Our Public Schools Are a National Disaster

Stephen Moore Oct 17, 2023 @ Townhall.com

Perhaps what's most distressing about the latest collapse in high school test scores is that no one seems to be very distressed.

You've probably heard the news that ACT scores have fallen for the sixth straight year. Our high school kids are less equipped for a job or college than at any time in three decades.

Why isn't anyone in Washington or anyone in our $800 billion education bureaucracy sounding the alarm and declaring this a national emergency? It certainly puts our national security, our technological superiority and our economic prosperity in grave danger.

Instead of outrage, it is almost as if Americans have become anesthetized to bad news about our kids.

One theory is that Americans feel about their local schools as they do toward Congress: They love their own representative but think the rest of the members are corrupt and incompetent.

Yes, there are some excellent public schools, and yes, there are thousands of great teachers. But I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, which is one of the wealthiest counties in the country, and we had to pull our kids out of the public schools because they were so bad -- and because they shut down during COVID. I shudder to think what's going on in the Baltimore schools down the road.

Exactly 40 years ago, the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued its findings on the state of the schools in its 1983 report entitled "A Nation at Risk." Here was the grim conclusion: "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."

The nation never paid attention. If you think I'm blowing one bad report out of proportions, the National Assessment of Educational Progress report that came out earlier this year found similarly dismal student performance in the public schools. Reading and math proficiency collapsed over the past four years in part because of the teachers unions' insistence that public school stay closed during COVID -- a national act of child abuse.

The Left obsesses about income inequality and the gap between rich and poor. Yet, they are so captive to the teachers unions that they do (SET ITAL) nothing (END ITAL) about what is arguably the most regressive policy in America: our failing public school system. The decline in test scores is only half the story. The other part of the story is that the biggest declines in learning and achievement are among the poorer families.

I'm the furthest thing from an education expert, but I have had five kids. It's pretty clear that three essential components to an enriching education are discipline in the classroom, high expectations and a classical curriculum. This isn't that complicated. It's not like solving a Rubik's Cube.

Today, most public schools fail all three of these standards.

California recently announced it is going to make climate change a standard part of the school curriculum. Really? They are going to scare the bejesus out of kids with a propaganda campaign telling them the world is coming to an end. Why don't they just try phonics so kids can read?

The school blob's pitiful response to this abject failure to teach is to call for more money. We've tried that for 40 years. Per student spending in the public schools after adjusting for inflation is up 50% in 30 years, which almost entirely inversely correlates with the continual test score slide.

The one glimmer of hope is the burgeoning school choice movement in America, which allows the dollars to follow the students and parents to choose the best schools for their kids -- public, private, Christian, Jewish, or whatever works. Ten states this year have expanded school choice.

Meanwhile, the teachers unions argue with a straight face that school vouchers would hurt the public schools. Have they seen the test scores? How could they possibly perform worse?

 

The Left Wants to Abolish Everything, Even This Column

Stephen Moore Jul 26, 2022 

Any aging baby boomer (like myself) knows that the anthem of the radicals of the 1960s and 1970s was sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Let the good times roll. Back then, the joke was that a conservative was someone who lived in mortal fear that someone, somewhere, was having fun.

But if this new generation of authoritarian liberals has its way, sex and rock 'n' roll will be illegal.

As I've said in the past in these pages, the ironic ideological twist that has occurred over the past 20 years is that the once permissive "live and let live" Left is now the nonpermissive Left. The leftists in America are the new puritans.

If you think I'm exaggerating, consider in just the past few months the laundry list of things that liberals want to abolish. The same movement that wanted to legalize almost all drugs now wants to make smoking a menthol cigarette illegal. It's OK to roll a joint, but not a tobacco cigarette. (Just for the record, I am not a smoker -- and have never been one.)

The Left wants to save the planet by abolishing cars. No, not all cars for now. But if you have a car with a combustible engine that guzzles gasoline or diesel, they are coming after it. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wants all new cars to be battery-operated over the next 10 years.

Never mind that Americans have a special love affair with their cars. Polls show by decisive margins that we want to decide for ourselves what kind of car we will drive, not leave it up to Uncle Sam. But if the climate change fanatics have their way, your right to choose your own car won't exist. Oh, and by the way, in the Left's utopian future, there won't be any need for cars for the masses. We will ride around on buses and trains. Only the political elite -- the beautiful people -- will have cars.

Some of the more radical environmental groups want to abolish refrigerators (they use too much energy), light bulbs, guns (of course), straws (they kill dolphins), diving boards at pools (too dangerous), charcoal grills and disposable diapers. They want to regulate the temperature on your thermostat in your home in the winter and summer months so you don't use too much energy. They are talking about wanting to install government-controlled switches so that bureaucrats can set the temperature in your bedroom. The Left wants strict restrictions on how much water can spray out of the nozzle of your shower so that you don't waste water.

Now, the latest planetary villain that needs to be outlawed is ... plastics. On June 30, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law to reduce sharply the use of plastics in everything from water bottles to grocery bags, containers and packaging. This is the state's solution to the mounting garbage crisis that the politicians can't solve. Violators will face fines as high as $50,000 per infraction.

The new law sets strict recycling requirements, but apparently, no one told these genius lawmakers that recycling plastics requires huge amounts of energy, and sorry, that can't happen if you're dependent on wind and solar power.

The good news is that at least in America, we still have a right to complain openly about these mounting restrictions on the way we live our lives free of a tyrannical government. But for how long? Liberals will no doubt soon regard columns like this as subversive "hate speech" and abolish this, too.

How the Left Has Used COVID-19 to Bankrupt the United States

Stephen Moore Jul 29, 2021

I have never bought the conspiracy theories that COVID-19 was a diabolical political plot to undermine the country. But what is apparent with each passing week is that the virus has been the springboard for the left's agenda to transform America in a way that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Michael Moore or Rachel Maddow could have never imagined.

Without COVID-19, President Joe Biden would never have been elected, of course. So, for the left, the virus defeated former President Donald Trump. COVID-19 is now the gateway to the left's utopian agenda of multitrillion-dollar climate policies, hyper-regulation of the economy, the rebirth of the welfare state and a radical redistribution of income.

Under Trump policies, we had one of the most robust financial and economic expansions on record, especially regarding minority advancement and historic reductions in poverty. The entitlement state was in retreat as income growth and record job openings pushed millions of people out of the welfare state into work. If the left truly cared about the plight of the poor, they would have celebrated. Instead, the results showing tax cuts, deregulation and laissez-faire policies work made liberals miserable.

COVID-19 made the rebirth of big government possible. Last year, with Trump still in the White House, Congress spent $6 trillion, much of it (such as the $600 a week bonus unemployment benefits) wastefully and ineffectively. But it was emergency spending.

The National Bureau of Economic Research recently declared the recession ended in April of 2020, and the recovery has been accelerating thanks to the vaccine.  We would be aggressively cutting government spending in a rational world, as we did after victories in World War II and the Cold War.

Instead, the left has leveraged COVID-19 fears to call for a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill on top of the $1.9 trillion spent in March on welfare programs and now $4.1 trillion in public works programs; labor union protections; green new deal subsidies; Medicare and Medicaid and food stamps expansions; and bailouts of Amtrak, urban transit and schools. The public schools in many blue states were shut down for a year, yet taxpayers have to give the teachers unions $100 billion. Explain that one.................To Read More.....

Stephen Moore: Biden Wants to Kill 80% of America's Energy

  By Stephen Moore | February 2, 2021 

When giving speeches and talking to audiences, I've often been struck by how few Americans, even those who are highly educated, have any idea where the energy they use in their home or business comes from. I've asked college students where the electric power is generated, and they shrug and then point to the electric socket in the wall. The electric currents just come magically through that plug.

For millennials, supporting green energy is cool and even virtuous. It's a popular and costless way to save the planet — until the power doesn't flow through the grid. Then the laptops, hairdryers, Netflix shows, computer games, and iPhones run out of juice.

That may happen one of these days — and in the not-too-distant future (just ask Californians about blackouts), when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.

Which brings me to President Joe Biden's take-no-prisoners approach to energy. The goals: kill fossil fuels; stop the building of pipelines; enter international treaties that outlaw fossil fuel use; end drilling on federal lands; strangle the oil and gas industries with regulatory assaults. And then throw billions and perhaps trillions of tax dollars at wind and solar farms.

So, let's go back to the question I ask students: How much of our energy needs today are met with fossil fuels — the so-called dirty energy?

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently released a chart showing the latest official data on U.S. energy production sources from the Department of Energy. Some 80% of all our energy comes from oil, gas, and coal. Less than 5% comes from wind and solar. Somehow, Biden is going to magically flip these percentages around in five or 10 years? Even the federal forecasters who support renewable energy think that is highly unlikely.

Even if Biden were able to quadruple American production of green energy over the next decade — a huge undertaking — we will be meeting about 25% of our power needs. Where will we get the other 75% of our electric power and transportation fuels? Battery-operated cars such as Teslas and Chevy Volts need electric power to recharge the massive batteries.

As we produce less oil and gas domestically, two bad things will happen. First, gas prices are going to rise rapidly — perhaps to above $4 a gallon. Prices have already started to rise at the pump to more than $2.50 a gallon in many markets. Second, we will make up for the lost domestic energy production by importing more energy from Saudi Arabia, Russia, and OPEC nations.

We will reverse the energy independence achieved under former President Donald Trump to dependency on OPEC nations under Biden. This certainly isn't good for the U.S. economy and jobs here at home. But it's great news for the Saudi oil sheiks, Russia's Vladimir Putin, and the communists in Beijing — all of whom are going to make out like bandits. They can't believe their good fortune.

Maybe so, my younger and more idealistic friends say. But at least we will be doing our part to save the planet. Alas, no. China and India are building more than 100 coal plants as we shut ours down. China and Russia just signed a multibillion-dollar deal to build a pipeline from oil-rich Siberia to the big cities of China. Would Beijing invest in that infrastructure if they had any intention to stop using fossil fuels? Trump was right when he said that we have the toughest environmental standards in the world. So, shifting energy production out of America only increases greenhouse gases.

Perhaps over the next several decades, wind and solar power will be cheap enough to meet most of our energy needs. But are we to starve ourselves of energy in the meantime? Are Americans willing to pay $4 or $5 a gallon to fill up the tank with Saudi oil or Russian gas?

Wouldn't it be smarter, safer, and, yes, more virtuous to get the energy we need from Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, or even Alberta, Canada, than from countries that hate us?

Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic consultant with FreedomWorks. He is the co-author of "Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive the American Economy."

Stephen Moore: Get Ready for More Obama-Era Green Energy Scams

  By Stephen Moore | January 19, 2021 @ CNSnews

 

With Democrats about to control all the levers of power in Washington, the biggest winners might be the wind and solar companies. These firms' stocks continue to surge mostly because President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to invest several hundred billion dollars in green energy through a pipeline of taxpayer-funded grants, loans, tax credits, and loan guarantees.

This game plan looks suspiciously like a replay of the litany of green "stimulus" fiascoes that Biden piloted as vice president back in 2009 with the $800 billion Obama stimulus plan. The experiment of the government as an investment banker belly-flopped with embarrassing failures from Solyndra, Fisker Automotive, and Abound Solar. Taxpayers lost billions of dollars on these lemons.

One of these disasters, the Crescent Dunes thermal solar power plant, located in the Nevada desert, is still embroiled in court battles to sort out who pays for all the losses. The Obama administration first started showering this project with money beginning in 2011, with a $700 million federal loan. The Department of Energy boasted that the facility was supposed to provide half-a-million megawatt-hours of electric power every year. Not quite. Thanks to construction design flaws, faulty equipment, and hapless management, Crescent Dunes has never come close to its production target. Then, in 2017, Crescent Dunes came knocking on Treasury's door again, this time receiving $275 million in cash grants instead of tax credits on top of $250 million in private capital. Even with this second round of life support, the plant had to shut down. Last month, the bankruptcy court approved the entire operation's Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

But the story doesn't end there. Under the settlement terms, taxpayers will only see $200 million recouped of the remaining $425 million still unpaid from the Department of Energy's loan. The rest will be forgiven. Some of the loan losses could be recouped if the plant hits profitability. Expert testimony in the court proceedings concluded this outcome is unlikely given its track record so far. The bottom line: Expect taxpayers to swallow hundreds of millions of dollars of losses here.

What is especially galling about this whole misadventure is the Spanish firm Grupo Cobra, which botched the construction, received full payment to build the facility. The Department of Energy has reached a deal with Grupo Cobra that forgives the $225 million of outstanding loans and allows Grupo Cobra to become sole owners of the project. The total public and private investor losses could approach half-a-billion dollars when all is said and done. Meanwhile, a foreign company is going to walk away with sole ownership of a U.S. solar plant. Grupo Cobra is getting rewarded for its incompetence.

Will the Biden administration learn from bankruptcies such as Crescent Dunes? Don't bet on it. It wouldn't be surprising if Biden's "green energy" crusaders, flush with taxpayer money, toss millions of more dollars into Crescent Dunes.

Renewable energy scams such as Crescent Dunes remind us that these "public-private" projects rarely produce much electric power, and they don't save the planet from climate change. But they do make millionaires out of lobbyists and fraudsters. My friends at the Heritage Foundation have counted 25 separate green energy projects, each with multimillion-dollar taxpayer losses like those from the Obama era. My advice to the Biden team is the old saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic consultant with FreedomWorks. He is the co-author of "Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive the American Economy."