The Myth of Educational Competition

This is an op-ed piece I have sent to several periodicals in the Oklahoma City area. You have my permission to adapt this and use it in your own arena.

I have been a teacher in the Oklahoma City Public Schools for 14 years, so I keep an eye out for what is said in the local media about education, especially public education. Lately, I have seen many letters, op-ed pieces and editorials trying to revive the idea of taxpayer-funded “vouchers” for private schools. The constant drumbeat in these pieces, most of which come from minions of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, is that by encouraging “school choice” and “competition” between private schools, charter schools, and public schools, we will improve educational opportunities for Oklahoma’s school-age children. The writers argue, “If competition is good for business, then why not for schools?”

Fair enough. However, let us remember that competition can only occur when people or institutions play on a level playing field. If athlete A is allowed to run unfettered while B is required to carry a 40 pound field pack during the race, one can hardly be surprised if A wins most of the races. So why don’t those harping for competition also demand that school compete equally? Let the public schools do as our private and charter school counterparts do.

 Let public schools require students to apply for entrance into our schools, and let us screen those who apply rather than take all comers.
 Let us require that these students meet academic performance requirements and reject those who don’t measure up.
 Let us require that these applying students’ records be free of discipline problems, or admit any “problem children” on the condition that they exhibit good behavior.
 Let us turn down “special needs” children if we feel they will require too many modifications, too many resources, or too much money for their care (a major reason why private schools can educate students at lower costs).
 Let us require that parents sign contracts requiring that they give 20 hours or more of “volunteer” service to the school or risk having their child expelled from our institutions.
 Let us require that once they are admitted to our schools, students must keep their academic performance at a required level or face being expelled without recourse to any mandated due process rights.
 Let us require that students conform to all of our rules and codes of conduct or risk expulsion, again without recourse to due process.
 Let us administer to special needs children free from federal laws mandating low class sizes (10 or fewer students per class), teacher aides, and special equipment thus eliminating special needs students from the public arena.
 Let us be free from the need to administer required state tests or the need to report on our academic results.

Private schools and charter schools do not follow all of the above policies, but all follow several of them. At the very least, all private/charter schools demonstrate what is really meant by “school choice”: the schools get to make the choices. And if the student does not perform, then the school gets to choose to leave the child behind for someone else, the public schools, to pick up the pieces. Public schools, by law, have to honor all students’ right to an education, and they cannot simply kick disruptive children out of our schools. The process for dismissing students from our schools is long and cumbersome because if we send the kids out, there are not too many places, this side of jail, which will take them in.

In light of all this, the surprising fact, shown by study after study, is that when students from similar demographic backgrounds are matched, public schools out perform all other forms of school-age education with the possible exception of home schooling. We do out race them, 40-pound pack and all.

Just remember this the next time you read someone extolling the “virtues” of educational competition.

Respectfully yours,



R. Lynn Green
English Instructor
Oklahoma Centennial High School

Beaver's Bend State Park

As you can see, the lake at Beaver's Bend State Park was very high also. We saw one place.
Beaver's Bend State Park
Beaver's Bend State Park

Been A While

I've neglected my blog for several reasons, but I hope now to get back into the swing of posting and writing.

We took a car trip down in Southeast Oklahoma. Everything is flooding due to the excess rains we have had in Oklahoma during June and July. Here are some pictures I took.


Lake Texoma
Lake Texoma
Lake Texoma

Food Drive Breaks Records!

National Letter Carriers' Food Drive A Success!

My good union brother, Bob Bearden, sent me this report on the NALC Food Drive that happpened on May 12th:

All stations except one have reported in their final totals, and that one will be completed by Monday. The current total of food collected in the Metro Area now stands at 347,849 lbs, and there will be more to come. Before we are done we expect to pass 350,000 lbs.!

We pledged to collect 300,000 and by last Saturday night we had exceeded that total by some 5,000 lbs. We have now exceeded it by another 47,000 plus lbs. and counting. One location, Midwest City will have reached at least 30,000 lbs by Monday. Three other locations have exceeded 21,000 lbs and another is within 29 lbs short of 20,000. Edmond's three stations have exceeded 42,000 lbs. Yukon has nearly tripled its amount over last year. It has truly been a Labor of Love! And there are so many people who worked long and hard to make it happen! WOW! is probably an inadequate description, but WOW!

Bummed Out by High Gas Prices? Well, It Could Get Worse Real Soon!

Coming to a Station Near You!
Gasoline Picture Looking Grim for Dog Days of Summer
By Matthew R. Simmons
Matthew R. Simmons is founder and currently Chairman of Simmons & Company International, an independent investment bank specializing in the entire spectrum of the energy industry.

(Note: Commentaries do not necessarily represent ASPO-USA's positions; they are personal statements and observations by informed commentators.)

Here is a quick run down on the possible disaster we face this summer as we head into Memorial Day with the lowest beginning-of-driving-season stocks in US history. It would have been convenient had someone found out exactly what Minimum Operating Levels* really have become. I suspect we will answer this riddle this summer.

*Minimum Operating Levels of petroleum inventories are when all cushions have been used up and the system is now starting to "rob Peter to pay Paul." At this stage, the risk of shortages starting to crop up is Red Alert. Sadly, the last serious study of where this invisible line of minimum stocks is was a NPC study done in 1988.

The reality of gasoline demand is that it will rise during July and August unless we have some roads blocked off to stem demand. Rising late-summer demand has happened almost every year, even as prices rose from $1/gallon to over $3!

To supply this market, several things have to work in unison:
1. Refineries need to crank up to over 16 million b/d instead of current 15 as they struggle to get into compliance from too little maintenance for too long.
2. Imports need to average well over 1 million b/d, and probably need to hit 1.5 million b/d, matching the all-time record set last year.
3. No hurricanes can hit the Gulf producing region.
4. Stock draws are the last plug in the dike.

From the looks of things as we view Memorial Day weekend starting in just over a week, we fail on all four counts.

The burning question is how much lower stocks can drop before shortages sweep our fragile gasoline supply system. Historically, it has been critically important that we build up gasoline stocks during the spring shoulder season (April-May) so that they can be liquidated during peak demand to prevent shortages. We seem to have run out the clock to fix the problem this summer.

I did some quick inventory numbers this morning [May 10]. At the end of February (which is the latest data we have on the location within five PAD districts) we had 116 million barrels of finished product and 99 million barrels of blending stocks (that are now far trickier to blend than when we had RFG) in inventory.

In the course of the next 10 weeks to May 4, we dropped 13.5 million barrels of finished stock and 10.3 million barrels of blending components.
But almost all of the drop probably came from Bulk Terminals as stocks at refineries are essentially works in process and stocks in pipelines and barges are steady flows.
If this is the case, bulk terminal drops were 30% for blending components and 27% for finished products.
The painful last 13 weeks ran out our USA gasoline clock. We must be right at the edge of genuine "minimum operating supplies" in at least a handful of states.
I am certainly glad I drive a diesel where the stock pool or inventory is tight but not nearly as tight as MOGAS [motor gasoline].
This could get really ugly real fast.

Holy City of the Wichitas

Holy City of the Wichitas
Tomb
Memorial
Another interesting feature of the Wichita Refuge is "The Holy City of the Wichitas" Where each spring they do a Passion Play.

More Pics from our Weekend Vacation

Cat and Tooter

Pics from our Mini-Vacation

Medicine Bluff Creek
Medicine Bluff Creek
Medicine Bluff Creek
Mt. Scott
Mt. Scott
My wife and I took a "mini-vacation" down to SW Oklahoma to see the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Along the way, we stopped in the town of Medicine Park and saw that Medicine Bluff Creek is about 6 feet above normal. We had a restful time. Only 3 weeks left in the school year!

Cheney and Bush hide behind our troops

Cheney the Artful [Draft] Dodger
Cheney and Bush have attempted to equate support for the Cheney/Bush policy in Iraq with support for our troops who have been made pawns in that policy. Cheney and Bush are trying to hide behind the soldiers so that our women and men in uniform can take the bullet for the Cheney/Bush team. Cowardly and Contempible!

Sad Day at School Today

John Marshall High School, Oklahoma City, OK

As you may know, I teach at an urban high school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. We have all the usual problems of an urban school that is over 70% African American, over 85% free or reduced lunch recepients. We have gangs, drugs, children from single-parent familes, and even zero-parent families. And our children have violence in their lives.

Thursday, yesterday, a female student, one of mine, was killed in a fight with another female student. As I understand it, they were arguing over some man who had fathered both of their children. The girl who was killed was a senior less that 2 weeks away from her graduation. She was in my senior English class and was a member of our school's National Honor Society. As I said, she had recently given birth to a boy who will now grow up without a mother or a father present in his life. And so the cycle of poverty continues. The girl had decided that she needed to get her life in order, so she was training to become a nurse at one of our Career Tech centers.

I am sick over this. I had had this girl in another class. I saw her develop from an immature kid to a woman of promise. Now her life is over and her family is left to pick up the pieces. At times I wonder why I stay in public education, particularly at an urban school. However, I know, deep down inside, that this is where I am supposed to be; this is part of God's plan for my life.

I would appreciate your thougths and prayers for my students as well as for me.

Jury Duty

Jury Duty
I got a notice in the mail the other day that I am to report for jury duty on May 14th. It's been over 20 years since I last had to report for this citizen obligation. The last time I did this, I never served on an actual jury despite the fact that I was in 7 different jury pools! In fact, I was always the first one dismissed from the pool of potential jurors.
That time I was in state district court. This time it's Federal court. I will see if that makes a difference.

You Gotta Like People Like This

Ballard Street

End Mr. Bush's War

Bush War Memorial: A picture is worth a thousand lives
(I was asked to compose a letter to a newspaper editor concerning my response to Bush's veto of the Democratic Congressional majorities Iraq withdrawal timetable. Here it is:)

To the Editor:

George W. Bush has tried to tie support for his failed policies in Iraq with support for our brave women and men who are the victims of those policies. I find this a despicable attempt to dodge his failures. It’s much like the religious leaders who tries to claim that all his actions, no matter how immoral, are sanctioned by divine authority because he is a “man of God.” Bush has tried to blame his failure on “bad intelligence.” There he is correct because many people far smarter and wiser told him that this decision was wrong. However, he choose to ignore wise counsel and listen to greedy men, sycophants, and others telling his “itching ears” what they wanted to hear.

Now as he desperately plunges deeper into the swamp that he has created in Iraq, he has the audacity to question the loyalty of women and men who, because they love their country and weep for it’s wounds, tell him that the American people have had enough wastage, enough broken bodies, more, more than enough flag draped coffins, and much more than enough of their president’s preening, posturing, and posing to last us a lifetime. Mr. President, you have lost all moral authority. We must heed those who seek an end Mr. Bush’s war.

Yes, and the People of Iraq Will Be Throwing Flowers in the Path of Our Troops!

We can add to these brillant statements:
This war will pay for itself through lower oil and gas prices.
Our troops will be home by Thanksgiving.
The Democratic Party will soon be irrelevant.
Tom Tomorrow

What is truly amazing is the fact that these idiots are still on TV and radio!

Pictures from the Oklahoma Democratic Party CD 5 Convention

Cat and I had a great time at the Oklahoma Democratic Party Congressional District 5 Convention where I delivered my Eulogy on Workers' Memorial Day (see below).

Kelly Haney Statue "Standing His Ground
Seminole Color Guard
Delegates at the Convention
former State Senator Kelly Haney addresses the delegates

April 28th, Workers' Memorial Day

Workers' Memorial Day

Since 1989, April 28th has been designated Workers’ Memorial Day. This date was chosen because it is the anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Every year, people in hundreds of communities and at worksites recognize workers who have been killed or injured on the job.

Last year a series of coal mine tragedies focused the nation’s attention on the dangers faced by workers. Twelve men died after an explosion at the Sago mine in West Virginia. Within a few weeks time, disasters at 8 other mines claimed additional lives. By the end of 2006, 47 coal miners lost their lives—twice as many as in 2005.

Over the last several decades, we’ve made a lot of progress in protecting workers on the job. Fatality and injury rates have fallen dramatically in many industries. But now that progress is halting and may be reversing. Last year more than 5700 workers were killed by job injuries. Another 50,000-60,000 died from occupational diseases, including more than 10,000 deaths from asbestos-related diseases. For Hispanic and immigrant workers, the situation is much worse. Workplace deaths have increased sharply, as many of these workers work in the most dangerous industries and jobs, exploited by employers with little or no protection. More than 8 million public employees still have no OSHA coverage and no legal rights or job safety protections.

Since taking office in 2001, the Bush administration as turned its back on workers and workplace safety. Siding with its corporate friends, the administration has overturned or blocked dozens of important workplace protections including OSHA’s ergonomics standards and new protections on tuberculosis, indoor air quality, reactive chemicals and cancer-causing substances to name but a few. At OSHA, voluntary compliance has been promoted over enforcement, and industry representatives have been put in charge of government safety programs, most notably at MSHA, the mine safety agency.

George Will, conservative columnist, once wrote that workers are merely a corporation’s “commodity”. Well, Mr. Will, if so, workers are a commodity that breathes and feels and bleeds and, too often, dies. They are a commodity who have families that depend on them, who produce the goods and services that you depend on, and who make up the heart and soul of this great country of ours. Corporations must make profits to be sure, but there can be no blood on our ledger books, there must be no pain because of our profits. In fact, when workplaces are truly safe, both the worker and the employer benefit. Job safety is good for business.

We must fight to make workplaces safe and make sure that the clock is not turned back so that the US becomes a low-wage economy where safety is ignored and workers are disposable.

Workers Memorial Day is a day on which we call for an end to injustices and rededicate ourselves to make our workplaces safer and our communities stronger. We call for strengthened safety laws to provide workers the protections to which they have a right. And we call for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, to restore workers’ rights to join a union so that they can have a real voice and be protected on the job.

Mary Harris “Mother Jones”, the great labor leader of the turn-of-the-century coal mines, called us to “Mourn for the Dead, and Fight Like Hell for the Living!” We mourn, we remember, and we will never stop fighting.
AFL-CIO Website on Workers' Memorial Day

National Letter Carriers' Food Drive on May 12th

Family Circus Supports the Food Drive

Mark May 12th on your calendar with a big red circle and write in it "Letter Carriers' Food Drive." This will be the date of the National Association of Letter Carriers drive to combat hunger in America. Last year, Oklahoma County had one of its most successful food drives, and we OK County Democrats need to do our part to make this year even better. Set out at least couple of bags of non-perishable food items for your local letter carrier to take back with her to the post office. The food collected will go to replenish the stores of the Regional Food Bank in OKC. We will need volunteers to help collect and transport the food items, so you will be hearing more about this later. Please do you part to show The Democratic Way in this important act of sharing. For more information, including posters you can download for your workplace, go to.

National Letter Carriers Food Drive

Persian-American Reception
Hispanic-American Reception


We have had two receptions at Oklahoma Democratic Party Headquarters recently. The first was sponsored by our Persian/Iranian American community. They are concerned about the Bush administration's attempt to lead us into another war in the Middle East, this time with Iran.

The other reception was for Hispanic Oklahomans. They are concerned about a wave of anti-immigrant legislation sweeping the nation in general and Oklahoma in particular.

The Iranian reception was a little better because they served Baklava. You cannot go wrong with any meeting if it has good Baklava, and theirs was some of the best I've ever had. However, I also liked the carne verde the Hispanics served. (No, I don't go primarily for the food!)

Truth through Art

Those Darn Illegals

Jeff Danziger

Well, we are driving them out of their homes!