Thursday, Feb. 12, our very own David Stokes will be speaking with political correspondent Steve Kraske on the one-hour program “Up To Date.” The show begins at 11:00 a.m. on 89.3 FM in Kansas City, and you can also listen online. Until then, though, be sure to read David’s latest policy study, “Government in Missouri.”
Privatization at Work in Kansas City
The Kansas City Star has a nice article about a soon-to-be-decided proposal that would privatize the Kansas City Animal Shelter. From the article, it sounds like this bill, which would turn management over to a private vet clinic, is expected to pass soon. This seems like an exciting example of privatization at work in Missouri. Hopefully, it will work out as well as privatization of the county pharmacy did for St. Louis County. The animal shelter bill is expected to save taxpayers $175,000 per year, but I am sure the animals would rather be taken care of by government employees than be subjected to the cold, hard hands of capitalism.
We’re Not Alone
Missouri isn’t the only state in which activists are calling for mandatory insurance coverage of autism treatments. Read this State House Call post about recent developments in New Mexico and Wisconsin:
In New Mexico, the Republican legislator who proposed the mandate said, in the AP’s paraphrase, “the insurance mandate would help families struggling with the out-of-pocket costs of providing therapy and other services for autistic children.” Yes, it would. Of course, everyone else who buys that insurance would be paying higher rates to pay for this coverage. Someone has to pay for it, something the bill’s sponsor either doesn’t know or doesn’t acknowledge.
The bill passed the New Mexico Senate, and the the comparable mandate in Wisconsin is still under debate.
These mandates increase the price of insurance. Although the autism mandate would be more costly than most of its supporters claim, by itself it wouldn’t drive insurance premiums through the roof. But when you add it to mandates about a host of other conditions, the expense becomes a burden. This is the insurance equivalent of, for instance, a grocery store mandate that requires customers to buy cheese and vegetables along with every loaf of bread so that they have the right ingredients to make healthy sandwiches. That hypothetical mandate would obviously affect people’s grocery bills by forcing them to stock up on products that not everyone wants. Insurance mandates have the same deleterious effects, but lawmakers seem to think the cost magically disappears into the insurance pool.
Toke on This
A small town in Missouri has legalized medical marijuana. The move is largely symbolic, because the county sheriff still plans to enforce federal laws. “60 Minutes” has broadcast a couple of great stories about medical marijuana in California, both about how those establishments that are selling it there legally have helped sick people, and also what a joke they have become as a way for not-really-sick people to buy dope. There was also a great episode of Entourage about this. Please discuss. …
Make Way for Midwives
The midwives make an appearance in Political Fix because of their recent visit to the Capitol. Midwifery is now legal in Missouri, so the midwives aren’t lobbying for anything. They just came to say thanks:
“We’re not asking for more,” Missouri Midwives Association former president Debbie Smithey said.
She said the next step for them is to “see what it’s like to practice legally.”
They fought long and hard to get here, and thanks to their efforts Missourians all have a little more freedom.
SLPS Deed Restrictions
As Clovis pointed out the other day, the Special Administrative Board for the St. Louis Public Schools recently adopted deed restrictions that would prohibit charter or private schools from using the buildings the school district will be selling. The Post-Dispatch ran an excellent article today describing the background for this decision, and highlighting the growing unrest surrounding it. The Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri has also produced a YouTube video examining this issue.
In short, these deed restrictions reflect that SLPS would rather accept $1 and see the old buildings destroyed than collect hundreds of thousands of dollars (which could then be used for teachers’ salaries or improvement of the remaining facilities) and see those old buildings used as charter or private schools.
On the Air in Columbia Later Today
I will be discussing occupational licensing in Missouri this evening on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia. I am guesting on the News at Five program with Steve Spellman. Please listen in if you are able.
Should the Legislature Allow Four-Day School Weeks? Absolutely!
The comments on this article appear to be largely opposed, but I say, “By all means!” This proposal wouldn’t force all districts to switch to a four-day schedule. Probably only a few rural districts would make the change. Compared to urban districts, rural districts operate under vastly different conditions, and it doesn’t make sense for them to send out fleets of buses over every hill and dale so that kids can spend a few hours in school — before starting off again on the long trip home.
The article mentions a district in Kentucky that has implemented the policy. There, high schoolers were trained to work as babysitters, and some families hired them on the day off of school. This example shows that functions of the public school can be provided by other sources. The fact that schools now watch kids five days a week doesn’t mean that no one else could step up to the plate if district calendars were different.
It’s true that, as one commenter points out, students in other parts of the world attend school six or seven days a week. It doesn’t follow, though, that a long week of short school days is a better schedule. In fact, some other countries have both long school weeks and long school days. Perhaps their educational attainments can be attributed to the long days, rather than the long weeks. The only way to find out whether longer or shorter weeks are better is to try them and see, and districts should be free to experiment.
911 Emergency Centers Calling Out for Economies of Scale
One of the first issues we extensively wrote about here on the Show-Me Institute’s blog is in the news today. Sen. Jason Crowell is insisting that any additional funding for emergency call centers follow behind some much-needed consolidation of those same centers. The Southeast Missourian has the story, and we thank JC for the link.
There are some exciting quotes in this story from Sen. Crowell, and he is 100 percent right on all of them:
“You’re never, ever going to get the money until you consolidate,” Crowell said. “I’ll force you. I’ll starve you down to it, if you’re not going to do it of your own free will.”
He went on to say the state has 114 counties but 174 individual 911 call centers, including two across the street from one another in Chillicothe, Mo. In a world where all fast food orders for a chain restaurant go to one place, he said, and all North American service calls for Charter Communications go through Cape Girardeau, there has to be a way to streamline 911 services.
“I know how important it is,” Crowell said. “But by gosh we can do it more efficiently, and that’s what the taxpayers deserve and that’s what the taxpayers demand.”
He then cites some examples of inefficiency in his own area:
Cape Girardeau County has three 911 centers, one operated by Cape Girardeau, one by Jackson and one by the county. Scott County has five independent 911 centers.
As I said, we covered this back in early 2007 as some cities in St. Louis County were consolidating on their own and the state was debating a larger tax to fund them. We still have too many call centers in our area, which goes hand in hand with having 91 municipalities, but there are a couple of examples in which small cities have done a nice job of sharing resources and saving money.
We currently have 174 call centers, and Sen. Crowell said in the article that there should be five statewide. I don’t know what the most efficient and effective number would be, but I am sure it is a greal deal closer to Sen. Crowell’s number than to the current one. I really don’t care whether that final number is five or nine or 12, just that it is a lot lower than 174. It is heartening to see someone fight for efficient use of tax money, like Sen. Crowell is doing here.
