Don't Believe Everything You Read on the Internet

Franz had more more to say than online report contained

"Call the Tune'' by Mike Anthony

CALL NEWSPAPERS

October 19, 2011 - Why is Rich Franz serving on the Mehlville Board of Education if he believes that it's not about the kids?

Many of the roughly 25 speakers hammered home that point during last week's Board of Education meeting that drew more than 200 people who showed their support for the board's recent decision to roll up the district's tax rate.

The tax-rate roll-up is a revenue-neutral action, meaning the district is projected to collect the same amount of tax revenue this year as last year under the provisions of the Hancock Amendment. However, some residents will pay the school district more in taxes and some will pay less based on the assessed valuation of their home.

So where did this notion come from that Franz doesn't believe it's about the kids? An online publication reported Franz's comments at the board's Sept. 27 meeting as follows:

"(Board member) Tom (Diehl), I want to compliment you on reading your speech, you did that really well, obviously it came from the heart," Franz said. "What you folks don't understand ... this isn't about the kids, this is about those folks sitting in those seats not trusting us as a board. Folks, they don't trust you."

When a question was raised about Franz's comments, the online publication published more of Franz's remarks from that meeting:

"What you folks don't understand and these folks sitting out here do is — and by the way, I'm tired of the NEA trotting out that lame thing about 'oh it's for the kids' — you know what? This isn't about the kids, this is about those folks sitting in those seats not trusting us as a board. And if you're not hearing that, you're not paying attention. Folks, they don't trust you. I'll say it again, they don't trust you."

Wow! What a cad this man must be if he truly believes that it's not about the kids. The problem is Franz had a lot more to say that wasn't reported by the online publication. Here's exactly what Franz said at the Sept. 27 board meeting:

"... Tom, I want to compliment you on reading your speech. You did that really well ... Obviously, it came from the heart. Where to start? First of all, our teachers have received 15-percent pay raises in the last five years. The fact that your board froze their pay is disingenuous. And (board Vice President) Larry (Felton), I don't appreciate your inference that people who wouldn't be in favor of this tax increase don't appreciate the kids.

"Fact of the matter is, every one of us on this board is here because we care about the kids.

"What you folks don't understand and these folks sitting out here do is — and by the way, I'm tired of the NEA trotting out that lame thing about oh, it's for the kids. You know what, this isn't about the kids. This is about those folks sitting in those seats not trusting us as a board. And if you're not hearing that, you're not paying attention. Folks, they don't trust you. I'll say it again, they don't trust you. You have an obligation to earn their trust. You are not credible in their eyes and you have an obligation to do that.

"Whether you choose to do it with this issue is up to you, but I for one realize that we have an obligation to the students and to those people out there in the seats. You don't owe the NEA and the teachers and the administrators and the classified employees anything. You owe the owners of the school district and at this point you all and me included, 'cause I'm on this board, we have failed to earn the trust of these folks and it's about time we start doing that.''

This column is not a defense of Franz.

Quite frankly, he's more than capable of defending himself. People have every right to rail against him, but they should be armed with all the facts.

Our guess is not many of those speakers last week attended the previous board meeting and only knew about Franz's comments from a Facebook page started by the Mehlville Community Taxpayers for Mehlville. (Webmaster: This page is the creation of failed former BOE member Karl Frank, Jr.) The group's initial post states:

"At a September 27th, 2011 Mehlville School Board meeting, minority elected Rich Franz stated, "This is not about the kids." We beg to differ! Join the Mehlville Community Taxpayers for Mehlville Face-book page today as we combine forces, as well as whatever differences we may have, to tell Rich Franz and others like him that this is most definitely about the kids. It has been about the kids for generations, and it will be about the kids for generations to come.''

Consider the phrase "minority-elected.''

We'd be hard pressed to recall any school board candidate who has received a majority — more than 50 percent — of votes in any election. For example, consider the 2008 election in which Drew Frauenhoffer, Erin Weber and Karl Frank Jr. were elected to the Mehlville school board. With a voter turnout of 10.75 percent, Frauenhoffer was the top vote-getter, garnering 3,592 votes.

In April's election with a voter turnout of 18.89 percent, Franz received 3,969 votes while the top vote-getter, Elaine Powers, received 5,686 votes.

Folks, don't believe everything you read on the Internet. (Webmaster: Or by reading ANYTHING written by Karl Frank, Jr. or the Mehlville-Oakville Patch) Get the facts for yourself instead of going off half-cocked.

The United States of America is the greatest country on the face of the earth and our system of government is the best.

Like it or not, Franz was duly elected to the Mehlville Board of Education.

To paraphrase one of the speakers at last week's meeting: If you don't like it, move.

More Than 200 Show Support for Mehlville's Tax-Rate Roll-Up

Mehlville residents tell Franz he does not speak for them

MIKE ANTHONY

Executive Editor

October 19, 2011 - More than 200 people filled the Mehlville Senior High School Library last week to show their support for the Board of Education's recent decision to roll up the district's tax rate.

Originally set for the boardroom in the Administration Building, the Oct. 12 meeting was moved to the high school library to accommodate the overflow crowd.

Roughly 25 speakers addressed the Board of Education to voice their support for the tax-rate roll-up and take board member Rich Franz to task for his opposition to the roll-up. Many of the speakers also criticized Franz for a remark he made at the Sept. 27 board meeting that "... this isn't about the kids ...''

One speaker called for Franz to resign from the school board, but Franz told the Call he has no intention of doing so.

At the Sept. 27 meeting, the board voted 4-3 to set the district's 2011 tax rates, with Franz, Secretary Elaine Powers and board member Mark Stoner opposed. Mehlville's overall "blended" rate, which is not levied but used for state calculations, is $3.6748, an increase of roughly 10 cents over the 2010 "blended" rate of $3.5763.

The tax-rate roll-up is a revenue-neutral action, meaning the district is projected to collect the same amount of tax revenue this year as last year under the provisions of the Hancock Amendment. However, some residents will pay the school district more in taxes and some will pay less based on the assessed valuation of their home.

Among the speakers last week were current and retired district teachers, parents and both co-chairs of the Committee to Restore the Pride, the organization that advocated passage of Proposition C, an 88-cent tax-rate increase that voters defeated last November.

Franz, along with Greg Frigerio and Ken Meyer, founded the Mehlville Community Taxpayers Association, which opposed Prop C.

Jim Schibig, who served as co-chair of the Committee to Restore the Pride and co-chair of COMPASS — Charting the Oakville-Mehlville Path to Advance Successful Schools — said, "... Mr. Franz, you may represent the voices of some taxpayers in the district, but you certainly don't speak for me. Mr. Franz, this is a school district and it is about the kids. People need to realize that an effective school requires money. Effective schools enhance the community.

"Mr. Stoner, please don't tell me that money doesn't make a difference in (the) operation of the school district. Please don't compare the Mehlville School District to St. Louis Public Schools. That's like comparing apples and oranges. If you're going to make a comparison, make it relative. Compare us to Webster, Fox, Lindbergh and you can see what those districts have compared to us. Those numbers will tell you a totally different story.

"Board members come and go, but one constant in all this is kids ...,'' he added.

Jeff Clobes, who also co-chaired the Committee to Restore the Pride, thanked the four board members who voted to roll up the tax rate. (Webmaster: The Committee to Restore the Pride of which Mr. Clobes served as deputy treasurer, was fined $2000 for failing to disclose campaign contributions by the Missouri Ethics Commission. Click HERE for more)

"Miss Powers, I was very disappointed that you chose to side with Mr. Stoner and Mr. Franz on voting 'no' on the tax roll-up. I voted for you because you were — I expected you to be my voice. That did not represent my voice. I was very disappointed in it ...,'' he said.

He noted that had the tax rate not been rolled up, the district would have lost roughly $1.2 million — "1.2 million, Mr. Franz. Ten cents a day. Ten cents a day is what you're fighting for, sir. Asking the Mehlville school board to opt out of the PSRS (Public School Retirement System) is an insult to every teacher that's in this room tonight,'' he said to applause.

"The NEA does not own me. They did not pay me to say that. I am a parent of three kids that attend this school (district) and I fight for every one of these teachers because they fight for my kids. Threatening to take dental and vision insurance away from these people, from this district — what's next on your agenda, sir, asking them to bring toilet paper to the workplace?''

Clobes also praised Schibig for his comments, saying, "... I wish I could just once be able to speak as eloquently as he does about how passionate he is about the kids. Jim and I were fortunate enough — or unfortunate enough, I guess — to co-chair Prop C. We were asked to co-chair Prop C for one reason: Because we both believe in kids. We are 100 percent about the kids of this district ... It's about the children. It's not about you ...''

Clobes later said, "... In my opinion, the district promotes an anti-bullying policy. Mr. Franz, you are bullying this board ...''

In a news release emailed to the Call, Clobes was identified as a co-chair of the Mehlville Community Taxpayers for Mehlville, but during his comments he did not mention the group nor his affiliation with it. (Webmaster: The reason that no speaker mentioned the "Mehlville Community Taxpayers for Mehlville was that the Board would only recognize ONE speaker from any citizens group. It is amazing how lies are empowered by more lies)

Lemay resident Gary "Brit'' Rose, who ran unsuccessfully for the school board in 2009, said, "Mr. Franz, my wife and I are outraged when you made the comment ... and I quote: 'It's not about the kids.' Well sir, you're wrong. While you're sitting on the board, you're supposed to make good decisions for the best interests for our students.

"Since you took oath, I have not seen any accomplishments on your part on making good decisions. Mr. Franz, it would be nice to see you start coming to the board meetings prepared. Now I believe you have not done your homework. Let's start making good decisions, sir, and let's turn that F to an A-plus. Mr. Franz, you do not represent my voice in this district and it is about our kids ...''

Oakville resident Donna Seidel called for Franz to resign.

"... I am a taxpayer in the Mehlville School District, a parent and a community activist,'' she said. "Mr. Franz, you most certainly do not represent me or my family. It is most certainly about the kids. They are the owners of this school district. We're the taxpayers. We are the trustees. It's every taxpayer's responsibility to afford them the best education possible because they are the future.

"Your comments suggest that you view public education as a privilege instead of a right guaranteed by the state. Your comments suggest that the children of this community are overprivileged in respect to education. Nothing could be further from the truth. You don't need to look any further than neighboring districts to see that's an absolute fact. You personally have an even greater statutory responsibility as a member of this board and if you refuse to put kids first, then I suggest you resign your position immediately,'' Seidel said to applause.

"I'd like to suggest that to any board member who cannot and will not support the students, the teachers and the staff, resign now. (Webmaster: You forgot to mention support of the teachers union) Your failure to act in their best interest is counterproductive and unwelcome. We needed to roll up the tax rate to maintain our academic programs. We need to pass an operating tax increase. We absolutely cannot absorb any further cuts that will impact the classroom ...''

Oakville resident Jeff Heveroh said, "... There's approximately 20,000 registered voters in the Mehlville district, including me, and you don't speak for me. Hypocrisy, that's what this is going to be about. A man who's made a living on the back of taxpayers, working for different police districts. Now he's a consultant. Now he wants to do a self-serving job of lowering this rate even more than it already is.

"Who's the boss? I'll tell you who the boss is. You're not going to like this. It's the state of Missouri. You know why? Because they're the ones who dictate the rules that you seven have to live by and you seven push down on the 10,000 students every day — huge responsibility for a volunteer position ...

Heveroh later said, "... Do the right thing, which is first and foremost every decision should be made for the benefit of those kids. Period. End of story. Elaine and Mark, again my name is Jeff Heveroh. (I) live in the district. I encourage you to stand up to that man. He doesn't — he's lived here for a couple of years. He's never sent his kids to our school. You two do. Stand up to him. Venki, Tom, Larry and Ron, keep up the good fight and stay strong.

"One last thing. Rich, it is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt,'' Heveroh added.

Regarding Seidel's call for his resignation, Franz told the Call, "... Everyone's entitled to their opinion and I would be the last person to say that someone isn't allowed to think I should resign or suggest it, but I certainly have no intention of doing that.

"My mandate from the voters back in April, which was a limited one I think, was to do what I could to restore credibility to the board — and not just me, but Mr. Stoner, too — to restore credibility to the board and to be a fiscal watchdog. And I think that in as much as we're able to, we are accomplishing that, and if that's why people feel I need to resign, they're certainly entitled to think that, but that's not going to happen.''

As for speakers' comments at last week's meeting, Franz said, "I thought they were reflective of the attitude that is shared by the majority of the people who supported Prop C, who supported the implied mandate of COMPASS I and COMPASS II and who believe that spending more money on education and specifically teachers' salaries automatically leads to a better education for our kids.

"I think that's a faulty thesis and I think those are the folks who spoke against me,'' he continued. "And there's another component there, too. So for a number of years, what I refer to as the educational bureaucracy has, I believe, influenced to a great degree the decision making of the school board, the Mehlville school board, and when Mark and I were first elected, I think that educational bureaucracy in the form of those folks I've already mentioned to the community — the teachers' union, the administrators who feel forced or compelled to deal with us elected officials — I think they considered Mark and I an aberration.

"They considered us more of a distraction or annoyance than anything. But over the last few months, I think they're a little agitated that we've had some success in bringing our mandated agenda to light and the comments we heard Wednesday night were a sign of their frustration.''

Hilmer's Courage to Speak Out is 'For The Kids,' Letter Writer Contends

Call Newspapers

October 19, 2011 - To the editor:

When Mehlville Fire Protection District Board of Directors Chairman Aaron Hilmer last brought up the issue of public pensions at the fire district, there was an outcry from those who claimed it was a matter of life and death.

The defined-benefit plan was replaced with the defined-contribution plan and the district and taxpayers were much better off for it.

Hilmer's latest column about teachers' pensions has drawn a similar response from our educators who claim they deserve such a generous pension because their job is so important and difficult.

Teaching our children is definitely a noble profession, but does it deserve special benefits that the rest of us do not receive?

What would our quality of life be without the other skills?

If your sewer line breaks or your toilet backs up, you call a plumber. Life would be pretty "crappy" without those skills.

Without an electrician you couldn't enjoy television, computers, lights and refrigeration.

Have you ever seen an auto mechanic after a day of working on a 150-degree engine on a hot summer day — hands cut up and covered from head to toe in greasy dirt, but without your car how would you get to work, the doctor or the grocery store?

I could go on but I think you get the point. All professions and skilled labor are equally important in our society, so why do teachers claim that their job is more important and that they work harder than the rest of us?

Our teachers work in an air-conditioned classroom and never get their hands dirty.

They don't have to work nights or weekends. They are paid for every major holiday and enjoy a spring break, Thanksgiving break, Christmas break and can enjoy three months of summer off.

Does that sound like a more difficult work schedule than you have?

I've read their complaints that they paid for their own schooling and that they have taken additional night courses to further their careers. Well guess what, so have the rest of us — nothing unique there.

And what about the results of our teachers' efforts? Sadly, the United States has fallen behind the rest of the developed world in the education basics. When our kids graduate after 12 years of school, they are qualified to do what — go on to college? While I'm not opposed to higher education, you'd think that our kids would be qualified for something more than just more school.

Every taxpayer should watch the documentary "Waiting for Superman" to learn more about our education system and how the teachers' unions have affected our children's future.

I'm sure there will be more teachers who will respond to this letter, but the conclusions as I see it are pretty clear. Teachers do not work harder than the rest of us and their job is not more important. Our teachers have a great work environment and they enjoy a schedule that the rest of us envy. We pay our teachers a salary and benefit package that is more generous than what is available in the private sector.

What really bothers me is when they use our kids as pawns to justify demands of increasing salary and benefits for themselves — and that needs to change.

I appreciate Aaron Hilmer for having the courage to discuss this issue with the taxpayers. He's not asking for anything for himself and doesn't personally benefit from reforming these out-of-date pension packages, so he must be doing it "for the kids" and "for their futures" and for that I thank him.

Jim Smoot

south county


Webmaster: Right on Jim!!

Red, White and Angry : Communist, Nazi parties endorse ‘Occupy’ protests

THE DAILY CALLER

12:31 AM 10/17/2011

In a move that may redefine the term “strange bedfellows,” the American Nazi Party issued an official endorsement of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement on Sunday afternoon. The announcement put the organization, a self-described “National Socialist” political party, in company with the Socialist Party USA, which explained its own support for the left-wing protesters in a nationwide conference call last Tuesday night, crediting organized labor with the protests’ strength and sophistication to date.

The American Nazi Party is the most politically sophisticated U.S. remnant — but by no means the only one — of white supremacist Adolph Hitler’s murderous 20th century movement, which sought to establish socialism for Aryans, and to subjugate non-Aryans. The party calls Hitler’s Mein Kampf “an ideological blueprint for healthy Aryan survival.”

In its statement on Sunday, the Westland, Mich.-based Nazi party wrote that the Occupy Wall Street protests are “TAYLOR [sic] MADE for National Socialists, as well as WN [White Nationalists] who are serious about DOING SOMETHING.”

“I urgently URGE all of you,” the statement’s unnamed author added, “to TAKE PART and JOIN IN when these protests hit your neck of the woods. Produce some flyers EXPLAINING the ‘JEW BANKER’ influence — DON’T wear anything marking you as an ‘evil racist’ — and GET OUT THERE and SPREAD the WORD!”

While Nazis seem unenthusiastic about visibly linking their flagship organization to the vocal protests that have popped up in dozens of U.S. cities, the same can’t be said of the Communist Party USA.

John Bachtell, an Illinois-based community organizer and Communist Party USA board member, addressed the “Occupy Chicago” protest on Saturday.

“I bring greetings and solidarity from the Communist Party,” Bachtell said to hoots and applause. “We are here, marching side-by-side. We’ll sleep here. We’ll be with this movement ’til the very – ’til we make all the changes that we know we have to make.”

Bachtell also organized the Tuesday evening conference call, with an online call to action that framed the Communist Party’s involvement as one part of a larger movement uniting the “Occupy” protesters with a “Week of Action for Jobs” organized by the AFL-CIO, and with congressional Democrats’ push to pass President Obama’s American Jobs Act.

“While there is a wide range of political and ideological trends,” he wrote, “there is a consensus against corporate greed, getting money out of politics, taxing the rich and putting people before profits.

“A big challenge for the CPUSA and left, progressive movements is to link these demonstrations with the labor led all-people’s coalition and help deepen understanding that the path to progress must be through electoral and political action including defeating Republican Tea Party reaction in 2012.”

Communist Party USA Secretary/Treasurer Roberta Wood moderated the conference call, which she announced halfway through had attracted 88 callers.

“’We are [the] 99 percent.’ What a beautiful idea. It re-draws the fault lines of society,” said Wood, a former executive board member of United Steel Workers Local 65 who has also been labor editor of the People’s Weekly World.

“We as communists are also part of that 99 percent. Our deep involvement in our communities and workplaces and unions and neighborhood organizations [will] strengthen a new national conversation that will no doubt impact the future of our country.”

Southern California Communist Party leader Arturo Cambron also addressed the call, praising “the growing of the occupying community.”

“We’ve been getting a lot of support from an unusual amount of very, very broad forces,” Cambron added. “The movement has gone [on] to get the endorsement of a lot of trade unions, including the Los Angeles Federation of Labor, which is I think one of the most powerful, most progressive labor organizations in the country.”

John Wojcik, labor editor for the People’s World, told the conference call that after a recent Occupy Chicago march, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka “was speaking to law students at the Chicago-Kent Law School just a few blocks away. And they heard him urge support for Occupy Wall Street, and offered them use of union halls [and] other resources. And he was using their language. He said we have an economy, a political process, that isn’t serving ‘the 99 percent.’”

Communist Party USA leader Jim Lane, calling in from Dallas, added that “the Texas AFL-CIO published contact information, urged participation everywhere, and sent their whole staff to the Austin action.”

With its embrace of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Nazis’ path has become remarkably similar to that of organized U.S. communists, with its primary distinguishing feature being the white supremacists’ near-universal blame of Jews for what they see as the worst features of capitalism.

“The pro-white movementites should be JOINING this Occupy movement and supporting it!” read a statement published Thursday on the American Nazi Party-affiliated “White Honor” website.

“Even Adolf Hitler’s NSDAP had to vote with open communists on some issues to achieve their goals. WE need to utilize and support every movement of dissent against this evil American empire, regardless of which end of the political spectrum it originates from.”

The NSDAP was the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, rendered in English as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.

On the same website, American Nazi Party chairman Rocky Suhayda wrote Thursday that it was “time to pull WN [White Nationalists’] heads out of their collective ass’s [sic], and JOIN IN the attack on Judeo-Capitalism.”

In a 2009 feature exploring why some white supremacists supported the newly inaugurated President Barack Obama, Esquire magazine noted that Suhayda’s claim to fame was “Being widely quoted bemoaning in the fact that so few Aryan-Americans had the cojones of the 9/11 hijackers: ‘If we were one-tenth as serious, we might start getting somewhere.’”

While the Occupy Wall Street movement has become a radical kitchen sink of left-wing social gripes focusing most of its rage on bankers and capitalism, anti-Semitic insinuations are now more common than when protests first began September 17 in New York City.

Speaking to Reason TV on October 12, Occupy Los Angeles protester Patricia McAllister said that “the Zionist Jews who are running these big banks and our Federal Reserve, which is not run by the federal government — they need to be run out of this country.”

McAllister introduced herself to the cameraman as an employee of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

As the “Occupy” protests gather steam, nearly all of their momentum is still provided by organizers on the far left end of America’s political spectrum. But the entry of real-life Nazis indicates an unprecedented broadening of a U.S. protest movement.

The American Nazi Party’s official Twitter account proclaimed on Saturday that “The Protests Are Going To Become Much More Frightening…. One can only hope.”

Steve Jobs on Education

By Jay P. Greene 10/06/2011

Everyone is talking about Steve Jobs this morning.  The acknowledgement of how he improved the human condition while also making billions in profits for himself and others almost makes the Al Copeland Humanitarian Award unnecessary this year.  Steve Jobs embodied the entrepreneur as humanitarian — not because he gave away his wealth as if to cleanse himself of the sin of having earned it, but because he created and promoted consumer items that significantly improved our lives while justly generating enormous wealth for himself, his employees, and shareholders.

In addition to embodying the spirit of “The Al,” Jobs had quite a lot of smart things to say about education reform.  I’m grateful to Whitney Tilson for reminding me of this.  Here are some selected remarks from Steve Jobs on education:

[On Unions]

I’m a very big believer in equal opportunity as opposed to equal outcome. I don’t believe in equal outcome because unfortunately life’s not like that. It would be a pretty boring place if it was. But I really believe in equal opportunity. Equal opportunity to me more than anything means a great education. Maybe even more important than a great family life, but I don’t know how to do that. Nobody knows how to do that. But it pains me because we do know how to provide a great education. We really do. We could make sure that every young child in this country got a great education. We fall far short of that…. The problem there of course is the unions. The unions are the worst thing that ever happened to education because it’s not a meritocracy. It turns into a bureaucracy, which is exactly what has happened. The teachers can’t teach and administrators run the place and nobody can be fired. It’s terrible.

[On Vouchers]

But in schools people don’t feel that they’re spending their own money. They feel like it’s free, right? No one does any comparison shopping. A matter of fact if you want to put your kid in a private school, you can’t take the forty-four hundred dollars a year out of the public school and use it, you have to come up with five or six thousand of your own money. I believe very strongly that if the country gave each parent a voucher for forty-four hundred dollars that they could only spend at any accredited school several things would happen. Number one schools would start marketing themselves like crazy to get students. Secondly, I think you’d see a lot of new schools starting. I’ve suggested as an example, if you go to Stanford Business School, they have a public policy track; they could start a school administrator track. You could get a bunch of people coming out of college tying up with someone out of the business school, they could be starting their own school. You could have twenty-five year old students out of college, very idealistic, full of energy instead of starting a Silicon Valley company, they’d start a school. I believe that they would do far better than any of our public schools would. The third thing you’d see is I believe, is the quality of schools again, just in a competitive marketplace, start to rise. Some of the schools would go broke. Alot of the public schools would go broke. There’s no question about it. It would be rather painful for the first several years

DM: But deservedly so.

SJ: But far less painful I think than the kids going through the system as it is right now.

[On Digital Learning]

The market competition model seems to indicate that where there is a need there is a lot of providers willing to tailor their products to fit that need and a lot of competition which forces them to get better and better. I used to think when I was in my twenties that technology was the solution to most of the world’s problems, but unfortunately it just ain’t so… We need to attack these things at the root, which is people and how much freedom we give people, the competition that will attract the best people. Unfortunately, there are side effects, like pushing out a lot of 46 year old teachers who lost their spirit fifteen years ago and shouldn’t be teaching anymore. I feel very strongly about this. I wish it was as simple as giving it over to the computer….

As you’ve pointed out I’ve helped with more computers in more schools than anybody else in the world and I absolutely convinced that is by no means the most important thing. The most important thing is a person. A person who incites your curiosity and feeds your curiosity; and machines cannot do that in the same way that people can. The elements of discovery are all around you. You don’t need a computer. Here – why does that fall? You know why? Nobody in the entire world knows why that falls. We can describe it pretty accurately but no one knows why. I don’t need a computer to get a kid interested in that, to spend a week playing with gravity and trying to understand that and come up with reasons why.

DM: But you do need a person.

SJ: You need a person. Especially with computers the way they are now. Computers are very reactive but they’re not proactive; they are not agents, if you will. They are very reactive. What children need is something more proactive. They need a guide. They don’t need an assistant. I think we have all the material in the world to solve this problem; it’s just being deployed in other places. I’ve been a very strong believer in that what we need to do in education is to go to the full voucher system. I know this isn’t what the interview was supposed to be about but it is what I care about a great deal. (Source: Smithsonian Institution Oral and Video Histories)

The above interview was from 1995, but it is clear that Jobs did not significantly change his mind over time.  In 2007 he reiterated that unions and lifetime employment for teachers were at the heart of the problem.  This is from PC World:

During a joint appearance with Michael Dell that was sponsored by the Texas Public Education Reform Foundation, Jobs took on the unions by first comparing schools to small businesses, and school principals to CEOs. He then asked rhetorically: “What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in, they couldn’t get rid of people that they thought weren’t any good? Not really great ones, because if you’re really smart, you go, ‘I can’t win.’ “

He went on to say that “what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way. This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy.”

After Steve Jobs made these comments I wrote an op-ed for the NY Sun, which stated:

There is a price to be paid for this kind of frank analysis and Steve Jobs knows it. “Apple just lost some business in this state, I’m sure,” Mr. Jobs said. Of course, Apple sells a large portion of its computers to public school systems. By taking a stance against school unionization, Mr. Jobs may lose some school sales for Apple.

Sharing the stage with Mr. Jobs was Michael Dell, the chief executive officer of Dell, a competing computer manufacturer. By comparison, according to the description of the event, Mr. Dell “sat quietly with his hands folded in his lap,” during Mr. Jobs’ speech while the audience at an education reform conference “applauded enthusiastically.”

Mr. Dell followed Mr. Jobs by defending the rise of unions in education: “the employer was treating his employees unfairly and that was not good. … So now you have these enterprises where they take good care of their people. The employees won, they do really well and succeed.”

Whether Mr. Jobs or Mr. Dell is right about the role unions have played in public education, one thing is perfectly clear – attacking the unions is a controversial and potentially costly choice for corporate CEOs.

The safe thing is to make bland declarations about the need to improve the quality of education without getting into any of the messy particulars that might be necessary to produce a better education. Changing the status quo in education almost certainly requires ruffling someone’s feathers, but doing that is almost certainly bad for business.

In part this is why we see highly successful entrepreneurs who survive in a world of ruthless competition abandon these business principles when they turn to education philanthropy. People who would never endorse the idea that businesses should be granted local monopolies, offer workers lifetime tenure, or pay employees based solely on seniority, embrace a status quo public system that has all of these features.

While some CEOs may sincerely believe that education is somehow different from the rest of the world in which they live, others have been cowed into submission. Teachers are a very large, well-organized, and relatively affluent consumer and political bloc….

Steve Jobs has embarked on a perilous path, but with solid evidence and persuasive arguments, he can move all of us toward higher quality schools. He should be applauded for having the courage to say out loud what scores of other business leaders are too sheepish to say.

Unfortunately, Steve Jobs will no longer be with us as we try to advance on this perilous path of education reform.

-Jay P. Greene

Solar Energy Lobby Calls For Extending Obama's Stimulus Grants for Solar Power

By Elizabeth Harrington October 12, 2011

(CNSNews.com) - The head of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the trade association that advocates for the the solar energy industry, said Wednesday that the solar industry is “rock-solid” and that a program included in President Barack Obama's 2009 economic stimulus law that provides federal grants to the solar energy industry should be extended.

Under current law, the stimulus program is set to expire at the end of this year.

SEIA CEO Rhone Resch also said it would be a “huge mistake” to blame the entire industry for the problems at Solyndra, Inc.

During a conference call briefing, CNSNews.com asked Resch: “Why should U.S. taxpayers give another penny to the solar energy industry?”

He replied: “Well, you know, first of all the solar industry was invented here in the United States, it is now the fastest growing industry here in the U.S.”

He continued: “But due to the economic downturn in this country itʼs still very difficult to finance projects, which are going to deliver electricity at a lower cost to the taxpayer than what exists today, without programs like the 1603 program.

“The solar industry has proven itself as a rock-solid, economically viable industry here in the United States. Weʼre growing faster than any other industry right now, and itʼs important at this juncture with the economic conditions that exist in this country, that we keep smart policies like the 1603 program in place,” Resch said.

Resch held a briefing with reporters to address the impact of extending the Section 1603 Treasury Program, which was a part of President Barack Obama's $825 billion economic stimulus law.

The program “allows the owner of commercial solar property to receive a 30 percent grant, in lieu of taking the solar Investment Tax Credit,” according to SEIA.

As of June 29, the Section 1603 Treasury Program had awarded 2,657 grants totaling $1.18 billion for more than 6,300 individual solar projects in 45 states.

“Ultimately this is the kind of policy that makes sense,” Resch said. “This is the kind of policy that actually gives a positive return to the taxpayer.”

The 1603 treasury program will expire on Dec. 31, and would cost over $1 billion if extended, according to President Obamaʼs 2012 fiscal year budget, that takes into account the programʼs extension.

The tax credits are designed “to reimburse eligible applicants for a portion of the cost of installing specified energy property used in a trade or business or for the production of income,” according to the Treasury Department.

During the briefing, Resch cited a study by EuPD Research that said a one-year extension of the program would result in an "additional 37,000 jobs."

“That is what is at stake if Congress extends the program,” he said. “The flip side is if they donʼt, obviously these jobs wonʼt be created and the industry will contract and will face a very difficult time going forward.”

Resch was asked if the unfolding Solyndra scandal has “poisoned the atmosphere” in Washington for him and SEIA. The solar panel manufacturer filed for bankruptcy last month after receiving $535 million loan guaranteed by a Department of Energy program in 2009 over the objections of federal analysts.

“We support the investigation into Solyndra bankruptcy and the hearings, I think, are designed really to shed more light on to what happened," Resch said.

“If they were found to have broken any laws, they need to be held fully accountable. So, you know, for our position here, information is not the enemy. But we think that itʼs a huge mistake if one tries to--letʼs just say, view the entire solar industry through the Solyndra lens.”

He added: “They in no way represent the overall health of the industry.”

President Obama visited Solyndra in May 2010, commending the now failed company: “The promise of clean energy isnʼt just an article of faith.”

Solar power as a whole accounts for less than 1 percent of electricity production in America, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administrationʼs most recent statistics on renewable energy consumption and electricity.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/solar-energy-lobby-calls-extending-obamas-stimulus-grants-solar-power