Thoughts on a Sunday

--Apparently it was another "lily white" day of Sunday morning news programs.

After searching them all and seeing most, I don't think there was one "person of color" represented on any of the shows. No minority perspective other than the one minority of women.

Surely this will change soon.

Note to networks: there's a whole world of "minorities" in the US whose viewpoints aren't being given, when they're left off the programs.

--George Will is, of course, against the President's plan for health care reform and said as much, again, on ABC's "This Week" program.

ABC should have had the economist Paul Krugman on, if possible, to counter his viewpoints. They needed someone authoritative on to rebut what points he made.

--I hadn't read anywhere, to date, about three Republican representatives (Hennsarling, Pence and Campbell) proposing we cap the national debt at 20% of the GDP. This was news to me.

I'm sure it will get traction, too.

It would have anyway, but with the news out today that the Social Security Administration is starting to pay out more--much more--than it takes in this year, it's easy to see this will resonate with Americans a great deal.

Speaking of spending, did you know the US has 90 military facilities in Japan?

Anyone thought of cutting there?

And why are we still in Germany?

And Italy?

--Quotes from "Kansas City Week in Review" on KCPT this week, both regarding state cuts in spending, due to Missouri and Kansas budget deficits in the millions of dollars:

"Our expectation of government has to change." --Nick Haynes, moderator.

"The 'day of reckoning' really is here." --Dave Helling, KCTV 5 reporter

--The Kansas City, Missouri Chamber of Commerce moving to Union Station is a great idea and deal for the station, the Chamber and the city, overall, period.

Good on ya', Chamber---you did good.

--From a song on KCUR today:

"Every generation thinks its the last, it's the end of the world..."

Face it, folks, we're just not that significant.

(Not that you can't help your neighbor).


Let's all have a great week.

(Also, you might go to KC Photog Blog this Wednesday for one picture per hour of the Brookside St. Patrick's Day parade, starting fairly early in the day. I think they turned out pretty well and they're a lot of fun.)

Must-see television

If you didn't see KCPT's "Kansas City Week in Review" this week with Nick Haynes interviewing Dr. John Covington of the Kansas City, Missouri School District and you're interested, at least, in what's going on in town, I recommend you go online or do whatever you have to, to see it.

It was really a good, if brief, interview. Fascinating stuff.

Some of the things Dr. C. owned up to:

1) He nor no one else in the District knows how many employees they have. That's a shocker right there. He did say it's somewhere between 3300 to 3400 but they just don't know.

2) of the employees they do have, the don't know who they all are;

3) of those same employees, they don't know where they all work;

4) of those same employees, they don't know what they all do.

That is incredible.

Can you imagine trying to run any organization without that knowledge?

That is no way to run a business, to be sure.

So get this--that's why they are having all the employees come down to the District offices to get their paychecks.

And we just thought that showed--more--of how screwed-up the District is. No, no, for once, it's intentional and it's a good thing.

A pain in the butt for the employees, sure, but a good thing.

A quote from Dr. C: "The Kansas City Missouri School District is over-staffed. We don't need the number of employees that we have to deliver instructional programs and services for 16,000 plus students." (Correction on my part. I had earlier put up this figure as 1600).

Good for him.

This should have been said and taken care of years ago. It would seem that the School Board members of the past--and quite possibly the present--are protecting all those jobs, to the detriment of the District, frankly.

More information from the interview: in the district Dr. C. just left--Pueblo, Colorado--it had approximately the same number of students KCMO has now.

Their staff size?

2400

What's that tell you?

It looks strongly like, if Dr. C. has his way--as I think he should--1000 more employees of this District are going to get the ax.

Let's see if the School Board or anyone else gets in his way.

They do have a deficit to contend with, besides the fact that they need to get the kids performing.

So it seems like Dr. Covington is on the right track and is doing what he needs to, to get the KCMO School District closer to performing and functioning well. Good luck to him. He's a tough guy, it seems. He'll need all the toughness he can muster.

But the fact is, it's going to be up to the students themselves--and their mothers and fathers and families--to do the work that has to be done so the District is successful. Dr. Covington and the District and and should do what they can to lay a good foundation for success but it's up to the kids and their parents.

______________________________

Side note: Did you see where Dr. Amato was fired this week from his latest Superintendent job? Yeah. Isn't that great?

And get this--they gave a quote on the show that he left that district "in chaos."

Sound familiar? It does to anyone who worked for our schools while he was here.

I just wonder how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they had to throw at him, to buy out his contract and get him to leave.

Link: www.kcpt.org/news/kcwir/shtml