Stan Geiger

The Edmonson Analysis

Let's do a brief, and more serious, analysis relative to the outcome of the governor's race.

Attorney General Drew Edmonson lost to Jari Askins in the Democratic primary. The pollsters had Edmonson with a strong lead right up until Election Day. Now they are all scratching their heads, trying to figure out how they got it so wrong. Allow me to help.

I wrote a while back about the recent Tulsa mayor's race. A Democrat, Tom Adelson, a state senator, well-financed, managed to get less than a third of the votes cast in the general election. He was a pro-education-spending candidate. In a public appearance, Adelson advocated housing subsidies for schoolteachers.

Drew Edmonson was the only candidate for governor that ran TV ads promising to work for higher pay for schoolteachers. He was endorsed by our local socialist rag---the Tulsa World. The World has been a card-carrying member of the political-educational complex for years and years. Nonetheless, Edmonson went from strong front-runner to loser just that quick. He now says he will exit politics. I applaud his decision.

Politicians everywhere should be paying attention. People are sick and tired of hearing about the "downtrodden" public educator. Hitching a political wagon to the education lobby worked for a long time, but it doesn't work anymore.

Cracks in the PEC's Foundation?

The political-educational complex---that unholy, you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours, alliance that has existed between politicians, the media and educators for years---is showing signs of weakness.

Lt. Governor Jari Askins is running for governor. She is currently running a TV ad. I've seen the ad several times. There is no mention of the word "education." There is no call for more money for schoolteachers. There is no call for support of SQ744---the educators' latest attempt at raiding the public coffers.

Askins is a Democrat. Askins is also a woman, and women seem to be more into the "it's all about the kids" nonsense than men. Yet she is not playing the education card. I find that fascinating.

Not long ago, we had a mayoral race in Tulsa. The Democrat in the race, Tom Adelson, even though the mayor's office has nothing to do with education, played the education card. In a public appearance, he even advocated housing subsidies for schoolteachers.

Let's see, according to Adelson, we should give part-time gubment employees a salary that beats the state average wage, we should give them free health insurance and we should give them pensions that can start at an early age and pay them for life. And we should make their mortgage payments for them, too. Marvelous.

Adelson, though a sitting state senator and a rich guy that reportedly spent nearly a million bucks of his own money on the campaign, got hammered. He got less than a third of the votes cast. The votes he got likely came largely from schoolteachers and their family members.

KOTV---to its credit---got on and stayed on the Skiatook Public Schools story. The district was found to have overpaid by half a million dollars for things like mop heads and trash cans. Instead of going down to the local Home Depot to buy such things, the district purchased them from some distributor in Oklahoma City.

It's pretty clear, in my view. The super had a deal with a crony. He routed taxpayer money---supposed education money---to his buddy in exchange for kicks. That's just one man's opinion, of course. But I'm not stupid enough to believe this was some kind of "overlook."

The school board---to its shame---did all it could to protect the super. He was not fired; he was put on paid leave. Citizens rose up and demanded the man be fired. Finally, he was terminated. But, according to reports, he's still getting paid through the end of this month.

Five years ago, I doubt KOTV would have put so much time and effort into the story. Fifteen years ago, I doubt the story would have been reported at all.

Other stories have hit the news in recent times. There was the story about the super in Marble City that embezzled a million bucks, and there was the story from OKC of the super that was using the district as his own personal ATM, charging everything to the district from cab rides to booze purchases.

You know how politicians work. They have their pollsters and their consultants and they analyze numbers in order to come up with a message they think might win the election. The fact that Askins is running a TV ad that doesn't mention education speaks volumes.

Is the public finally fed up with self-serving educators reaching into its pocket?

Quite possibly.

I-44 Bridge Kills a Man

Just a couple of days ago, a huge hole developed in the deck of the I-44 bridge over 161st East Avenue. Reports said 17 cars hit the hole, sustaining damage like blown tires and bent rims. Once mechanics look at the cars, other, more expensive, problems might well be found.

I recall thinking about how lucky we were that no one died in that incident. Our luck ran out today.

Another huge hole developed in the same bridge. A semi slowed down as it approached the hole. A man driving a pickup slammed into the semi. The driver of the pickup died.

I didn't hear any specifics on the deceased, but it could well be some parent lost a son today; it could well be some wife lost a husband today; it could well be some child lost a father today. Why? Because of a crap piece of infrastructure, that's why.

The bridge in question is 52 years old. Engineers will tell you an average bridge is built to last 30 years, maybe 40 at the outside. The bridge in question is one of the most-traveled bridges in the state. The bridge in question should have been torn down and replaced 10, 15, maybe 20 years ago. But it wasn't. Why wasn't it? In a word, money.

The bridge is slated for demolition and replacement. The question is, will it stand up long enough for us to have a chance to tear it down?

I've been writing about this problem for years. I was writing about it before this blog even existed. I hope people have a bigger ear for the problem now.

From 1985 until recently, state appropriations for transportation were held, basically, static at $200 million a year. Inflation ate away at the appropriation in real terms, year after year after year. Education funding, over that time, has skyrocketed.

ODOT says there are 1,500 structurally-deficient bridges in this state. But that just tells part of the story. ODOT just talks about ODOT bridges. There are turnpike bridges, county bridges and municipal bridges in the equation as well. As an example, a city overpass in downtown Tulsa was recently demolished. It wasn't replaced. It was simply torn down because it had become too much of a safety hazard.

Let's do a little compare and contrast. I went to the web and looked at some reports about recent school bond activity in the area.

In December of '08, Jenks voted in a $153 million school bond issue. Jenks came back last year and got another $10 million.

Broken Arrow voted in a record $295 million school bond issue last year.

Union, this month, voted in a $22 million school bond issue.

Tulsa Public Schools is currently going for a record $354 million school bond issue. That vote will take place next week.

I'm going to divert out of the Tulsa area for a moment and mention Sequoyah Public Schools. That district was in one of the reports I found in the Tulsa World. That district recently approved about $14 million in school bonds. What was interesting was the allocation of the bond money. An athletic track was to be built. Renovations for an athletic facility were slated. Putting synthetic grass on an athletic field was one of the projects mentioned---at a cost of $700,000.

The report said $240,000 was going to the purchase of 3 new school buses. Dude, if we're paying $80,000 for those tin cans on wheels, we're getting screwed.

Sequoyah, I'll add, recently had its superintendent busted for embezzling a million bucks.

Another story along the same lines has broken. Skiatook schools, apparently, paid $350,000 more than it should have for janitorial supplies. Why would that happen, do ya think? Well, that wouldn't happen if educators in control of the money weren't getting greased.

But let's go back to the Tulsa area. If one assumes passage of the TPS bond issue---which is easy to do because school bond issues always pass---we're looking at 4 districts, in the Tulsa area alone, over the past couple years alone, that will be spending $834 million in borrowed money.

News reports say the I-44 bridge project is a $7 million contract. For the want of that wee bit of money, in government terms, a man just died.

The political-educational complex has blood on its hands. The educators that constantly scream for more and more of the public-funding pie have blood on their hands. Politicians that have crawled into bed with educators in search of votes and political contributions have blood on their hands. Media types that have promoted more and more money for education in search of ratings have blood on their hands.

I hope it doesn't wash off too easily.

Two Hundred No-Shows Per Day

Schools are facing budget cuts; we’re all doomed! So say the plentiful local TV news reports on the matter. Of course, November is a ratings month. The political-educational complex just keeps rolling along.

It wasn’t long ago that the state’s General Fund was bulging with new money, thanks in large part to revenue collections generated by high oil and gas prices. General Fund revenue ballooned, growing from about $5 billion to $7 billion over the space of three or four years. The primary beneficiary of that revenue explosion was education.

I wrote a piece warning of likely problems with that scenario a couple of years ago. Given the history of energy booms and busts, I said the state could easily find itself a billion dollars short in a heartbeat. I have been proven right.

The new money should have been viewed as temporary at the time, and should have been appropriated for one-time expenditures such as infrastructure improvements. The state had a nearly endless supply of needed infrastructure projects from which to choose. But no, the politicians figured the money would best serve the state if it was dedicated to recurring annual expenses---like raises for educators. The political-educational complex just keeps rolling along.

Now the new money of past years is disappearing, and educators are whining like stuck pigs.

An Oklahoma Impact report last night said Governor Brad Henry had $105 million in “stimulus” money for dispersal at his discretion. Naturally, education got most of it. The political-educational complex just keeps rolling along.

I will be exceedingly glad when that education lackey we call a governor runs out the clock and takes a hike.

I will inject this point as a side note: You’re hearing about state funding cuts; you aren’t hearing about property tax revenue---which is a major source of funding for public schools. Maybe somebody in our esteemed local media would care to report on how much property tax revenue is up in the midst of the alleged grand funding crisis.

Last night, KOTV’s big story had to with Tulsa Public School’s announcement that it will eliminate paid substitutes for the rest of the year in response to state funding cuts. The district calls on parents to pick up the slack, asking them to sit on classrooms as uncompensated substitutes.

Tax, tax, tax the crap out of people in the name of education then ask them to come in and work for free. What an excellent display of brass ‘nads.

In the course of the story, anchor Terry Hood put forth a statistic that left me slack-jawed. She reported the district needs, on average, 200 substitutes a day. Two freakin’ hundred a day! Multiply that number by 180 instructional days and you come up with a staggering 36,000 instances over the course of a 9-month school year in which schoolteachers pick up the phone and say they aren’t coming to work.

Let’s have a little more fun with numbers. I don’t know how many teachers TPS has on the payroll; I think it’s somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000. If there are 36,000 call-ins per school year and there are 2,000 teachers on the payroll, we’re talking an average of 18 no-show days per teacher per school year. If you want to go with 3,000 teachers on the payroll, we’re talking an average of 12 no-show days per teacher per school year. Even if you push the number of teachers on the payroll to 4,000, we’re still talking about an average of 9 no-show days per teacher per school year.

If students don’t show up for school, it’s a big deal. But, apparently, the district has less of a problem with teachers playing hooky.

The average annual pay figure for Oklahoma schoolteachers is several thousand dollars higher than the state’s average annual wage as a whole. If I’m not mistaken, starting pay for a teacher is higher than the state’s average wage. In other words, teachers get paid like they work an entire year. But they most certainly do not. A teacher is only required to show up for work about half the calendar days in a year.

Yet on the rare occasions when teachers are supposed to go to work during a 9-month period of the year---a 9-month period that is itself laced with time off---well, hell, they just can’t make it.

Allow me to offer a solution. If a teacher takes a day off, dock that teacher a day’s pay. If teachers have to pay substitutes out of their own pockets, they’ll start showing up.

I’ll not hold my breath waiting for my proposed solution to grow legs, because the political-educational complex just keeps rolling along---and rolling all over you in the process.

KOTV and the PEC

KOTV’s morning show ratings must be in the tank. I say that because the station was all about education this morning. If you are in need of viewers, when all else fails, suck some educator butt.

A story was done about the HOPE initiative. I’m going to call that the DOPE initiative, because anyone that votes for it is a dope. I can’t believe that piece of trash made it to a ballot, but, apparently, it did. Oklahomans will be voting on it next November. If you would like to bankrupt yourself with tax increases, feel free to slap a yes on it.

The newly-crowned Oklahoma Teacher of the Year was in studio for a live interview. He works at Rogers High in Tulsa. Rogers was a great school, once upon a time. My mother graduated from Rogers in the ‘40s. She probably got an education there that bests the education students get from universities these days. In the now, Rogers is a dump.

Anchor LeAnne Taylor made a comment about teachers not getting the money they deserve. Sure she did. LeAnne’s mommy is a teacher.

A story was done about “stimulus” money. Of course, the station went to a school---an obscure school in Oklahoma City of which I have never heard. The principal says the “stimulus package” is a grand success.

Obama is now claiming to have saved a million jobs. That’s a claim impossible to verify. It’s just another example of politicians pulling numbers out of the air. That aside, the principal interviewed said “stimulus” money saved a whopping two jobs at his school. I imagine the jobs of which he speaks belong to a janitor and a cafeteria worker. Or, maybe one belongs to the pot-bellied security guard that sits in a chair eating Twinkies and drinking Coke a few hours a day for seven bucks an hour.

It’s the political-educational complex, baby. It never sleeps in its quest for your money.

Corporate PEC

I haven't written much about the political-educational complex of late. It seems our economic problems have put a bit of a muzzle on it. But it's still out there, and it will be back as soon as money becomes available.

I have written about the components of the PEC.

Of course, the educators---teachers, principals, superintendents, college profs, college administrators and coaches (I hope I haven't left anybody out)---are a part. Simply put, the more money that flows to education the more money they can put in their pockets. Naturally, for them, it's all about education.

Politicians are a part. The reason is numbers. There are an awful lot of people working in the education field. Politicians want votes and they want money.

The media---a large portion of it at least---is a part. The motivation here is the same as it is for politicians: numbers. The media lives and dies by numbers. Viewers, readers or listeners are required to attract advertisers. Money talks and BS walks, as they say.

But there is another element to the PEC that I have been remiss in not mentioning. That would be businesses that feed on education money.

Not too long ago, a story about a stink in Broken Arrow hit the news. A company, Air Assurance, was accused of billing BA Public Schools for work not done. The super was fired by the school board for bringing the matter up. A couple of school board members---I believe---have since been removed. Air Assurance denied everything. And then---somewhat conveniently---a storage barn containing Air Assurance invoices caught on fire. Amid a number of questions, it just kinda sorta accidentally caught on fire. Go figya.

I haven't seen any recent stories on the matter. But I have seen Air Assurance commercials running on local TV. Gee, do you think it's possible to buy your way out of investigative reporting in the modern age?

Me thinks most probably so.

A while back, I wrote of an episode of 'Now' on PBS. The primary discussion in that show had to do with the horrors of student loans---some 70 million people in debt to the tune of $700 billion. But right at the end of the show came another little tidbit.

A summit meeting of CEOs was held in Detroit. The meeting was supposed to search for ways to fix the economy. The comments of one CEO---the CEO of McGraw-Hill Publishing---were chosen for air. He said the fix for the economy has to do with education, education and more education.

Why do you reckon he would make such a comment?

One trip to the company's website told the story. I pulled this quote: "McGraw-Hill Education addresses virtually every aspect of the education market from pre-K through professional learning."

So a CEO that lives like a king from money he takes from a company that takes money from education sings the praises of more money for education.

If you have a brain, no more should be needed.

Standard PEC Poop

Relative to both common and higher education, people are fed up with educators and their constant whining for more money. Polls show that.

Scathing results from a scientific polling of 1,200 Oklahomans were released not long ago. The majority of respondents said public schools have enough or too much money. An even greater majority, I believe it was 80 percent, said they would not have their kids in public schools if they had a choice.

I didn’t see it directly, but I got an email that said KOTV (presumably along with the Tulsa World) did a poll asking people if they thought the most recent round of tuition hikes was justified. Only a third of respondents said yes.

Support for more money for education among the rank-and-file has eroded. In response, the educators’ propaganda machine is kicking into high gear.

David Averill---World editor and card-carrying member of the political-educational complex---said, in a recent editorial, that lawmakers are to blame for high tuition because they just don’t give state colleges and universities enough of your tax money.

Wrong. Dead wrong. Educator greed is to blame for high tuition. It’s just as simple as that.

Let’s take a look at a couple of excerpts from Averill’s piece.

[U]niversities and colleges together face $43 million in increases for energy, health benefits and other fixed costs.

We have 25 public colleges and universities in this state. Averill says, as a group, these institutions face $43 million in cost increases for various items---including those under the somewhat vague category of “other fixed costs.” That averages out to about $1.7 million each.

Oklahoma State hiked its tuition by 10 percent this year. Reports say it now costs a fulltime student $6,200 for a year. Extrapolation tells me the increase was on the order of $500 per student for a year. I seem to recall hearing the increase only applied to the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses, so let’s conservatively say the increase hit 20,000 students. Do a little math, and it appears OSU will be bringing in at least $10 million more from tuition and fees this year.

So OSU was facing a couple of million in cost increases yet raised tuition enough to bring in 10 million new dollars.

You’ll note Averill mentioned energy, health insurance and, oh yeah, ‘other stuff.’ He made no mention of exorbitant salaries and bonuses, retirement contributions, private jets, country club memberships, free houses, free cars, free travel, free cell phones or free anything else that might be escaping me at the moment. Pointing to something like energy costs while ignoring what really eats the money is a standard PEC misdirection play.

Averill continued:

The less-than-standstill budget will continue a 10-year decline in the percentage of state support for state universities and colleges. Operating budgets in 1998 included 75.3 percent state-appropriated funds and 21.3 percent tuition and mandatory fees. By 2008, appropriated funds made up 49.5 percent of operating budgets while tuition and fees contributed 37 percent.

The above goes beyond misdirection; it falls more under the heading of disinformation. Notice the absence of any pertinent information. There is no mention of how much tax money goes to higher ed this year. There is no mention of how much tax money went to higher ed in 1998. After all, we wouldn’t want readers to be able to compare and contrast, right? Averill pulled one statistic out of his ass and put a spin on it, trying to make it look like state funding for higher education has been going down for 10 years. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I don’t have the numbers, but I’d be willing to wager the state’s appropriation for higher education has doubled since 1998---increasing by several hundred million dollars per year. The change in the percentages has nothing to do with a lack of tax money flowing into colleges and universities; the percentages have changed because tuition and fee revenue has increased so bloody much over the past 10 years.

In a sense, though, ol’ Dave has a point. Lawmakers are indeed partly to blame for high tuition. Not because they haven’t routed enough tax money to state colleges and universities, but because lawmakers---in an unconstitutional delegation of authority---gave unelected regents unilateral power to raise tuition and fees at will. Righting that wrong should be at the top of their agenda in the coming legislative session.

Time for Some Truth in Education

Americans for Progress has some interesting things to say about education funding and the teachers' union's push for a massive funding increase for common schools. Mike McCarville was kind enough to share.

Thanks, Mikey! You're alright---for an old white man. Ha.

“We believe that public school funding is either ‘too high’ or ‘about right’ just like the 64 percent of Oklahomans that responded to a recent Friedman Foundation survey,” said AFP Oklahoma Director Stuart Jolly. “Oklahoma schools have enough money. It’s just not being spent wisely.”

Ain't that somethin'? Two-thirds of Oklahomans think schools have at least enough money. How many stories about that have you seen on the local evening news? None?

There's a good example of the unholy alliance that exists between the media and educators.

According to a recent AFP analysis, just 12 years ago Oklahoma’s entire state budget was $3.4 billion. Today, the education budget alone is $3.8 billion, meaning the state spends more today on Oklahoma’s education system than it did on all state programs just 12 years ago. “And what do Oklahoma students have to show for it?” Jolly asked. “The same grade they did 12 years ago – F.”

Exactly. More and more money for educators, less and less in the way of results.

Meanwhile, education administrative costs in Oklahoma are three times the average amount for the region. In 2006, Oklahoma spent $753 per student while the average for the region was $242 per student. Oklahoma spends three times more on school administration than Arkansas ($215), Kansas ($258), or Texas ($252). Just 59.7 percent of education dollars are actually spent in the classroom. Putting $500 more per student back in the classroom – or $10,000 per classroom – is a first step toward addressing the state’s failing education system, AFP contends.

So, according to the educators, every state that surrounds us spends more per pupil than we do, and yet we spend 3 times what they spend on butt-scratching chair jockeys.

How many times have you turned on the local evening news and seen a teacher complaining about having to pull money out of her own pocket to supply the classroom?

Personally, I think that's bullshit propaganda. But if there is even a little truth to the story, why? And why does the media love to do such reports without mentioning the overwhelming excesses in administrative costs?

The PEC at its best.

Since 1985, Oklahoma’s student population has grown by 7.1 percent, but the administration to take care of those students has grown by 46 percent! And the education budget during this same period has grown from $1.4 billion to $3.8 billion. And where does Oklahoma rank today nationally? The same place it did in 1985 – near the bottom.

Let's see, state funding for education is up $2.4 billion since '85. In percentage terms, that's up about 170 percent in 23 years. Over that same time span, the highway department's funding sat flat at about $200 million per year. In inflation-adjusted terms, ODOT's funding was cut year after year after year.

Why is Oklahoma saturated with crumbling bridges and crappy roads? Thank your local educator. And the media. And the educators' loyal lackeys in politics.

And now, the hogs at the trough cry out for more---a lot more.

Just say no. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

KOTV and Grade-A Bullshit

So TCC's tax hike proposal went down to defeat, and it took political-educational complex damage control less than 24 hours to engage. KOTV ran a story tonight telling us all what a mistake we made, and how poor folks are going to suffer, and how the freakin' world is going to come to an end.

I would expect better from the top-rated newscast in the market.

KOTV reported yesterday's election marked the first time in TCC's history that voters have turned down a request for more money. One time in 38 years, and we're all doomed. Please.

Maybe KOTV needs a little guidance. I'll try to oblige.

KOTV, if you would like a TCC topic to discuss on the evening newscast, tell me how much President McKeon is getting paid. The Tulsa World, of all sources, reported McKeon's predecessor and mentor, Dean VanTrease, was pulling down an annual pay package worth a quarter of a million bucks 5 years ago. Tell me how much taxpayer money VanTrease's bitch is putting in his pocket today.

I'll go just a hair further, for now, though I won't get into detail. I'm just going to throw out a name, and anybody that wants to offer an anonymous comment may feel free to do so. The name is Cindy Hess.

I kind of figured this war, this battle at least, was over. But since KOTV reported TCC is planning to bring the measure up again in a few months, I reckon it ain't. That's cool. I've got a round or two left in my clip.

TCC-TV

I said it would happen, and it did. KOTV ran a story promoting TCC's tax hike last evening. The story ran pretty much in tandem with a TCC paid ad.

The political-educational complex, baby: working hard to talk you out of your money.

The story focused in on TCC's wish to educate air traffic controllers. The story said such a move would be good for the local economy. More tax money for education equals economic prosperity for all. What a tired---and false---promotion.

I figure there are already plenty of places where prospective air traffic controllers can go to be schooled. Otherwise, we wouldn't have any. But we need to pay more in taxes so TCC can get into that business, they say.

How many air traffic controller jobs open up in Tulsa in a given year, do you reckon? None? One? On the high side, two maybe?

But hey, I shouldn't be so cynical. I mean there is some economic benefit to be had in this proposal. Griffin Communications' economy, for example, has already benefited. TCC's ad campaign put your tax money in its coffers. And, if the measure passes, you can bet your butt the personal economic outlooks of TCC big shots will improve.