Four-Day School Weeks in the L.A. Times

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

A four-day school week proposal was voted down in the Missouri Senate a few weeks ago, but the idea is still alive and well in other parts of the United States. This L.A. Times story reports on districts in California that are considering a schedule change. One reason for four-day school weeks given in the article is particularly relevant to rural parts of the Midwest:

Administrators in rural districts say it’s one way they can entice teachers to take lower pay and live farther from big cities.

Rural districts can’t act just like big-city districts if they want to hire equally talented teachers. They must either pay more (usually not possible) or offer some other incentive, like long weekends.

It doesn’t matter whether four-day weeks are better than five-day weeks, holding all other variables constant. Districts have to take into account how other elements of the school day, such as teacher quality and available resources, will change in response to the shorter week. It could be that shorter weeks hurt test scores if everything else is equal, but that the resulting flexibility in hiring more than makes up for it.

Freedom by Any Other Name

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

As we all know, spring is a time of new life and beginnings. Ritenour students are celebrating the birth of new chickens. Dave Stokes and his family are celebrating the birth of their son. (I’m not saying those are totally comparable circumstances, just that they’re both examples of new life!)

Have you ever sat back and thought about the amazing freedom we have in this country to name someone who’s just been born? I hadn’t until I read this post on Freakonomics. Germany forbids extra-long surnames because German bureaucrats don’t like them. Those same bureaucrats approve the first names of new babies, too, and ensure that names are gender-appropriate.

The Freakonomics post lists a few other countries that regulate children’s names. I’m glad that the United States isn’t one of them. This is one of those quiet freedoms that don’t get a lot of press coverage, but that make up a part of human initiative and self-determination. Kind of like the freedom to enter your tractor in a parade.

Springfield Pension Blues

Posted on by David Stokes

Two articles in the News-Leader have detailed the latest in the discussion about how Springfield should handle its pension shortfall. A special commission has been organized to try to come up with a solution, and I give them credit for considering all options. Here’s one possibility reported on by the second article:

Turn City Utilities into a publicly held corporation and sell stock to bolster the pension fund.

Springfield is in quite a financial bind, here, with a shortfall for multiple pensions of around $200 million. Voters recently decided not to raise taxes to fund the gap. Public employee unions have, not surprisingly, threatened a lawsuit, and it is just all around an ugly situation.

The solution, as mentioned above by one committee member, is staring Springfield right in the face. Every utility in Springfield is provided by the same government agency: City Utilities. St. Louis and Kansas City get by just fine with private, regulated utilities providing the bulk of the services. These private companies would be very willing to purchase a broken-up CU. Sale of the parts would net the city a great deal more than it would need to cover the shortfall, leaving plenty of money left over to cut taxes, etc.

Plenty more to come from the Show-Me Institute in the future about this subject.

Positive Externalities

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Our tax dollars fund public schools because education produces positive externalities, right? You’re better off if everybody else in society learns to read and write. (Feel free to leave comments about how I’ve sold out to the socialists.) Anyway, those externalities usually don’t show up until years down the road, once kids grow up, start voting, and join the workforce.

Here is a positive externality of public schools that you can enjoy right now, and it’s cuteness incarnate: The Ritenour School District has set up webcams of hatching chicks.

I thank The Grade for linking to this most adorable news item.

Ray Hartmann

Posted on by Ryan Davisson

Recently, in St. Louis Magazine, Ray Hartmann wrote two fantastic articles about subjects that the Show-Me Institute has rigorously blogged about: red light cameras and alternative funding options for the Metropolitan Zoological Park & Museum District (MZD). In his column, “Bad Photo Op” (not available online), he addresses the unintended effects that red light cameras have, and in “>”There’s No Such Thing as a Free Zoo,” he tackles inequitable, outdated funding structure that has put Saint Louis’ cultural arts institutions in financial “jeopardy.”

He makes a great point regarding this latter topic, stating:

Simply put, St. Louis’ cultural institutions need to do what almost all of their counterparts across the country do: Tap into the tens of millions of tourist dollars that are annually unrealized here because the institutions are free to all visitors.

In his article about red light cameras, Hartmann highlights three separate studies that found an increase in crashes stemming from red light cameras, as opposed to the decrease in accidents that might be expected. He also brings up another interesting point: In Dallas, Texas, red light cameras were forced to cease operation because they weren’t generating enough revenue to sustain themselves. Hartmann asks, “If one assumes the cameras were there to promote safety, wouldn’t operating at a deficit be worthwhile if the cameras were ‘working’ so well that citizens were obeying the law?”

Branson and Its Fancy New Airport

Posted on by David Stokes

USA Today follows up on the recent New York Times story about the new private airport in Branson. It is the first commercial airport in the United States financed entirely with private funding. (Branson will pay the airport $8 for every tourist it brings in, however, so you could say that some public money is involved in the operations.)

This will be a grand experiment for Missouri and the entire country. If it works, it may open up a range of new possibilities, and perhaps once again encourage Kansas City to consider privatizing its airport. If the Branson airport fails, it will do so without taxpayer dollars being involved — only the investors would lose their money. (Remember when companies sometimes used to fail without the federal government bailing them out? Those were the good old days. …)

In my opinion, the best thing the airport has going for it, businesswise, is that it is starting small:

Peet also has set expectations low. Reno gets about 2.5 million air travelers a year, or nearly 68,500 travelers a day, he notes. Discount king Southwest Airlines has 38 flights a day there. But to reach Peet’s goal of 250,000 passengers a year, Branson Airport needs only 685 passengers — five to six planeloads a day.

Branson is not an easy drive from St. Louis or Kansas City. My family went to Branson for a weekend last year, and we drove. I would love to have the option to fly there on a discount airline. If I could knock two hours off the trip each way by flying, that would be worth a little extra money to me. For people who live farther away, this airport opens up Branson to a lot more people — not to sound like a chamber booster for them, or anything. …

This line in the article immediately reminded me of The Simpsons:

“Reno’s got beautiful scenery. Branson’s got beautiful scenery. They’ve got a lake. We’ve got three lakes. They’ve got lots of hotel rooms. Branson’s got lots of hotel rooms. They’re pretty isolated. Branson’s pretty isolated. The only thing they’ve got that we don’t are the casinos, and a lot of people don’t want to be around gambling.”

Because we all know that Branson is what Las Vegas would be like if it were run by Ned Flanders.

Representing From Afar

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

This doesn’t bother me. A member of the St. Charles County Council is working in Iraq for one year of his four-year term. He stays in touch with constituents and the council through phone calls and online communication. A few of the other council members griped to the Post-Dispatch about the arrangement — they want a new ordinance requiring council members to attend meetings in person.

The question should be left to the council member’s constituents. If they’re satisfied with his telecommuting, that’s what counts. If they’re not, they should vote him out of office.

Internationally Competitive U.S. Education – at Home

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Any comparison of U.S. education with school systems in other countries is incomplete if it leaves out American parents’ freedom to homeschool. This family fled Germany, where their homeschooled children had been forcibly removed from their home and taken to a state school. They now live in Tennessee, and are seeking political asylum.

Tennessee has fairly flexible homeschooling laws. Homeschooling families have to report on curriculum and attendance every year to their local superintendent. Missouri’s law is even better — it requires some record keeping, but those records aren’t looked at unless there’s a problem. This leaves parents free to focus on teaching rather than notifying the public schools about their “attendance,” a term that’s meaningless for homeschoolers anyway. (How could homeschoolers be absent? If they walk outside?)

I hope the Romeike family is enjoying the freedom to homeschool in Tennessee. If they ever find Tennessee’s regulations too burdensome, they should consider Missouri.

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