Measurements of Teaching Effectiveness…I dont think so

I took a look at the preliminary report from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation concerning Measurements of Teaching effectiveness, and I was aghast. It almost appears as if someone is setting Mr Gates up for another blue screen of death scenario.

Case in point, even a quick view of tables 4 and 5 in the report should raise some eyebrows. Correlation coefficients do not look very good, albeit granted, this is an preliminary report.

Whats most disconcerting, is the textual discussion of those tables is in some cases near reverse of what they indicate. Perhaps the scariest aspect of this, is that so few look at the data tables, but more so just rely on the text!

The only criticism of the report which I was able to find was the following from Jesse Rothstein from UC Berkeley.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Measures of Effective Teaching” (MET) Project seeks to validate the use of a teacher’s estimated “value-added”—computed from the year-on-year test score gains of her students—as a measure of teaching effectiveness….

As there is every reason to think that the problems with value-added measures apparent in the MET data would be worse in a high-stakes environment, the MET results are sobering about the value of student achievement data as a significant component of teacher evaluations.

The complete abstract of her criticism as well as a her full report are must reads, especially now that so many states are trying to create legislation as concerns testing and teacher evaluation.

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Accountability and the Goals of Education

The public more and more is demanding accountability in the education sector. Egads, when someone needs to have a masters degree to effectively be a clerk as happened to a friend of mine, there is something massively wrong. When a high school graduate can’t follow the most basic manufacturing safety course there is something wrong.

These problems are widespread, and as such there are pushes all across the nation for teacher accountability. My premise is that such accountability efforts are misguided, premature, and will likely be counterproductive. Rather, the problem is a societal one, and that must be addressed first, or we shall jump the gun to the peril of the next generation

The big elephant in the room is a function of the divergent opinions as to what educational goals should be. If the end goals of education are in conflict, pretty much everything that spins out of them will be sub-par. I told one fellow on twitter, when such divergence occurs, only the least common denominator is possible, and as such it is likely to be a failure to all.

Some folks see subject mastery as the goal of education… ok, but considering that only 10% of a given class could really attain a high level of mastery in a given period of time, should 90% fail? Or perhaps we reduce the standard of mastery…but how many should fail as a result? If the standards are lowered to the least common denominator, does such really help anyone? One must also consider that some students may enter a classroom having already mastered the subject material far beyond the standards selected… and as a result, are bored to death and spinning their wheels.

One must also consider what subject mastery comprises. Is it merely the ability to do well on a standardized test? Is it the ability to parrot back canned answers via memorization? Is it the ability to understand, derive and create? All of these issues must be considered should subject mastery be a goal.

Some folks see a student’s future as the goal of education. Ie, do well in school and you will get into a good undergrad program. Do well there, and you will get into a good grad program. Do well there and you will get a good job. Of course, such falls apart in that high school graduates in some cases have better jobs than PhD’s, being there are so few jobs in the PhD area. Also, most students with a BSEE will do better financially than those with a PhD in biochemistry, until perhaps the later years of their careers. Unintended consequences of the student’s future potential goal include cheating, student whining, whining parents, grade inflation, degree deflation, and/or social promotion.

Some see the development of lifetime learning as the goal of education. The idea being to take even the smallest spark of interest, and fan it into a flame, and that such is possible for all students. It may in some cases mean that mastery of a subject area may take much longer for some, and much less for others… but timing is not so much an issue as it is that such is occurring. By the same token, such an approach is perhaps the hardest one to measure.

Some see the development of a student’s potential as a goal of education. They understand that some will excel in one area, and not so well in others. The view is that if a student is given the opportunity and encouraged to put in equal effort in any number of areas, the student, as well as society will receive the greatest benefit. Such of course creates huge disparities in the amount and type of resources required.

Being that resources are constrained, some see equal distribution of educational resources to be the goal of education. The idea being that while a given student may not live up to their own potential, they at least get a bit of a push. Also, that some students who need a lot more help will not get it, they too get at least a bit of direction.

Some folks see student seat time as a goal of education. Ie, the more time that is put in, the more varied the experience, the greater potential for understanding. Such is common in the professions of aviation, law, and medicine. Its also possible, that if enough seat time and variation is presented, sooner or later a spark for learning will develop. It should also be considered that some students need extended time for percolation and reflection in contrast with others. A cynical view is that if a student is compelled to be in a seat at school, they are less likely to be creating havoc outside of it, and/or costing parents money.

Some folks see education as a way to get rich and/or increase ones power, and as a side issue to also better individuals and society. The idea being that if they can skim off a bit of the financial or physical resources through a long term proprietary economic lock-in, they will be in good shape for years to come. While such is admittedly a cynical view, it is far too realistic when one considers that only about 30% of any given states education budget goes towards classroom teacher’s compensation. Another way to view this, albeit cynically is the great emphasis on seat time and lack of cross-institutional credit transfers in post secondary ed. Such an approach inflates revenue via artificial supply limits, minimizes branding dilution, focuses power, and saves money via limiting institutional overhead.

High stake state based standardized testing is the least common denominator of many of the above goals. Its also known that each state can create their own tests and standards and that they vary widely. Next throw in the potentially huge dollars and power that are at stake and things get really messy. When one considers all the above factors, it really makes one wonder if such tests are really of any use at all education wise. It appears Campbells predictions have become all too true.

So what is the answer? Before you even think about educational accountability, it is absolutely imperative that you define what the end goal(s) are and from there, pick the appropriate tool(s). Choosing the wrong measurement tool would be like using a weigh scale to measure the length of a trailer. Yes, there will be some correlation… but its not gong to be very accurate, and in a vast majority of cases such an approach will be totally wrong. Making decisions based upon errant data will likely put us in a worse situation than we are already in. Part 2 of this series will take a closer look at misguided attempts at accountability.

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What is the message being sent, ie plagiarism?

There is no question the theft of IP is rampant, whether it be downloading music/videos, faked academic credentials, patents on the obvious and/or prior art, or plagiarism, such does not make it right. What message is being sent when schools wimp out on penalties for such?

More so, what message is being sent when zero tolerance policies result in student suspensions, but only 3 days of detention and a single zero on an assignment is issued for plagiarism? Sure, helicopter parents will swoop down in a huge way, and it is likely such situations will end up in court, if a real penalty such as a F for the entire class was granted (and an F for all classes, if said student blew off the class in which they were caught). Granted, such a situation might well impact where said student could attend university… or more realistically might result in a delayed entry for a few years.

Then again, perhaps a student with a Swiss Army knife, or an aspirin is more of a threat to society than one who cheats. Perhaps society is really ok with plagiarism. Perhaps the cost and threat of lawsuits over teachers calling out a student for plagiarism is more important than to put very strict limits as to when lawsuits over such are possible. Perhaps its fine that the surgeon didnt bother to study anatomy as well as they should have? Most assuredly as society moves towards more and more specialized roles, knowledge gaps are becoming more and more blatant, but also less important… provided there is always another guy to step in to take up the slack.

Of course, what if the other guy cheated too?

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Should Teachers Be Paid Less than $55,000/year?

A friend told of a conversation she had overheard between a couple guys. One was saying to the other. “So I asked the guy, say a teacher makes *$55,000…would you really want the person teaching your kids to make less?” Such got me thinking a bit more.

Daycare for pre-K children runs around $7800 in Wisconsin. This is what parents are paying out of pocket… just for daycare. When the kids get older and go to school, such would seemingly drop, being the total hours in daycare drops off in a huge way. The thing is, it only drops a bit… $7124/year for children in a family child care home.

If you have 20 children in a daycare, the parents out of pocket cost for to use an after school center would be pushing around $160,000.

And yet, a degreed, and licensed teacher for those same kids gets paid $55,000, and perhaps another $25,000 in benefits for a total compensation of half of what those parents are paying for afterschool daycare.

Should a teacher really be paid less than half of what parents pay for afterschool daycare?

* The actual average salary of Wisconsin teachers is $51,264 via the WEAC. The DPI district data is pretty close to that as well. The DPI median for benefits is $25,800. Thus the total compensation is pretty close to $77,000… even less than half of what 20 parents would pay for daycare.

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Individual vs Social Responsibility

@flygirl737700 pointed me to the following article by George Lakoff, entitled what conservatives really want. From a Republican/Democrat point of view, I think Dr Lakoff brings up some pretty decent points from a competition point of view. In the past, other articles I’ve read from him have really nailed things from a framing/communications point of view, and he does not disappoint this time around either.

Most assuredly his dissection of the issues into a individualistic vs a societal approach appears on the money. As I discussed previously from a health care point of view, the underlying morality factors leading to such are drastically different. Dr Lakoff presents the following two descriptors.

In the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama accurately described the basis of American democracy: Empathy — citizens caring for each other, both social and personal responsibility — acting on that care, and an ethic of excellence. From these, our freedoms and our way of life follow, as does the role of government: to protect and empower everyone equally. Protection includes safety, health, the environment, pensions and empowerment starts with education and infrastructure. No one can be free without these, and without a commitment to care and act on that care by one’s fellow citizens.

AND

Conservatives believe in individual responsibility alone, not social responsibility. They don’t think government should help its citizens. That is, they don’t think citizens should help each other. The part of government they want to cut is not the military (we have 174 bases around the world), not government subsidies to corporations, not the aspect of government that fits their worldview. They want to cut the part that helps people. Why? Because that violates individual responsibility.

I must admit I run into more than a bit of cognitive dissonance with the conservative viewpoint portrayed here. Government subsidies to corporations, ie corporate welfare creates an illusion of individual responsibility. Ie, if subsidies were cut, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of individuals would find themselves out of work. If publicly funded and provided education were to end, Ie parents were on their own, and were individually responsible to provide education to their children, untold millions of kids would be adversely affected. Either approach would reinforce individual responsibility… likely even more so than the cancellation of unemployment insurance, being such is not a matter of a year or two, but a whole multitude of years.

Perhaps it is cognitive difference…folks love the idea of individual responsibility, but when its in their own backyard, perhaps not so much? Perhaps its because such is a second order or third order effect. Ie, its easy to point at the homeless guy on the corner, who stands out in all types of weather for upwards of 16 hours a day begging as not pulling his weight. Its not so easy to point at someone working very hard as a lobbyist begging for a corporation who job wouldn’t exist if it werent for government giving away “free money”? Its not so easy to point at the guy working long hours at a ethanol plant, whose job would not exist if it were not for the begging from the aforementioned lobbyist.

The same holds through when it comes to deferred benefits, ie pension plans etc. It almost appears an element of jealousy exists that most private firms no longer offer them. Then again, pensions are a way of providing delayed compensation, ie, less in salary now, and a pension later on to make up the difference. Whether such is the right way to go or not, is not the issue, as much as it is a contractual one.

I used the example with a conservative friend the other day, when I stated, well how about we arbitrarily cut your 401K down by 50% or more just prior to your retirement? Such was the case for many an airline pilot, when their airlines declared bankruptcy to get out of contractual pension obligations. If individual responsibility is that big an issue… then it would make most sense not to depend on a 401K, or a Roth IRA being said money falls into the realm of a social/governmental position, rather than an individual one. (and you know, the ability to change the laws on Roth and 401K’s down the road is going to be a huge thing once the social security trust fund starts running into hard times).

Going a bit further, one should consider the whole issue of zoning. From an individualistic point of view, zoning would seem to be anathema, especially when said zoning prohibits a Bible study, or the work of a church. On the other hand, it does seem that conservatives tend to put a great emphasis upon zoning. Ie they dont want folks parking at a Bible study, they dont want a church to have homeless people overnight, they dont want their property values adversely affected… but zoning is inherently societal (short of buying off the zoning commissioner).

It also occurs in aviation, albeit this is where things end up really strange. Aviation weather briefings and forecasting have been privatized, and the performance compared to the days of old is pretty abysmal… but it is significantly cheaper. Many smaller air traffic control towers have been privatized, and likewise procedural compromises have been made, not all of which have kept safety as a priority. Whats incredibly odd though, was the big push to make screeners federal… albeit the ability to force massive contracts for high dollar gear became much easier than had they been private firms. In such cases, the conservative cause in these cases is likely a lot more monetarily driven than the morality of individualistic vs societal function. Perhaps such is a case where different higher order effects enter in, and thus greed can predominate over moral factors.

Whether such is an issue of cognitive dissonance, or 2nd or 3rd order effects is debatable, but most certainly a discontinuity exists.

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Commentary on the Wisconsin Union Situation

I wrote the following comment on Leslie Marshalls post over at US News, and am expanding it here into the realm of political sacred cows, and the teaching profession.

Considering the huge increases in the stock market (despite the recession), and what appears to be huge stagnation in public employee compensation, it would seem the unions have been anything but effective for many years. On the other hand, if we give the unions the benefit of a doubt, how incredibly bad would public employee compensation be had it not been for collective bargaining?

The elephant in the room is tax rates on the richest folks who pay the majority of taxes have never been lower. The big fear in the heart of politicians such as Walker, is that if taxes go up, and the most highly taxed individuals will leave, and likewise take jobs with them. Of course, the question must be asked. Where will they go? What will they do, when their are no local consumers left to purchase their goods and services? Perhaps they will likewise move and take jobs with them anyhow.

This reduction of government revenue from the very rich is further compounded by the fact that more and more of the middle class workers are left to compete with offshore entities at a fraction of the cost. The net result is that some are out of work and many who are working are suffering reduced income levels. In a lot of ways, such points towards worldwide wage leveling for many working individuals. As such were to occur without collective bargaining, the potential outcomes could be really disastrous. Case in point, how many will stay in, much less enter the teaching professions, when compensation drops to the point, it will no longer cover basic living expenses and student loans?

There are no easy answers to any of this, but a modest level of protection for working individuals in the public sector is most assuredly needed.

Sacred Cows

Now, some might take issue with this, and say, the state can’t afford it, and something must be done. There is no political will to increase revenue, or to reprioritize things in order to balance the budget in other ways. Perhaps the most visible example of such is the state of California. All their programs are sacred cows, and they cant be touched. Likewise, increasing taxes would be like poking a hole in another sacred cow, and it too cannot be touched… and you run into a disaster in the making, or in California’s case a disaster in progress.

Most assuredly there are huge temptations to take an easy road by selling infrastructure, or in Wisconsin’s case, to not only ask for reductions in compensation, but also severely restrict the ability to ever recover. An extreme example of this would be the sale of the Green Bay Packers. For sure, if they were to be sold, it would bring huge revenue to the Green Bay Packer Foundation, and the good works the foundation takes on would expand multifold and then some. However, such a sale would also mean, there would never be a publicly owned NFL team ever again (short of NFL bylaw changes).

To many sports fans, they likely would be unable to draw the parallel, as it is so close to home. When ones future livelihood, and what they see as the future potential of their state is at stake, such can be pretty darn close to home as well.

The Teaching Profession

And the future potential of the state is where the rubber hits the road for many in the teaching profession, and likely some in other sectors of government, but being such is more subtle, its harder to draw a connection.

Within the teaching profession, there are long term concerns which are right at the forefront, and thus why so many are in Madison. I am sure most would much rather be teaching rather than protesting. However, to simply sit back and ignore the future of the states children is not an option. As I mentioned previously, when teacher compensation drops too far, teachers, no matter how dedicated will leave. In addition, when it drops even further, at some point, it will no longer sustain loans and basic living expenses, and no one, short of a few trust fund kids, will enter the teaching profession.

In a lot of ways, this situation parallels medicine. Today, many doctors refuse Medicare patients, as the compensation in many cases is not enough to even cover their overhead. Had they know such was coming years ago, you can bet they too would have gotten involved… Yes, the ethics of do we close and shut down all services outside of EMTALA to deal with what the politicians should have done is tough, especially when people need care. On the other hand, to personally have to refuse care to even some of your long term patients who really need care is an even more difficult ethical challenge. Education and medicine should have never been put in such situations… there are no easy answers, but such is no excuse for politicians dropping the ball either.

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Hmmm, the NHTSA-NASA Study of Toyota Unintended Acceleration

I took a quick look at the 177 page NHTSA-NASA Study of Toyota Unintended Acceleration full report this evening. I had hoped that with NASA involved, it would have been a really hard core report. Sadly, the design of the experiments aspect of it appears to so financially and resource constrained, it seems to raises more questions than answers.

For sure, the obvious things tested for in published standards are ruled out. In addition, the human factors analysis appears well done, albeit such is mostly outside the scope of my expertise. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the lack of detail provided… yes, its likely written for politicians, rather than EMC engineers, but being NASA, I guess my expectations were a lot higher than reality.

Since I have a number of years in the EMC field, I’ll take a look at section 6.8 My guess is there are likely substantial internal NASA discussions on these factors, albeit they didnt make it into the report.

Sample size:

Six vehicles were chosen for testing, all of which were reported to experience UA… Sounds good, but none of them have the same option set, and the years 2005 and 2006, were skipped entirely. Granted, I am not familiar with Toyotas, but I would certainly expect substantial year to year variation.

Frequency range of radiated susceptibility testing

The frequency range of testing lined up with ISO, Toyota, and NESA standards, and on the outset appear a good thing. However, there is a gap between conducted and radiated susceptibility tests (its a royal pita to test there, standards dont require it, and its rare in todays world to have problems in such an area… but I’ve run into it before (science is no respector of standards)).

Dyno testing

Units were tested on a dyno… and a dyno that can withstand 250V/m radiated fields, without causing distortion in said field has to be a really really cool device. On the other hand, in likely trying to avoid killing the dyno, its design probably shoots a number of anomalies into the field surrounding the car (Granted, I’m not sure I’d want to drive a car while subjected to a 250V/m field for an extended time… but it is a test limitation to consider).

High Current Audio Injection Failure precluded some testing

NHTSA-NVS-ETC-SR15 failure report is not included… perhaps the high current failure was an anomaly, perhaps not. Granted, the audio injection test is an unusual one. On the other hand, why did 4 pass, and 2 fail?

Also, being a 3300rpm increase was detected at 2Vpp at 150Khz… perhaps this test should have been run on more than 1 vehicle? Granted, outside of the test lab, such should never occur, but it is a point of interest. I’m a bit surprised testing was not explored at 125Khz, as such has repeatedly bit me in the field over the years. Likely civil litigation will explore this further with differing power levels, and/or frequency sweeps.

DTC Issues

Its assumed that DTC’s which were triggered were reliably recorded. Ie a Toyota Tech Scan was attached and data was pulled before, and after testing. (Obviously having it connected during tests would either kill it, and/or potentially disturb the results).

Orientation

Orientation was limited to 1 orientation for the TEM cell, and 8 orientations for the semi-anechoic. Such seems a reasonable approach, on the other hand… which orientation for TEM cell setup? Were other orientations possible?

Tests not performed (see table 6.8.1-1)

Early failures of vehicles 13C and 14C precluded many tests, and the fact that so many tests were skipped is a cause for concern.

The victim terminology

This is just a point of interest. Years ago, the usage of the terms source and victim were discouraged, as the legal field would tend to run with such. I gotta admit it is nifty seeing such terms once again.

The lack of any discussion or test data concerning ESD

On the outset, short of a minor discussion in section 6.9, this is not mentioned. The ToC suggests that data is available in appendix B, which is pretty nebulous as well. Section 6.9.6 is not a confidence booster, and such does leave the door open for civil litigation. Granted a Camry is not the space shuttle, but I bet the NASA guys were going WTF when they saw the watchdog/heartbeat monitor setup.

The observations in section 7.1

These are interesting…

sample size again is a concern

F-3. At full throttle, brake vacuum boost can be diminished or lost (apparently unlike Nissan of 20 years ago, they dont see the need for an auxiliary vac pump for such situations). It was also interesting, that even with the vacuum boost lost, one can decel at 0.25g with 112lbf on the brake pedal at 30mph. I wonder what the deal is a 75mph?

F-5 Tin whiskers… no wonder Uncle Sam and aerospace is exempt from Rohs. At least Toyota expected this might happen and designed around it. The big question though, is what if the whiskers show up in other places, and what about other manufacturers?

O-3, and O-4 are interesting… yes, the smog stuff is important, but I’m not sure its wise to not hold safety to a similar standard.

O-7 and O-8… yep, this is a problem. If I had a Camry, I’d code up an Iphone app to address this exact situation. If they really want to get to the bottom of it, wide scale testing either via an Iphone, Android, or something related might be a cheap and fast way to explore this aspect.

O-11, I agree 100%… even more so if the driver is tired, and its a different vehicle than what they normally drive. Ie a rental car fleet an airport might well provide for a great study of this human factors issue.

7.3-R-1 Likely they wont approach any of the concerns presented in this report, until either something really high profile occurs, or as the vehicles age, more problems show up.

My conclusion

Most of the obvious issues have been ruled out, or put in the category of being statistically low probability events. This does not mean there isnt some type of anomaly, but that if there is, it will be rare, and it will be a really bugger to get to the bottom of it. The biggest deal to me, is that so many of these issues transcend the whole industry, Toyota just happened to get in a jam mechanically (floormats, and/or brake pedal sticking) which put them in the spotlight.

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Liberals View on Tax Cuts

Liberals are not opposed to cutting taxes, and thus cutting government programs per se… but more so, which programs get cut. I think you would see liberals jumping up and down for tax cuts, if said tax cuts reduced the amount of money wasted on prisons, defense contractors, national security, F100 subsidies for their irresponsibility, educational overhead apart from the class room etc.

Its not that liberals don’t see a need for the above at all, but that the priorities are different. Ie, there is no question prisons are needed for murderers and rapists, but so much of the prison population is for over than violent crime. Case in point, most liberals feel it is more important to provide cancer drugs for grandpa and grandma on medicaid rather than $80K/year to keep a non-violent criminal in jail. Most liberals feel it is more important to provide for our veterans and current soldiers, than it is to reward incompetance in the defense contractor world. Most liberals want to see decent textbooks and facilities, rather than 70% skimmed off the education budget for overhead and other fish smelling deals like QComp.

Now, some conservatives should say, grandma and grandpa should have set aside $1-$3 million to cover the costs of their health care, or that their families or churches should do so, and not the government. I concede that such does make a valid point… but then what about the person who doesn’t make 6 figures a year? What about the young family who can’t put aside at least $20K/year to save for their care in later life and another $20K to pay for their elders? What about the average 65 member church who can’t spend millions over a period of years to care for the least of these? Should we as society value the lives of the less economically or geographically fortunate as having less value?

Should we as society view those whose employers no longer cover pregnancy and delivery as being worth less than others? Should we as society hold mothers who had a c-section at one time as forever un-insurable, and toss them and their baby out the door (beyond EMTALA) once their hospital bill goes beyond what their parents were able to save up for, or get a loan for prior to delivery?

The above are the concerns of many liberals. Is government always the answer, of course not… but it should provide a safety net. The tricky balance is to provide a safety net, and at the same time not create a disincentive system, nor a circular counterproductive one.

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Cutting our Way to Greatness???

Harley Davidson is cutting ~20% off their workforce since their peak a couple years back and their profits are shooting up. Of course, they also had greater than a 20% loss in sales, they killed off Buell, and sold MV Agusta too. I’d say its pretty hard to attribute causality to any one factor, but more so the total combination of things. Here in MN, there is one dude running for governor, who says we can’t cut our way to greatness… Well, he is right, if we only look at one thing, ie cutting taxes alone doesnt do much of anything, other than enrichen a few at the expenses of the masses.

The thing is… there is a ton that could be done in regards to cutting, apart from just cutting taxes, that could have a huge impact. Overhead cuts, anti-competitive regulation cuts, and re-prioritization of services could make a huge difference… but sadly, folks want the status quo, of more and more and more government, rather than to say “hey, wait a minute, this is stupid, and has to go”.

Overhead is often a killer. Just look at the massive layers in education…. case in point, actual classroom expenses, ie teacher + classroom + supplies are dwarfed by overhead. Or in other cases, some cities are finding its cheaper to use private contractors. In the future, I would guess many of these contractors will likely employ the same folks who used to do the same job as a government employee for a fraction of the cost.

MN is averse in anti-competitive and barriers to entry regulation. Politicians seem deathly afraid of a new entity coming in and doing the same work for 20% less for fear that it might cut into old entrenched businesses, the jobs such businesses create, and of course the resulting political contributions as well. They also seem to fear progress too… horrors that buggy whips might evolve, and something totally new replace them. I almost wonder had MN been more startup friendly, on all fronts, perhaps we wouldn’t have had the mass technical exodus post the CDC glory days.

Re-prioritization could be a huge deal too… Its like the Federal MMS on a small scale, or a Van Halen concert on a large scale. Writing up BS stuff for light bulbs being out, or improperly labeled buckets on the Deepwater Horizon, all the while major process issues go along unchecked and unregulated is a huge mistake. Granted, anyone can count light bulbs, and bucket labels or sort Van Halen’s M&M’s… it does take skill and expertise to understand the drilling process, or the rigging of a stage.

Trivial BS checksum methods (bucket inspectors)are mostly cross checks for attention to detail… with the philosophy that if attention is given to minor things, the feeling is that the major items are subject to the same attention, if not more so. The problem is… both on the fed, and state level… making sure that the bowl of M&M’s doesnt have any brown ones has become the greater priority, than the integrity of the stage rigging and floor.

Excessive overhead, the anticompetitive stance, and the prevalence of bucket inspectors are firmly entrenched… Its going to take a whole ton of folks crying uncle before any of that changes. We could cut our way to greatness… but instead, we talk about cutting key services, and cutting taxes, rather than cutting policies and procedures that could likely cut both taxes, and improve/expand valuable services to the citizens of MN.

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$260,000 per Job Stat on Stimulus Bill

A facebook friend posted a comment on the stimulus bill that each job which was created cost $260,000. Assuming the math is correct, that seems appalling… for sure it seems if the folks whose jobs were created were given $260,000 each rather than a job, we’d be a lot further along… or would we.

Beginning consultants often are enticed to pick up contracts via job shops and or recruiters, rather than totally running their own show. Yet, they often get a major wakeup call when they find out, they are billed out at $100/hr, yet only get $35 in their pocket… with the recruiting/marketing firm skimming a huge amount off the top. Many have remarked, “this is greed to the max, but what do I do, I cant be out selling if I’m working….”

Obviously overhead and profit have to be covered or a firm would go out of business, but getting 65% cut off right from the get go bugs the new guy a lot… until of course they do run their own show at some point, and find out that there is a lot of overhead that someone has to pay.

Its the same deal when a govt contract comes up which will employ say 100 people… the bid is going to be for a whole lot more than just the salary paid to those hundred people. The question then becomes, what is reasonable… beyond the salary, especially when the taxpayers money is at stake.

As such, I decided to take a look at a few different firms to see what they had as far as revenue per employee. Its quite interesting.

All of a sudden, the $260,000 cost per job doesnt seem so bad…

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