It is that time of year again when local school boards are voting on next year’s budget and there is the usual hand-wringing and angst about the lack of money and yet no budget ever shrinks, no budget ever spends less than revenues.

This year the Thompson district in spite of projecting an additional $5million in additional revenues the budget still has a deficit of over $5million which must be covered by reserves.  This is fiscal responsibility?

The board will vote this Wednesday on the budget and most likely will approve the $159,423,378million dollar budget which works out to approx. $10,618 per student and which is an increase of $13,237,526million from the current budget of $146,185,852.

What we will get as a return on our investment for this increase in spending?  Will student achievement actually increase?

Will students reading proficiency increase with the creation of a new Literacy Support/Effectiveness Program at a projected cost of $545,000 for which no details exist?

Will the $4,529,558 million dollars in permanent salaries and benefits increases be enough to keep teachers and staff content?  Will we see improved student achievement as the teachers union always claims that low teacher pay is why student’s can’t excel?

The open union negotiations were nothing more than a charade as the compensation committee never had a report to give during the public meetings and then the last day of negotiations, Superintendent Scheer was busy going back and forth between the committee and board President Olson as myself and another citizen watched in disbelief.

When the committee “presented” the results it was a simple statement of: “funding is available to restore the 2011-2012 lost step” and for columns”.  Then with no discussion everyone at the table gave a big thumbs up and approved the compensation committee’s recommendations. Amazing.

The board of education, the superintendent and the teachers union continue to refuse to embrace transparency and to actually have a partnership with all community members.  Once again the details of the teachers union contract will not be made public and the contract is once again on the consent agenda!

This means that the union contract will passed as part of a large packet of administrative actions so that there is no discussion on the details nor is there a recorded vote on the passage of the contract.  This is not transparency – this is collusion between the board of education president Sharon Olson, Stan Scheer the superintendent and the teachers union.

If we do not demand answers, transparency and accountability then we have no one to blame but ourselves for the failing education system and our kids in so many ways deserve better than this.

Please attend the Thompson School District meeting on June 19th and let the board know that at the very least the details of the union contract should be made public prior to the vote, the details of the salary agreements for the classified and admin staff should be made public prior to the budget vote and the votes for the budget and the union contract should not be part of the consent agenda so that there is a clear record of where board members stand.

6pm District Admin building 800 s. Taft Ave Loveland

Agenda

As we arrived, there were numerous people milling around holding anti-fracking signs and I believe that are part of the Frack Free Loveland group which has now become the Protect Our Loveland organization.

I began handing out copies of a pdf I had printed which provided information on what products would not be possible without natural gas and had mixed results with people taking, keeping or not taking at all.

As we were walking away to enter the city building, a young man began talking to us and I then attempted to have a rational dialogue with him about fracking.  I will say that I was impressed as he is the first anti-fracking person who believes coal is a viable option and is now a very clean process.  After hearing this statement I naively believed that we would continue to have a balanced conversation.

You can click here for the video which is approx.7.5 minutes long and ends with the young man telling me something like “I can’t see your side as I can’t get my head that far up your ass” – so much for polite discourse.

Then as we started to walk away a woman approached me and began the conversation by telling Robert he is “an ass”, then telling us both “how dare you show up” and my favorite; “there should be no dialogue”.

Here is the video clip of the retired teacher which is 3.5 minutes

The quality could be better but we had not really planned to record outside and we tried to also at the same time record some of the people milling around.

We did finally manage to enter the council chamber and had one more encounter with a woman who asked for a flyer and then after reading returned back to me.  She explained that she is not only against fracking but is also against natural gas EVER being drilled for as she wants to protect our water.

I asked her how will she heat her home and said there is solar and wind which I then explained that neither of these are viable options.  I also pointed out that is it hard to drink water when you are a frozen ice cube and at that she turned around.

So these are the Fracktivists who will soon be descending upon Loveland to collect signatures for their petition to impose a ban disguised as a moratorium.

Going to be a fun and entertaining summer with the Fracktivists!

Let’s start with wind turbines. The manufacture of wind turbines requires significant quantities of what are called rare earth metals. These metal ore compounds are difficult to mine and require the processing of huge amounts of rock to produce a few ounces of usable material. Another fact not widely understood by the American public is that the magnets used in wind turbines are extremely toxic to manufacture and result in large scale environmental damage in the process. The Chinese manufacture all the magnets used in wind turbines and currently China produces 97% of the all rare earth metals.

The environmental degradation is not limited to the mining of rare earth metals or the manufacturing of the magnets; it extends to the disposal of the wind turbine blades too. The latest environmental problem to arise from the use of wind energy is the disposal of wind turbine blades once they have worn out. They cannot be recycled  because they are made of a carbon fiber compound and burning them would release toxic emissions into the atmosphere so for the time being they are piling up. 

What contribution does wind energy make to the power grid? Wind turbines operate at peak efficiency approximately 30-35% of the time; this is a best case scenario. Because the wind never blows at a constant speed their energy output is unpredictable and at all other speeds their power output is worse, potentially far worse. From an investment prospective, wind turbines are money losers in the first order.

“The amount of money that a 2 MW wind turbine will generate each year will depend upon the Purchase Power Agreement that you are able to obtain. I believe at best you will get 3.7 cents a kilowatt hour. That would mean revenues per 2 MW installed of $194,472.00 dollars per year. You would have to get almost 7 cents a kilowatt hour just to get revenues sufficient to pay back the initial investment in ten years without interest.”  

Source: http://www.goodhuewindtruth.com/Facts___Myths.html     

When considering all the facts it’s fair to conclude that the wind turbine industry could not exist without ongoing government subsidies that underwrite an industry and a product that there is no market for.   

The Renewable Energy Insanity Continues With Solar Power 

Government and environmentalist groups would have you believe that solar power is a viable, clean, efficient alternative to traditional, carbon-based energy sources. Not true. 

Solar energy is expensive, inefficient in the extreme and not as environmentally friendly as first thought. New research shows, albeit unintentional, that generating electricity with solar panels can also be a very bad idea. In some cases, producing electricity by solar panels releases more greenhouse gases than producing electricity by gas or even coal. Another serious problem with solar panel manufacturing is that it is very labour intensive and requires a substantial amount of rare earth metals and energy to produce just like wind turbines. As inefficient as wind energy is, solar is an even poorer performer when it comes to energy output. 

The reality is solar energy accounts for less than 1% of America’s total energy needs despite billions and billions of taxpayer dollars being funnelled into the technology and industry. This article does not address the massive taxpayer fraud that has taken place inside the solar energy industry.  

 The truth is Western governments, with the help of a compliant media, have hidden the true cost of renewable energy from the general public and have grossly overstated the performance of these new technologies. They don’t work. 

However, there are reasons to be optimistic! Technological advances in the extraction of abundant, clean burning natural gas has kept energy prices affordable for the American family while allowing businesses to remain competitive. This is great news for our economy.   

What’s especially exciting in the oil and gas industry is the advances in existing technologies have made possible the super-efficient extraction of natural gas from rock formations thousands of feet underground. This technology is referred to as hydraulic fracturing or fracking. This has been a boom to America’s economy and is the largest single factor in keeping our energy cost low. The practice has been in existence since the 1940’s and is a proven, safe process for the development of natural gas.    

*I have excluded hydro electric power because government, working in conjunction with environmental groups have vehemently opposed the construction of any new dams and instead have been lobbying for legislations that decommission hydro electric facilities and return the dam site to its original habitat. The only reason government and environmentalists include hydro electric power generation in their numbers is because it artificially boosts the amount of renewable energy produced by alternatives from 3% to 8%.      

So many of the military past and present (myself included) believe strongly in the principles of Liberty that our country was founded on and understand that the Constitution was created to restrict and limit the powers of the Federal Government and was never about restricting the people’s freedom.

Individual freedom and responsibility are central to Liberty because freedom without responsibility leads to chaos which then leads to government intervention and in the end always leads to government stripping away our freedom.

We are not a perfect people but this is the beauty of Liberty as one has the freedom to fail or succeed and this is what makes the American Experiment so perfect.

We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to these men and women and the best way to repay this debt is to do everything we can to restore and preserve the Principles of Liberty they gave their life for.

How is a housing recovery possible as this makes no economic sense based on the foreclosure inventory being held by the banks!

For example, in Nevada new housing permits are up 50% while 8% of existing homes sit empty? Clearly, the housing market has been distorted beyond recognition and no longer resembles what most Americans would associate with a traditional real estate market.

What’s going on in the housing market?

At a time when the official unemployment rate is around 7.5% but the U6 unemployment number [includes underemployed and discouraged workers who have stopped looking for work] is actually 14% it’s impossible to have a genuine housing recovery. So, who’s financing the construction of new homes, who’s buying new and existing homes and who owns the millions of empty properties that can be found all across the country?

Who is building new homes? New home construction is being done largely on speculation by major banks that have access to mountains of cheap capital and have seen an unprecedented increase in private depositor funds. For example, JPMorgan Chase saw their deposits increase $9 billion dollars to $1.25 trillion in just the fourth quarter of 2012. In addition to having huge influxes of dollars into private accounts major banks also have excess liquidity from the Federal Reserve’s QE [quantitative easing is the printing and digitizing of money] programs.

Banks are searching for a return on their cash reserves and those returns are not coming from a robust economy. Banks are also trying to limit their exposure to the cheap money [hot money] that is running up the stock market and creating another investor bubble. Housing at least provides a physical asset that is seen as having real value as opposed to the overpriced paper being sold on Wall Street.

Who owns the millions of homes that are sitting empty? The foreclosures [toxic assets] are owned by a variety of institutions. GSE’s [government sponsored enterprise] Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, large banks and the Federal Reserve hold the lion’s share of these foreclosures. Millions of foreclosures properties have been sidelined and held off the market to maintain housing values and those financial liabilities have been transferred [temporarily] off the books. Super low interest rates makes it possible for banks to “hold properties” without incurring any significant financial hardship. It’s important to understand, any spike in interest rates would be catastrophic for the entire financial system of the United States. Who is buying new and existing homes? With artificially low interest rates it’s an attractive market for anyone who is gainfully employed, has a downpayment of 20% and has an excellent credit score. However, that set of circumstances applies to fewer and fewer Americans as economic conditions continue to deteriorate.

The real movement in the housing market is because of institutional buyers and foreigners who are investing their money in the US real estate market. Europeans and Chinese constitute the two primary groups doing most of the buying and there’s speculation that they are actually divesting themselves of US dollars while simultaneously acquiring a physical asset. European buyers have the added benefit of acquiring an asset that is beyond the reach of the European bureaucracy and its confiscatory tax rates and regulations.

Interesting facts; 40% of homes are bought by investors who pay cash for the property and receive deep discounts for purchasing the home[s] outright and the other 60% of buyers are individuals purchasing the home as their primary residence. The homes purchased by investors (sometimes by the dozens) are turned into rental properties.

One of the most aggressive buyers of foreclosed homes is a company called Blackstone Real Estate. Black Stone’s business model is to buy foreclosed properties for cash and then turn most of their newly acquired properties into rentals with a significant number of those rentals committed to the section 8 housing program and then renting it back to the US government through various HUD programs.

From Bloomberg:
“The strategy is similar to institutional buyers including Blackstone, the world’s largest buyout firm, Thomas Barrack’s Colony Capital LLC, and Oaktree Capital Group LLC. (OAK) They are aiming to profit from low prices on distressed properties, often those in foreclosure and sold at auction — and the demand for rentals from people who don’t want to own a home or can’t qualify for a mortgage.”

“Blackstone’s investment in distressed properties has increased from $1 billion of new homes owned in October, when Blackstone Chairman Stephen Schwarzman said the company was spending $100 million a week on houses. Blackstone has spent more than more than $2.5 billion on 16,000 homes to manage as rentals, deploying capital from the $13.3 billion fund it.”

So what we are really looking at here is large financiers are the main players in the housing market, snapping up properties that the average American once owned. These financiers have access to piles of cheap capital and are renting homes back to people who have been forced into foreclosure or renting them to government agencies associated with HUD.

The primary culprit for the significant distortions in the housing market is the Federal Reserve’s ongoing liquidity programs, banks chasing investment opportunities with cheap capital, a contracting economy making traditional investments instruments unattractive or impossible to get a return on and artificially low interest rates. We would have been better off letting the market correct itself in 2008 and taken our lumps then.

I’m afraid we have another housing bubble forming which will eventually have to pop and potentially will cause more destruction to our economy then the 2008 bubble did.

The ability to not only read, but to comprehend what is being read, is crucial to all aspects of learning as how can a student learn math or learn concepts of grammar if unable to read and comprehend the instructions? How since the 2008-2009 school year, the statewide average for 3rd grade reading proficiency remains at 73%? In spite of legislative actions such as “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top” or the millions of dollars received via the 2009 stimulus funds, the educational system is only able to receive a grade of C when it comes to teaching the basics to 3rd graders.

While every district is different my guess is that the excuses reasons for lack of progress in reading proficiency are laid upon the students and the lack of money. As parents do their best to teach their children to take responsibility for their actions, the teachers, principals and administrators who have our kids for basically 50% of the time, model how to blame others when you fail.

Here in the Thompson School District the constant mantra that we hear is that the lack of progress is due to the increase in the number of students receiving free and reduced lunches. At the board of education work session on May 8th, Dr. Skupa basically said that the drop of 3% in 3rd grade reading proficiency is due to the large increase in the free and reduced lunch student population and budget cuts.

When did a child’s ability to learn become tied to the number of zeros in their parent’s bank account?

When did being poor become an at-risk affliction?

How can we instill in our kids that with hard work, perseverance and a little bit of luck anything is possible while at the same time teachers, principals and administrators label kids from lower income homes as “at-risk” and have low expectations for these kids?

Who has ever been motivated or inspired by low expectations?

How can administrators in any district find out the truth of what is working and what is not working when so much focus is put on the income level of the students rather than the actual teaching methods, student expectations and learning environment?

The results in Thompson School District are so varied how could any administrator claim to have ANY idea as to why the proficiency level of 3rd graders dropped?  The changes range from a decrease of 15.2% to an increase of 14.1% and the level of inconsistency in the changes suggest a much larger problem than low income students or supposed budget cuts.

It seems that no matter how much money is poured into to the K-12 education system that the proficiency of our students really do not seem to improve.  We are told that if we would pay teachers more money the test scores will improve and the remedial rates will drop, but instead the system continues to churn out students who are not prepared for college or a job.

Instead of dumping more money into a broken system, experimenting with new curriculum, experimenting with our kids and turning teachers into data collectors, maybe administrators and educrats should find out what the teachers who are successful at teaching students how to read, write and perform math are doing right.

Common sense, discipline (not zero tolerance), respect, accountability and high expectations are things that cost no money, but will actually create an environment where our kids learn and excel.

A grade of C inspires no one and having 25% of our 3rd graders in our state not being able to read and comprehend what they read is a disgrace.  Schools, teachers and parents can’t expect kids to push themselves to excel and receive A’s while at the same time the schools are okay with their own mediocre work and receiving a grade of C.

Our children deserve better than an educational system that not only has low expectations of the kids, but also of the system itself.

Click here for the TCAP spreadsheet which has the scores from 2008-2009 school year to the current year.

As we have long said, it is Principal over Party and Ms. Palins nails it when she says: “We’re not here to rebrand the party. We’re here to rebuild a country…”!!!!

You go girl!!!!!!!!!!!

Watch Sarah’s complete speech here on The Blaze

The process essentially became a which came first argument centered around; did people stop attending because they did not care and so the district stopped publicizing the meetings or did people stop attending because the district stopped publicizing the meetings?

Our question is this:  the district and the union who created the contract and review it every year, were well aware that the negotiations were open to the public and so why did no one point this out when the petition was first presented on January 16th?

We will attend the negotiation and we understand that we will be the eyes and ears for all those in the community who must go to work or take care of their families.  Mike Jones who is the Assistant Superintendent, has agreed to share with us the summary of the meeting that is sent out to teachers to help us ensure we provide the correct information to you.

The schedule/process for negotiations is as follows:

Each meeting is 8am to 4pm and are held at the District Admin Building – 800 S Taft Ave Loveland

Large group is 8 members from district and 8 members from the union and will be led by the facilitator that both the union and district agreed to.

The part that is open to the public is when the large group meets to discuss the various items being negotiated and it is common that the large group will break into smaller discussion groups.

When the groups break into smaller meeting groups those are in closed rooms and then can come back and meet again in the large group BUT if small groups meeting uses up allotted time then large group does not reconvene. The smaller groups will at the next meeting present to everyone what each small group discussed and what actions are proposed.

The first meeting is this Tuesday, March 5th and at this meeting each side will present what are called “critical questions” or negotiating items and these are what the large group will focus on finding common ground and solutions.

The next meeting is set for April 16th and possible that discussions from any smaller break out groups from March meeting won’t be discussed by larger group until this meeting.

The 3rd and final meeting is May 13th which is right before the budget is presented to the board at the May 15th meeting which does not leave time for anyone to review or ask questions about whether on the board, a teacher, a parent or other community member.

Join us if you can!

Thank you to the Reporter Herald for printing my guest column!  Click here to read the column