We got (yet another) a plea from my daughter's middle school principal in the mail today, this time begging for money for the school's "I.T. Funds." I'm frankly so sick of school fundraisers I could scream, but their plea was laying here on the desk, and as a freelance software developer I'm actually in that business, so I decided to take a quick look at it.
What I saw was a good example of why government ought to be small; not large, as President Obama
Next are the 4 big things they need. First, the "computer lab needs updating...There are 40 old computers tha need to be replaced." Now a computer lab actually is the one area of the school, besides maybe Admin, where spending money on computer equipment probably makes sense and must be done. These youngsters are learning specifically how to use computers, doing things like photoshopping pictures, editing videos, etc. Programming? Not so sure about that one. Still, you can make a living in these areas so I'm willing to cut them some slack here.
Below this is where it gets sketchy, though. Second on the list is "our students need to have access to computers in all classrooms," and they don't. Now hang on a minute. Do they really need to have access to computers in all classrooms? What are they doing on these computers? Are they on the net? Taking quizzes? Whatever it is, in your run-of-the-mill classroom I'm betting they don't need high-end PC's (or Mac's) to get the job done. I have a 10-year-old desktop sitting in my office that I still use in my business today. I don't rely on it for cutting-edge applications, but for Internet usage, storing files, word processing, etc., it works just fine. I use the high-end PC for the most important work (i.e. like the computer lab) but I can get by with the old box for the standard back-office stuff (i.e. like most classrooms). Conclusion: Live with the old PC's until they die.
As you go down the school's list, the items get progressively more ridiculous. The third item is "Document Cameras Required." It states, "document cameras, or digital overheads, in conjunction with projectors are used daily by teachers. Lessons and vital information are put on a large screen that students can view from anywhere in the classroom." They want to get these things into - that's right - all classrooms. Now I was in a meeting in one of the classrooms that actually has one of these things in there, and as a techie myself I was taking a good look at it as the teacher used it to run through a packet of materials she had handed out to us. It was kind of impressive, though distracting as the camera would auto-focus and auto-adjust the lighting any time a document was placed there or moved around. But my thought here was, "why, back in my day, sonny..." we used overhead projectors, those things that roll around from classroom to classroom with nothing but a flat panel with a bright light under it and a couple of mirrors to project it up onto a screen or chalkboard. Very effective, and very cheap. Document cameras and RGB projectors for each? Are you kidding me?
That reminds me, do your schools have chalkboards? Ours don't. Schools now all use these stupid "whiteboards" with their silly erasable magic markers. Now we use those in board rooms at my clients' sites, but it's always been considered a luxury by those of us who went to school before these boards started being used outside of business conference rooms. Again: chalk? Real cheap. Magic markers? Not so much. Not to mention those markers half the time don't even erase right. You have to spray on this special solution sometimes to make sure the eraser picks up everything. More money for the solution spray bottles in every room.
But I digress. The last birthday present the school is asking for - at least this one they say, "we would like them for all classrooms" - are wireless writing tablets. WIRELESS WRITING TABLETS! "A hand-held, mobile board that can be written on from anywhere in the [incredibly vast] classroom. Teachers have the freedom of walking around the room while using it. This allows them to monitor students' progress as they teach." Now tablet PC's are still pretty new. I've never seen one used in business. Yet my public school wants them in every classroom.
First off, why? A teacher should teach from the front of the classroom, not from the middle or the back. And what the heck are they going to be doing on it while they walk around the classroom? If they're walking around I presume they're looking at kids' schoolwork, in which case they don't need a tablet PC to help them, and where are they going to put it down when they need to help a student at his desk? If they need to present something to the entire class, something that occurs to them while they're way out in the sea of students in that 50' x 50' classroom, why on Earth would they think they could make a more effective presentation from where they're standing than from the front of the room? And why would they prefer to make such a presentation on a tablet PC, transmitted up to the front of the class, than on their overhead - sorry, "document camera" ?
So by now you hopefully are saying, "right on, Mike! That is one crazy fundraiser!" But my real point is a larger one. And that is that this is what happens when government runs things. It is inevitable, and thus is one reason why government should be kept smaller, not larger. Because where government gets involved, inefficiency creeps in.
Why does this happen? It's simple and obvious. In the "real world," where capitalism reigns, a business like this middle school, and a CEO like this principal, have to compete not just to be the best, but also to survive. When they start a year they get a budget, one that is set for them based on their revenues. They cannot spend more than this because their business will become unprofitable and die. They also cannot spend within their means on things that are not critical needs that will increase revenues or decrease other expenses. If they do, their business will become unprofitable and die. This is laissez-faire; survival of the fittest. The businesses and professionals that run a tight and effective business survive and thrive, while those that make mistakes or spend wastefully die off. It's the basis of capitalism and as awesome to ponder as the workings of a natural ecosystem.
A government, and in this case a public school, doesn't operate under these constraints. If they spend wastefully, there is often no reckoning. There is no market self-correction; no automatic penalty of (figurative) death for wasteful spending or ineffective teachers or administrators. What happens, instead, is that the spending continues, regardless of whether it has been effective or not, and when the money runs out the powers-that-be beg for, or demand, more. They never have to account for what they spent last year or the year before because it's not relevant presently. When the money dries up, rather than tighten their belts and look for ways to do more with less, they beg directly to the parents of the children they teach for cash handouts, and they pay for full-time professional lobbyists to go to the state and federal legislatures and demand more money. Since there is no accountability, there is no end to their needs.
In California, public school teachers who work from the time they graduate college are able to retire at age 55 with a full pension. Why? For the reasons I just stated. Not because it's cost-effective, because it clearly is not. No other industries outside of government have such a generous retirement benefit (other examples are aerospace, a pseudo-gov't industry, and the military, whose "double dipper" retirees are well-known). They don't have such benefits because such benefits would bankrupt them very quickly. Imagine letting your most skilled and experienced professionals leave your company well before they are too old to do their jobs, and you are going to pay them their full salary for the rest of their lives, even though they're not doing anything productive for your business any more. The very idea is ludicrous. Again: no accountability = wastefulness.
This is true throughout government, federal and state. I'm picking on the public schools because we, the public, have more direct contact with them than any other government entity, and so the wastefulness and lack of accountability are right in front of us on a daily basis. But as we're seeing right now with this so-called "stimulus" package that just breezed through Congress, there is virtually no limit to this concept. At the federal level, even the "speed bump" of having to beg for more money from taxpayers is gone, because the federal government can physically print currency. They can manufacture money. So now all the stops are off and nothing is slowing this train down if the engineer doesn't do it himself. And until someone makes him, he won't. Without some level of self-control (i.e. the engineer and his brake), eventually the train is going to fly off the tracks and the whole thing will come crashing down.
Liberals are great at emoting and feeling people's pain, but they are dangerous when it comes to proposing solutions because they are lousy at understanding how the economy works (laissez-faire), why government should be limited (because politicians won't voluntarily limit themselves), and why the private sector should be unregulated as much as possible (freedom promotes innovation which breeds success, etc.).
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