1) Per Pupil School Spending Has More Than Quadrupled Since 1960
School's out for the Summer so now it is time to examine why test scores keep plummeting. One of the world's top education scholars, Erik Hanushek, has just issued a report on the 40-year anniversary of the famous federal study published in 1984 called "A Nation at Risk." That study warned that no foreign enemy could pose a greater threat to our nation's prosperity and security than our failing school system.
It turned out none of the educrats paid any attention.
Hanushek notes that education spending after-inflation has risen four-fold since 1960 and roughly doubled since 1984.
Yet over the past several decades, there isn't much evidence of improvement (if anything). In most school districts the reverse is true. So naturally, Biden wants to spend hundreds of billions more – Garbage in, garbage out. Yet there is virtually no evidence that Uncle Sam's spending has added much value. Mostly it's added more red tape. Test scores haven't budged:
Hanushek does find some evidence that spending more money can improve student learning in public schools. But he finds that the dollars need to be tied to "rewarding performance." However, the teacher unions are adamantly opposed to anyone measuring their performance. They can grade the students, but no one dares to grade the teachers. Now we know why.
2) Newsom's New Strategy to Keep California Soft on Crime
Back in 2014, California voters foolishly approved "Prop 47," a measure that reduced many theft and drug crimes to misdemeanors and ended prosecutions of shoplifting below $950 per incident. The hope was that this would keep young people out of jail for committing nonviolent crimes. Nice idea. Instead, it resulted in an explosion of crime, especially retail theft.
Now there is an initiative to repeal Prop 47 to stop the epidemic of petty crimes throughout the state. So now clever (or should we say nefarious) California Democrats who dominate both chambers in Sacramento are pulling all the stops to keep Prop 47 in place. They are preparing to pass a package of 14 mostly toothless anti-crime bills to undercut the End 47 ballot measure before voters this November.
The bill package contains an unheard-of provision saying the bills will be automatically repealed if voters pass the End Prop 47 initiative in November. The point is to create a pretext for changing the ballot summary to assert it is a SOFT ON CRIME measure because it would repeal the legislative bills.
"They are trying to change the narrative in a weak attempt to cover their decision to put politics over public safety," State Senate Republican Leader Brian Jones says.
Polls show the End Prop 47 effort will pass easily if it is debated on its actual merits. This is a classic bait-and-switch maneuver that only goes to show that California Democrats care much more about protecting criminals than small businesses.
3) The Mystery of Biden's Missing Charging Stations – Solved
We've made fun of the Biden bunglers who can't even figure out how to install EV chargers – which isn't exactly building the pyramids in Egypt – but it may take that long. Less than 0.01% of the stations have been built so far.
Why the endless bureaucratic delays? The Washington Free Beacon reports on how the left's mad obsession with DEI means that nothing can get built:
In order to qualify for a grant, applicants must "demonstrate how meaningful public involvement, inclusive of disadvantaged communities, will occur throughout a project's life cycle." What "public involvement" means is unclear...
"These onerous diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements handcuff professionals from making proper evaluations and prevent the government/public from funding the most deserving projects."
The money is being diverted to applicants who happen to check one of the DEI boxes.
5) "We Have Tried Spending Money...It Doesn't Work"
Many of our readers who are American history buffs may recognize the author of this famous quote:
We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong...somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises....I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started....And an enormous debt to boot!
If your answer was Pete Buttigieg or Janet Yellen, nice try, but no. You're off by more than 80 years.
It was FDR's longtime Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. in May 1939, during the end of the Great Depression, quoted in Burt Folsom's great book "New Deal or Raw Deal".
