I'm not going to debate who did what to who or why. Whether it was justified or not. Whether it was a false flag operation or if it was legal. What really matters is what was accomplished?
A few hours after the $60+ million dollars worth of missiles pounded one of six Assaad's air bases he went right back at it. He bombed the same city the gas attack reportedly took place as a way of flipping the finger to the world. The people there are no better off for it. The way I see it many innocent Syrians are getting bombed by their own leader, Russia, the United States, ISIS and by so-called Syrian rebels. In short there's no way we can bomb our way out of this one. So what's the answer?
Maybe it's best we stay out of this mess. Assaad may be an ahole but what's the alternative?
ISIS?
The so-called rebels or Russian/Iranian control?
Which is the less of all evils?
Seems to me no matter which way this turns out the Syrian people are screwed.
From A Taxpayer's POV Even it could be said my home's value has increased doesn't mean it generates one single dollar more revenue for me. Yet when it comes to school taxes on the property we get hit two ways. (1) When reappraisals go up. (2) When mileage increases. What a lousy way to fund schools. On top of that there's a huge number of us on fixed incomes who retirement sources never come close to rising at the same rate as these taxes.
Funding Considerations I'm against funding schools through property values on primary residences. Another argument could be made for imposing a school value added tax at the time of sale. BUT NEVER for peoples primary homes that aren't generating increased revenue. If a point could be stretched maybe for business properties that increase in value it might make some sense.
Perhaps rentals should be included considering they are a business and for two other reasons. (1) Responsible home ownership should be encouraged. (2) Rentals tend to put our neighborhood school populations in a expensive constant state of flux ss you see in the following story.
If Allentown had a large population of homeowners instead of renters with kids constantly moving around all the time this would be less necessary. Kids do better academically when they aren't moved school to school. These special programs could be consolidated to where they are most needed on a long term basis. More importantly it makes better financial sense not to constantly be closing down one school then paying to expand another. Then in a few years regret selling off a school that might be needed a few years down the pike when the student population shifts back again.
A Few Ideas For Funding Schools * A value added school tax at the time of sale on privately owned primary residences. A higher value added tax on non primary residential properties.
* Lessen the deductions for dependent children both on federal and state income taxes. The way it works now childless couples are paying more on their earnings while couples (who's children actually use schools) are burdening the budgets for educations. These deductions came about when we encouraged larger populations. This should no longer be the case. Despite less deductions be allowed for children this would be offset by reducing or eliminating property taxes. Thus making it possible for more young couples with children to own homes. Course the state and federal government would have to pass these increased revenues along.
There's a few more advantages. People being able to hold on to their homes longer after retirement. Greater tax fairness in not financially punishing someone for not having children. Schools would see their budgets rise with incomes. This is better then having to face angry home owners year after year when they price them out of their homes.
* Federal and states laws have to change. It's unfair public schools are saddled with different requirements then charter schools due to unfair lobbying of our law makers. At the current time public schools have to provide the same pupil costs to charter schools without the same restraints public school programs are required to provide. While I don't see that as happening--it still remains a fact.
A Few Ideas For Allentown's Schools * Consolidation. Currently the Allentown School District has 25 schools. One of the advantages some suburban schools take advantage of is having almost all their schools on one campus. In Allentown we have almost 25 principles along with the associated staffing at each. This includes separate cafeterias, janitorial services, etc By consolidation much of these could be eliminated. In some districts (who have main campuses) when the elementary buildings becomes overcrowded they move some classes over the middle school next door (and vice versa).
While transportation cost may be a factor--I'm certain moving pupils around would be more cost effective then opening, closing and expanding buildings year after year. Instead of dozens of music rooms, gyms, crossing guards/security staff, auditoriums, heating plants and so forth they all could be reduced to just 3 or 4 in large buildings. I don't see how this wouldn't make sense.
* Currently According to the ASD website the poverty rate is 38.64% (89.1% denoted as low income). Students come from 51 different countries (speaking 26 languages). One of problems I see here is students are geographically assigned to one of our 25 schools. The quickest and most effect way to integrate separate languages, cultures and financial background differences isn't by isolating them from one another. Hence the need for what I spoke about above regarding consolidation. It's one thing for educators to try and assimilate students, but the most efficient and cost effective method is to actually assimilate them among their peers.
* Finally let's talk about the whacky way we go about hiring administrators. The school board itself needs a wake up call when it comes to hiring. The current way we do business has got to go. The first step is to pay recruiters or advertise nationwide for some drifter who is double dipping their retirement or wants a guaranteed contract. Folks this isn't some wall street corporate CEO we should be looking for. How many times do we need to get burned before we figure this out?
I'm positive we can find qualified people within our district or outside of it who would be willing to take the job without a contract that rivals that of an NFL player. It's sheer lunacy the way we've paid for folks who taken advantage of this idiocracy. Someone performs the job or they're let go just like anyone else. There--is that so hard to understand?
* Free lunches: There's nobody who will ever convince me some kid can't afford a packed lunch. Be realistic how much could a baloney sandwich already bought with taxpayer supported food stamps for impoverished kids cost. Great if ASD get' federal funds, but really--it's shouldn't be ASD's taxpayers' responsibility for something they already paid for.
* Free daycare for underage student's offspring: There's nothing wrong with it but shouldn't come out of schools educational budgets for other students.
* Pre-kindergarten: Taxpayers are already on the hook for 13 years of education. In reality it is nothing more then free daycare. Most parents are more then qualified to prepare their kids. No one needs a degree to help their kids play with crayons, turn on the TV or access the internet if they are so inclined. There are a great deal of others who can afford to send their kids off to nursery school but instead choose to cheap out making the rest of us pay for it. Let em be kids for one more year. There's nothing wrong with it.
IN SUMMARY
Education has become big business, a lot more complicated and expensive then it need be. We'd do far better for our kids by allowing them to commingle rather then separating them by neighborhoods, culture and financial upbringings in small neighborhood school buildings.
There's plenty of other ways to provide school funding. Instead of punishing someone because either they are childless or happen to own a home there are alternatives we haven't explored.
"philly.com" is reporting on something I thought about--blueberries.
This family is a huge consumer. The wife bakes them in muffins and homemade pancakes/waffles. The granddaughters eat a bowl of them at a time and we make shakes out of them.
Although the job pays well--the hours are long and the work is hard.
Simply put--I don't see American workers willing to pick them
Much of the same problems exist on farms from coast to coast. Whether it be vegetable/fruit crops, dairy or meat operations a bunch of farms are having trouble finding labor. So are the seasonal amusement parks and contractors who relied on foreign labor..
Enough Said Unless we adopt better policies consumers are going to be hit hard
I did a little research today and what I found was astounding. I took the actual numbers from my water bill and determined I pay a penny a gallon (which includes sewage charges). I then shopped online several places and determined the lowest price I could find for bottled water. This turned out to be $1.99 per gallon for a family size case of a generic brand. So there you have it. Some fools are paying (if not more) a markup of 19,900%. That's 200x's more !
Some will argue what I'm drinking it may not be clean as bottled water. Hold on there hoss. I use a osmosis device for all my drinking water. I guarantee you the water quality is better then what's in these bottles. Bottlers only use charcoal filters. The device I have uses a sediment filter, two charcoal canisters before it's further filtered through a membrane into a holding tank. When water is drawn from the tank it goes through yet another charcoal filter.
I could go into a long diatribe of the differences. Instead I'll break this down simple as possible. According to 'Bottled Water Web' 'Nestle's Pure Life' water bottles contain between 66-92 PPM dissolved solids overall. The meter I have indicates my osmosis water contains around 28 PPM.
There a couple of advantages to having less solids then the normal 250 PPM that usually comes out of the tap (sometimes even more from wells). Ccoffee and mixed juices taste far better. The water itself has no chlorine taste or some of those funky flavors that come out of well water (even treated water at times). Due to having 1/10th of the solids I haven't had scale build up inside my coffee maker for over three years now. Using tap water I went through almost a coffee maker a year--despite using vinegar or other chemicals to try and flush it out.
OK What's The Downside? Well it cost me about $70 a year for filters and another $55 every three years for the membrane. That's works out to about $88 a year. About the same as only 14 cases (42 gallons) of the cheapest bottled water I could find. Each year we use what would be equivalent to 140 cases of bottled water. Which would cost us about $838+ a year.
The osmosis process comes at a price. For each gallon produced about 3-4 gallons are wasted. In other words about a 25% efficiency is a worst case scenario. Factoring the $88 a year maintenance costs plus the penny a gallon I pay for 1,260 gallons of city water ($12.60) said to be wasted this still leaves me over well over $700 ahead. HOWEVER we don't flush the waste water down the drain. Instead into a bucket which we then use for plant watering.
Here's Some Of The Biggest Reasons Why We Do This
* It's Cheaper * Better Water * Too many bottles end up on the side of the road and in oceans
* Then there's the waste at several levels. The costs to heat plastic into bottles. Need for the electrical energy to power equipment to fill them then heat the shrink wrap used (in of itself another waste). Fossil fuels to deliver them and who knows how much to haul away empty bottles (if people bother to recycle them in the 1st place). Then energy used to shred them, remelt the plastics to be transported once again to bottlers. That's an awful lot of waste!
If there's upside to using bottled water for normal everyday use I'm not seeing it. This doesn't make sense cost wise or for our environment. Save for a bunch of folks getting rich off of it I can find no other reason.
Here's a great alternative to bottles.
It keeps water cold.. something plastic bottles can't do
All too often we complain about feeling helpless against a government that won't do enough against pollution. Yet so many refuse to make even a simple change in their own lives which could make a tremendous difference to our environment. Why is that?
NOTE TO SELF
People hate long post like these Most won't get this far. I tell myself--"you ought to really stop posting these." Yet still--maybe--just maybe one or two will.
Then again I also should tell myself to stop "telling myself" because even I don't listen to what I'm saying obviously.
Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox band travels worldwide. However we're fortunate enough to have them appear somewhat locally. They will be in Scranton, Pa. at Lackawanna College On May 13, 2017. Although there's no guarantee you'll see some of the same guest performers it's sure to be a fun night out.
Tickets are available HERE. They range from $40-$45. If you're reading this after that gig the band's entire touring schedule can be found HERE
Disclaimer
I'm not being compensated in any form. I've posted this because I found it might be worth a mention to my readers if they are interested. AND because I found them to be a truly unique band.
