Central State: A University on Welfare Gets an Increase

This has to be one of the biggest outrages of January, 2007. It seems that Central State University is once again asking for the state of Ohio to bail them out and prop them up. The flurry of news stories surrounding the latest money grab by officials from CSU has revealed the 11 million dollar subsidy that the State is already giving to the “university.” This extra-subsidy beyond that which is given to any of the other state supported institutions is an outrage enough on its own.

I attended Central State University. While I did not receive a degree there, I can speak first hand about the total lack of quality at this school. The course work, the structure of the degree programs, and the standards at Central State are well known throughout Greene County and the Miami Valley area to be totally disreputable with little chance of rescue.

According to the Akron Beacon Journal, Under the Regents’ “Speed to Scale” plan, Central State would get $9.9 million in extra state money spread over three years with the goal of more than tripling enrollment to 6,000 by 2017. The extra students would generate added money that would let the state gradually reduce the $11 million operating subsidy it provides yearly to Central State. The subsidy would start to decline in 2011 and would disappear completely by 2017, according to the plan.

In addition, Central State would get $23 million for a new student center, which universities see as essential to attracting students, Walters said. The University of Akron’s new student center, which opened two years ago at a cost of $42 million, includes a rock-climbing wall, bowling alley and Starbucks.

Central State President John Garland said the goal isn’t to benefit the university in Wilberforce, about 15 miles east of Dayton, but to help Ohio. `We want to serve more Ohioans. How do we reach the untapped potential, that is the goal,” he said.

Does anyone actually believe that Central State, or any other publicly funded school could ever wean itself away from an annual subsidy? The audacity of CSU President Garland stating that the money “isn’t to benefit the university” is the most breathtaking example of political bull that I have ever witnessed.

Evidently, the Dayton Daily News falls for the whole giant fabrication:

Getting It Right For Ohio’s Future: Proposed Constitutional Ammendment

There is a strong effort being made by advocacy groups to get an initiative on the Novermber 2007 ballot. While it all sounds great, Governor Strickland and some of the big city Mayors have not embraced the proposal. Unlike our local school administration, I am not counting on this ammendment passing if it gets on the ballot.

Scott Elliot at “Get on the Bus” has much more coverage. Check out the official web site of the group.

Here are some highlights of the ammendment:

Education would be a fundamental right.

All children would be guaranteed a “high quality public education” regardless of demographics, geography, family incomes or school district property tax values.

A high-quality education means the necessary programs and services to allow a student to function at the highest level and includes regular, gifted, special education, vocational, preschool and disadvantaged students.

The State Board of Education, working with an 18-member Education Advisory Commission, would identify and price the components of a high-quality education every two years, and the board will certify those costs to the Ohio General Assembly, which then would deposit the appropriate money, including Ohio Lottery dollars, into the School Trust Fund.

A 9-member Education Accountability Commission is created to monitor how education dollars are being spent and report annually to the governor and lawmakers.

The state school facility program is placed in the constitution.

A majority of the State Board of Education would be elected.

The Ohio Supreme Court gets the power to order the legislature and governor to fund the formula developed by the state board and advisory commission.

No broad scale tax increase to pay for the new funding system is included.

It sounds good, but read what the Cleveland Plain Dealer has to say about it:

Reagan Anniversary

Ronald Reagan became President 26 years ago on January 20, 1981. Reagan remains the master of modern conservative principles and the great cold warrior. Like George W. Bush, he was severely critcised during his term of office-particularly during his second term.

January 20, 1981 was a miraculous day. The first Presidential Inauguration to be held on the West Front of the Capital building marked a day of new hope in the United States. Hostages that had been held in Iran since November, 1979, a story which had gripped our nation for more than a year, were released in dramatic fashion on that day as well. The pictures were fantasitical and almost unbelievable.

The world has changed in my lifetime, but after visiting the Reagan library this past summer, I am more convinced than ever that Ronald Reagan was the finest President of the 20th Century. His legacy of winning the cold war, revitalizing the Unites States economy, and making America great again will live on for the next century. America has seen many great eras in its’ history, but those glorious Reagan years will live on as profoundly growing and changing times for our nation. Ronald Reagan’s stature will only grow in the many years to come.

Below, you can see stirring words spoken by Ronald Reagan in 1964 in a famous speech delivered on behalf of the Republican candidate for President, Barry Goldwater. These words are applicable today, and I would love to see President Bush rally the nation in this same manner on Tuesday night.

Ronald Reagan: Still Stumping Liberals after all these years.

Carter “Love-In” Hits Sour Notes

Poor Jimmy Carter. Just as C-Span celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of his inauguration as President with a liberal love-in on Friday and Saturday, another heavily researched and detailed article exposes Carter’s idiocy. Carter has been described by many as the worst President in a lifetime. He spent part of the day rewriting history along with former members of his administration. Most notably, Walter Mondale offered a critique of Vice-President Cheney.

Joshua Muravchik  cites many of Carter’s notable failurs in these last twenty-six years as a former President. You have to read the entire piece, but Muravchik’s conclusion is the strongest indictment of Carter.

Ever since his presidency, there has been a wide gap between Carter’s estimation of himself and the esteem in which other Americans hold him. This has manifestly embittered him. For all his talk of “love,” the driving motives behind his post-presidential ventures seem, in fact, to be bitterness together with narcissism (as it happens, two prime ingredients of a martyr complex). But he has worked hard to earn the reputation he enjoys. In contravention of the elementary responsibilities of loyalty for one in his position, he has denigrated American policies and leaders in his public and private discussions in foreign lands. He has undertaken personal diplomacy to thwart the policies of the men elected to succeed him. And in doing so he has, at least in the case of North Korea, actively damaged our security.

At home, Carter’s criticisms of the policies of his successors are offered up with reckless abandon. For example, when the Patriot Act and related measures curtailed the rights of defendants accused of terrorism, Carter editorialized that “in many nations, defenders of human rights were the first to feel the consequences.” The charge was simply a concoction, and not a single example was offered to substantiate it. In this manner, Carter has made himself a willing hook on which foreigners can hang their anti-American feelings. When he was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, the chairman of the committee allowed that the award “should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken. It’s a kick in the leg to all who follow the same line as the United States.”

Ghost Light: Great Reading on a Snowy Sunday

 See this new Fox News Promotional Ad, it’s great.  You’ll like this one too.
You’ll definitely want to take a look at Dr. Sanity’s “Carnival of the Insanities.” She just keeps getting better.

The entire text of the speech that Vice-President Cheney gave in honor of former President Gerald Ford is available. Dick Cheney is one of the most capable leaders of the last fifty years. As a congressman, Presidential Chief of Staff, Secretary of Defense, and now as Vice-President, Dick Cheney has served this nation in a remarkable manner. Cheney is the person most prepared to be President of the United States. Despite attacks from bitter and failed former liberal leaders, Cheney remains an outstanding leader.

These pivotal words were spoken by Cheney in the Rotunda of the Capital as he and American honored President Ford:

“This President’s hardest decision was also among his first. And in September of 1974, Gerald Ford was almost alone in understanding that there can be no healing without pardon. The consensus holds that this decision cost him an election. That is very likely so. The criticism was fierce. But President Ford had larger concerns at heart. And it is far from the worst fate that a man should be remembered for his capacity to forgive.”

“In politics it can take a generation or more for a matter to settle, for tempers to cool. The distance of time has clarified many things about President Gerald Ford. And now death has done its part to reveal this man and the President for what he was.”

Captain Ed has the round-up of coverage for Hillary’s anti-climactic announcement for President.

AJ Strata asks the important question: “Is Fitzgerald on a Personal Vendetta?” While the Scooter Libby trial is consuming much of the time on Hardball with Chris Matthews, the trial itself is a foolish waste of time and money.

Patrick Ruffini has expert analysis on the latest Presidential polls for the 2008 election. It’s worth reading for a sane perspective.