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From the Wall Street Journal online (click the picture below for a larger view):
Texas ranks:
Here's an interesting way to look at the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States. This website has taken each of the 50 states and replaced the name with the country that most closely matches the state's GDP. Texas=Canada (eg., Texas as a separate country would have the 10th largest GDP in the world), California=France, New York=Brazil, etc.
From the website:
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a convenient way of measuring and comparing the size of national economies. Annual GDP represents the market value of all goods and services produced within a country in a year. Put differently:
GDP = consumption + investment + government spending + (exports – imports)
Although the economies of countries like China and India are growing at an incredible rate, the US remains the nation with the highest GDP in the world – and by far: US GDP is projected to be $13,22 trillion (or $13.220 billion) in 2007, according to this source. That’s almost as much as the economies of the next four (Japan, Germany, China, UK) combined.
The creator of this map has had the interesting idea to break down that gigantic US GDP into the GDPs of individual states, and compare those to other countries’ GDP. What follows, is this slightly misleading map – misleading, because the economies both of the US states and of the countries they are compared with are not weighted for their respective populations.
Pakistan, for example, has a GDP that’s slightly higher than Israel’s – but Pakistan has a population of about 170 million, while Israel is only 7 million people strong. The US states those economies are compared with (Arkansas and Oregon, respectively) are much closer to each other in population: 2,7 million and 3,4 million.
And yet, wile a per capita GDP might give a good indication of the average wealth of citizens, a ranking of the economies on this map does serve two interesting purposes: it shows the size of US states’ economies relative to each other (California is the biggest, Wyoming the smallest), and it links those sizes with foreign economies (which are therefore also ranked: Mexico’s and Russia’s economies are about equal size, Ireland’s is twice as big as New Zealand’s). Here’s a run-down of the 50 states, plus DC:
In a move that could potentially have a significant impact on Texas schools, today Governor Perry accepted the resignation of Shirley Neeley, the Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency. Commissioner Neeley's resignation letter is reproduced to the left and is also available for download here.In addition to the letter, Commissioner Neeley offered 3 pages of "Parting Thoughts". I have captured some of her "parting thoughts" below.
The Quorum Report is reporting that Governor Perry requested the resignation. No specifics for the request were provided. In addition, the Quorum Report indicates that a replacement is expected to be named by August 1.
The next Commissioner, to be appointed by the Governor, will not have to go through the typical Constitutional approval process, which requires a 2/3rds vote by the Senate, until the next session, which does not convene until January 2009.
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Some of Commissioner Neeley's "Parting Thoughts":
Texas is leading other states in our country in the P-16 initiatives! Dr. Raymund Paredes, Commissioner of Education and my dear friend, and I came on board within six months of each other in 2004. We are proud of the strides we have made getting our two agencies to work hand-in-hand, side by side as true partners in P-16. Our P-16 mission for creating a college going culture for all children and guaranteeing every Texas high school graduate that they will be college/career/work ready when they graduate from our high schools is clearly important work that will continue.
• While some may speculate that my departure as commissioner is based on the negative media clips regarding the entire testing integrity issue, nothing is farther from the truth. There will never be a 100% guarantee that cheating in some shape, form or fashion will not occur, but I believe with all my heart that Texas has taken a very bold stance that is second to none. To do this right and make sure every decision was research based and vetted by important stakeholder groups, I clearly believe the outcome was worth the time and effort.
• Public school politics may train one to some degree for politics at the state level, but I have continued to learn until my last day on the job. Staff and I worked hard to build a positive, professional image of TEA and the commissioner on both sides of the aisles in both houses. I am proud to call so many of our legislators and their staff members my friends! Their jobs and countless long hours of work are many times thankless. We must always remember we elect them and they deserve our support and respect.
• Right after I moved to Austin to become commissioner, I met a wonderful man who loves the school business as much as I do with a proud and distinguished 35 year career as a school architect. Bill and I were married on May 18, 2007. We look forward to having more time together riding our Harleys, ranching and traveling.
• Finally, I have greatly enjoyed working and getting to know some of the strongest, most dedicated, most compassionate superintendents, board members, teachers, administrators and support personnel in the entire world through my continuous travel across our great state. These hard working men and women are true heroes and miracle workers in my book!
It would be uncharacteristic of me to not address the challenges that still need serious, focused attention:
• We must do whatever it takes to make sure that NO child drops out of school – ever! We must work with all stakeholders as a team toward "on time" high school graduation, with the skills necessary to enter any post secondary institution, the world of work or the military.
• We must continue our efforts and mission to do whatever it takes to make teaching the noble profession it truly is. I will always believe that every Texas educator, regardless of their role, is serving our nation through education!
• We must work collaboratively and sequentially as we develop our end of course exams and make sure we follow the curriculum alignment process so that our work will meet the expectations of every stakeholder group and prepare our students for global competition.
• We must be diligent and sincere by putting our money where our mouth is in leading this nation in teacher salaries and incentives for a job well done, especially for those teachers making remarkable achievement gains with economically disadvantaged children.
• We are getting closer and closer to funding full day pre-kindergarten for all children. We must continue our pursuit of quality early childhood programs.
• Like it or not, it is time to require all children to read, write and speak fluently in English and Spanish followed closely by Chinese or another global foreign language.
• Finally, we cannot continue adding more and more mandates in the same amount of days using our ancient agrarian calendar. For Texas to compete fairly with other countries, we need a level playing field that extends the school day AND school year far beyond the 185 days, not only with more time on task when needed, but also providing for accelerated programs and internships with business, industry, high tech career pathways and higher education.
The Board will hold a public meeting at 7:00 PM, June 25, 2007 in Spring Branch ISD, Administration Building, Board Room, 955 Campbell Rd., Houston, Texas 77024 to discuss the school district's budget that will determine the tax rate that will be adopted. Public participation in the discussion is invited.
The FY2008 Budget (July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2008) proposes a tax rate decrease of 34.65¢/$100 valuation. The net effect of this decrease on a home with a $200,000 valuation is a decrease of $693.
I have previously posted details of the budget in this prior post.
You can view the public notice of the meeting with additional details here.
Our Board held its monthly workshop meeting tonight. Here's a recap of the issues discussed and actions taken on tonight's Agenda:
Update 6/20/07: The DIstrict's website website contains additional information about the Bond Committee recommendations.
Tonight's episode of Big Medicine
(created by my brother, Stephen David, and his partner, Darryl Silver)
is described below. The show airs on Mondays on TLC (in the Houston
area, TLC is Channel 63 on
Time Warner, Channel 183 on Dish, or Channel 280 on DirecTV) at 8p
CDT. More information is
also available on the Big Medicine website or my prior post.
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Recently, the Waco Tribune published a very good editorial on legislative unfunded mandates from the recently completed Legislative Session. Regular readers of this blog are familiar with the numerous posts I have had on this very issue (here, here, here, here, and here.)
The editorial is reproduced below.
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Editorial: Those underfunded mandates
Friday, June 01, 2007
Steroid testing for student athletes. Seat belts on school buses. Cardiac defibrillators near athletic venues.
All are likely to save lives. So, the Texas Legislature is requiring them. Good.
The question to ask at every turn, of course, is “How to pay for them?”
If the state doesn’t do that, what it requires is an unfunded or underfunded mandate. That is nothing more than a cut in school funding.
Coming into this session, the subject of unfunded mandates was discussed by the Texas Task Force on Appraisal Reform. Gov. Rick Perry has assailed property appraisal creep as a “stealth tax.” The task force acknowledged grudgingly that unfunded mandates are even stealthier. They allow lawmakers to say, “We held down taxes,” while foisting expenses onto local governments that force them to raise their taxes or to get by with fewer resources. No institution gets hit harder in this arena than schools.
To their credit, lawmakers this session were considerably more deliberative about this matter than in previous years. But serious questions remain. The height of fiscal responsibility was an amendment written by state Rep. Diane Patrick, R-Arlington. It puts a hold on the requirement of seat belts on school buses until the state has a way to pay for them.
The seat-belt measure could save lives, but it is costly. Not only would it require retrofitting buses while bearing on the purchase of new ones, it also would lower bus capacity in some cases where small children have sat three to a seat.
The state should fund this requirement and not dump it onto local school districts.
The legislation calling for steroid testing includes funding of $3 million a year in the next biennium, but not beyond. After that, the state will consider options like hiking the price of tickets to sports events. Texas won’t find much gold there. Football and basketball are the only events with significant gate receipts. Another thing: Funding this state mandate shouldn’t be the University Interscholastic League’s problem. It should be the Legislature’s.
The bill to have automatic external defibrillators ready whenever and wherever student athletes compete is a noble matter, but implementing it could be difficult, not to mention costly.
Likely, the courts will have to determine what the Legislature means with the words “available during any University Interscholastic League athletic competition held on the campus.”
One school administrator projects that the requirement ultimately could cost $50 million, considering all the athletic activities going on in every school day.
This is one more example of wishing for the moon but not being willing to pay for the moon shot.
With all of these bills, remember one thing: Mandates are forever.
On June 5th, Economist.com posted the following that shows how many days off workers from various contries around the world receive.
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FINNS enjoy more paid statutory holiday every year than anyone else in the rich world, getting an average of 44 days off in which to relax (including annual leave and public holidays). Most European countries allow more than the EU legal minimum of four weeks. Even Britain, the most slave-driving, has an additional eight public holidays. And it's not just Europeans who laze about; Cubans get 36 days off. By contrast, Japanese employees get 18 days off a year. But American workers have perhaps the most to feel aggrieved about: theirs is the only rich-world country that does not give any statutory paid holiday. (In practice, most workers get around 14 days off.) All work and little play does provide some consolation, however—America and Japan are the world's biggest economies.
Today is the last day of early voting for the runoff election for Houston City Council At-Large
Position 3 between Roy Morales and Melissa Noriega.
For information on early voting locations, click here. The early voting locations are open today from 7:00a until 7:00p.
Election day is June 16th. For election day polling locations, click here.
Tonight's episode of Big Medicine
(created by my brother, Stephen David, and his partner, Darryl Silver)
is described below. The show airs on Mondays on TLC (in the Houston
area, TLC is Channel 63 on
Time Warner, Channel 183 on Dish, or Channel 280 on DirecTV) at 8p
CDT. More information is
also available on the Big Medicine website or my prior post.
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