blog
Support Dips
“Support for California Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to shut a $27 billion budget gap has eroded since he introduced it in January . . . Democrat Brown wants to close the budget hole with a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes . . .”
But wait, aren’t we hearing here in Ohio that “prefer that… »
On the knife’s edge
How many stories are done on education and local schools every week? It must be, what, 10 percent of a newspaper’s content? It’s hard to imagine what could compete with it. Stories about the president and congress, maybe. Sports, certainly.
So, my question is, do each of those stories cite critics of public district schools? Of… »
A good day three days ago
A friend called Sunday about ready to explode at the Big D. He’s a free market guy and what set him off was the story about Gilligan.
I think he was oversensitive. The paper was chock full of pretty good political reporting and the Gilligan story was properly placed, deep inside the paper (if you can… »
Horse shoes and hand grenades
Kudos to the Dispatch for asking almost the right question: Where’s the $8 billion?
But points off for not answering it. The first sign is a laugher: “I don’t want to . . . say it’s just too complicated. But the fact is, it is really exceedingly complicated to display it in a way that makes… »
Flaw found in public sector pensions
Sheesh. Nothing like letting a headline reveal your real thoughts: “Flaw found in proposed pension shift”
The flaw? Every public employee pays into the state pensions and is matched by the public employer. However, not every employee “vests.” Quite a few leave before they vest. When they leave they can withdraw their own payments, but not… »
Joe needs an editor
A fairly weak story about Kasich’s philosophy and the state budget ends with this puzzler:
Then there is this question: Why is a governor who opposes government intrusion using his budget to require college professors to teach one extra class every two years?
Everyone knows what Joe is thinking and what he wants to say (”Five of… »
So that’s what an $8 billion deficit looks like
Some bait and switch.
The governor released his budget yesterday. For two years, maybe three, all we have heard is there is an $8 billion deficit. Doing a little knapkin calculation, let’s figure General Revenue spending of $25 billion a year, a two year budget, so an $8 billion deficit is $4 billion a year; that’s… »
Transparent
Today NPR is running a sad little story trying to salvage its reputation, following a news sting in which its top people were, not revealed, but recorded as being bigots and biased in their coverage. Unlike NPR or any so called Manhattan journalist, the investigative reporter released, not the edited tape, but his full two… »
Three generations
The great Glenn Reynods captures an insight about Greek vase painters, an artistic style that died out three generations after the basis for the style had died, noting that the current practitioners know nothing else, and they raise a generation in their own image, but weakened.
“This is the length of time it usually takes for… »
And all the children are above average
Oh, I’ve been waiting for this for 10 years now: “The number of schools labeled as “failing” under the nation’s No Child Left Behind Act could skyrocket dramatically this year . . . the percentage of schools not meeting yearly targets for their students’ proficiency in in math and reading could jump from 37 to… »