Yay! Free tuition!

By 1944 Americans could at least visualize a time of no war, still almost a year away.  Some could also remember the short, sharp recession at the end of World War I - many veterans returned to America to face unemployment and homelessness.  This memory, the national unity born of patriotism and sacrifice, and perhaps the momentum of the New Deal made this time an especially fertile chance for passing the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944, known famously forever after as the GI Bill.

The Free Dictionary by Farlex highlights the important aspects of the GI Bill:

The original GI Bill offered veterans up to $500 a year for college tuition and other educational costs—ample funding at the time. An unmarried veteran also received a $50-a-month allowance for each month spent in uniform; a married veteran received slightly more. Other benefits included mortgage subsidies, enabling veterans to purchase homes with relative ease.

...having spent a large part of their youth engaged in battle, World War II veterans were highly motivated. GIs in their late twenties and early thirties returned to the United States in droves, anxious to catch up with their nonmilitary peers, marry, settle down, and support a family. The benefits provided by the GI Bill facilitated these goals.

Veterans were not the only beneficiaries of the GI Bill. Colleges, with increased enrollments, received years of financial security following its enactment. Veterans demanded more practical college course work, and this need led to a changed concept of higher education, with more emphasis on degree programs like business and engineering.

The lines of race, class, and religion blurred as higher education became attainable for all veterans. No longer was a college degree—and the higher paying jobs that normally follow it—limited to members of the upper class. Federal income increased as the average income of taxpayers in the United States increased, and as the veterans graduated from colleges, women and members of minorities enrolled to fill the gaps they left.

The GI Bill's mortgage subsidies led to an escalated demand for housing and the development of suburbs.  One-fifth of all the single family homes built in the 20 years following World War II were financed with help from the GI Bill's loan guarantee program, symbolizing the emergence of a new middle class.

Time marches on and now our landscape is considerably less fertile for sustaining such rich opportunities on such a broad front.  Still a refuge from unemployment, millions of students are going to school.  Most of them are financing school with loans. Millions will be hobbled, well into their working years, by net income lost to debt service, default, bad credit, home foreclosure, bankruptcy - the full range of personal financial threats and catastrophes. There are, however, noticeable bright spots. Maybe these will blossom into greater opportunities for everyone if the mighty pendulum starts swinging the other way.

The military services offer impressive college support through a broad array of programs that may include 100% subsidized tuition, generous loan repayment plans, living and supply stipends, or tech support (free laptops!). The tradeoff is and has always been in exchange for a commitment to a time of military service - a potentially lethal risk.  It’s not for everyone.  It’s an incredible boon for those whose limited choices leave military service as one of their best options.

In 2014, there were 23 colleges or universities in the United States with endowments of $4 billion dollars or more:  including Harvard with $35.9 billion down to Vanderbilt University with $4.09 billion.  Unsurprisingly, this list corresponds very closely with lists by Forbes or US News and World Report of the very best colleges.  Sitting on that kind of money, colleges can - and some do - simply offer free tuition to excellent students from families of limited means.  At least 11 prestigious colleges offer such programs.  There are at least nine colleges - all reportedly excellent - who traditionally offer free tuition to all enrolled students.  They are Deep Springs College, Cooper Union, Curtis Institute of Music, College of the Ozarks, Berea College, Webb Institute, Macaulay Honors College at City University of New York (CUNY), Alice Lloyd College and Barclay College.

At his State of the Union address given by President Obama on January 20, he proposed a federal program to guarantee free attendance at a community college.

...  the plan would provide tuition-free classes for students going to school at least half time who maintain a GPA of 2.5 or higher and are making steady progress toward a degree or transferring to a four-year institution.

“Forty percent of our college students choose community college,” Mr. Obama said. “Some are young and starting out. Some are older and looking for a better job. Some are veterans and single parents trying to transition back into the job market. Whoever you are, this plan is your chance to graduate ready for the new economy, without a load of debt.”

The plan is modelled after an existing program in Tennessee.

Like Obama’s executive action raising the minimum wage to $10.10 for federal contractors, it matters that initiative comes from the President.  The idea becomes a focus or a goal that puts tremendous pressure on state and national legislators to match it or explain why not.  With that cat officially out of the bag, numerous high profile politicians have started their next campaign early and are crafting similar or expanded plans to the one proposed by Obama.  Since January 20, Alaska Pacific University has announced  a program to reduce tuition costs practically to $0.

Proposals have been floated at many other schools since the State of the Union Address.  There are a handful of such programs already being developed in states like Tennessee, Indiana and Hawaii.

We have endured at least 20 years of ferocious disinvestment in public schools under relentless assaults by corporatists and charter school advocates. The sudden interest in institutionalizing universal access to higher ed has to be a signal of a change in political will or public attitudes about support for public education, kindergarten through college. Don’tcha think?  No - that’s wishful thinking. There are no imperatives in any of this. We are presented with an opportunity - a spark - that needs to be protected and fanned.

Good News and Bad News

This just in: The Oregon economy is doing great.  We are roaring back from the Great Recession.  The Oregon economy is doing so great that Oregon will exceed its projections for tax revenues and this will animate the notorious “Kicker”.  Oregon will refund these “extra” taxes back to the taxpayers as a paltry pro-rated, per capita check - maybe enough to pay your Comcast bill for one month.

Of course if this “extra” money just stayed in the treasury - or was pigeonholed into an interest-bearing “rainy day” account- we could build a reserve. We'd be able to weather the storm and not have to strangle the schools during the inevitable hunger games phase of our feast-or-famine economy.

The Kicker is very popular in Oregon.  Only piecemeal reform has been successful to plug this drain on the treasury.  The corporate kicker was repealed by a ballot initiative in 2012.  Corporate income tax rebates no longer gush to huge out-of-state corporations when times are flush here in Oregon.  

So when your kicker check comes, you’ll be able to take your friends out for pizza and beer - once, maybe twice.  When we run out of money to fund the schools, we’ll worry about that next time.

Senator Haas' email (cited above)

This is the full text of an email notice from Oregon State Senator Mark Haas.  I wanted to provide a link to it in the article posted above but I did not find it on his website.

Dear Friends,

Oregon’s economy is booming.  That’s the story from the economists who presented to the Senate Revenue Committee today.

Their quarterly forecast indicated that Oregon is recovering from the Great Recession, with more people going back to work and with wages increasing.  In fact, the economy is growing so fast it is projected to kick Oregon’s unique “kicker” law. Here are the highlights:

•  2013-15 Revenue: The overall revenue forecast for the 2013-15 biennium increased $100.7 million from the December 2014 forecast ($87.6 million more in projected General Fund resources, $13.1 million increase in Lottery Funds).
• Economic Outlook: Oregon’s economic recovery continues to be stable and growing in the short term, with job growth expected to continue at its current pace for another two years.
• Personal Kicker: A $349.3 million kicker is projected in 2015, largely due to very strong projected April 2015 tax filings from investment income and 2013 Special Session revenue increases. The revenue lost to the projected personal income tax kicker is felt mostly in the 2015-17 biennium.  Calculations to determine if a kicker is triggered do not occur until July 2015.
• Corporate Kicker: A $55.7 million corporate kicker is projected to direct $55.7 million to K-12 funding (Measure 85, 2012).
• 2015-17 Revenue: Strong General Fund and Lottery Fund growth projections offset much of the revenue lost to the kicker, so the forecast for the 2015-17 biennium is only $21 million less than projected in the December 2014 forecast.

The kicker law is something Oregonians love to talk about.  I agree with many of you that it should probably be replaced with something that is more in tune with Oregon’s economy. Like many inventions, haircuts and dance moves from the 1970’s, it’s probably time for an update.  You can check out the full revenue forecast here.

We are also working hard in the Senate Education Committee.  The Debt-Free Education Bill (SB 81) is scheduled for a public hearing next Tuesday, February 24th. This bill  represents the greatest expansion of college accessibility and affordability to date. SB 81 would give Oregon high school graduates the opportunity to attend two years of community college or trade school at no cost to the student.  I urge you to follow and support this bill. Debt-free higher education is the key to building more Oregon careers that provide livable family wages.

Sincerely,

Senator Mark Hass

Senate District 14

email: Sen.MarkHass@state.or.us I phone: 503-986-1714

Governor Kitzhaber Resigns

One of the best dialogue exchanges from one of the best movies goes like this:

Rick (the club owner): How can you close me up?  On what grounds?

Captain Renault (police chief):  I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here!

Casino manager (to Renault):  Your winnings, sir.

~Casablanca

Why did this jump to mind when I heard of Oregon Governor Kitzhaber’s resignation this afternoon?  The contexts certainly aren’t glaringly analogous. I think it has to do with the cynicism that so often comes with the reasons given for holding public people to account.  So am I saying Rick’s cafe should have been shut down?  No, the reasons were a pretext.  How about the Governor?  Is the hue and cry just a pretext?  No, the guy’s gotta go.

I am not the Governor’s best friend as can be divined from my blog.  Neither am I shocked and appalled that a public official could allow himself to so egregiously betray the public trust.  I’ve seen far more sordid examples of public disgrace.  On a scale of one to ten, failing to keep his girlfriend on a shorter leash isn’t even on the radar compared to the execrable behavior of any number of mighty personages who have fallen.  

So why hang the poor guy out to dry?  Don’t take it so hard, John.  It’s not you.   But in government, ethics matters.  Not to say that ethics is - or ever was - the absolute touchstone of government.  But when the fault is obvious, glaring, and fundamentally contrary to the public interest, the latitude for lenience narrows to about zero.  A corrupt government can not serve the people.  It’s not a question of relatively how dirty the Governor’s hands are. This is a seasoned political operative who knows. He knew the conflict of interest and he knew what Cylvia was doing.  Instead of being a steward of the public interest, Kitzhaber was a party to using personal power illegally for personal gain.  Sounds extreme: wasn’t he abetting the looting of the treasury?

So, good call, John.  The resignation takes effect 10 a.m., February 18, 2015.

What’s the aftermath?  Well, it’s never good when the President, Governor, Mayor, CEO etc. is booted out of office. Political capital and prestige also matter for the parent country/state/city/corporation, etc.  Such a disaster certainly slows momentum or unseats one from the high ground.  I imagine it plays hell with bond ratings and stock values.

But we have a constitution so even a high-profile and popular governor is not irreplaceable. In Oregon, succession to the governorship goes to the Secretary of State and that is Kate Brown. I voted for her for that office.  She’s been proficient and effective in a low-profile job.  I wish her the best  in her new position.

Richmond will not go quietly.

This is not the song of the Richmond that fell the night they drove ol’ Dixie down.  There is a Richmond on the left coast in a working class stronghold, on the other shore of the San Francisco Bay, where it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Berkeley and Oakland. Richmond keeps popping up on the radar for the unlikeliest of reasons.

Bill Moyers says that Chevron has treated Richmond like “a company town.”  We learned about those in high school when we studied the Robber Barons and the Gilded Age.  A company town was built in an urban or rural wilderness when some valuable resource was identified (location, trained labor, natural resource) and the company had to provide infrastructure to sustain a workforce to extract or exploit that resource.  Texaco - since bought out by Chevron - built a huge refinery in Richmond. The refinery has been the largest employer and taxpayer in Richmond for decades. Chevron is the third largest company in the world.  They were in the news in 2012 when a  fire at the refinery poured toxic smoke into the air which drove 15000 area residents to the hospitals with respiratory ailments.

Labor Notes  describes Chevron’s annoyance when confronted by organized local candidates who thought that Chevron should be more responsible for its effects:  global and local pollution, hazards to workers and residents, emission of greenhouse gasses.  

In addition, the city was suing for damages caused by the fire, including plummeting property values. Chevron wanted pliable people in office, people who would give the company a cheap settlement.

Chevron took a lot of heat for attempting to buy the election.  Their response to the criticism was to throw more money.  They lost and the radical weirdos (RPA - Richmond Progressive Alliance) won.  Chevron spent about $150 for every vote cast, outspending RPA  15 to 1.  

Richmond is also not shy about getting in the face of the financial players that arguably precipitated the 2008 economic meltdown.  San Francisco may continue where Richmond left off in using municipal powers of eminent domain to buy up and forgive the debt of homeowners whose homes are “underwater” - who can’t refinance their mortgages because the value of their homes has dropped below what they owe on their mortgage.  In spite of battalions of expensive attorneys suing Richmond for their dark design, Richmond, led by then-mayor Gayle McLaughlin  (an erstwhile RPA candidate) was relentlessly on-track.  

The New York Times summarized:

The eminent-domain strategy is not a fabulous idea. Like virtually every other proposal to help homeowners hurt by the housing crash, it tries for simplicity but falters in the face of the enormity of the post-financial-crisis mess, and, as markets improve, it may come too late to make much difference. The plan’s legality and wisdom have been debated in editorials and blog posts, with questions ranging from the true value of the mortgages to whether the chosen homeowners deserve the help.

But to advocates, eminent domain offers perhaps the only chance to remedy the failure of the federal government and mortgage servicers to offer widespread, meaningful relief to the hardest-hit communities.

Mayor McLaughlin’s position was, “The risk that is really confronting us is waiting on the sidelines for the next wave of foreclosures.” She was ready to follow through but the issue became moot:  Housing markets are improving.  Local foreclosure rates are declining.  With the improving economy, many of the previously threatened homeowners are no longer “underwater”. Risk-reward factors no longer pencil out. Richmond called off the council vote that would have implemented the plan.

Extraordinary stats on crime and poverty have, for decades, also tended to raise Richmond’s profile in a tragic way:

For years, the Bay Area city had been battling one of the nation's worst homicide rates and spending millions of dollars on anti-crime programs to no avail. A state senator compared the city to Iraq, and the City Council debated declaring a state of emergency. In September 2006, a man was shot in the face at a funeral for a teenager who had been gunned down two weeks earlier, spurring local clergy to urge city hall to try something new—now. "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten," says Andre Shumake Sr., a 56-year-old Baptist minister whose son was shot six times while riding his bicycle. "It was time to do something different."

Chris Magnus, the new police chief - tough and deeply experienced - can take a lot of credit for trying “something different.”  He turned a lot of heads when he held up a sign reading "#blacklivesmatter" during a protest over the deaths of two unarmed black suspects at the hands of Missouri and New York police.  Chief Magnus has dismantled the "street teams," units of heavily armed officers deployed in high-crime areas. His focus on community policing includes “code enforcement, homeless outreach and a shake-up of command duties to build stronger ties to the community ... along with equipping patrol officers with body cameras and a call for more social media communications.”

The numbers are indisputable and moving in the right direction, especially in the rates of murders and shootings.  It may be hard to sort out the reasons for this.

Richmond benefits from a confluence of forces, including improvements in policing strategies and the ONS, along with community groups and faith leaders who conduct frequent "peace walks" in the city's most crime-plagued neighborhoods

The above-mentioned ONS is the most controversial and seemingly wacky approach among all of them.  The city council, after intense debate in the face of a public safety crisis, commissioned DeVonne Boggan to go out and “do something different” and he established Richmond’s Office of Neighborhood Safety.  Critics have called the program  “hugs for thugs,” a softhearted approach that coddles criminals and rewards shooters for their deadly behavior.  This characterization is belied by the technocratic methods and assumptions used in its formulation.   Mother Jones reports:

It has done it with a mix of data mining and mentoring, and by crossing lines that other anti-crime initiatives have only tiptoed around. Four times a year, the program's street team sifts through police records and its own intelligence to determine, with actuarial detachment, the 50 people in Richmond most likely to shoot someone and to be shot themselves. ONS tracks them and approaches the most lethal (and vulnerable) on the list, offering them a spot in a program that includes a stipend to turn their lives around. While ONS is city-funded and has the blessing of the chief of police, it resolutely does not share information with the cops. "It's the only agency where you're required to have a criminal background to be an employee," Boggan jokes.

Quixotically, Richmond is finding ways to struggle out from under a manhole cover of crime, poverty, ignorance and the forces of lots and lots of money who stand to  benefit from such a dismal status quo.  Richmond's confidence and brashness is the very image of pulling one’s self up by his or her bootstraps.   Certainly Richmond must be admired by bold captains of industry and all those fearless and resilient self-made individuals who are ever-ready to define the American way for the rest of us.