared human dignity.

24. The second factor in the crisis was certainly the inefficiency of the economic system, which is … a consequence of the violation of the human rights to provide initiative, to ownership of property and to freedom in the economic sector.

It is not possible to understand man on the basis of economics alone …
… At the heart of every culture lies the attitude man takes to … God. Different cultures are basically different ways of facing the question of the meaning of personal existence. When this question is eliminated, the culture and moral life of nations are corrupted. For this reason the struggle to defend work was spontaneously linked to the struggle for culture and for national rights.

But the true cause of the new development was the spiritual void brought about by atheism.

25. The events of 1989 are an example of the success of willingness to negotiate and of the gospel spirit in the face of an adversary determined not to be bound by moral principles.

Not only is it wrong from the ethical point of view to disregard human nature, which is made for freedom, but in practice it is impossible to do so. Where society is so organized as to reduce arbitrarily or even suppress the sphere in which freedom is legitimately exercised, the result is that the life of society becomes progressively disorganized and goes into decline.

Moreover, man, … bears within himself the wound of original sin … The social order will be all the more stable, the more it takes this fact into account and … bring [personal interests and societal interests] into fruitful harmony. … Where self-interest is violently suppressed, it is replaced by a burdensome system of bureaucratic control which dries up the wellsprings of initiative and creativity.

When people think they possess the secret of a perfect social organization which makes evil impossible, they also think that they can use any means, including violence and deceit …

Politics then becomes a "secular religion" which operates under the illusion of creating paradise in this world. But no political society … -- can ever be confused with the kingdom of God.

26. The events of 1989 … have worldwide importance. [One consequence has been] an encounter … between the church and the workers' movement, … came about as a result of an … explicitly Christian reaction against a … injustice. … In the crisis of Marxism, the … workers have re-emerged in a demand for justice … in conformity with … of the church. [57]

The sincere desire to be on the side of the oppressed and not be cut off from the course of history has led many believers to seek in various ways an impossible compromise between Marxism and Christianity.

27. The second consequence concerns the peoples of Europe themselves. … Many … injustices were committed during … communism ….

What is needed are concrete steps … capable of .. appropriate arbitration

For a long time the most elementary economic relationships were distorted, and basic virtues of economic life, such as truthfulness, trustworthiness and hard work were denigrated. A patient material and moral reconstruction is needed …

28. It is right that in the present difficulties the formerly communist countries should be aided by the united effort of other nations.

it .. corresponds to the interest and welfare of Europe as a whole,

This need, however, must not lead to a slackening of efforts to sustain and assist the countries of the Third World …. Enormous resources can be made available by disarming …

But it will be necessary above all to abandon a mentality in which the poor -- as individuals and peoples -- are considered a burden … [They] ask for the right to share in enjoying material goods and to make good use of their capacity for work,

29. Finally, … The apex of development is the exercise of the right and duty to seek God … The recognition of these rights represents the primary foundation of every authentically free political order. [63] It is important to reaffirm this latter principle for several reasons:

a) Because the old forms of totalitarianism and authoritarianism are not yet completely vanquished

b) Because in the developed countries there is …an excessive promotion of … immediate gratification,.

c) Because …forms of religious fundamentalism …deny to citizens of faiths other than that of the majority the full exercise of their civil and religious rights….

CHAPTER 4

Private Property and the Universal Destination of Human Goods

30. Leo XIII strongly affirmed …. the right to private property … [But] the church teaches that the possession of material goods is not an absolute right …

The "use" of goods, while marked by freedom, is subordinated to their original common destination as created goods, as well as to the will of Jesus Christ …

"In making use of the exterior things we lawfully possess, we ought to regard them not just as our own but also as common, in the sense that they can profit not only the owners but others too";

31. God … gave the earth to man … But the earth does not yield its fruits without .. work.

Work becomes ever more fruitful and productive to the extent that people become more knowledgeable of the productive potentialities of the earth and more profoundly cognizant of the needs of those for whom their work is done.

32. In our time, … there exists another form of ownership … .: know-how, technology and skill. The wealth of the industrialized nations is based much more on this kind of ownership than on natural resources.

A person who produces something … does so .. that others may use it after they have paid a just price, mutually agreed upon … The ability to foresee both the needs of others and the [means of] satisfying those needs that constitutes another important source of wealth in modern society. … A source of wealth in today's society … [is] initiative and entrepreneurial ability … [70]

Besides the earth, man's principal resource is man himself. … His intelligence … His disciplined work in close collaboration with others … Important virtues are involved … such as diligence, industriousness, prudence in undertaking reasonable risks, reliability and fidelity in interpersonal relationships, as well as courage in carrying out decisions which are difficult and painful but necessary ….

The modern business economy has positive aspects. Its basis is human freedom exercised in the economic field …. Whereas at one time the decisive factor of production was the land, and later capital … today the decisive factor is increasingly man himself, that is, his knowledge, especially his scientific knowledge, his capacity for interrelated and compact organization, as well as his ability to perceive the needs of others and to satisfy them.

33. Many people … do not have the means … to take their place … within a productive system. They have no possibility of acquiring … knowledge … They have no way of entering the network of knowledge … They are … marginalized; economic development takes place over their heads. … Sometimes there are even attempts to eliminate them through [coercive family planning and abortion.]

Many other people … for a bare minimum …. In fact, for the poor, to the lack of material goods has been added a lack of knowledge and training which prevents them from escaping their state of humiliating subjection.

Unfortunately, the great majority of people in the Third World still live in such conditions.

Even in recent years it was thought that the poorest countries would develop by isolating themselves from the world market and by depending only on their own resources. Recent experience has shown that countries which did this have suffered stagnation and recession

However, … in developed countries, … Those who fail to keep up with the times can easily be marginalized …

34. the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to [some] needs. But … there are many human needs which find no place on the market.

In Third World contexts, certain objectives stated by "Rerum Novarum" remain valid … [including] a sufficient wage for the support of the family, social insurance … and adequate protection for the conditions of employment.

35. We find a wide range of opportunities for … trade unions …

The church acknowledges the legitimate role of profit as an indication that a business is functioning well. … But … it is possible for the financial accounts to be in order, and yet for the people … to be humiliated and their dignity offended. … Human and moral factors must … be considered which, in the long term, are at least equally important for the life of a business.

We have seen that it is unacceptable to say that … capitalism [is] the only model of economic organization. It is necessary to break down the barriers and monopolies which leave so many countries on the margins of development … [Weaker] nations … must learn [make] the necessary efforts … by ensuring political and economic stability, the certainty of better prospects for the future, the improvement of workers' skills, and the training of competent business leaders

The principle that debts must be paid is certainly just. However, … the debts which have been contracted should [not] be paid at the price of unbearable sacrifices.

36. Today the problem is not … of supplying people with a sufficient quantity of goods; but also of responding to a demand for quality

It is here that the phenomenon of consumerism arises. … Of itself, an economic system does not possess criteria for correctly distinguishing …. artificial new needs which hinder the formation of a mature personality. Thus a great deal of educational and cultural work is urgently needed, including … intervention by public authorities. [But who decides? Authorities? Yes--drugs, pornography “and other forms of consumerism which exploit the frailty of the weak.”]

What is wrong is a style of life … which .. more … as an end in itself. [75]
{Economic activity - apart from a realization of a responsibility to God - promotes an abuse of the earth and deprives future generations}.
37. In his desire to have and to enjoy … man consumes the resources of the earth and his own life in an excessive and disordered way. [I think JP is drinking too deeply from the well of the “limited earth” way of thinking.]

38. In addition to the irrational destruction of the natural environment, we must also mention … the serious problems of modern urbanization, of the need for urban planning which is concerned with how people are to live, and of the attention which should be given to a "social ecology" of work. [Social structures can constrain people.]

39. The first and fundamental structure for "human ecology" is the family … founded on marriage, in which …children can be born and develop their potentialities. But … people to consider children as one of the many "things" which an individual can have or not have, according to taste, and which compete with other possibilities.

It is necessary to go back to seeing … as … the gift of God -- can be properly welcomed and protected.

The encyclical "Sollicitudo Rei Socialis" denounced systematic anti-childbearing campaigns which… are extending their field of action by the use of new techniques.

If … the production and consumption of goods become the center of social life and society's only value … the reason is to be found not so much in the economic system itself as in the fact that the entire sociocultural system, by ignoring the ethical and religious dimension, has been weakened, and ends by limiting itself to the production of goods and services alone. [79]

All of this can be summed up by repeating once more that economic freedom is only one element of human freedom. When it becomes autonomous… economic freedom … ends up by alienating and oppressing him. [80]

40. Here we find a new limit on the market: there are collective and qualitative needs which cannot be satisfied by market mechanisms. There are important human needs which escape its logic. There are goods which by their very nature cannot and must not be bought or sold. Certainly the mechanisms of the market offer secure advantages: they help to utilize resources better; they promote the exchange of products; above all they give central place to the person's desires and preferences, which, in a contract, meet the desires and preferences of another person. Nevertheless, these mechanisms carry the risk of an "idolatry" of the market …

41. Marxism criticized capitalist bourgeois societies, blaming them for the commercialization and alienation of human existence. … However … collectivism does not do away with alienation but rather increases it, adding to it a lack of basic necessities and economic inefficiency.

Nevertheless alienation -- and the loss of the authentic meaning of life -- is a reality in Western societies too. This happens in consumerism, … Alienation is found also in work, when it is organizing so as to ensure maximum returns and profits with no concern [for] the worker …

A man is alienated if he refuses to transcend himself and to live the experience of self-giving and of the formation of an authentic human community oriented toward his final destiny, which is God. A society is alienated if its forms of social organization, production and consumption make it more difficult to offer this gift of self and to establish this solidarity between people.

42. Can it perhaps be said that … capitalism should be the goal of … the Third World?

If by "capitalism" is meant the economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and … free human creativity … then the answer is certainly in the affirmative, even though it would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of a … "free economy."

But if by "capitalism" is meant a system in which freedom in the economic sector is not circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality, and which sees it as a particular aspect of that freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious, then the reply is certainly negative.

The Marxist solution has failed, but the realities of marginalization and exploitation remain in the world, … as … human alienation ..

The collapse of the communist system in so many countries certainly removes an obstacle to facing these problems … [But] there is a risk that a radical capitalistic ideology could spread which refuses even to consider these [moral and social] problems, in the "a priori" belief that … blindly entrusts their solution to the free development of market forces.

43. A business cannot be considered only as a "society of capital goods"; it is also a "society of persons" in which people participate in different ways … There is still need for a broad associated workers' movement, directed toward the liberation and promotion of the whole person.

The obligation to earn one's bread by the sweat of one's brow also presumes the right to do so. A society in which this right is systematically denied, in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach satisfactory levels of employment, cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can that society attain social peace. [88] Just as the person fully realizes himself in the free gift of self, so too ownership morally justifies itself in the creation, at the proper time and in the proper way, of opportunities for work and human growth for all.

CHAPTER 5

State and Culture

44. Pope Leo XIII … presents the organization of society according to the three powers -- legislative, executive and judicial … Such an ordering reflects a realistic vision of … protecting the freedom of all. … It is preferable that each power be balanced by other powers and by other spheres of responsibility which keep it within proper bounds. This is the principle of the "rule of law," in which the law is sovereign, and not the arbitrary will of individuals.

In modern times, this concept has been opposed by totalitarianism, which in its Marxist-Leninist form, maintains that some people, by virtue of a deeper knowledge of the laws of the development of society, or through membership of a particular class or through contact with the deeper sources of the collective consciousness, are exempt from error and can therefore arrogate to themselves the exercise of absolute power. It must be added that totalitarianism arises out of a denial of truth in the objective sense.

45. Totalitarianism … involve a rejection of the church. The state or the party which claims to be able to lead history toward perfect goodness, and which sets itself above all values, cannot tolerate the affirmation of an objective criterion of good and evil beyond the will of those in power, since such a criterion, in given circumstances, could be used to judge their actions.

46. The church values the democratic system … as it ensures the participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed the possibility .. of electing and holding accountable those who govern them, and of replacing them through peaceful means when appropriate.

Authentic democracy is possible only in a state ruled by law, and on the basis of a correct conception of the human person.

Nowadays there is a tendency to claim that agnosticism and skeptical relativism are the philosophy and the basic attitude which correspond to democratic forms of political life. [But] … As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.

Nor does the church close her eyes to the danger of fanaticism or fundamentalism among those who … claim the right to impose on others their own concept of what is true and good. Christian truth is not of this kind.

47. Following the collapse of communist ... regimes, it is necessary … to give democracy an authentic and solid foundation through the explicit recognition of those rights. [96] Among … these rights, … the right to life, …. the right to share in … work, and to derive from that work the means to support oneself …; and the right freely to establish a family….. In a certain sense, the source and synthesis of these rights is religious freedom, understood as the right to live in the truth of one's faith and in conformity with one's transcendent dignity as a person. [97]

Even in countries with democratic forms of government, these rights are not always fully respected. Here we are referring not only to the scandal of abortion …. Democracies themselves … seem at times to have lost the ability to make decisions aimed at the common good. …

The church respects the legitimate autonomy of the democratic order and is not entitled to express preferences for this or that institutional or constitutional solution.

48.. Economic activity … [in] … a market economy… presupposes guarantees of individual freedom and private property, as well as a stable currency and efficient public services. Hence the principal task of the state is to guarantee this security….

The state could not directly ensure the right to work for all its citizens unless it controlled every aspect of economic life and restricted the free initiative of individuals. …. Rather, the state has a duty to sustain business activities by creating conditions which will ensure job opportunities, by stimulating those activities where they are lacking or by supporting them in moments of crisis.

The state has the further right to intervene when particular monopolies create delays or obstacles to development.

In addition … in exceptional circumstances the state can also exercise a substitute function, when social sectors or business systems are too weak … Such supplementary interventions, … must be as brief as possible, so as to avoid removing permanently from society and business systems the functions which are properly theirs.

In recent years the range of such intervention has vastly expanded, to the point of creating a new type of state, the so- called "welfare state." … Excesses and abuses … have provoked very harsh criticisms of the welfare state, dubbed the "social assistance state." Malfunctions and defects in the social assistance state are the result of an inadequate understanding of … subsidiarity …

By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the social assistance state leads to … an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending.

Certain kinds of demands often call for a response which is not simply material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need. One thinks of the condition of refugees, immigrants, the elderly, the sick and … drug abusers

49. …The church has always been present and active among the needy, offering them material assistance …

To overcome today's widespread individualistic mentality, what is required is a concrete commitment to solidarity and charity, beginning in the family

Apart from the family, other intermediate communities exercise primary functions and give life to specific networks of solidarity. … The individual today is often suffocated between two poles represented by the state and the marketplace. … People lose sight of the fact that life in society has neither the market nor the state as its final purpose,

50. …Evangelization too plays a role in the culture of the various nations, sustaining culture in its progress toward the truth, and assisting in the work of its purification and enrichment.

51. The way in which he is involved in building his own future depends on the understanding he has of himself and of his own destiny. It is on this level that the church's specific and decisive contribution to true culture is to be found.

52. Just as the time has finally come when in individual states a system of private vendetta and reprisal has given way to the rule of law, so too a similar step forward is now urgently needed in the international community. Furthermore, it must not be forgotten that at the root of war there are usually real and serious grievances:

For this reason, another name for peace is development. [105] Just as there is a collective responsibility for avoiding war, so too there is a collective responsibility for promoting development.

This may mean … enabling every individual and all the peoples of the earth to have a sufficient share of those resources.

Labels: Economic freedom, Health care

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Education: Is Teacher Certification Valuable?
Here's another way in which public schooling needs reform: replace the culture of "high barriers with low standards" that dominates the teacher certification process.

From the Commounwealth Foundation, of Pennsylvannia:

Does Teacher "Certification" Really Matter?
Robert Maranto, Ph.D.
04.06.05

Teacher certification is getting more attention because of the No Child Left Behind law, which requires all students to have certified teachers by June 2006. Some large urban districts, such as Philadelphia School District where more than 1,000 teachers are uncertified, will not likely meet next year’s deadline.

But does teacher "certification" really matter?

Although it is implied, certification does not guarantee mastery of a subject. Indeed, "certified" does not necessarily mean "qualified"—and it is becoming increasingly clear that certification does not ensure that the most qualified people are teaching in our classrooms.

As Andrew Wayne and Peter Youngs reported in 2003 in the Review of Educational Research, some twenty studies show that students learn more from smarter teachers, but not necessarily certified teachers (with the singular exception of those certified to teach high school math).

Yet school labor unions and many lawmakers stress certification, which usually means attending a "School of Education." Sadly, this means that the fastest and easiest way to teach in the classroom is to be an education major while at college, rather than specialize in a particular academic discipline. Although certification is ensured by this route, quality teaching is not.

So why don’t "certified" teachers perform better in the classroom?

Most likely the answer is because—unlike medical schools and law schools—education schools have no agreed-upon body of knowledge to impart. Graduates of all medical schools learn how to set broken bones the same way. Graduates of all law schools learn the same court cases and body of law.

But education school graduates from different schools learn wildly different methods to teach reading. Education schools offer few courses on such vital topics as student discipline and parent involvement. It would be similar to medical schools leaving out anatomy.

As Frederick M. Hess shows in Common Sense School Reform, unlike law and medical schools, most schools of education do not screen out incompetents—they accept most applicants and flunk none. Not surprisingly, surveys find teachers complaining that their education courses did not prepare them to teach.

As former U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige, a former education school dean, reported in 2003, and as Mr. Hess also documents, most teacher certification programs offer "high barriers with low standards." In other words, certification requirements annoy the talented without culling the turkeys.

The research mirrors my own experience. As a college sophomore in 1978, I decided against becoming a high school teacher when an education professor very condescendingly explained that I need not understand what I taught because "the curriculum people will tell you what to teach." This convinced me to spend six years in graduate school to become a college professor.

Though I earn less money than most high school teachers of comparable experience, as a professor I’m respected as a professional. I decide what I teach and how I teach it. (Two friends who wanted to teach high school got identical advice from their education professors with tragic results—they became attorneys.)

Clearly, policymakers and educators need to reform our education schools so that certified teachers are truly qualified teachers. Until that happens, however, we should allow professionals from other fields to enter teaching while carefully monitoring the performance of all teachers by rewarding excellence and terminating incompetence.

Ultimately, the power to ensure quality in teaching lies with local communities and schools, where on-the-job teacher training similar to an apprenticeship would be more beneficial than any certification requirement. Each principal should be permitted more authority to determine what qualifies a person to teach and, with the assistance of superintendents and school boards, set standards for teachers according to their respective community and school.

Second only to parental involvement, teacher quality dramatically affects student academic success. Therefore, students must have teachers with a solid knowledge of subject matter. Unfortunately, the "high barriers with low standards" approach of certification has not guaranteed qualification in our public school classrooms.

A new system of "high standards with low barriers" would likely improve both the teaching profession and our students’ academic outcomes.

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Dr. Robert Maranto teaches political science at Villanova University and is a scholar at the Commonwealth Foundation (www.CommonwealthFoundation.org), a non-partisan, non-profit research and education institute located at the foot of the Capitol in Harrisburg. (permalink)

Education: Give us More. AND We'll Sue.
Kansas policy is embroiled in a controversy over school funding levels. My latest contributions to the debate are a series of brief reports that lay out spending and enrollment trends in individual school districts.

The briefs about Dodge City and Salina are now online at the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy.

Here's the conclusion of the Dodge City brief: "While student enrollment in USD 443 grew by almost one quarter [since 1993], its funding increased even more. Even so, USD 443 was one of the plaintiffs in the recent lawsuit against the State of Kansas. Given an after-inflation, per-pupil increase of 66 percent since 1993, it?s hard to say that the commitment of new, additional resources has been meager." (permalink)

In Honor of John Paul II
I've spoken a few words in honor of John Paul II over at the Detroit News.

It's easy to get lost in the froth of partisan politics or the details of public policy. But the death of John Paul II reminds us of what should be some overriding principles by which policy is discussed. Among the chief: man has an inherent dignity that no government can crush. (permalink)