It's an exciting time in the Krause household. We have been selected to fill out the VERY IMPORTANT American Community Survey for the US Census Bureau! How do I know this is VERY IMPORTANT? It says in big, bold letters on the outside envelope YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW!! I wonder how Census Dodgers are treated in Federal prisons? Are they above child pornographers--but below corporate embezzlers? Well, I don't plan to find out--because I completed my "legal obligation" on-line this morning.
I must say it is a real honor to be selected for a survey that, according to the mailer warning me that I was going to get something else in the mail that would tell me what website to log on to to complete the survey, "will help communities decide where new schools, hospitals and fire stations are needed". I'm glad to see that they decided to get some information on a dwindling minority here in the US: People who can take care of themselves.
I expected the computer to reject several of my answers based on the focus government has placed on "epidemic problems in our society today". For example, I was surprised that when I checked "yes" for do you have health insurance, the website didn't ask "wait a minute, are you sure you have health insurance? Because a lot of people don't you know." And when I answered that we do not have a mortgage on our house, I was positive there would be an error message "this does not compute. You are 41 years old and are middle class, there is no way you can afford to pay off your house early. Please answer the question again."
If the Census Bureau really does "use this information" provided by what is likely just a small handful of people in our area (and then extrapolated to predict the general makeup of the entire community), then my single response could have a profound impact on federal funding heading our way in the future. We don't have kids that require "new schools". We don't take public transportation (because if we had to, I'd be 3 and a half hours late for work every morning). We don't need a mortgage bailout. We don't need food stamps. We don't need subsidized day care. We don't need a state health insurance exchange. Heck, we probably won't even need Social Security or Medicare.
I guess I should apologize to Mark Rohloff, Stan Mack and Mark Harris for "ruining" their visions for the Oshkosh area right now.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Friday, September 27, 2013
In the Best Interest of the Game
With Bud Selig's announcement on Thursday that he is retiring as Commissioner after the 2014 Major League Baseball season, I would like to announce my candidacy for that position. My grassroots campaign for the position is based on a number of fan-friendly initiatives and some radical ideas that I believe will make the game stronger--both competitively and financially.
- Dump the Designated Hitter--It has been forty years now that Major League Baseball has been played under two sets of rules. I believe that if you play in the field you should have to hit as well--so the DH is done. Hopefully this change will filter down to all levels of the game--including Little League and high school ball.
- Get rid of replay--The game is played on the field by humans, it should be decided on the field by humans--not an anonymous official sitting in an office in New York looking at a TV screen. If our umps can't get it right consistantly, we will find people who can.
- Expand the strike zone--There is absolutely no reason why a pitch three inches above a batter's belt is a ball. Especially when a ball thrown in the same exact spot two pitches later is crushed 450-feet for a home run. The zone will now be from the middle of the chest to the bottom of the knees. This should also help speed up play--as more strikes will be thrown (except by Brewers relievers) and hitters will go to the plate looking to swing early in the count.
- More doubleheaders--I will keep the 162-game regular season, but there is no reason that fans in Chicago, Minneapolis and Cleveland should be freezing their butts off in late March to watch games. Regular weekend doubleheaders will shorten the calendar length of the season and allow us to start in the second week of April and finish in mid-September so the World Series won't be played in November anymore.
- Correct the historic record of the game--Hank Aaron will be restored as the rightful Home Run King. Barry Bonds' career numbers will be listed in a special sub-section "Records set under the suspicion of illegal drug use" (which would be an entire coffee table book unto itself). In addition, Shoeless Joe Jackson will be made eligible for the Hall of Fame--as his ban for the Black Sox Scandal was for "a lifetime" and he has been dead for 52-years now.
- Daytime World Series games--At least two of the seven games will be played in the afternoon--allowing kids and those who get up very early in the morning in the eastern half of the US to actually see the end of the game. With the proliferation of streaming video on computers, tablets and smartphones, I don't think we have to worry about people at work not being able to watch.
- ESPN and Fox are limited to one Yankees/Red Sox game per season each--Believe it or not, there are 28-other teams in Major League Baseball. Some of them could be shown on national TV every once in a while. In addition, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver are banned from doing games ever again.
- Contract the two Florida franchises--Attendance at Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays games are embarrassing. And most of the fans who do go are from the Northeast US and are coming to root for the visiting teams. Florida baseball fans can get their fix every spring when 18-franchises come down for training. As a bonus, by getting rid of these two teams, there is no reason to play interleague games all season long as well.
- Realign the leagues by payroll--This will be put into place if a salary cap is not instituted. Big market, big spending teams can continue to sign whatever free agents they want, but their competition for the playoffs will be teams dropping just as much money as they do. Small market, lower spending teams will compete in their own league--with just as much shot of making the post-season as the New York and LA squads. Teams in the middle will likely move back and forth each year--depending on how contracts expire or players are traded.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Bridge Over Political Waters
One of my Favorite TV shows is Modern Marvels on the History Channel. And within that series, my favorite episodes are the "Engineering Disasters"--which look into the cause of some of the greatest technological mishaps in human history. It's amazing how nearly every one of them resulted from very minor mistakes in design or construction--fatal flaws that went unknown for years (and even decades) before a confluence of events led to disaster.
Take for example the Tacoma Narrows Bridge--which collapsed in 1940, just a few years after being built. This used to be the most famous bridge collapse in American history, thanks to the film footage of the bridge deck rocking and rolling and a man trying to walk away from his stranded vehicle on the span. It turned out that engineers never considered the forces that winds whipping through the river valley would have on the suspended bridge deck. "Galloping Gertie" as the bridge was known was doomed from the minute construction on it started.
Or consider what is now the most infamous bridge collapse in US history--the fall of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis back in 2007. 13 people were killed--145 were hurt--when most of the span fell into the Mississippi River. While that bridge was on a "watch list" due to its age and condition, the NTSB found that the actual cause of the collapse was that the gusset plates that held the bridge spans together had been too small and inadequate to handle the weight of the bridge. Ironicially, years of improvements to the bridge added to the problem as an extra two inches of concrete on the road deck created even greater weight and strain. The seeds for that disaster were sown on the engineering desk.
And then you had the partial collapse of the Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee in 2000. There a section of the bridge dropped suddenly--forcing the bridge to close for eight months. An investigation into that disaster found that welds had been improperly done during construction--and that a prolonged cold snap that winter had further weakened the joints. That little bit of human negligence nearly led to a huge disaster.
I will be thinking about those "Engineering Disasters" today when the inevitable press releases from Democratic lawmakers and Liberal special interest groups try blaming Governor Scott Walker and Republicans for the "dip" in Green Bay's Leo Frigo Bridge. Those press releases will claim that Walker and the GOP have "continued to ignore the state's infrastructure needs--and have instead used taxpayer money to benefit their rich and corporate donors". There will also be calls for another Federal stimulus package to complete more "shovel ready projects" like the Frigo Bridge (using only union contractors, or course)--instead of more tax cuts for the "1%". I'm sure an intern somewhere was sent to Wikipedia ten seconds into yesterday's DOT press conference to find out if Walker was the Milwaukee County Executive during the Hoan collapse (he was not).
As with the other bridge disasters I mention before, a lack of money spent and work done on the Frigo Bridge had nothing to do with the problems that manifested themselves yesterday. It is fairly clear that "Pier 22" is sinking into the ground--something that no inspection or maintenance program could have predicted or prevented. But that won't stop the partisan accusations of negligence--and the demands for more government spending. Just keep in mind that those arguments are as solid as the ground under "Pier 22".
Take for example the Tacoma Narrows Bridge--which collapsed in 1940, just a few years after being built. This used to be the most famous bridge collapse in American history, thanks to the film footage of the bridge deck rocking and rolling and a man trying to walk away from his stranded vehicle on the span. It turned out that engineers never considered the forces that winds whipping through the river valley would have on the suspended bridge deck. "Galloping Gertie" as the bridge was known was doomed from the minute construction on it started.
Or consider what is now the most infamous bridge collapse in US history--the fall of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis back in 2007. 13 people were killed--145 were hurt--when most of the span fell into the Mississippi River. While that bridge was on a "watch list" due to its age and condition, the NTSB found that the actual cause of the collapse was that the gusset plates that held the bridge spans together had been too small and inadequate to handle the weight of the bridge. Ironicially, years of improvements to the bridge added to the problem as an extra two inches of concrete on the road deck created even greater weight and strain. The seeds for that disaster were sown on the engineering desk.
And then you had the partial collapse of the Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee in 2000. There a section of the bridge dropped suddenly--forcing the bridge to close for eight months. An investigation into that disaster found that welds had been improperly done during construction--and that a prolonged cold snap that winter had further weakened the joints. That little bit of human negligence nearly led to a huge disaster.
I will be thinking about those "Engineering Disasters" today when the inevitable press releases from Democratic lawmakers and Liberal special interest groups try blaming Governor Scott Walker and Republicans for the "dip" in Green Bay's Leo Frigo Bridge. Those press releases will claim that Walker and the GOP have "continued to ignore the state's infrastructure needs--and have instead used taxpayer money to benefit their rich and corporate donors". There will also be calls for another Federal stimulus package to complete more "shovel ready projects" like the Frigo Bridge (using only union contractors, or course)--instead of more tax cuts for the "1%". I'm sure an intern somewhere was sent to Wikipedia ten seconds into yesterday's DOT press conference to find out if Walker was the Milwaukee County Executive during the Hoan collapse (he was not).
As with the other bridge disasters I mention before, a lack of money spent and work done on the Frigo Bridge had nothing to do with the problems that manifested themselves yesterday. It is fairly clear that "Pier 22" is sinking into the ground--something that no inspection or maintenance program could have predicted or prevented. But that won't stop the partisan accusations of negligence--and the demands for more government spending. Just keep in mind that those arguments are as solid as the ground under "Pier 22".
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
A Minor Solution
The call to pay major college athletes is growing louder again. Last weekend, a few football players even joined in the protest movement, writing APU--for All Players United--on their ankle tape and wrist guards. The belief is that these "student-athletes" are really "employees" of the colleges they attend--and that they deserve a share of the tens of millions of dollars they generate for their schools.
While I would never support paying college athletes beyond the scholarship, room and board and training table that they already enjoy (a six-figure value at some schools), if the payment plan ever became a reality I would want the NFL and the NBA to actually fork over the cash. Because college football and college basketball are nothing more than de facto minor leagues for those sports.
You won't hear anyone say college baseball or college hockey players should be getting paid. That is because professional options are available to them anytime they want to pursue them. Baseball's minor league system was in place long before college baseball grew into prominence. And for decades, the Canadian Junior and Major Junior leagues (which amazingly still rely on host families to take in players from all around the country) was the major feeder to the NHL. And that is now being supplemented by the professional leagues in Europe. Players in both sports can be drafted without losing their eligibility--and can leave school to join those teams whenever they like--whereas football and basketball players are "trapped" at school until they make an irreversible decision to enter the draft.
But the NFL and the NBA rose to prominence after college football and college basketball were already established--so there was no need to set up minor leagues like you had in baseball. Since then, both leagues have adopted eligibility rules that give athletes no choice but to play "for free" in college. A player must be three years removed from high school before they are eligible for the NFL Draft. A kid can't enter the NBA until he is at least a year out of high school. That rule has led to the "one and done" phenomenon--where schools like Kentucky load up on pro prospects for a one-year run to the NCAA title every season--and the kids don't even bother going to class because what's going to happen? You'll suspend them for next year? They will be in the pros by then, baby!
The time has come for the NFL and the NBA to man up and start taking on some of the cost of maintaining the "talent pipeline" that feeds their leagues. Give athletically-talented (and perhaps academically-challenged) kids coming out of high school a choice between "playing for free" and getting paid for their talents. Drop the minimum age requirements to make the league and provide a minor league system for talent development. The NFL is a 9-billion dollar business--I think they might be able to afford it.
Then perhaps college football and basketball can go back to being about kids who want to play for the glory and honor of Alma Mater U while earning that degree that will more likely put food on the table for the rest of their lives.
While I would never support paying college athletes beyond the scholarship, room and board and training table that they already enjoy (a six-figure value at some schools), if the payment plan ever became a reality I would want the NFL and the NBA to actually fork over the cash. Because college football and college basketball are nothing more than de facto minor leagues for those sports.
You won't hear anyone say college baseball or college hockey players should be getting paid. That is because professional options are available to them anytime they want to pursue them. Baseball's minor league system was in place long before college baseball grew into prominence. And for decades, the Canadian Junior and Major Junior leagues (which amazingly still rely on host families to take in players from all around the country) was the major feeder to the NHL. And that is now being supplemented by the professional leagues in Europe. Players in both sports can be drafted without losing their eligibility--and can leave school to join those teams whenever they like--whereas football and basketball players are "trapped" at school until they make an irreversible decision to enter the draft.
But the NFL and the NBA rose to prominence after college football and college basketball were already established--so there was no need to set up minor leagues like you had in baseball. Since then, both leagues have adopted eligibility rules that give athletes no choice but to play "for free" in college. A player must be three years removed from high school before they are eligible for the NFL Draft. A kid can't enter the NBA until he is at least a year out of high school. That rule has led to the "one and done" phenomenon--where schools like Kentucky load up on pro prospects for a one-year run to the NCAA title every season--and the kids don't even bother going to class because what's going to happen? You'll suspend them for next year? They will be in the pros by then, baby!
The time has come for the NFL and the NBA to man up and start taking on some of the cost of maintaining the "talent pipeline" that feeds their leagues. Give athletically-talented (and perhaps academically-challenged) kids coming out of high school a choice between "playing for free" and getting paid for their talents. Drop the minimum age requirements to make the league and provide a minor league system for talent development. The NFL is a 9-billion dollar business--I think they might be able to afford it.
Then perhaps college football and basketball can go back to being about kids who want to play for the glory and honor of Alma Mater U while earning that degree that will more likely put food on the table for the rest of their lives.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
My Governor, He Wrote Me a Letter
This week, about 92,000 BadgerCare Plus enrollees will be getting letters from the state informing them that they are getting bumped off the program and will have to enroll in private health insurance offered in the new state exchange. The letters explain why they are no longer eligible for BadgerCare (a lowering of the financial thresholds) and provides information on the exchange--along with contact information on how to shop for policies and reminder that the recipient will have to pay for the new coverage upfront. It is the standard governmental notice you would expect to get in the case of a benefits change like this.
But that letter is not good enough for Senator Tammy Baldwin. She wants the governor to send an individual personalized letter to all 92-thousand affected BadgerCare enrollees. Senator Baldwin also wants the Governor's office to follow up with phone calls and to pay somebody to visit those people to make sure they understand what is going on. That's not surprising from someone who believes that everyone is helpless and would be unable to do anything on their own without government assistance. It's why she has voted to include tens of millions of dollars in the Affordable Care Act to create new government programs that will tell people how to apply for new government programs.
Besides, if anyone should be sending letters to the soon-to-be-former BadgerCare enrollees, it should be President Obama. It's the new rules contained in the Affordable Care Act that are allowing Governor Walker to return BadgerCare to what it was intended to be when it first started--health insurance for those living in poverty. (Former Governor Jim Doyle can write half the letters for the President since he was the one that kept expanding eligibility for the program over and over again during his term.)
You see, Governor Walker is making ObamaCare work the way it was intended. The health care exchanges were mandated to provide insurance to people not covered by employer plans. The Federal Government will provide tax vouchers to lower income exchange customers to offset a percentage of the cost based on their income and family status. Those living in poverty will remain in Medicaid programs operated by the state.
But the Obama Administration--in an attempt to obscure the real cost of the Affordable Care Act--initiated a shell game, offering additional Medicaid dollars to states in order to limit the number of people who will be applying for the federal vouchers (making it appear that ObamaCare was cheaper than everyone expected). Walker and a number of other Republican governors have decided not to play the game, and are sending the people who should be in the exchanges to them as required by the law.
Perhaps Senator Baldwin would prefer this letter be sent instead:
Dear Former BadgerCare Plus enrollee,
Welcome to the new world of health care coverage.
Sincerely,
The Democrats Who Demanded We Pass The Bill So We Can Find Out What's In It
But that letter is not good enough for Senator Tammy Baldwin. She wants the governor to send an individual personalized letter to all 92-thousand affected BadgerCare enrollees. Senator Baldwin also wants the Governor's office to follow up with phone calls and to pay somebody to visit those people to make sure they understand what is going on. That's not surprising from someone who believes that everyone is helpless and would be unable to do anything on their own without government assistance. It's why she has voted to include tens of millions of dollars in the Affordable Care Act to create new government programs that will tell people how to apply for new government programs.
Besides, if anyone should be sending letters to the soon-to-be-former BadgerCare enrollees, it should be President Obama. It's the new rules contained in the Affordable Care Act that are allowing Governor Walker to return BadgerCare to what it was intended to be when it first started--health insurance for those living in poverty. (Former Governor Jim Doyle can write half the letters for the President since he was the one that kept expanding eligibility for the program over and over again during his term.)
You see, Governor Walker is making ObamaCare work the way it was intended. The health care exchanges were mandated to provide insurance to people not covered by employer plans. The Federal Government will provide tax vouchers to lower income exchange customers to offset a percentage of the cost based on their income and family status. Those living in poverty will remain in Medicaid programs operated by the state.
But the Obama Administration--in an attempt to obscure the real cost of the Affordable Care Act--initiated a shell game, offering additional Medicaid dollars to states in order to limit the number of people who will be applying for the federal vouchers (making it appear that ObamaCare was cheaper than everyone expected). Walker and a number of other Republican governors have decided not to play the game, and are sending the people who should be in the exchanges to them as required by the law.
Perhaps Senator Baldwin would prefer this letter be sent instead:
Dear Former BadgerCare Plus enrollee,
Welcome to the new world of health care coverage.
Sincerely,
The Democrats Who Demanded We Pass The Bill So We Can Find Out What's In It
Monday, September 23, 2013
The Struggle Continues
For centuries, early astronomers--working under the incorrect theory that the Earth was the fixed center of the universe--"struggled" with making sense of how objects moved across the sky. Objects that were far away--like the stars--seemed to move in a regular pattern. But objects believed to be much closer--like the planets--seemed to move in totally different patterns. Ptolemy thought he had solved the problem by coming up with a geo-centric model of the universe--where things in space were fixed points on spheres revolving around the Earth. To make the "science" work, Ptolemy had the planets revolve on a seperate axis on their spheres--resulting in orbits that looked like loop-de-loops and zig-zags--and which also required the planets to speed up and slow down as they revolved around Earth.
Eventually, Copernicus would develop the Sun-centered model of the solar system--and the orbits of the planets became very clear. Everyone--except for the Vatican--would soon accept the Helio-centric model as the truth and the idea of Earth being the center of the universe would be lampooned as foolish and ignorant.
A few centuries later, physicists and astronomers--working under the incorrect belief that Newton's Laws of Gravity are universal--"struggled" to explain a number of observable phenomenon--including why Mercury's orbit was slightly longer than it should be, why light seemed to slow down at certain points in the universe and how the nucleus of an atom stayed together. There were a number of convoluted theories on each topic--none of which ever seemed to perfectly match the scientific data--but all of which preserved Newton's Laws.
Eventually, Albert Einstein would answer all of the questions with his Special and General Theories of Relativity. E=mc2 would show that Newton's Laws did not apply when talking about things that are very, very big and things that are traveling very, very fast. The theories would open up new understandings of our universe, the formation of all things and it would usher in the nuclear age.
Today, climatologists--working on the belief that human burning of fossil fuels is causing out of control global warming--are "struggling" to explain how global temperatures are not reaching the predictions they made decades ago--despite higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The United Nations will release its latest report on climate change this week--but nobody can agree on how to explain the lower than expected temps. Some want the inaccurate predictions blamed on the ocean--which is "holding the heat" now. Others want volcanic activity and declining solar activity to be blamed. Some want the timeline that the study starts looking at temperatures changed, because the current baseline year was "too hot". And a few want no mention made at all--despite the fodder it will provide to those who believe fossil fuels are a relatively small factor in a process that started at the middle of the last ice age, 18,000 years ago.
Eventually, a scientist with one heck of a super-computer will be able to take all of the scientific data on ocean currents, volcanic activity, plate tectonics, solar radiation and CO levels and come up with accurate global temperature projections. Until then, the global warming alarmists will just have to continue to "struggle" with the facts that don't go their way.
Eventually, Copernicus would develop the Sun-centered model of the solar system--and the orbits of the planets became very clear. Everyone--except for the Vatican--would soon accept the Helio-centric model as the truth and the idea of Earth being the center of the universe would be lampooned as foolish and ignorant.
A few centuries later, physicists and astronomers--working under the incorrect belief that Newton's Laws of Gravity are universal--"struggled" to explain a number of observable phenomenon--including why Mercury's orbit was slightly longer than it should be, why light seemed to slow down at certain points in the universe and how the nucleus of an atom stayed together. There were a number of convoluted theories on each topic--none of which ever seemed to perfectly match the scientific data--but all of which preserved Newton's Laws.
Eventually, Albert Einstein would answer all of the questions with his Special and General Theories of Relativity. E=mc2 would show that Newton's Laws did not apply when talking about things that are very, very big and things that are traveling very, very fast. The theories would open up new understandings of our universe, the formation of all things and it would usher in the nuclear age.
Today, climatologists--working on the belief that human burning of fossil fuels is causing out of control global warming--are "struggling" to explain how global temperatures are not reaching the predictions they made decades ago--despite higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The United Nations will release its latest report on climate change this week--but nobody can agree on how to explain the lower than expected temps. Some want the inaccurate predictions blamed on the ocean--which is "holding the heat" now. Others want volcanic activity and declining solar activity to be blamed. Some want the timeline that the study starts looking at temperatures changed, because the current baseline year was "too hot". And a few want no mention made at all--despite the fodder it will provide to those who believe fossil fuels are a relatively small factor in a process that started at the middle of the last ice age, 18,000 years ago.
Eventually, a scientist with one heck of a super-computer will be able to take all of the scientific data on ocean currents, volcanic activity, plate tectonics, solar radiation and CO levels and come up with accurate global temperature projections. Until then, the global warming alarmists will just have to continue to "struggle" with the facts that don't go their way.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Why They Are Elected
Apparently, Oshkosh School District Superintendent Stan Mack isn't muzzling School Board members--he just thinks they have nothing to say about parents' unhappiness with new elementary school bus routes. Superintendent Mack engaged me in a very animated phone conversation Thursday morning about why his secretary told our reporter that Board members are no longer to be contacted about the busing controversy.
It's Mack's contention that bus routes are a matter of "day-to-day" operation--and that the School Board couldn't possibly be expected to know everything about minor details like what time kids at Oakwood School are being dropped off in the morning. Therefore, to be asked about the route changes would be "unfair" to those on the Board. He also tried to compare it to my situation here in the private sector--arguing that my bosses in Atlanta don't have input on what news stories we air everyday.
I will grant you that our News/Talk Format Director couldn't tell you what our top story is everyday--but he is acutely aware of the format we follow, what talk shows we air, the timing and length of our commercial breaks, how many ads we have available each hour and what our ratings are in the market. And if we were missing major stories, getting facts wrong in every story and generating listener complaints--he would definitely know about that and there would definitely be feedback generated in my direction.
What Superintendent Mack seems to want everyone to forget is that the School Board set in motion the process for the bus route changes to take place. It was the Board that approved the $250,000 reduction in the district's transportation budget--giving Kobussen the okay to reduce the number of routes it runs in the district every morning and afternoon. And it was the Board that approved standardized start times for all elementary schools--meaning some kids will be dropped off much earlier at one building than those going to a building further along in the route.
It stands to reason that since the Board was involved in those two decisions, they are fair game for answering questions about them. Were we going to ask Allison Garner if she thinks kids on the east side of Jackson Street should be picked up before those on the west side? No. Because--as Superintendent Mack suggests--there is no way she should have to know that kind of minutiae. But shouldn't Garner be able to answer if she was aware that kids might have to be on a bus for more than an hour before she voted to cut that quarter-million in the transportation budget? And couldn't she tell us if she knew that some students would be dropped off a half-hour before the first class when she voted in favor of the standardized start times? Just because she may not know the exact times and locations of stops and dropoffs, couldn't Board member Garner share her opinion of whether parents have a legitimate gripe? And wouldn't she be able to answer the question of whether she would vote in favor of the budget cut and the start times if she knew what she knows now about the impact they might have on students and families?
While we may not be getting the answers that you the parents, voters and taxpayers of the Oshkosh School District are demanding from our elected officials. Superintendent Mack will be back on with Bob Burnell at 6:50 this morning to--again--do all the talking.
It's Mack's contention that bus routes are a matter of "day-to-day" operation--and that the School Board couldn't possibly be expected to know everything about minor details like what time kids at Oakwood School are being dropped off in the morning. Therefore, to be asked about the route changes would be "unfair" to those on the Board. He also tried to compare it to my situation here in the private sector--arguing that my bosses in Atlanta don't have input on what news stories we air everyday.
I will grant you that our News/Talk Format Director couldn't tell you what our top story is everyday--but he is acutely aware of the format we follow, what talk shows we air, the timing and length of our commercial breaks, how many ads we have available each hour and what our ratings are in the market. And if we were missing major stories, getting facts wrong in every story and generating listener complaints--he would definitely know about that and there would definitely be feedback generated in my direction.
What Superintendent Mack seems to want everyone to forget is that the School Board set in motion the process for the bus route changes to take place. It was the Board that approved the $250,000 reduction in the district's transportation budget--giving Kobussen the okay to reduce the number of routes it runs in the district every morning and afternoon. And it was the Board that approved standardized start times for all elementary schools--meaning some kids will be dropped off much earlier at one building than those going to a building further along in the route.
It stands to reason that since the Board was involved in those two decisions, they are fair game for answering questions about them. Were we going to ask Allison Garner if she thinks kids on the east side of Jackson Street should be picked up before those on the west side? No. Because--as Superintendent Mack suggests--there is no way she should have to know that kind of minutiae. But shouldn't Garner be able to answer if she was aware that kids might have to be on a bus for more than an hour before she voted to cut that quarter-million in the transportation budget? And couldn't she tell us if she knew that some students would be dropped off a half-hour before the first class when she voted in favor of the standardized start times? Just because she may not know the exact times and locations of stops and dropoffs, couldn't Board member Garner share her opinion of whether parents have a legitimate gripe? And wouldn't she be able to answer the question of whether she would vote in favor of the budget cut and the start times if she knew what she knows now about the impact they might have on students and families?
While we may not be getting the answers that you the parents, voters and taxpayers of the Oshkosh School District are demanding from our elected officials. Superintendent Mack will be back on with Bob Burnell at 6:50 this morning to--again--do all the talking.
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