I generally agree with Dr. Wilbur Rich's well-detailed recipe ("St. Louis Blues," features, Winter 2008) for legislative failure regarding the 2005 and 2006 tax credit proposals in Missouri. Like any good connoisseur of school politics, Rich pays close attention to inputs and outcomes. In his article, race, partisanship, and cartel politics represent the major ingredients in this recipe. As Rich adopted "the blues" as a working metaphor to explain the defeat of tax credit bills in Missouri, I have chosen "soul food" as the metaphor for my response.
Soul food is only as good as the cook and the ingredients used in its preparation. Too many cooks in the kitchen contributed to the failure of the tax credit proposals. Republican Jane Cunningham and black state representatives Ted Hoskins and Rodney Hubbard, both Democrats, were the original cooks. Missouri Democrats watered down the tax credit bills with "killer amendments," while the state teachers union and the AFL-CIO added extra helpings of sour cream and vinegar. By the time this motley crew turned off the stove, the tax credit bill had lost its flavor and its soul.
Taste determines the authenticity of soul food. In the Missouri legislative battle, no matter how many times the sponsors called their bill a tax credit, opponents convinced diners that the bills smelled like, and had the consistency of, "school vouchers." Because of the opponents' successful this-bill-will-leave-a-bad-taste-in-your-mouth campaign, few people had the stomach to support it.
Parental choice supporters nationwide should study Rich's recipe before attempting to enact a school reform law. Since I was on the frontline of a similar legislative battle in 2006, I will offer two suggestions: First, cooks and ingredients needed for this battle are not found solely on the Hill; they also must be gathered in the 'hood. Second, soul food cannot exist without intense heat. It is needed to break down ingredients to create a jazzlike harmony of taste. Similarly, parental choice coalitions must bring together a proper blend of ingredients at the right temperature to achieve success in the legislative arena. These ingredients at minimum include an adult-size serving of money, a healthy dose of bipartisanship, and organic community ownership. To win a legislative battle for parental choice, bring the fire next time.
GERARD ROBINSON
President
Black Alliance for Educational Options
COPYRIGHT 2008 Hoover Institution Press
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
An Emergency Fund in Action: Our $500 Weekend
Direct your browser to just about any personal finance blog, and you’ll be able to find at least one post about emergency funds: why you should have one, how to build it, when you should start, and exactly how much (or how little) you should sock away. What I don’t see a lot of is emergency funds being used for, you know, emergencies. (A planned car purchase is not an emergency.) Maybe they don’t have many emergencies, or perhaps personal finance bloggers aren’t willing to admit it when their warranties expire. Whatever. Here’s some real life for you.Since the day we bought this house, the to-do list has included replacement of the basement door. It’s warped and in sad shape. The jam is a little rotten, and it lets in water during really heavy rain. Still, it opens and closes and behaves in a sufficiently door-like manner that we weren’t all THAT worried about it, until today. Today, that basement door went from a “to-do” to a “to-do now“. You see, Friday night, Boo (the resident cat and benevolent overlord) caught a mouse.For Boo, this isn’t a particularly unusual act. She’s a retired member of a hardware store extermination team, and it probably felt pretty good to shake the dust off the old stalk-n-pounce skills. She is a master mouser. For us, this isn’t so good. Nobody wants mice in their house. It’s just… oooky. *shivers*Dani did some research, and we poked around our basement, and decided that the first important step was to either fix or replace the back door to eliminate the wide gap at the bottom (and the ham-handed repairs of the previous owner). If you have mice, it seems, the first step to eliminating them is to cut off their points of entry. If you have any sort of holes in your house, it’s recommended that you stuff them with steel wool — apparently, mice don’t like the texture, so they won’t chew through it. Mice can enter the house through any hole larger than a US dime — like the yawning gap under our basement door.
Protect yourself against identity theft09Apr08
Identity theft is when someone uses, without permission, your personal information in order to commit any frauds or crimes. Identity theft is a felony that is becoming more and more common. That is because some of us are not very careful with personal information, making the job easier for those trying to steel our identity. We should always be careful with information like Social Security number, credit card number, birth date, employment information, driver’s license number, etc., because if they enter into the wrong hands the consequences can be very serious. People that have experienced identity theft spend months trying to repair what others have damaged, and in the meantime they cannot get a loan or lose a job opportunity or, sometimes, they can get arrested for something they didn’t do.
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