Metropolitan Rural

The public schools in the city of St. Louis has been a big contreversy of late, with it’s recent unaccredidation by the state and the state takeover of the school board. There was a big hoopla about the takeover, but since then the press has seemed to die down. You still hear some occasional news, but the big ruckus is mostly gone.

I was reading an article in the Post-Dispatch today about New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and the changes they’ve made in city schools. You can read the whole article here.

Here are a few quotes and some comments from me (in blue):

In New York City, he said, graduation rates have improved by 20 percent
since city officials lengthened the school day, imposed stricter standards on
student behavior, increased advanced-placement class offerings and abolished the
city Board of Education. Longer days? Why? I’m not sure the cause and effect relationship is there. I can see the standards of behavior, but only if they start in elementary school. Then that takes 12 years to really make an effect on HS and graduation rates. The increased AP classes are nice though. Get the best and brightest together to learn without being held back by slower students. They can help bring up average test scores too… not just bringing up the rear. The focus of “No Child Left Behind” is trying to bring up the slow students and is leaving those that could be farther ahead to slide back to the center. I don’t see that making enough progress to really help the schools.

The pay and job security of New York teachers and principals also is now partially tied to performance, which Bloomberg acknowledged was a tough sell to the city’s teachers unions. Sounds good, makes the teachers and administrators more like the rest of the workforce. Teachers are an invaluable resource, but that doesn’t mean they should be given pay with no responsibility. Good for them for paying based on performance. It’s a great incentive for anyone to get better at what they do.

“First, we’ve raised teacher salaries by 43 percent, which helps us attract the best and the brightest,” Bloomberg said. New York also has created financial incentive programs that offer:

— $15,000 signing bonuses to science and math teachers.

— Annual pay raises of $10,000 and $25,000, respectively, to top teachers and principals who agree to work in low-performing schools.

“Let’s stop pretending that offering teachers financial incentives somehow diminishes their motives,” Bloomberg said. Much the same as above. Just because these are teachers doesn’t mean they aren’t motivated by money. From teaching economics, the higher the pay, the more supply there will be. If you pay enough, most anyone would want to be a teacher and that gives the schools the chance to pick the best. It’s still about incentives and choice in a free market.

Bloomberg also called for tackling another touchy issue: teacher tenure, a system in place in many states in which it is difficult to fire veteran teachers. Tenure is one of several issues that needs federal government involvement, he said. It’s about time someone does something about this. Just because you’ve been at your job and done well for 5 or 10 years, doesn’t mean that will continue to be the case. If we are going to judge and pay based on performance, you can’t rule out firing under performers. Even if they’ve been there 20 years. This is about the kids learning, not about the easy life for a teacher who can’t be fired.

I think we still have a long way to go to make our public education better here in St. Louis and the US in general. First and foremost we need the money to do it. A basic education should be available to all, but not everyone needs to be college ready and bound. We need more technical and trade training and there will always be jobs in retail, restaurant and hospitality. I don’t need someone with a college degree serving me my big mac, but they better be smart enough to give me the correct change when the machine is down!

We have some of the best universities in the world here in the US. With a strong mix of both public and private universities. We lack much of that in the elementary and secondary schools though. With better access to private schools at a younger age, the public school HAVE to be better to compete for students. That’s what has killed the city schools in St. Louis. It’s not that the schools and teachers are just terrible, but that those who can, do send their kids to private schools. The overwhelming number of private and parochial schools here in St. Louis just bleeds the public schools of potentially good students. Nothing brings down an average test score faster than getting rid of the high scores.

I’m not trying to say that we should forget about trying to educate those who need more help and more attention, but that we need to stop forgetting those students who are above average. I know from my own schooling in my graduating class of 25. I learned as much in my advanced math classes helping out my classmates than from the teacher. If students like me aren’t around to help the teacher teach other students, then the whole class is worse off and the teacher has too much to do.

Okay, so it’s not just people who don’t think, sometime businesses get so caught up in stuff they lose sight of reality too. The combination of these two things have lead to the huge mess we have in the mortgage industry.

People:
Got to caught up looking at that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow to realize they have bills to pay between now and then. If you spend all your gold before you get to the pot, you’re going to owe interest on it and end up owing in the end.

Take my advice, save yourself a heartache and do your own math before you apply for a mortgage. Know how much you are going to spend BEFORE you go see a bank. Don’t let them talk you into spending more!

Banks:
Or lenders/mortgage brokers to be more specific. These people saw a way to make a quick buck. The, “Heck, anyone can make money in real estate” attitude left them turning their heads and allowed multiple frauds to occur in giving people money they couldn’t afford. They were selling them off elsewhere and making a commission, so they didn’t have to worry about the long term risk of the mortgage. But, why worry, the market was going up so fast even if they defaulted the bank will still come out ahead… right?

Wrong! When people start defaulting that puts 1 more house on the market with 1 fewer buyers. If you look at the supply and demand curves from economics you would have an increase in supply (prices fall, quantity goes up) and a decrease in demand (prices fall and quantity goes down). Notice both of those lead to a decrease in price, and it’s hard to say what will happen with the quantity. Well, because prices don’t adjust downward very quickly (called sticky prices, no really!), they don’t come down fast enough to equal out the quantity and we are stuck with a huge amount of homes on the market.

All told, that means that in order to clear the current inventory, there has to be further depression of prices to induce buyers back into the market. That’s bad news for a lot of people who need to get out of their houses before they loose them. It’s good news for the real, smart investors. They will be poised to snatch things up as we continue down. They have the capital to hold and maintain property until things start to revive (which they eventually will).

So, what got me on this subject today? I read this blog by Dawn Griffin about Casey Serin and his “10 Flippin Mistakes.” The links to his stuff is on Dawn’s site. Basically, somehow, this young 20 something wannabe bought a bunch of houses with stated income loans (lying about his income mind you) and now has $140,000 in debt and 5 houses in foreclosure. The combination of the 2 mistakes above lead to his eminent demise.

Check out some pictures of St Francis De Sales Church on the Built St. Louis website. I drive/ride by this place on a very regular basis. While it does look very cool and they say it has the tallest church spire in the city, that’s still not my favorite part.

Take a close look at the two pictures that have the doors of the building. Do you see it yet? Those are some extremely ornate “hinges” on the door. The iron work there to add decorations to those hinges are just amazing. They are a real focal point. If you’re ever heading down Gravois and you notice the spire… slow down and look at the doors.

This is my first week at a new job. I’m still taking the same bus as usual to downtown. I was talking with some of my new co-workers yesterday and mentioned that I live in the city. A first response was:

“Ew, don’t forget to lock your car! I don’t have to lock my car where I live.”

Of course I lock my car. You know what? I locked my car when it was a 78 Impala with 172,000 miles, no headliner and a factory 8-track player. Oh, and my hometown was 632 people at the time! It has nothing to do with where I live; I’m just being responsible with my possessions. Granted I haven’t heard of a large theft ring for minivans lately, but I’ll keep the doors locked in the city anyway to keep any CD’s and my golf clubs safe (don’t worry though, I have an insurance policy rider on the golf clubs for added safety).

We continued on our conversation as I was talking about taking the bus. It’s a short 15 minute ride and I have 4-5 blocks to walk to and from the bus stop here at work. Yet another gasp came from the audience:

“Walking! In the city!”

Yes, yes, yes yes yes. I walk around, by myself in “the most dangerous city in the US.” For Pete’s sake, it’s broad daylight near downtown, why wouldn’t I? This is my city, it was built in a time when people didn’t drive cars. It was meant for people to walk. Walking is how you get out to meet neighbors and new friends. You walk down the street to try out the new coffee shop or deli. It is wonderful to not feel like I have to get in my car to do EVERYTHING.

I’m just amazed at all the people that only feel safe in the city inside their locked car doors. This is such an awesome place with so much to do and see. But to experience it you have to GET OUT OF YOUR CAR!!!

This weekend the website http://www.new7wonders.com/ announced the results of world wide voting for the new 7 wonders of the modern world. This was done as a tribute to the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Honestly, I think it was all just a plot by the travel industry to get people to take more vacations. I mean, now there are all these new places I need to go visit, right?

In light of all this, my wife and I were talking last night. We’re trying to come up with some sort of class she can offer to other homeschool kids in a co-op group we are part of. She had the great idea of talking to the kids about the new and old 7 wonders and then helping them to put together their own scrap book of their Personal 7 Wonders of St. Louis. I thought this was an awesome idea. I think I’m going to try it out for myself. What better reason to get out and see the city to try out new things.

So, for anyone out there who has some free time and some web programming experience, why not go get the website stlouis7wonder dot com and start up our own poll. Wouldn’t it be fun to see this city get together to debate about what all the GOOD things are? I hear enough of the bad side every day. I think it’s time for a change.

What say you?

So, I learned last week a friend is leaving St. Louis for Iowa. Okay, so, we’ve never actually met, but I’ve read his blog for some time and have seen numerous comments from him via the Rehabbers Club and Revitalize St. Louis. He truly loves St. Louis and will be missed.

He wrote great post yesterday of 50 things he Will Not miss about St. Louis. You should check it out. His list of things he will miss is to be announced.

So, it’s been 9 months of riding the bus to and from work. Today was the first day I got caught in the rain without an umbrella. Pretty good I’d say. Things worked out well anyway. Had a friend with a large umbrella walk me over to the covered bus stop and convinced the wife to pick me up at the bus stop near home. Still barely got wet despite a raging downpour most of the time.

I can’t imagine, growing up where I did, anyone relying on public transportation. It would have been absurd. There, your car was your only life line to the rest of the world. Without it, you would be cut off from everything. Here, being without my car helps me meet people and have something to talk about and a common misfortune to share in together. What a better way to bond with people.

I ride an express bus to and from work every day. It amazes me how many people who obviously take the bus on a regular basis have no idea what an express bus is. There are 3 kinds of responses from people who are pretty much clueless:

1. Hello! I’m right here!!! These people stand at a regular bus stop and wave to their hearts content trying with all their might to get the bus to stop. Of course, after we pass them by they give some sort of indignant look like they can’t believe it didn’t stop.
2. Hey! I wanted to get off back there! These people ignore all the signs and even some occasional warnings from a driver that this is an express bus. They get on anyway and pull the cord expecting to get off right where they do on their regular bus. The look on their face is always priceless when we drive right on by.
3. Thanks Anyway. This group of people are at least semi-coherent. They at least realize this isn’t the bus they normally take and are polite enough to see if it stops where they want. Realizing it doesn’t, the politely exit before they get on. Let’s just hope the know better the next time.

I understand that not everyone knows all the buses and bus schedules, I wouldn’t expect them to. But most of the areas I take a bus there is only a couple buses that run down that route. If you are going to rely on the bus for your transportation, it’s YOUR duty to know what bus you should use. If you aren’t sure that the strange looking bus is going where you want to go, unless it’s pouring rain or scorching hot, wave it on by and wait the few extra minutes you had planned to get the sure thing.