Kansas City, Mo. Builds a School System for the 19th Century, University of Chicago Economist Does Not Require Evidence, Logic or Data for Claims, A Real Ponzi Scheme,

And Other News That Needs Comments

It would be difficult if not impossible to locate any rational American who did not believe that education of young people was the key to economic success for themselves and for the country.  In Kansas City, Mo. apparently the citizenry does not believe in this.

The struggling Kansas City, Missouri School District was stripped of its accreditation on Tuesday, . . . the move was a painful return to reality for the city after a period of optimism that difficult choices were finally being made to confront longstanding problems in the school district, most notably the closing of nearly half the schools in response to a huge budget deficit.

As for the rationale, a consultant to the schools was surprised

Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which has advised the school district, was taken aback by the decision.

But the decision was based on quantitative not qualitative measurements Mr. Casserly.

The district had slipped to achieving only three out of 14 standards on the state’s annual performance report, a decline from four in the previous year. In general, a district must meet six standards to be provisionally accredited and nine standards to be fully accredited, but Kansas City had been given extra time to carry out changes.

Maybe the fact that the person advising the KC schools is so clueless is part of the explanation of the problem.

If Americans do not hold the Economics profession in disdain, they should. Exhibit A is an “analysis” by University of Chicago economics professor Casey B. Mulligan that the proposed cut in the employer’s portion of the payroll tax would create between one and three million new jobs.

About 131 million adults are working now, and 109 million adults are not working. If I’m right that the payroll tax cut would raise employment by one million to three million, that means that 106 million to 108 million adults would still not be working despite the payroll tax cut.

There is the argument, that’s all of it.  Because there are 109 million people not working cutting the payroll tax would employ one to three million of those because . . . . Mr. Mulligan says it would. 

The article is titled “The Logic of Cutting Payroll Taxes”.  Go ahead and read it, and if you can find any logic, well you need to have the logic finding part of your brain examined.

Mr. Mulligan, take a mulligan, you whiffed on this one.

While Gov. Rick Perry of Texas complains that the Social Security system is a Ponzi scheme, apparently federal law enforcement officials have found a real Ponzi scheme in on line poker sites.  Instead of holding player’s money it is alleged

The money available turned out to be insufficient, according to prosecutors, because the owners and board members of Full Tilt had themselves tapped those accounts for $440 million since April 2007.

The tip-off should have been that these on line sites are sited outside of the U. S.  And for those who think that U. S. regulations are burdensome, well, if those same people lost thousands in on-line poker where the site providers just took their money, let’s just say those chickens, if not the money, have come home to roost.

Why exactly would anyone send money to a site outside the United States and expect it to be secure?

Poker players, when you send your money to an unregulated off shore betting site  you are taking a gamble.  And it looks like you lost.

Not every big city is in the process of destroying public education.  In New York

schools chancellor in April, Dennis M. Walcott announced on Tuesday that New York would open 50 new middle schools in the next two years, many in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

The city will also apply for about $30 million in federal money to replace teachers and leadership, while keeping students in place, at five struggling schools for each of the next two years, the chancellor said.

Maybe this is a better way to do things than in Kansas City, where maybe everyone isn’t up to date.