Educational Vouchers for the Onteora School District

I just sent this letter to Paul Smart, editor of the Olive Press.

Dear Editor:

A local government official has revealed a shocking statistic to the Town of Olive Republican Committee.  The average cost of education in the Onteora school district is currently $31,000 per enrolled student.  The official who revealed this number compares Onteora's $31,000 per student tuition to a national average of $10,259 per enrolled student and a New York State average of $17,200.  New York's public tuition is the highest in the nation, according to the official, but Onteora's is 44% higher than the state's average.

Assuming the $31,000 per student cost number is accurate, let us see how Onteora's costs compare to private schools'.  Nationally, in 2008 the average private school tuition was $8,549, 27% of Onteora's.  Nonsectarian secondary schools averaged $27,302 while Catholic elementary schools averaged $4,944.  Many of the nonsectarian secondary schools are elite schools that cater to the wealthy.  According to one survey Northfield Mount Herman in Massachusetts is the top ranked private elementary school.  The tuition for day students, according to its website is $31,700, roughly the same as Onteora's cost per student.  The UN International School, one of the best private schools in Manhattan, charges $24,350 per year, 21% less than Onteora.  The Beekman School in Manhattan has tuition of $28,500. The Rudolf Steiner School, with a 1:8 faculty-student ratio charges $29,468. Beekman calls itself "the tutoring school" and offers customized schedules, university-level classes in math, science, humanities and English, an average class size of eight (8), and one-on-one tutoring in concentrated subject areas.  Beekman has a one-on-one college placement program (one guidance counselor to one student) with continuous follow up conferences to refine college choices.  Guidance counselors guide students through the college application process. Specialized classes with three (3) students may be formed if requested, such as for advanced placement.  Tutoring is available once or twice per week. The school provides eight written evaluation reports in addition to four quarterly report cards.   98% of Beekman students go on to college. 

What is the college attendance rate for Onteora High? Given that the three Onteora schools are more expensive than Beekman, do they provide similar services? Are class sizes limited to 8 students? Is there intensive career guidance?  If a student wishes to study acting, is a course set up to cater to them?  If not, where is the $31,000 in teacher jackpot money going? 

It is going to keeping an extra school open. Moreover, the Onteora School district puts students far down on its list of its priorities. The $31,000 per student cost is a pretext to fund teachers' salaries, pensions and administrative bloat.  Teachers are more interested in indoctrinating students ideologically than in teaching the three r's. The Democrats are loyal to the teachers' unions, and could care less about your children. This is because of the dominance of academic certification organizations like the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), which could care less about the three 'rs and exclusively emphasize political correctness.

In his book Capitalism and Freedom,  Professor Milton Friedman came up with an ingenious idea.  Give school budgets to parents in the form of vouchers, and let them decide the school to which they send their children. Schools would compete for students just as automobile manufacturers used to compete for customers. Onteora would have to compete with Beekman and the UN School, and provide an education of a comparable standard to Beekman's for the same price.  Since the taxpayers of Olive have magnanimously chosen to spend like a rich person on behalf of the Town's children, it is foolish to squander the money on subsidies to Onteora's unproductive school administrators as the Democrats have chosen to do.  We Republicans believe that if we are spending as much on education Olive's children ought to be given the same educations that rich people's children receive.  It is true that this arrangement would likely mean lower salaries and pension benefits for teachers, less administrative bloat, and fewer make-work jobs, which is why the teachers hate libertarians and the GOP but love the tax-and-spend Democrats.  But there is little doubt that your children would be better educated under a voucher system.  Perhaps it is time to ask the Onteora School district to compete with Northfield Mount Herman, the UN School and Beekman, and to end the festival of waste in the Onteora School District.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert
Town of Olive Republican Committee

Letter to Olive Press

I just sent this letter to the editor of the Olive Press, Paul Smart.  Onteora High School is located in Boiceville, New York, a few miles from my home.  The name "Onteora" is a name for the Catskill Mountains, reportedly derived from Mahican Indians, although Onteora may have referred to an area further south, according to this site.

Dear Editor:

One of the many corrupt, big-government scams in New York State is the fruit of a son of Olivebridge, Arthur H. Wicks. Wicks ran a laundry company in Kingston before being elected to the New York State Senate, in which he served from 1927 to 1956. He later became Lieutenant Governor, but was forced to resign when he was discovered making frequent visits to convicted Machinist Union president Joseph S. Fay while Fay was vacationing in Sing Sing prison. Fay had been convicted of extortion on construction sites.

Arthur Wicks remains a legendary name today because the Wicks Law bears it. The Wicks Law was originally passed in 1912, but it was amended during Wicks's tenure as Senate Majority Leader. The Wicks Law prohibits any public entity in New York State from hiring a general contractor (GC). Four separate categories of contractors, (a) heating, ventilating and air conditiong, (b) plumbing, (c) electrical, and (d), all other, must be hired and supervised directly by the state or other public entity. At the state level, agencies like the Department of Transportation, the Office of General Services and the Dormitory Authority oversee construction. It is well known that they lack the competence to do so because GCs of the caliber needed to manage large-scale construction projects have out-sized salaries that do not fit civil service pay scales. But as Olive citizens who work in construction know, general contractors limit waste. The lack of a GC opens the door to abuse, crime and law suits. Studies have found that the Wicks Law increases construction costs in the state by 15-30%. No one except construction unions and public contractors supports the Wicks Law. In the 1980s, Mario Cuomo had appointed an anti-crime commission that found that the Wicks Law fosters organized crime.

The Wicks Law serves as a long lived example of why government does not work, and why political decision making on a large scale fails. At a point in time when the state needs to cut spending, a law like this would seem to be a logical place to start. Yet, at a recent meeting of the Tea Party here at the Shandaken Gun Club, a Republican candidate, who is aware of the Wicks Law and who owns a construction firm, did not mention it as a potential area for cutting. Instead, he advocated raising cigarette taxes. Of course, it goes without saying that loot-and-spend Democratic Party Assemblyman Kevin Cahill has no interest in touching the Wicks Law with a ten foot pole. Cahill roars with delight wherever massive government waste occurs.

Hence, low quality, mismanagement, waste and incompetence are part and parcel of big government New York. Add to which neither Democratic nor Republican candidates have the vocabulary to question any of it. The speaker at the Tea Party was so lacking in vocabulary that he could only speak in terms of a spending freeze. The vocabulary of freedom on which the nation was founded has been lost, and the Republicans appear to be as much in the dark as are the Democrats. Perhaps the nation should give its government a two year vacation and spend the two years re-learning what the now-forgotten anti-federalists like Sam Adams had to say. Given the low quality of today's public figures, Americans have every reason to fear for their childrens' future. The problem starts with the benighted public schools, which are purveyors of ignorance, ideology and suppression. The first place to look for anyone interested in change is Onteora High.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.