Better education but how?

I live in Nevada and am the father of 2 wonderful children.  The state of Nevada ranks 45th on per pupil spending.  In 2006 the state spent $7345 per pupil.  Though this doesn't tell the whole story,  we have a dismal graduation rate of only 47.3%.  That makes the cost per graduating pupil at about $15528.54.  There are many reasons for this but I wont get into them because I think my solution will fix most of them.  I went to insurance school a while back and watching how it was run gave me a better idea how they should run the education system for the state.  I was lucky a wonderful agency paid for me to go but the other people in the class said the class was about $500.  Then there was the test done by a center certified by the state which cost $90.  Now how does this work with public education?  Here is how by giving each student a quarter of what they spend per graduating pupil of $3882.13 or half what was spent per pupil in 2006 of only $3672.50.  How would this work?  It would be slowly implemented with parents applying to have there kids in the program.  The first 10% of parents get there kids in the program and are sent the check.  This would give teachers the opportunity to set up schools to or find other employment.  The best teachers would be setting up the schools for less then the check to prepare kids for the test.  With a plan to have it fully implemented in 10 years  as the education for everyone more and more teachers would do this.  For children to get there next check they must pass a test at a state certified center which costs $90 each time they take it. The children can take the test for each grade every three months if they like but must wait a month to retest if they fail.  Passing would be 60%  in each given area with a 70% over all for each grade.  There score would also be there grade for the course.  Kids that aren't good test takers could leave the state and kids who are great test takers would move in.  By allowing children to finish earlier it would raise graduation rates and college rates.  In this system a child could start kindergarten at 4 and a half and graduate at 8 now most kids aren't that smart but why hold back those who are.  That smart kid finishing school at 8 could have a doctors degree by 16.  This would take Nevada from bottom to top. While other states have kids in high school our kids would be teaching college and being doctors.   The money saved could go to scholarships and the university system.  I hope someone can share this with the Governor.  Thanks for reading.

Pot could help not hurt.

I must start by saying I have never smoked marijuana nor do I have any desire to use it at all.  It is estimated that 100 million Americans have used marijuana that is almost 1 in 3.  It is less addictive then alcohol with about a 9% for marijuana compared to 15%  for alcohol.  With this it is estimated about 9 million regularly use marijuana in spite of it being illegal, because of this the government spends an estimated $10.7 billion on law enforcement to fight it.  In addition to this marijuana is estimated at being a $113 billion a year business that goes to fund criminals.  Now if that was taxed at just 10% would be an additional $11.3 billion.  Between the cost saving in law enforcement and additional tax is another $22 billion.  It also would give more room in prisons for the increase in fraud caused by the new smoking law I talked about in my last post.  Implying the same rule of not giving government help to those who used marijuana.  This could be maybe a forth of cigarettes smokers if it did that would be another $55 billion.  Those are low estimates at $77 billion from making marijuana legal.  Between my last post and this post I showed how to save nearly $300 billion and hurt few.  Thank you for reading please share.

Charity up in smoke

In the 2012 budget projection 58% of the national budget will go to entitlement programs.  These programs often help the elderly and the needy because they help so many they are viewed as a sacred cow when tax time comes around.  This makes balancing the budget very difficult.  They made a big deal of cutting $36 billion but my plan could cut close to $222 billion or more and is just a new way to stop smoking.  At this point in time 20% of this country smokes and 31% of those under the poverty line. So my idea is to set a date by which to quit after which date if you still smoke you loose eligibility for all government programs.  using the low 20% and predicting this law makes 50% of smokers quit that still gives a 5.8% cut or with the budget for 2012 of $3.818 trillion about $221.444 billion.  It has taken 40 years for the last 50% drop in smoking from 40% to 20% so that is a very fair estimate. I believe this isn't just a way to work towards balancing the budget but also is a way to hopefully help more smokers quit then ever before.  Government programs are a form of charity which should be respected by those who receive them and if they don't respect them and the taxpayers who pay for them enough to give up smoking they must not need them much. With my low estimate at over $200 billion to be disrespected bothers me and should bother you.  Thanks for reading and please share this post and my site.  

Talents

I had the opportunity today to study the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:15-30.  This parable which i have studied before taught my something new.  As anyone who studies the bible what you read often helps you understand something in your life.  In the pillars I spoke of the different things we may be blessed with to become successful and reading the parable of the talents just brought me back to that.  Those of you who have not read the parable it is about three servants.  Each servant is entrusted with a number of talents which was a form of money at the time.  The first was given five the second was given two and the third was given one.  The master expects each to increase how many talents they have for when he returns.  The first two find a way to take there talents risk them and through that risk double there money.  The third one hid his talent because he wanted to make sure he had it to return to the master.  When the master returned he was very pleased with the first two and very disappointed in the third one.  He was so disappointed he ended up giving it to the servant who has the most.  This shows how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  I believe we are all blessed with talents some only one or two some five.  How many we are blessed with is not as important as what we do with them.  The problem is so many people in this country are like the last servant and call to punish the first and second guy.  The third guy had it much harder then the first getting one talent instead of five.  The second guy is the one i want to focus on though.  He got two talents not much more then the third guy and  was able to go far and please the master.  We should try to be like that second man and work on our talents so we can have success.  Socialism is for the last guy who is described as wicked and slothful.  Do we want to be a wicked and slothful country?  Do we want to promote a class of people despised by the most loving person to live on the planet?   I would say no to both of these but more and more that is what our politicians are pushing towards.  Please stand up for a change.  Get the government out of our lives and god into them.