Too Important to Trust to the Government

An infamous libertarian in southwest Idaho died -- but left a legacy: a billboard on the edge of town that cycle's through various diatribes.

Currently one states that "education is too important to be entrusted to the government."

What an amazing summation, or confession of complete failure! If one looks past this yet one more clever, all-too-easy and increasingly familiar barrage of criticisms toward the American government, the depressing aspect is that an increasing number of our citizens have become so cynical that more and more, they genuinely do not trust -- or at least, don't seem to want to trust or support our government.

This begs the question: has the American experiment finally failed?

America was established on the premise that "we, the people" could collectively determine a course of action that was fair, just and favored to at least a majority of our citizenry -- in a manner that the minority would accept the will of the majority -- knowing that they had the right for dissent and the opportunity to revise, add or delete previous actions if they could but convince a new majority of their self-perceived superior position.

In other words, rather than be left to the mercy of one omnipotent and fallible individual, that we believed in our collective wisdom to find the best course of action, along with the ability to continuously revise and improve as became warranted -- based on the abilities of people from within our ranks to convince a sufficient number of others collectively in order to create a new majority -- subject of course, that these new revisions similarly were subject to even further, later revisions or deletions.

Ours was a unique, grand experiment, that through a republican form of electing leaders to represent the masses (holding these leaders accountable to the people they both lead and represented by means of setting timelimits for office that could only be continued if re-elected) that we could best serve and maintain justice than any single monarch could.

We recognized that inherent in this republican form of democracy, there would be disagreement and not all would always get what they wanted -- but this was acceptable in the knowledge that compromise and amendment would often be needed in order to wield a majority so that those whose arguments held merit would most likely be able to help at least to some degree in the forming of our decisions. Inherent in that, was the belief that ultimately decisions would achieve a level of effectiveness and justness as a result of our collective wisdom.

The blanket statement that education is too important to be left to government implies that either our government is not motivated to seek what is best for we the people, or is not capable. Either way - if this is true - democracy in America has failed.

The implication -- assuming it is consistent with the other diatribes -- is that education should be run by private enterprise. That somehow, the profit motive as controlled by Adam Smith's "invisible hand" would be the best way to establish an educational system for empowering our citizenry for coping and competing in today's global market and world of technology.

What saddens me and worries me most is that energy and time spent on attacking the government does not seem to be an effective or constructive way of deriving necessary revisions, adjustments, additions or deletions. It does not seem to be the smartest method for trying to ascertain wise choices. Rather it seems devisive, counter-productive and destructive as it promulgates contempt, anger, intolerance and discouragement.

I don't believe that we can truly afford this degree of destructiveness nor lack of constructive effort to fully confront the immense challenges that we all face. I don't believe that with the immensity of what we face that we can spare any significant segment of our citizenry withholding efforts to work collectively toward solution.

Yes, we need diverse ideas and perspectives, but we need unity in purpose. We can not afford to fall short.

We absolutly need an educational system truly capable of equipping our citizenry as we rush to meet the challenges we face in this new global economy. And therefore, we all need for our educational system to be altered and improved. But we need to seek continuously a sense of unity, and strive to find areas of agreement from which to continually build upon.

I belive that because education is so crucial to the welfare of our citizens, it is exactly the government who should most be responsible and involved in its development and implementation. And implicit in this, should be the constant realization and consensus that any time the government falls short in its effort, it should not be abandoned, but rather should be confronted and utilized all that much more.

My Colonoscopy

I posted the following on Facebook on Thursday, March 3, 2011 in reference to Wednesday, March 2nd:

Colonoscopies can be a pain in the butt -- in my case, figuratively rather than literally. I had put mine off for almost 7 years, but finallly got the job done yesterday to fulfill a promise I had made to my wife after she was diagnosed with cancer last April.

Truthfully, other than the fear, the only hassle was going the day before without eating.

While my recovery took an hour or so longer than expected, once home, I was headed in to town within an hour and a half for dinner and concert with friends.

I encourage anyone else who is avoiding it to get it done -- the peace of mind is well worth it!!

My Testimony at the Idaho House Education Committee

The Honorable Chairman and Members of the Idaho House of Representatives Education Committee,

I am Kim Wardwell, a teacher in the Caldwell School District.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1979 & ‘80 in Paraguay, South America, when it was a dictatorship, I developed a deep appreciation and passion for the preservation of the democratic process in our American republic.

It is to that very point that I wish to speak in opposition to Senate Bill 1108. Previously as a high school social studies teacher, I saw many students come to realize and appreciate the brilliant foresight our founding fathers had in building in a system of checks and balances which still is fundamental in our American way of life.

I fear that if SB 1108 is enacted there will no longer be a genuine set of checks and balances to insure that our educational system stays healthy. I foresee that as district superintendents and state legislators have to cope with financial continual annual pressures, that without a system in place for checks and balances – our system will erode and deteriorate to the point where it eventually is no longer viable and robust, no longer able to produce an educated society able to compete sufficiently in the global market.

I fear most the removal of seniority as a protection for teachers. I can readily see the financial point of view of administrators in Idaho that older teachers cost local school districts about twice as much as beginning teachers. We cost more in terms of health premiums and medical expenses, and physical limitations can start to be more of a challenge, even though we continue to improve mentally, emotionally and educationally.

Without the check and balances of collective bargaining, there is little to keep superintendents from succumbing to the temptation of removing older, more expensive teachers as an expedient way to balance the budget? * I believe it won’t take too long for Idaho’s future potential teachers to decide to pursue other careers. Or even if their passion leads them to want to teach a few years while they are young, energetic and relatively inexpensive – they will realize they better get into a profession in which they can have a more reasonable expectation of being able to earn and receive full retirement benefits before they start a family and are locked into a 30-year house mortgage.

With such expediencies, I question how in the long run, we can truly expect to compete in the global market.

Honorable Members of the House of Representatives, I urge you to protect and maintain the checks and balances that collective bargaining has provided so that we can truly discern which cuts need to be made, and which are cuts of expediency that ultimately will do more harm than good.
I urge you to either vote no or significantly revise SB 1108.

Thank you for listening to me.



*Note: After a brief talk with Senator Melinda Smyser prior to the House Ed Committee hearings, it was pointed out to me that the local districts for the last 7 years or so have “pass through” money – similar to what we had when I taught in Washington to where local districts receive additional funding for teachers with additional education and years of experience. In Washington, basically, the local district pays for the base salary, and all of the additional money is paid by the state for experience and additional education.

But when questioned on this very point by House Ed Chair Nonini, I commented that I had referred to pressure on both the local superintendents and the state legislators in dealing with the continuous annual budget issues, and that the expediency of getting rid of senior teachers could be tempting at the state level as well.