Claudia’s Chapter

An honest debate please February 24, 2010

The latest from the NYtimes on the panel with the CEO of Wellpoint…“The City of West Hollywood, where I live, regulates how much landlords can raise the rent each year to keep rents stabilized,” Ms. Meister added. “Why can’t the federal government regulate how much health insurance companies can raise their rates per year, in order to stabilize premiums?”

This seems like a question that politicians raise to pander to people who want to believe there is a simple solution to the health care mess.
Sure…it’s easy to say that the entire problem with health care is some sort of evil insurance industry.
A landlord typically has a fixed monthly payment to make on a mortgage, if he/she even has a mortgage. Rent stablized buildings still have rent increases of anywhere from 5% to 20% per year. That type of increase would typically cover any unforseen increase that the landlord might suffer.
Whereas insurance premiums are a reflection of a complex analysis of what hospitals charge, how often people actually visit the doctor and what the doctors charge. A local hospital recently said they had a 40% increase in charges to insurance. Regulation conversations should first be directed towards the actual cost of health care….(hospitals, doctors, nurses, equipment etc) Only when they are regulated can an intelligent dialogue begin with the insurance companies which actually pay out the medical community.

The reason,I think, that this is not honestly happening is because somewhere along the way everyone decided that things were too messy. We are a democracy…but we are also a capitalist nation. How can you cap insurance without capping doctor/hospital compensation?…Perhaps a return to the idea of co-ops for medical care with fixed salaries for surgeouns would suffice?

When the bank is not online and your life is. December 15, 2009

Kung-fu antics October 15, 2009

New announcement about School Chapters line from NAEYC August 27, 2009

Things that Make Me Happy. June 9, 2009

Bike pirates. Really? May 18, 2009

The older that T & C get, the less time I’ve found to journal about their zany going-ons.  This week they managed to take imaginative play to another level though…

We had just finished a round of t-ball. (read: constructive play).  We set up the soccer nets for a quick game of “kick-the-ball-in-the-net”. (read: constructive play)

I walked around the house to the front yard to begin gardening, confident that the boys were ready to play independently.  I even momentarily envisioned that they would resume a light game of soccer…cheering each other on like the little good men they are….until….

I heard “BOookkkuppchiiikkk…Bookkkuppchiikkk….” I looked up, C was on his bike, holding on with one hand while he whipped a red whiffle ball bat around in the air above his head…threatening to take out anything in his  path…

T was running behind with the soccer net on his head, trying to catch C with it.

I asked what on earth they were doing.

Answer?

“We’re bike pirates.”

OK.

Kindergarten = Production May 4, 2009

I just read an article in the Times called Kindergarten Cram

Somehow we’ve taken testing to a new extreme, and now rely on Kindergarten teachers to emphasize results and child production in the hopes of long term assessment success.

The article reinforced for me why accreditation by agencies like NAEYC is so critical.

Early childhood experts have been advocating play as a fundamental part of the Pre-K and Kindergarten experience for years. But for some reason it doesn’t resonate with over-achieving parents any more than it has with administrators who are focused on teaching to the test.

As often as I’ve heard complaints about schools pushing standarized test outcomes in lieu of more creative paths to assessment, I’ve also heard complaints from parents who want to know when their children will be ‘taught’ how to read. When I’ve shared the concepts of intentional play and literacy-rich environments, I often get looks that equate to ‘oh, how unmotivated of you.”
It will be interesting to see if Arne Duncan can do more than just re-brand No Child Left Behind. It’s not just a matter of redirecting school efforts to more portfolio based assessment, it’s also a matter of educating parents in all socio-economic situations of the importance of play and creativity.

About those bonuses March 17, 2009

reading this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/business/18cuomo.html?hp

I would like to retract my last post.

Obama Trying to Block AIG Bonuses March 16, 2009

I’ve been a big Obama supporter from day one. However today’s headline made me concerned that there may be some political posturing going on here.

While I’m sure some of the bonuses are warrantless or excessive, I’d be willing to bet that a large number of them are modest in size. When bonuses are discussed in the media with regards to Banks and larger firms attention is rightly paid to the hefty, million-dollars-and-up variety that senior executives receive. However, if you look at the firms closely, you’ll find more modest bonuses in the 20K and less variety going towards “cost centres’ like information technology.

I’m concerned that Obama’s initiative to block bonuses will not succeed in slashing the excessive pay-outs to executives, but will instead eliminate the performance-based compensation for more middle class workers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/us/politics/17obama.html?_r=1&hp

Senate attempting to Slash Education from Stimulus February 6, 2009

There is a good piece in the NYTimes on the implications of removing education funding from the stimulus package.

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/throwing-schools-out-the-window/

I can only hope that Obama is prepared to fight for education.   Arne Duncan was just on NPR voicing his belief in the potential of all citizens that can be realized through quality education.

I noticed in yesterday’s paper that Republicans are fighting to also slash any money geared to The National Endowment of the Arts and Amtrak.

Didn’t we elect this new administration with the hope that change was coming?  We elected them with the hope that projects that promoted war or required an uneducated work-force would be put aside in favor of a government initiated utopia?

I voted with the belief that my tax dollars would go to education and to improved infrastructure.  By infrastructure I never imagined more highways.  I imagined light rails and bullet trains– providing job growth to well educated persons living far from cities.

I imagined grants that would become available for artists to pursue their passions and provide skilled  craftsmen and women with affordable housing in urban sectors.

Everyone wants more jobs.  Everyone wants to be employed.  But it is imperative that we have a skilled, highly educated workforce that will  look for more than a simple paycheck. We need a workforce that will work to change outdated systems, and to pave not just the roads on which we drive, but the roads that we take on our journeys in living.