Are my tax dollars being wasted?

Each day I have individual meetings with residents who live at CityWalk, an income-based apartment complex in the middle of downtown Dallas. I visit with people who have very little to their name. I haven't had a person yet tell me that they have over $1000 in assets (one of the questions that's asked on the self-sufficiency calculator we  do with people).

As I find out about people, I have realized that my tax dollars are at work helping people. It's a very meager existence and very challenging to survive on that little, but without it, I can't imagine what would happen to so many. If people have any income at all, it might be disability due to an injury or health condition or it might be social security because they're past their prime of working. The benefits for that *might* be around $500. Many of these individuals receive up to about $200 in food stamps, depending on the situation. Finally, they receive housing (i.e. CityWalk) that allows them to pay 30% of their income instead of rent that would probably be close to double their income if they were living somewhere else.

Receiving $500/month isn't the lap of luxury (and many don't receive even that much). I constantly try to figure out how people survive with even their basic needs on that amount...especially if they have children! I know tax dollars are tax dollars. It's my money providing a "living" (if you can call it that) for someone else. The people I've talked to aren't sitting back and enjoying the good life on your dollar. Much to the contrary. They are working to be content with what they receive, but they're trying to find jobs to supplement...or replace...their current income stream from the government (even though most people who find minimum wage jobs will still need that extra help because it will only replace one of their benefits, but will still leave them in poverty).

The way I see it, each of us pay taxes to do greater good than we could do alone. Yes, someone with little or no income might be exempt or might be paying less than I am. I am ok with that because I recognize that $100 out of someone's paycheck of $500 is much different than $100 out of someone's paycheck of $1500.

Right now, I pay taxes *and* I donate money. If I weren't paying taxes, I honestly doubt my donations would increase very significantly. (just being honest) Instead, I would see that as more money going back into my pocket to spend. Plus, if the money were given back to me, I think I would be overwhelmed with wondering which one person to use my money to offset their rent and food expenses...or wondering if I should, instead, donate $10 here and $10 there to spread it out trying to help everyone...and then wonder if $10 would do any good for anyone. I would much rather the money be taken out of my paycheck each pay period so that I can be sure my small contribution can be put in with everyone else's small (or large) contribution in order to help a much larger constituent of people.

Trust me, I'm not naive. I've been working in the non-profit sector for over 16 years now. I understand that there are those who use the system. It's absurd for me to try to tell you differently. In your volunteer efforts, you will undoubtedly meet the handful of people who may explain to you the benefits they receive, which only ensures you (by their actions and decision making skills) that your tax dollars are being wasted. Let me put that into perspective.

Yes, there are some who receive the benefits and are ok with surviving on the little they receive from us and may even abuse it by continuing to use drugs or something. Those are the most visible examples of our tax dollars being "wasted." I would argue that even those tax dollars aren't being wasted, but that's for a different post.

The thing that I think about when I think about how much my government tax contribution is able to stretch in combination with everyone else in this country are the people who *do* need that extra help.

What would happen to my 55-year old friend who is on disability if he didn't have the assistance? He doesn't have family who can help him because they, too, are working at minimum wage jobs. Where would he live? How would he eat? What would happen if he had a heart attack on the street from his rough life? Would he just die because no hospital would be required to serve him? Who would care?

What would happen to my 32-year old friend who has a 6-year old son? She is constantly looking for a job...any job...but can't seem to find one who will hire her. She wants to go back to school to become a nurse. Without government assistance (i.e. financial aid), that dream would absolutely never be a reality because she has no job to pay for it to help her move further along. What would she eat? How would she feed her child? What happens when she gets some kind of treatable illness (like maybe thyroid issues...or diabetes), but can't take care of them? What happens to her son when she can't care for him any more? How does he (or she) get food? How does she feed her son healthy foods so that he doesn't get diabetes?

For those who want less (even minuscule) government and want people to provide for themselves, I have a hard time believing they have thought through these things and are willing to say, "Let them starve," or "Let them die." If they have and are still willing to say that, I am very concerned about their humanity. Does that kind of cruelty really exist in our country? Surely not. I have to believe that we are not that inhumane.

If my tax dollars can eek out survival for those I just mentioned, I truly am not as concerned about the much smaller but much more visible handful who convince us that our tax dollars are being wasted.

Cutting education to better our country

I'm sitting on my couch, reading this article in USA Today and my head is beginning to hurt. My brow is furrowed and I can't seem to make my face relax. I'm confused...befuddled...frustrated.

But as I began to write and think about..."How can a super-power country made up of wealthy people who gained their wealth and power by their intelligence not see the need for investing long-term in the education of our children????" it became a little clearer to me that my question was all wrong.

In one sense, the people at the "top" are intelligent. Many of them, I'm sure, have big name degrees and important titles. But, it is also many of those same intelligent people who are manipulative, greedy, and have created our demise. When they are inwardly focused, it's no wonder that they don't care what happens to the rest of our system and our children and the educated people of our future. From my point of view, it is a very self-serving set-up.

I know at this point, there seems to be no other way but to keep bailing people at the top out, hoping everything doesn't crash and burn. But I just can't see the rationale in contuing to provide funding (and bonuses!) to people who have created the failing system and, at the same time, require cutbacks from our schools.

Take to heart this information, pulled from Larry James' Urban Daily:

Last Friday morning Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert shared a horrifying statistical profile about our public schools and male students.

Consider 100 boys in public schools. . .

•32 will end up in prison. . .
•44 will graduate. . .
•Of those who graduate, only 4 will read at grade 12 levels and only 1 will be able to do grade level mathematics.

Is that really how we want our country to move forward??

However, it is the people who are affected by those statistics who I tend to believe might have the answers--people who have dealt with little for so long tend to have answers many of us have never thought about. They have innovation and creativity when it comes to making ends meet. They understand what happens when a system doesn't educate children adequately. Perhaps if we invested billions on the other end of our spectrum...the education of our public school children...the investment of technology in our low-income areas...offering unique opportunities to those who have not been given the chance to discover new interests...we might discover answers and solutions people who never had to struggle could never imagine.

Obama's message on education

I know I've listened to presidential speeches about education before, but President Obama just seems to "get it." I truly appreciates the way he is looking at our future...and that he is focusing on our future in the midst of the economic crisis. I believe President Obama understands that none of our current crises can be solved in a vacuum. All of the factors--especially education--affects the way our future will turn out. I believe that is why he is juggling every factor instead of focusing solely on one area at a time.

A brief summary of his Education Speech (below)--

Pillar #1: Early childhood programs are asked to create ctting edge plans. Innovative plans will be funded by grants through our government.

Pillar #2: Spur a race to top by spurring better standards changing the way we educate. Other countries are preparing kids for careers. We are not. Funding will be tied to results. Schools are encouraged to invest in innovation. We will use innovative processes to and data to track a child's progress in order to find out how he/she is doing, what teachers he/she has had and assess that information.

Pillar #3: Recruiting, preparing, and rewarding outstanding teachers.

Pillar #4: Promoting innovation and excellence in the schools. More charter schools. Asking states to reform charter rules and lift caps on charter schools. We need to understand that we no longer live in an agragarian society, yet our schools are still operating that type of a system that was formed many years ago. We have to progress.

Pillar #5: Every American with a quality higher education--college or technical training.

Take the time to listen to President Obama in his own words...

Texas superintendents advocate for changing the focus of public schools

I know I am very critical of the public school systems. I criticize them because I know what my small town school system was able to offer me. Some of the teachers in our high school drove 70 miles once or twice a week to attend classes at the university so they could further their own education and keep up with the current technology...and that was 18-22 years ago! I can only assume they obtained great resources for us through different grants and government programs for rural areas. As a result, in my small graduating class of 57 people, at least four of us have a doctorate degree.

The rural area I grew up in had/has a fairly high poverty rate. In the 2000 census, the median household income was $23,083. Yet, the community and the school system worked together to ensure the kids had access to a quality education and good experiences (many times free...paid for by the Lion's Club, local businesses, and other local organizations).

I know that providing poor kids with quality education is possible. I'm sure it's more challenging to control quality in a large system like Dallas, but it is possible...and the resources are available. So, yes, I'm critical...of teachers, administrators, and systems, in general...when I see kids with tremendous potential failing miserably.

So, when I came across a recently released document created by 35 superintendents in Texas over the last two years, I was extremely encouraged to know what was going on behind the scenes. As I looked through the list of superintendents, I was also very encouraged to see our very own Dallas Independent School District superintendent, Michael Hinojosa, on the list.

In an AP article, Keith Sockwell, chief executive officer of Cambridge Strategic Services, profoundly stated, "When we look at our public schools today, I'd say they're doing a dadgum good job of preparing our kids for the 20th and 19th Century. It's almost like we need to blow it up and start over."

These superintendents recognize the importance of technology. "We believe that the new digital environment will have more impact on the generation and transmission of knowledge than anything since the invention of the printing press," and understand that preventing kids from using technology in the classroom is not the solution. "...Students come to traditional school settings with a mastery of iPods, Wii game systems, cell phones and other devices that must be 'powered down' in class. The challenge is finding a way to use gaming techniques and other technology to enhance the curriculum and create a more relevant and engaging learning environment."

I am dumbfounded when I hear politicians talk about voting against the stimulus bill because it puts too many funds into public education. What are they thinking???!!!!

Too often, I find the desire to become more innovative is limited to children in higher-income districts. It excites me to hear that they are advocating for ALL children by changing the policy at the top.

"We're asking for comment," said Stephen Waddell, Birdville school district superintendent. "We want people to read [the document] and respond."

I would love to see this happen and would love to be involved; I'm sure many of you feel the same. Unfortunately, I can't find how. If anyone knows, please inform me/us!

Let's work with these superintendents to help equip our children to become the great innovators we know they can be!

Education funding in the Stimulus--Are we finally looking to our future?!

Though I am passionate about education, I didn't vote for Barack Obama based on his stance on education. Actually, I didn't hear him talk much about education. It disappointed me, but I believed that, overall, he had the right vision so I voted for him anyway.

So, when I saw the New York Times article, Stimulus Plan Would Provide Flood of Aid to Education, I was pleasantly surprised...and actually very excited.

The $150 billion designated for education would more than double the current education spending and would go toward "school renovation, special education, Head Start and grants to needy college students." It's about time we started thinking about education in a much broader sense than "No Child Left Behind."

There are large amounts of money allocated for Title I (used to help improve schools with large concentrations of poor children) and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which ensures services to children with disabilities, including special education). From what I can tell, it doesn't look like the stimulus package is doing much to change the schools' level of resources and innovative implementation (which is what really needs to happen to help our poor schools get up to speed with the wealthier, more resourced, classrooms) but is more about infrastructure, staying on target with what President Obama has suggested since the beginning. It's not innovation and new technology, but I believe it is a move in the right direction. I just hope the states and the individual districts choose to spend those funds in a way that benefits the children.

Another thing that really excites me about this stimulus is it's focus on college. The plan is to increase Pell grants for low-income students by $500 to $5,350 for 2009-2010 and to $5,550 for 2010-2011. College needs to be just as accessible as our K-12 public education system if we are to develop leaders for our future.

The stimulus will also increase annual loan limits of federal Stafford loans for undergraduate students by $2,000. This will not completely pay for a student's college experience. Even with the $500 increase per student in the Pell grant, though, students will still need to take out loans...which leads to another positive part of the stimulus package...the Stafford Loan.

Stafford loans allow students to take out loans without their parents' credit scores. This is important for those students whose parents are uninvolved or have such bad credit that the student is ineligible for private loans after maxing out their Stafford loan. This is also good because most of the students taking out Stafford loans will be paying them back themselves (without parental assistance). Stafford loans offer much lower interest rates than the private loans that have become such a necessary part of a college education.

The other great thing about the stimulus package is that it will expand Work Study and service opportunities for students, allowing an additional 200,000 students to get paid for work in a field related to either their major or community service. In other words, all of the money being provided is not free. Work study allows the student to gain work experience and understanding, while also providing cheap labor to the university and surrounding non-profits...thus stimulating and helping the economy in more ways than one.

With education, we can begin looking toward our future and planning how to get out of our economic downturn. It baffles me when people like Rep. John Boehner [R-OH] says that "providing ... $140bil in education funding... is not going to do anything, anything, to stimulate our economy, to help our ailing economy."

I don't know where he thinks he got the knowledge that has allowed him to get this far in his career...I would guess it had something to do with a good teacher and a good education.

Short-sighted vision like Boehner concerns me. Hopefully we will have enough others in the House who will be able to see that if we only solve what is right in front of us, we have not really solved anything at all and will be back in this same position sooner rather than later.

Bailouts? Think about the children

We're busy scrambling to bail out people who have tragically failed our system. What about bailing out the people who haven't even had the chance or opportunity to make a bad decision yet? Listen to Karim's take on it...

Federal funding available for tutoring

Did you know there is tutoring funding available for low-income children in low-performing schools?

It's been available for a while. It's through the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)...but 90% of the funds go un-used each year!

In the last week, two different tutoring providers have approached our organization. I am always suspicious when someone approaches me so that they can make money. Both providers work through the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) to provide services for the kids who qualify.

Here are the facts they've given us about the NCLB funding:

• program is open to middle and high school students
• kids must be from a school on the "under-performing list"
• federal funding provides up to $1575 funding per child per year
• children must qualify for free or reduced lunch

I am a curious as to why it isn't open to elementary-aged kids as well. It seems that getting kids back on track while they are young would be the thing to do.

From what I can understand, parents were notified (though I'm not sure how) on August 25 and had an enrollment deadline of September 25. A few more schools will be put on the list by the beginning of October and those students will have a deadline of October 25 to enroll. When we asked the man why couldn't students enroll year-round, we were told that DISD doesn't have the personnel to handle all of the paperwork associated with the funding. (Fort Worth...or was it Houston??...*does* allow year-round enrollment)

After these two meetings, I talked to another lady who said that she knew a provider that was being paid $3000 per kid to implement their program.

I haven't quite figured it out. Are the two programs that approached us gimmicks...or do they really help kids? Though $1575 is a start, I wonder how many kids get started on their "road to recovery and success" only to be cut off because there is no more funding.

If it's true, I'mt also wondering why one program gets $3000 per kid. Is it a better program that produces better results? If so, why is DISD still contracting with the other ones?

I understand that the administration needed to do the paperwork and measurements may be overwhelming, especially considering DISD's lastest blunder with their $64 million shortfall. However, I would think that getting kids tutored and up to grade level (if the funding's available) would/should be their greatest priority.

Does anyone else know anything about this and could offer any insight??

Building walls internally and externally

"You have got to be kidding me!" was my first thought as I read the title of the New York Times article: U.S. Erects Baghdad Wall to Keep Sects Apart.

Is that our new solution to everything?? If we can't get along or if we don't want to deal with them, build a wall. Talking to and listening to people is too difficult, I suppose. It takes too much time, effort, understanding, and (God forbid!) possibly some compromise about what we have always thought is the "right" way to do things!!

Walls allow us to block people from our view...We don't have to see them. We don't have to deal with them.

Do walls work??

Creating walls and distance seems, to me, to have started in the 60s. People moved out of the city fleeing people who looked different than them without any desire to even try to get to know the people they were running from. People moved out and built large houses with alley garages and privacy fences. But the walls, gates, and backdoor entrances did not keep them from having problems...drugs, domestic violence, and homocide still exists in their homes, too.

Despite the failure of creating barriers from our fears, we still continue to create walls...only now they are bigger, more obvious, and very deliberate...We can't figure out how to deal with immigration, so we create a wall....We don't know how to handle the Shiite and Sunnis, so we create a wall. The way we're going, I wouldn't doubt if the next wall built separates inner city communities from suburbia. (I'm only being slightly sarcastic here. The rate we're going, it honestly wouldn't surprise me. It scares me to think we would do that, but wouldn't surprise me.)

What's worse than a physical wall, however, is that those physical walls help create and allow us to justify our emotional walls. We have created these walls in our own country, and now we are projecting our fears and our unwillingness to listen and compromise onto the global society. We avoid people we don't know and/or don't understand. We say that "they won't listen to reason," but the reality is we haven't taken the time to listen to them. We say that "they're taking over our country," but we haven't sat down with them to listen to their delimmas and asked them to help us create a solution. We say that "our inner cities are violent and uneducated," yet we want to be selfish and keep all of the resources for our own children and our own communities.

We ignore and refuse to believe the intelligence and capacity of people who are different than us.

Walls ostracize people. They create barriers between people. They create anger and resentment because people do not know each other.

For those of us who recognize this, we have to actively work against this...in our own hearts, in our communication with our politicians, by our actions, and by our choices. Walls do not eliminate our problems; they exacerbate them.

Nothing better to do??

As I was listening to the radio this morning, I heard the report about the flag burning amendment not passing. As I listened to the report, I was amazed. Does our Congress really have that little to do that it needs to focus on flag burning??

John Kerry did speak up and suggest that there were more important issues at hand. However, Oran Hatch refuted him saying that banning flag burning is *the* most important thing we could be doing right now. He wants to send a message people that says, "You cannot usurp the power of the Congress of the United States."

Let me think about that a minute. There's nothing more important than making sure people don't burn the flag and show disrespect for this country? Maybe he's right. What could possibly be more important than that?? Let me ponder on that...

...teenagers who can't read who are expected to pass a test to graduate in a school that is given the No Child Left Behind law but no resources to implement what it will take to get them there?

...adults who have little job skills but are expected to get into productive jobs to contribute to our economy?

...schools that are drilling the kids with tests instead of teaching higher order thinking for fear they will lose their jobs as a result of "No Child Left Behind"?

...seniors who can't afford their medication and are confused by the new Medicare stuff?

...kids who are being recruited for the military to fight in a war that has no end in sight and no set plan for an eventual pull out?

...children without health care?

...large numbers of kids who aren't graduating from high school?

...CEO's who are getting rich while their workers are struggling in poverty?

Maybe Oran Hatch lives in a different world than I do. Maybe a lot of people in Congress live in a different world than I do. I'm guessing that their socioeconomic status--where they live, where they work, the people they hang around--isolates them from all of the other more pressing issues that are happening to the people that they "serve." I suppose the issues I've mentioned don't affect their world much so worrying about that handful of people who might burn a flag is a perfectly legitimate issue...right?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

Since the shooting/killing of my 22 year old friend the other day, I have had several people ask me, "Well, what do we need to do to keep stuff like this from happening?" Since people ask, I am willing to respond.

Focus on the children!!!

Of course, we hear the rhetoric. Even the President has declared that education is a necessity. He believes in this so much that he passed a law (No Child Left Behind) that requires children to succeed. Of course, he doesn't provide any funding for the kids to reach these standards and play catch up like they need in order to meet the standards he's set. But talking more than acting on our beliefs is not just the president. It's our society. What real effort do we put into our children? What do we have available for them? Where are our priorities?

What if we doubled our effort on the front end instead of trying to put out fires on the back end? What if we dedicated ourselves and held our society accountable to putting twice as much time, money, and effort into every program that involved children? Maybe then we wouldn't have to worry as much about finding drug treatment centers, dealing with shootings, or finding low-level jobs for uneducated adults.

The priorities of our society are apparent. The fact that we are willing to be in massive debt for a war and building a wall between us and Mexico, but not willing to go into debt for public schools, education, and children's enrichment programs tells me where our priorities lie. Why do we sit and muse over why our society has become so bad?

Do people not understand that adults who are addicted to drugs, poor, violent, and/or hungry were once children
...who attended poorly resourced schools.
...who had teachers who had low expectations of them
...who had parents who couldn't afford to get them involved in outside activities.
...who had absentee parents
...who had to "hustle" in order to provide food for themselves and their siblings.
...who don't have a context of rich educational experiences to draw from.
...who lived in rough neighborhoods where survival was the norm

Once again, it's not just the government. Look at other organizations as well. After-school programs...How many are willing to offer the funds that would allow them to hire high quality teachers for struggling children? Middle school programs...we know that middle schoolers are when kids fall off, yet how many middle school programs are you aware of? College readiness programs...many of the kids I know don't have parents who are able or willing to figure out the complicated college entrance process. Where are the college/career prep programs?

I want to offer all of these programs...but we don't have the funding. Anybody willing?

I truly believe that the more connected we (individually as well as our entire society) are to the kids, the less need for food pantries, job readiness programs, drug treatment centers, and anger management programs we will need.

How about we save money by investing on the front end?! Anybody with me???