Missouri’s virtual school has filled almost all of the available spaces:

Missouri’s new virtual school has only a few free slots still open, but more students can still take classes if they pay tuition, says the director of the online education program.

It’s interesting that almost no one protests the virtual school. The only complaint I’ve heard is that it doesn’t yet offer middle school courses. On the other hand, charter schools, tuition tax credits proposals, and busing programs are accused of hurting the traditional public schools.

Maybe this is because students have the option of taking one or two online courses while remaining in a public school. Other choice options like charter schools might be more popular if they offered individual courses or after-school tutoring to supplement traditional schools.

Jo Mannies blogs about the Supreme Court ruling against some of the McCain-Feingold speech restrictions. The decision was popular with some of her readers, who commented:

2. I just LOVE that part of McCain/Feingold went down today…

   Comment by tsquare — June 25, 2007 @ 2:27 pm

3. You mean that citizens of the USA are now permitted to express themselves freely even within 2 months of an election?

   What a country!!!

   Comment by chris d — June 25, 2007 @ 4:54 pm

Hear, hear. Mannies notes:

Until McCain-Feingold, such ads have had a strong presence on Missouri TV stations. They were a major presence in the 2002 U.S. Senate contest between Democratic incumbent Jean Carnahan and Republican Jim Talent.

In close races like the ones we often see in Missouri, it’s as important as ever that people be allowed to air ads about political issues.

In today’s Southeast Missourian, an article discusses the increasing popularity of the virtual school program in Missouri. In fact, it’s so popular that they have almost run out of free spots, and will have to charge tuition:

Missouri’s new virtual school has only a few free slots still open, but
more students can still take classes if they pay tuition, says the
director of the online education program.

Starting Monday, parents could sign up their children to take elementary or high school classes for the cost of tuition.

When you give parents options on where they would like to educate their children, they will take advantage of it. Now that the state sees that there is a great interest in the Missouri Virtual Instruction Program (MoVIP) it will be expanded, which will happen next year to cover middle school children. A parent had this to say about the MoVIP program, in the article:

My son is one of the high school students. What a great opportunity.

This Sylvester Brown Jr. column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch speculates about the reasons people are pushing for charter schools and vouchers:

"Can’t you see the pattern, man?" Sol said. "Powerful folks with secret plans, always shoving blacks aside, ignoring our wishes, sometimes our votes, doing what they want …"

Sal interrupted, "That still has diddly to do with the schools."

"It doesn’t?" Sol responded. "Tell me, what part of town has received billions in investment dollars? Downtown. And who lives downtown now?"

I’d just perused a 2005 Downtown St. Louis Partnership report profiling downtown dwellers. I shared what I’d learned. About 25 percent of the 10,000 residents are single people in their 20s. Another 20 percent are in their 30s.

"Yes," Sol said, "young people who, in a few years, will have school-age kids. That’s why we’re hearing about future charter schools and vouchers. It’s not about kids in school today. They’re planning for the future."

I can see why people would think that public school reform isn’t "about kids in school today." We’re told again and again that the public schools just need more time to improve; meanwhile, teenagers graduate (or don’t) year after year without the skills they need to succeed in life.

However, I don’t think vouchers and charter schools fall into that category. There already are charter schools, and Mayor Slay wants to open others right now — not sometime in the future when there are more white kids in the city. There doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm for vouchers here, but the tuition tax credit proposals that were advanced in the last few years would have been effective immediately.

And I find it impossible to believe that all of these different reform strategies are just part of a conspiracy to make the city nicer for white people. Bad public schools hurt everyone.

In today’s St. Louis Post Dispatch, U.S. mayors declare that St. Louis has the best water in the United States!

Mayors from around the country declared Monday that St. Louis water
rises to the top. The water was judged on taste, clarity and aroma.

When tax dollars are spent well, you will probably have good water! Take that, Chicago.

David Nicklaus writes about Centene’s search for a place to expand:

Richard Fleming, president of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, said he spoke at an RCGA board meeting Thursday about Centene’s importance to St. Louis. Centene CEO Michael Neidorff, a member of the board, was there, and other board members applauded in agreement, Fleming said.

"This company is a valued corporate headquarters," Fleming said. "They’re heavily involved in community activities and philanthropy. We shouldn’t take them for granted; we should make it clear that they’re wanted."

Missouri has already offered Centene $9 million in tax breaks, but according to Centene, that might not be enough now that they can’t use eminent domain to acquire property.

Instead of giving this one corporation a tax cut, why not pass a tax cut for everyone? We want to attract many businesses to Missouri, not just the ones that try to seize property through eminent domain, then threaten to leave when that doesn’t work. An across-the-board tax cut would be more fair to the business owners who don’t seek out special privileges.

In today’s Columbia Daily Tribune, an op-ed piece discusses the problems with the Missouri Housing Development Commission’s state tax credit program. Apparently the housing tax credits, which are supposed to be used for low-income and senior housing projects, has been going toward developers who use it as start-up funding for their projects, and then cashing it in for the full tax break:

A recent study ordered by the housing commission found the system does produce beneficial low-cost housing but at a high cost to the state because the tax credits usually are sold to third party investors by developers at steep discounts.

At the end of the day, the full tax credit is not going toward the stated purpose:

Investors buy the credits, providing discounted front money so developers can proceed with projects, then redeem the credits for 100 percent state tax reduction. For every dollar the state gives in tax discounts, only 35 or 40 cents subsidizes housing.

Again it’s shown that while tax credit programs may sound beneficial and good, at the end of the day they aren’t used for their stated purposes. The taxpayers are picking up the bill for investments that should be covered by private investors’ own money.

An op-ed in the Springfield News-Leader explains how Missouri’s health care system has made life difficult for independent physicians — until now:

The restrictions placed on patients by their insurance companies are remarkable. Even many patients with the benefits of our present universal health coverage, Medicare, have signed over those rights to managed-care plans that restrict their choice of physicians. As independent physicians, we have been locked out of "the system" in Springfield.

Dr. Arnold, the author, suggests that we need a new law requiring insurance providers to accept any physician willing to abide by their contracts. However, help is already on the way. As Show-Me Institute Vice President Jason Hannasch writes in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, newly enacted health insurance reform will give Missourians greater control over their health care:

Rebecca Bruchhauser, our director of development, says her HSA has made a big difference in her health care decisions.

"Participating in a consumer-driven plan has allowed me to be more involved in my health care," she said. "I’ve chosen new health care providers in order to benefit from greater affordability and quality. " [...]

The new HSA legislation makes the benefits of patient choice in health care available to state employees, small businesses and many who were previously uninsured.

As more Missourians reap the benefits of HSAs, our state’s health care system will become more responsive to consumers’ needs.

Here’s an illustration of why preschool education is better when carried out in the private sector:

With the district reorganizing its staff and resources to round up children 3 to 5 into universal pre-K, parents worry that the Parents as Teachers program may get slighted.

FitzGerald’s 4-year-old son, and now her 2-year-old daughter, both benefited from the insight of their parent educator, “Ms. Cindy,” she said.

“Ms. Cindy knows my kids. They’re excited to see her,” FitzGerald said. “Will she still be coming?”

It’s disturbing that we have a program to send government workers into people’s homes to patrol their parenting. It’s also unfortunate for the disadvantaged parents who would benefit from help with their kids. When districts restructure programs like this, it disrupts the trust and relationships families have formed with the teachers. It might be a better idea to give parents vouchers for private parenting classes and preschool programs, which wouldn’t be subject to the whims of public school administrators.

In Sunday’s Jefferson County Journal, an op-ed piece discusses a way to stop spiraling property taxes in Missouri. The plan includes moving away from tax rates on residential property to a base tax that would be calculated from a house’s final selling price. After two years, any improvements made on the house would not count toward the property tax. This would reduce the penalty that people faces for making housing improvements that most homeowners do later in their lives. As the author states:

However, the question I have asked myself for years is this: when a homeowner adds a deck or another room to his or her residence does the local or county government incur additional expenses necessary to provide basic services to the citizens of the community?

The answer to this question is an emphatic "No!"

This plan would also allow room for adjustments to the property tax due to cost-of-living and inflation:

To factor in inflation and cost-of-living it is necessary to allow for adjustments in the base tax. This might be accomplished by setting an inflation cap of 2 or 3 percent periodically. The voters must approve any increase above this.

Overall, the plan sounds solid. Instead of basing property taxes on the infamous drive-by assessments, as has been done in St. Louis County, they should be based on uniform standards that homeowners can understand. Also, it’s about time that homeowners stopped being penalized for making improvements to their homes, by extra taxes being added by assessors to homeowners’ property tax bills. It makes no sense that homeowners are penalized for trying to improve the houses that they live in.

Here’s an article in the St. Joseph News-Press about the proposed English-language amendment:

If the ever-increasing number of students enrolled in English classes at the Ruth Houston Learning Center is any indication, non-English speaking adults in St. Joseph are in a rush to pick up the language.

Sharon Franke began teaching English at the center in October 2005. At the time, she was the sole teacher with three students. The center now requires five teachers that instruct up to 85 students.

Immigrants are already eager to learn English — even though most of these people have nothing to do with the state’s official proceedings. English is useful in everyday life. An amendment won’t make people want to learn English, but we don’t need it to. Immigrants already want to learn English.

Now it’s my turn to disagree. Not to the idea that there are too many school districts — I have no way to measure the optimum balance between the value of competition and the efficiency of consolidation — but to the notion that "too many choices" can ultimately make us worse-off.

David Stokes links to a New Yorker review of Barry Schwartz’s book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, noting that when faced with an ever-growing variety of products from which to choose, "at some point, the variety of choices leads to diminishing returns." I don’t dispute that this can be the case — for a majority of people, most of the time, even — but that this is no argument for artificial elimination of any of those choices.

Sometimes eliminating choices is a business strategy that makes sense. Some restaurants are getting rid of menus, some supermarkets are paring down the number of items on their shelves, and the Internet is filled with advice on how to make decisions effectively — suggesting that there’s a wide range of people out there that needs help coping with the bewildering array of choices life has to offer them.

So, yes, I grant all of this. And yet … it’s easy to forget that the long tail has become the basis for the most valuable new business plans of the Internet age. The idea here is that people have such widely varied tastes that the many items people buy very little of, with low market share, add up to a mass of options that rivals the popular items that nearly everybody buys.

Schwartz coined a couple of terms for different types of deision-makers: "maximizers" and "satisficers."

Continue reading "The Long Tail of Choice" »