What?

What?                                   2-7-2017

Last night I was watching the main stream media news and they were again deriding President Trump’s ban on travel from 7 nations to the US and how unfair it was and how bad it was for our economy, yada, yada, yada. They also said how many of the US’ businesses, especially our tech businesses were being negatively affected because so many of their employees are foreign nationals working here in the US. They mentioned that some of their work forces are up to 70% non US born and educated employees.

WHAT? 70% of their US based business employees are not US citizens! This is a poor reflection on two big issues of discussion in our country today and is a major reason so many voters including union members turned away from the career politicians. JOBS AND EDUCATION!

JOBS: Two personal points on business and employment, I have always believed in the right of any company to make a profit, but not at the expense of it employees or the quality of its’ product or service. I have worked for some kind of compensation since I was 12 years old. I have worked mostly in labor positions; I have worked in a couple of different types of retail businesses, food preparation and service, general labor, in a warehouse, and in administrative positions in two different types of manufacturing industries. I was in the US Navy from 1970 to 1974 and the US Navy Reserve from 1986 to 1990. In almost every job I’ve had as an adult I’ve worked with people who were not US citizens or served customers who were not US citizens and I’ve never disliked any of them, I hope they can all say the same about me.

Every person in the world wants to earn the highest salary with the best benefits they can to support the lifestyle they want to live, even me. But, they also want to pay the lowest price possible for the products and services that make their lifestyle possible, even me. This is an impossible situation; the cost of employment directly affects the cost of the product or service. We all have to learn to get less and pay more so that more Americans will be employed at a livable standard. This means that companies and shareholders must also be willing to have a lower profit margin so they can produce a high quality product at an affordable consumer price that yields a reasonable profit.

We all understand that companies purchase foreign made products and send production of products out of the country because of lower labor costs, fewer regulations, fees and lower taxation. Creating lower labor costs is the responsibility of the laborers, the unions, and the employers. Working together a reasonable wage and benefit package can be put together that will benefit both the workers and the employers. This will result in an affordable product or service and generate a reasonable profit for owners and shareholders. The keys words are reasonable and affordable!

Regulations, fees, and taxation are the responsibility of governments; federal, state, county, city, and municipal. Currently every level of our government is costing US jobs by over regulation, unreasonable fees and taxation so that they will have more money for their budget. This does not benefit business or labor, or the economy, because it causes fewer and smaller businesses with fewer wage earning employees who have less money to spend and therefore there are lower sales and business tax revenues for the government. This also results in more families needing government assistance (of which I and my family have needed to partake). This cycle is non-productive and destructive to both the family and the local government. Everybody (individuals and governments) is borrowing but unable to repay, this is one of the reasons that we have such large debts as families and governments.

Safety and quality have to remain a high priority of employers, employees, and governments. But, when regulations and their fees hinder the reasonable profit that all three groups want and need then they need to be changed. We do not need to give up safety or concern for our environment to achieve these results, but no one issue should create unreasonable costs that keep us in our current situation.

EDUCATION: (The preamble section is long so that those who do not know me will have a better understanding of the experiences that formed my views.) I am a product of public education! I did not go to kindergarten because it was a pay per rather than a requirement when I grew up in Texas during the 50s and 60s. For the most part I did not like school. In the first grade I averaged straight Ss, in the third grade I was held back because I was “inattentive”, in the sixth grade I averaged straight As, in the eighth grade I almost failed because I had skipped so many days, in the eleventh grade I was repeating tenth grade English and Biology and I was failing most of my classes including PE. So in April of 1970 I was eighteen and I dropped out of school and joined the Navy. When I was going through the process of withdrawing from school one of the coaches asked me why, the only teacher that did, I told him, “I was tired of the stupid rules.” (In Texas we still had dress and grooming codes). He must have laughed about that for years. About five months later while I was in transit at Great Lakes Naval Base I went and took the High School GED battery of tests, I did not study or prep for them in any manner. In June of 1971, one month after my graduating class had crossed the stage and received their diplomas my Texas High School Equivalency Diploma was issued while my ship was off the coast of North Vietnam, (at that time Texas did not issue GEDs). After I got out of the Navy and moved to California, I have taken random classes at two of the local community (Jr.) colleges.  My wife’s experiences were also not happy, she went to public school from kindergarten on here in southern California, in the ninth grade she had a bad experience, in a Performing Arts class a teacher who had a favored student gave my wife’s grade to her favored student and everyone in the class knew it, all the teacher said to my wife was that she did not deserve the grade even though she had done the work and the other student had not participated in the project at all. In music my wife had a good voice and could sing well but she could not read music. When the teacher gave her an assignment that required her to be able to read music my wife was embarrassed and quit. Neither the teacher nor a counselor reached out to her or asked her why. My wife was dyslexic and considered slow or stupid rather than being worked with. Our son attended public school here in Southern California until his Jr. (11^th) year when we put him in a private Christian school. He then attended a local community college where he was certified in a medical program for a field he just retired from this year. He continued his education through the years and always enjoyed learning. Our daughter went to public school in Florida where she lived with her father, we don’t know anything about her experiences other than she did not like school. Our oldest grandson went to a private Christian school from pre-school through the third grade. He went to public school both here and in the Tahoe area for grades four through eleven. He did not like school and did poorly during those years. As a senior he is enrolled in a charter home school program where he attends class for two hours two days a week. He does most of his school work on the computer at home, (If they had something like that when I was in school I would have been a straight A student like my grandson now is). Our younger grandson has gone to public school both in the Philippines and for the last several years here in southern California, he was not doing well here. He is now in the eighth grade in a public charter school in Texas where he is doing well in school and likes going to school.

So what are my views on public education? For the most part it is failing miserably! The classrooms are too large, the teachers are underpaid and overworked; therefore many children are falling through the cracks because they are not parent or self motivated, or they learn differently than others, or have some learning disability. There is also the problem of under qualified and uncaring teachers, this is certainly more visible with the number of teaches of both sexes being arrested for serious charges like selling drugs to students, sexual relations with students and helping students cheat on exams. The schools spend more time teaching children how to have “safe sex” or when that fails how to get an abortion, rather than teaching them life skills such as preparing for life after school, getting a job, financial skills like paying bills on time and saving for the future. There are things that go beyond academics that should be taught to students. Our colleges and universities spend more time teaching students about social revolution rather than the academics they need to be the 70% of the tech companies’ workforce.

I do not blame foreigners for wanting to come to America because of the opportunities available. I blame our public education system that spends more money on administration and infrastructure rather than lowering costs to students. On teachers unions that protect all teachers and tenure rather than making sure their members are the most qualified and motivated available. I blame school districts that still require students to attend poor performing schools because they live close by rather than allowing students to attend better schools within the district or in neighboring districts, thereby causing the poorer schools to improve.

That is why I and so many others are in favor of charter schools and school vouchers. Parents want real choices when it comes to the education of their children since most families cannot afford private schools. This is the only alternative to continuing poor performance by our children in the modern technological world in which the US competes. Colleges and universities must return to teaching academics and not social change if we want our hi-tech jobs to be filled with American workers.

It’s not choice verses public, it’s the two working together to give our children the best education available and our nation the best possible economic future.