I first visited San Diego almost forty years ago and since have spent more time there, second only to the Tulsa area, than any other place primarily because it is the home of my first-born child. My most recent visit added a third experience with religion that I associate with San Diego. This is my first of three posts describing those three experiences and it is about my encounter with the Mormon religion.
Let’s kick it off with one of the three phenomena, unrelated to my topic, that I call the San Diego trifecta, namely the Green Flash:
Green Flash
Now to my actual topic, the Mormon religion. My San Diego son joined a boys volleyball program coached by Tulsan Peggy McCaw his senior year in high school, 1990, and, after graduation, played with Peggy’s club team in the Junior Olympic volleyball competition held in Albuquerque that summer. He was scouted by a coaching friend of BYU volleyball coach Carl McGown and recruited by him to enroll that fall as a member of the Cougar volleyball team.
Linda and I were delighted that he would have the opportunity to play volleyball at a fine university, but as long-time mainstream Protestants, we were more than a little concerned about the attendant exposure to the Mormon faith about which we knew so little. When the time came for him to attend orientation some thousand miles away at a place he had never seen, we decided that I would go with him. The trip began with meeting his coach, who assured me he would receive no pressure to convert through the volleyball program but added that there are a lot of young Mormons at the university who are very enthusiastic about their faith. Following a couple of days of freshman orientation, we took a weekend backpacking trip to successfully climb the high point of Utah, Kings Peak in the nearby Uinta Mountains.
I said good bye to our son the following morning as he began his four-year stint as a student athlete at BYU and drove to Salt Lake City to await my return flight departing a few hours later. I spent that time tearfully scouring a couple of bookstores near Temple Square for a variety of books about Mormons that Linda and I could read and learn more about the culture our son would be immersed in. One I remember well is: Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders (1989) by Linda Sillitoe and Allen Roberts.
After devouring those, a couple of years later I concluded my Mormon obsession by reading Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman’s Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond, a 1993 autobiographical book written by American journalist and columnist Deborah Laake.
By then we were fairly certain our son would not become a “hormone Mormon” as I had come to respectfully label those young male athletes who converted so that they could call the love of their lives into heaven (read the book).
There you have it, in my mind the Mormon religion will always be associated with San Diego through my son’s BYU experience. There are more connections I will mention later. Here is a video I found by “Saints Unscripted” that is a nice introduction to the Mormon faith:
So as they described, in 1820 Joseph Smith had his first vision in Palmyra, New York during the Second Awakening. After the Book of Mormon was transcribed and followers recruited, Smith leads the new group of saints in 1931 to Kirtland, Ohio where the first Temple is built.
At some point it is revealed to him that Jackson County, MO is the Garden of Eden and they try to establish themselves there, but are violently resisted by its residents. During this time the Mormon center locates at Nauvoo, IL which is kind of a jumping off point for their ventures into Jackson County and later to Utah. Joseph Smith is jailed in Liberty, MO
In 1844 Joseph Smith was killed by a violent mob in Carthage, IL. The Mormon faithful then divided into those who believed Brigham Young was the right leader and those who believed Smith’s son, Joseph Smith III should be the leader.
Note: This split is similar to what happened after Mohammed died, Shias, a term that stems from shi’atu Ali, Arabic for “partisans of Ali,” believe that Ali and his descendants are part of a divine order. Sunnis, meaning followers of the sunna, or “way” in Arabic, of Mohammed, are opposed to political succession based on Mohammed’s bloodline.
Those following Brigham Young re-located by handcarts to Utah and Salt Lake City, in 1847 “This is the place”. It is the political center and location of the signature Temple and Brigham Young University less than an hour south in Provo, Utah becomes the epi-center of young, faithful Mormons. The church is officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, or LDS.
Those following Joseph Smith, III, remain in the Illinois/Missouri area and are initially known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, or RLDS. Their political center and signature Temple are in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri (as is the Harry Truman Presidential Library). The RLDS founded/sponsored university is Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, just off I-35 as you go north from Missouri. While he was not, many of my Linda’s father’s family from Hulett, Wyoming were and are faithful RLDS, now Community of Christ, members. She had cousins living in the Lamoni area we have visited.
Some further trivia:
Mormon Temple off I 5 in San Diego. OKC has one also. Can you see Moroni?
Mormon Battalion Historical Site in Old Town San Diego, 1846 leave Council Bluffs, IA, arrive 1847
Salamander pipe bombings and RLDS and the new world history in the Book of Mormon.
Olympian Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn Jenner
Joseph Smith’s mother was Presbyterian.
Hormone Mormons and Secret Ceremonies
Sign in Downtown Provo store.
Campus life at BYU: caffeine, chapel bells, missions at 19 and the math therefrom.
Mt. Ranier from east side. ID’d by my friend Sharry White of Estes Park, CO.
I have written several posts about the ongoing fiasco that began in 2015 with the passage of HB 2244 and have represented school districts in litigation concerning related matters since March, 2016: first against the Oklahoma Tax Commission which misapplied the new law; then against nine overpaid and misguided school districts that falsely believed my clients were being overpaid; and currently against the Oklahoma State Department of Education that also falsely believes my clients were overpaid so it has intentionally reduced their state aid to take back their court-ordered corrections. For your convenience I will list the titles of my prior posts at the end of this one.
In a nutshell, between August, 2015 and August, 2017, the Oklahoma Tax Commission underpaid 270 school districts by $22.7 million in motor vehicle collections revenue (MVC). The same amount was overpaid to 146 school districts at the same time. Following the success of the first two court cases, the Tax Commission, as ordered by the courts, restored the $22.7 million during FY 2019 and FY 2020 to the underpaid districts by reducing the same amount from revenues paid to the overpaid districts. Following this court-ordered correction, the Oklahoma State Department of Education willfully reduced state aid for the 271 underpaid districts, and increased it for the overpaid districts, in FY 2020 and FY 2021, thus undoing the correction.
This was done because the OSDE believes the underpaid districts had been overpaid and wrongly compensated. The truth is that the underpaid districts lost $22.7 million due to the OTC’s error, gained it back through the court-ordered correction, and then lost it back again due to the OSDE’s wrongful inclusion of the correcting payments in the calculation of state aid. The OSDE and the overpaid litigious school districts believe the underpaid school districts lost the $22.7 million, then gained it back through the state aid formula’s “self correcting” mechanics, then gained it a second time through the court ordered correction, and therefore were made whole, or even, when OSDE took it back again by miscalculating state aid. I’ll leave it to you to read more about this in my earlier blogs to see why the OSDE’s analysis is simply wrong and defies basic mathematical analysis and common sense.
The current happening derives from the original legislation which put a cap on MVC at the amount collected for FY 2015 which for school districts was the total of $261,403,113.92 collectively. In the following six fiscal years the total amount apportioned to school districts stayed below that level. Here are the amounts, rounded to the dollar, for each year from both the OTC and OSDE reporting:
2016 $251,872,023
2017 $240,145,328
2018 $245,031,147
2019 $250,188,432
2020 $245,872,294
2021 $260,116,565
These amounts, which are derived from the sales and other transactions of motor vehicles in Oklahoma, are kind of a crude proxy for economic activity in the state over that period with the 2016 slow down and COVID preventing a full recovery until this year. It was apparent to me in preparing a budget amendment for Sand Springs in February that the cap likely would be reached and cause a significant reduction in MVC paid out to districts in June. I had this discussion with a new school finance friend and we both were surprised when June apportionments were made and the OTC reported FY 2022 MVC paid out to school districts totaled $282,601,069.81, exceeding the cap by $21,197,955.89. It looked to us like the OTC simply had forgotten the cap given so many years had passed since it was established, but never triggered. Turns out we were wrong.
My friend alerted me this week that it appeared the OTC implemented the necessary reductions with the July, 2022 apportionments which, my friend said, totaled about $5 million compared to the same month in 2021 of $26 million. I don’t know how to get the monthly totals which under the OTC’s previous reporting system were provided, but are not with the current system. I do see that the Sand Springs district received $43,101 in July, 2022 compared to $202,248 in July, 2021. June, August and September apportionments in 2022 have been close to that normal amount.
After learning this it readily became apparent what has happened. Early in our litigation with the OTC we became aware that they apply laws governing their revenue collections based on the month of collection, not on the month of apportionment or distribution. That is why when the OTC misapplied the 2015 amendment, which took effect July 1, 2015, the incorrect apportionments did not begin until August, 2015, rather than in July. The new law was applied to the July, 2015 collections which were then apportioned to school districts in August, 2015.
Applying the same logic, the OTC would view the cap as being determined by their collections from July, 2014 through June, 2015, which in turn would be school district apportionments for August, 2014 through July, 2015. So I took the total MVC for FY 2015 apportioned to school districts of $261,403,113.92, then subtracted the $23,082,447.82 apportioned in July, 2014 and added the $23,083,395.22 apportioned in July, 2015, yielding $261,404,061.32 as the amount I believe OTC has established as the cap going forward. It is applied to August through July apportionment totals.
However, as OSDE has made painfully clear in our current litigation, it will charge school districts with the MVC amount they are apportioned July through June the previous year. That means $282,601,069.81 has been used collectively, for the school districts “on the formula”, as their MVC chargeable amounts for FY 2023. But now we know that collectively school districts will receive no more than $261,404,061.32 from August through July. The difference of about $21.2 million is simply lost to those school districts receiving MVC and state aid in FY 2023.
It is a loss that will likely be for this year only as we may expect MVC to settle in at the $261.4 million level going forward, since the subsequent year formula adjustment prevents future losses at the same levels of MVC. It is also a loss to those school districts that insulates 129 charter schools and school districts not receiving MVC that will not experience similar losses.
There are exceptions, however, in the special world of Independent School District No. 29, Cleveland County, Independent School District No. 4, Cleveland County, Independent School District No. 4, Tulsa County, Independent School District No. 5, Tulsa County, Independent School District No. 22, Canadian County, Independent School District No. 9, Tulsa County, Independent School District No., 27, Canadian County, Independent School District No. 69, Canadian County, and Independent School District No. 6, Tulsa County, where they believe, as does the OSDE, that the formula is “self-correcting” and probably that 2 + 2 = 5 if it is repeated often enough. They will take comfort in their fantasy and, in their minds, suffer no harm.
With a correct understanding that the formula is not “self correcting” for year to year changes in the five lagging chargeables, the calculation of state aid for FY 2023 could have taken this one time loss into consideration and spread the grift if you will among all state aid recipients. By removing that $21.2 million from the formula calculations, the 415 MVC districts would still have born the brunt of the MVC cap being imposed, but I estimate about $2.4 million less than is going to occur.
As always, lunch is on me for the first to ID the location of the thinker photo above.
The previous posts about this subject are:
House Bill 2244 Twas night before Sine die Motor Vehicle Litigation Update My Obsession
Okie Masterminds
Paradise Lost
Nuclear Option
Tables Rock
A picture is Worth
“WOLF!” The Oklahoma Tax Commission shorted Tulsa Public Schools $3.4 million of our taxes.
Oklahoma State Department of education has miscalculated state aid for FY2020 (and plans to do it again next year)
Linda Evelyn Mahoney Watts was born June 7, 1948 in Deadwood, South Dakota, the nearest hospital to Hulett, Wyoming where her parents Evelyn and Edward Mahoney resided. They relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma where Linda attended Hoover Elementary, Eli Whitney Junior High and graduated from Nathan Hale High School in 1966. She was a charter member of the Tulsa Youth Symphony and later first chair string bass at Oklahoma State University and the University of Tulsa. After she married Gary in December 1968, she continued her education at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania graduating with a Bachelor’s in Social Science in 1972. After their son, Ethan, was born in Philadelphia, Linda and Gary moved back to Tulsa in 1973 and later had daughter, Fritha, and son, Dylan. Linda was a founding board member of Emergency Infant Services (EIS) in 1977, serving as the first President of the Board. After years as a volunteer at EIS, Linda became Executive Director in 1983. After seeing EIS through growth and a move from Second Presbyterian to the First Presbyterian Bernsen Center location, in 1998 Linda’s role with EIS changed to Director of Social Services. Linda worked at EIS until its 40th Anniversary in 2017. Linda also volunteered with Helpline, Buckle Every Little Tot (BELT), Campfire Girls, Barnard Elementary, and College Hill Presbyterian Church which she and Gary have attended since 1973. At College Hill, Linda was a Sunday School teacher, member of the choir, ordained elder and member of the Session, and enjoyed many social groups including the book club. Linda and Gary enjoyed traveling across all 50 states of the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe, often traveling with family and visiting family and friends. Linda loved spending time with her grandchildren, Sofia and Jesper, attending their sports and school events, traveling, and just making fun at home. Linda found much joy in music, books, and animals.
Linda is predeceased by her father, Edward Mahoney. Linda is survived by her husband, Gary Watts; children, Ethan (Manuela) Watts, Fritha (Patrick) Ohlson, Dylan (Belle) Watts; grandchildren, Sofia Ohlson and Jesper Ohlson; mother, Evelyn Mahoney; brothers, Roy (Rita) Mahoney and Bruce Mahoney and sister, Sandra Taylor; brother-in-law Clayton (Kathy) Watts; and many nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews.
A service for Linda will be live-streamed (and available later) on Thursday, August 19, 2021, at 6:30 pm, on the College Hill Presbyterian Church Tulsa YouTube site LINK.
In lieu of flowers, you may choose to honor our remarkable wife and mother with your financial donation to Emergency Infant Services, College Hill Presbyterian Church, or the Alzheimer’s Association.
Rodin Museum in Philadelphia. ID’d by Krystal Bonsall.
It seems hardly a day goes by without some headline involving Epic Charter Schools and related misdeeds. I don’t intend to repeat what has been reported because I assume if you found your way to this post you are enough of a public education nerd to already be familiar with the still unfolding story. If you want an up-to-date refresher my friend Rick Cobb has recent posts on his site https://okeducationtruths.wordpress.com/ that are a good summary and source. Instead, I want to describe the legislative and policy failure that set the stage for Epic’s headlines.
That failure of policy and legislation begins with the woeful lack of understanding about how our state aid formula is supposed to work and the purpose of providing a free public education to all children. Article 13, Section 1, of the Oklahoma Constitution states: “The Legislature shall establish and maintain a system of free public schools wherein all the children of the State may be educated.” That single statement commits our state government to provide services that are the largest single category of expenditure by far of state and local revenues in Oklahoma, now totaling over six billion dollars.
Title 70, Section 10-105, Oklahoma’s truancy law, makes it a crime for parents not to send their children to school. They “may be educated” in an Oklahoma public school, or not, but they must be educated somewhere. The provision of a system of free public schools open to all children is for the benefit of the children and society; it is not an entitlement for parents. I pay more taxes for public schools in Oklahoma than does the average parent. I do so gladly and willingly because I know that the future strength and stability of our great nation depends on having a well-educated population—it is in my selfish interest to have all children educated. I do not do so in support of parents who may, or may not, be making good choices for their children. I do so in support of the professional educators whose mission it is to effectively educate our state’s children. I expect my state government to spend my money wisely and effectively to finance the actual costs of educating the state’s children, not as some kind of entitlement for their parents or boondoggle for a private for-profit company.
Gary Stanislawski was my state senator. He became that when reelected in 2012 after Tom Adelson was gerrymandered out of his district following the 2010 census. Linda and I hosted him at our house one evening in 2013 to meet with some of his new mid-town Tulsa constituents while he was sponsor of the virtual charter school legislation that is responsible for the Epic mess. I asked him then why they didn’t make provision for soliciting bids or requests for proposals from prospective virtual education providers instead of just paying the same amount per student as a brick and mortar charter school would receive.
It was like a Venus and Mars conversation. In my school district CFO mind, also schooled in how state aid formulas are supposed to work by starting with the bottom-line cost to educate a child, we shouldn’t just gift the same amount of money for what is clearly a very different service. A brick and mortar charter school is not only responsible for each child’s education, but also for their physical safety and well-being while in attendance. I served as general counsel for more than a decade for two of Tulsa’s charter schools; they worked hard and were quite frugal. A virtual charter school does not have the same responsibility so why should we simply assume the two, very different, kinds of educational services will cost the same amount?
Stanislawski, on the other hand, probably just took the state aid formula amount as a given and each child’s, if not each parent’s, entitlement. In other words, the price/cost was already established so why is Watts even questioning that? Let’s unpack where I’m coming from.
Oklahoma’s formula follows the structure of what is known as a “foundation program”. The Education Resources Information Center of the Institute of Education Sciences defines foundation programs as:
Systems whereby state funds are used to supplement local or intermediate school district funds for elementary and secondary education — a ‘minimum foundation’ of financial support is usually guaranteed regardless of the local district’s ability to support education. ( “Foundation Programs.” Education Resources Information Center. Accessed August 6, 2020. https://eric.ed.gov/?qt=foundation+program&ti=Foundation+Programs)
Another source, The Economics and Financing of Education (Johns, Roe L, and Edgar L Morphet. The Economics and Financing of Education: A Systems Approach. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969), credits development of the foundation program to researchers George D. Strayer and Robert Murray Haig as modified by Paul R. Mort, which is described as consisting of these three steps:
Compute the cost of the foundation, or guaranteed, program for each district on the basis of objective measures of educational need.
Deduct from the cost of that program the amount that will be available in the district from a required levy on the equalized valuation.
Make the difference available to the district from state funds.
Lastly, the Oklahoma Supreme Court said this about Oklahoma’s formula in Fair School Finance Council, Inc. v. State, 1987 OK 114, “The Foundation Program consists of a certain amount of money per pupil which the Legislature has determined to be necessary to operate a minimum program within a school district.”
Establishing a foundation program therefore challenges a state legislature that is committed to providing comparably funded public education services for all the state’s students to do three things. First, determine the cost to each school district for providing the basic education services to its students which will necessarily vary according to the numbers and characteristics of those enrolled. Second, determine the amount of revenue each district is expected to receive from sources that are outside of the current legislative appropriation process. Third, subtract the second amount from the first, and pay the difference as state aid to school districts from general state revenues available for appropriation in the current year.
The epic policy failure that is at the heart of all the Epic drama we are experiencing therefore lies with our legislature having failed to properly perform the first step when it enabled full time virtual instruction. The main culprit I believe was SB 1816 sponsored by then Senator Stanislawski. The Act amended the Charter Schools Act to provide a mechanism for the State Board of Education, later moved to the Statewide Virtual Charter Board, to sponsor a statewide virtual charter school, which then led to the inception of Epic as a statewide charter school. I won’t go into what are details about which I’m not fully informed and which are irrelevant to my argument, such as Epic’s precise history, its uniqueness, its previous and current sponsors and much more. What I’m concerned with is that the Charter Schools Act, as amended, in allowing for virtual charter schools made no distinction in funding for a virtual charter school versus a traditional brick and mortar charter school.
The current “certain amount of money per pupil which the Legislature has determined to be necessary to operate a minimum program within a school district” is $3,380.89. However, the Legislature has long recognized that each pupil does not cost the same amount to educate. Depending on grade level and other characteristics, weights are applied to account for these cost differences. I show this in more detail in my post Follow the Money, part 2. An example would be that a fifth grade student, no other countable characteristics, would be weighted at 1.0 and the district should receive $3,380.89 to offset the cost of the student’s education. But, a kindergarten student (1.5), who is visually handicapped (3.8), bilingual (.25), and economically disadvantaged (.25) would be weighted at 5.8 and the district should receive $19,609.16 for the cost of the student’s education.
The members of the Task Force 2000 whose 1990 Report led to the landmark Oklahoma legislation known as House Bill 1017 well understood the importance of this first step in a foundation program formula. They recommended, and the final legislation included, a requirement that the State Board of Education review pupil category and grade level weights using the cost accounting system and make recommendations a year later for any revisions. In other words, determine if the weights in place in fact reflect the actual costs of educating the students in those categories.
Here are just the grade-level weights now in place:
When I was CFO at Sand Springs we were planning for construction of eight new classrooms for early childhood education serving about 160 four-year-olds. I did a pro forma budget with costs of hiring certified and support staff necessary to meet class size requirements for the new site, estimated utilities, insurance, building and grounds maintenance, etc. to come up with our estimated cost. We wanted to know if our existing budget/K-12 program would be subsidizing this new, but optional, service. The result was uncanny how close the estimated costs were to what the increase in state aid (note the 1.3 weight above) and other revenues would be with the additional students. In other words, the state aid formula worked and the right amount of money was going to be available to pay for the actual costs of educating the new students.
When the weights were put in place the only delivery of educational services to students was at traditional brick and mortar schools. The weightings clearly take into consideration the class size requirements at younger ages and perhaps greater expenses delivering some high school classes. There are also expenses for the brick and mortar, transportation, health and other services in-person schools are expected to provide.
Now along comes virtual education which is both praised and condemned for its radically different method for delivering educational services to students. Why would we assume the cost of that delivery will be the same as the traditional in-person school? Maybe it is, but probably it isn’t. I haven’t studied it, though someone should have BEFORE writing or sponsoring SB 1816 and opening up the public’s purse to pay exactly the same amount for a service that is radically different.
I know that the cost isn’t the same because even a casual reading of the Epic silliness demonstrates money is being wasted. The entrepreneurs who started and run the charter school were given a no-bid contract and have paid themselves millions. There was enough money left over from the Oklahoma services to transfer lots of money to Epic’s California venture. Teachers are paid huge bonuses, collectively millions, not for teaching, but for recruiting students. The spending money families are given may be legitimate support of students’ education, or may cross the line to be payments to parents for enrolling, and is suspected of being another conduit for siphoning off profits to the owners. This kind of silliness doesn’t happen unless the revenue Epic receives simply far exceeds what is needed to educate its students.
A Gary Stanislawski might say that I should chill out because parents must be satisfied because they choose to send their children there and each year more are doing so. But I say parents are not the consumers—all of us are and we should not be paying more than the actual cost of the services being provided to the students. We also get a say in whether or not Epic is doing a good job. If that should be left up to parents alone, then why do we need truancy laws?
This all takes us back to Step One: determine the cost to a school district or charter school for providing the basic education services to its students through a virtual delivery system rather than in-person. Then use that information to establish an appropriate Grade Level weight. Here’s my guess, uneducated, that it would be about 70% of what it costs in-person. If Epic had received only 70% of the funding that has been shoveled their way the last few years, I bet we wouldn’t be reading the same headlines.
Today, April 16, 2021 we awake to yet another headline about Epic which reports an additional fine of $10.5 million levied by the State Department of Education because Epic has been found to have misspent those additional sums. The total fines so far are about $22 million. As I try to explain above, in addition to holding Epic accountable, policymakers need to correct the underlying cause of these crazy expenditures, namely that the very different educational services Epic purports to provide students do not cost, and are not worth, the same amount of funding required by traditional brick and mortar schools. The actual, reasonable costs of quality virtual education should be determined and an appropriate student weight used in the formula.
As always, lunch/pizza delivery on me for the first to ID the location of the Thinker photo above.
One of my semi-retirement activities has been trying to right the wrong caused initially by the Oklahoma Tax Commission’s error in construing a 2015 amendment to the statute that apportions motor vehicle collections to Oklahoma school districts. After winning every phase of that litigation and withstanding a silly challenge by overpaid school districts that should know better, it has now morphed into litigation with the Oklahoma State Department of Education that involves understanding the purpose and effect of the foundation aid section of the state aid formula. Reinforcements arrived this week in the persons of Associate Professor of Economics Matt Hendricks and student John Reaves with the University of Tulsa. An academic paper we have researched and written together over the last several months is now published online by the Institute for the Study of Education Finance at the University of Oklahoma. Here it is (if first link is still out of commission, try the next):
Sadly, the analysis required to understand what is going on seems to elude otherwise high functioning school finance personnel. Here are the posts I have written trying every which way to show the correct analysis.
The silliness of school world’s belief that the subsequent year adjustments in state aid corrected the losses caused by the OTC is understood with simple logic: if you underpay me, I’m not made whole till you over pay me AND you can’t spend the same money twice (first to correct prior year loss and then to pay for current year expenses). It is also easy to see in the simple tables we’ve used as shown in the “tables rock” post above. The real data that our paper analyzes demonstrate it also. And lastly the algebra proves it with skills expected of every Oklahoma high school graduate according to the State Department of Education:
As always a pizza delivery on me for the first to ID the photo location.
One of the advantages of being a Geezer is being excused for certain lapses in memory so I’m going to claim “The secret to happiness is low expectations.” as an original thought I had and espoused well before the dates of attribution that show on search engine results. Originality doesn’t matter, the substance does. When I look back on my life as Geezers often do, I see so many relationships, particularly family, and events that must exceed the expectations of most with whom I’ve shared this planet. So my original thought hasn’t resulted in living a life of mediocrity or disappointment, but it has left me without much of a bucket list (I prefer Jerry Seinfeld’s “$%&!-it” list anyhow).
For example, after my first born Ethan and I scaled Wheeler Peak, the high point of New Mexico in 1987 and Linda found Fifty StateSummits, a book by Paul Zumwalt, I embarked on a quest to summit as many as I could, believing a one point that would be somewhere between 45 and 49 since I didn’t plan to die on Denali. I had much fun, usually with Linda, sometimes alone, often with friends, making it to forty with the last being Britton Hill in Florida 25 years later. As life developed and the remaining high points each presented their own special challenges, I realized my goal all along had been to summit 40 of the 50 high points so I’ve not attempted any more. And there it stands, many fun memories and no regret.
When this pandemic began in March I realized the time it afforded at home in the early summer would be perfect to check off the only item on my bucket list–to build a back yard Rube Goldberg machine. The rule I set for myself, which puts more formal competitions to shame, is that a true RGM must be built entirely from stuff you already have, i.e. no new purchases can be made or money spent. My effort was wildly successful, gave me great pleasure over the month or so of construction and testing and quality time with our wonderful family. Below is a link to the YouTube production crafted by my grandson seen here at the Jersey Shore a year ago with his twin sister who was my key grip’s best babe on the project.
Here is the YouTube link. If as when I watched it, you first see our only (not wise to tempt fate) successful run; then followed by I don’t know what will come because I don’t know how You Tube works. Here is another You Tube link to our earlier version which showed areas needing improvement (back yard engineering), again followed by…I don’t know how YouTube works.
Here’s another we produced in honor of friend Betty Coleman’s 90th birthday.
As always lunch is on me for the first to ID the above thinker photo location which shows a feature that, when it was first installed years ago, once was a kind of perpetual RGM itself and was mesmerizing to watch. Alas, it stopped working, though is still nice to see. Lunch can be your fave carryout which you are welcome to consume, or not, on our porch.
That’s the title to the book written by Marty Makary, M. D. who was the speaker at the Fall, 2019 annual whoop de do put on by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. I heard part of a Rich Fisher interview with Dr. Makary on our Tulsa Public Radio station. He made much sense describing the insanity that is pricing, billing and paying for health care in our country, much like was done several years ago in A Bitter Pill. So when I heard at the end he is coming to Oklahoma at the invitation of the OCPA I knew there had to be a catch.
The danger and joy with Nook books is the ease of acquiring, so later that same day I was quickly reading through to learn the rest of the story—I didn’t. Here’s what I did learn. The Price We Pay is a fascinating and effective anecdotal, not analytical, description of much of what is wrong with our health care system. If you’ve never experienced mishaps like I describe in my post Dennis not the Menace then you are lucky and may not understand what all the fuss is about health care financing in our nation, so read this book. It will make your blood boil with descriptions of the problem, but won’t give you the answer. Unless you already have preconceptions, as I do, then you can find it as I did.
I don’t recall if it is his first outrageous example, but around page 22 I made note where a hospital in the United States quotes $150,000 for bypass surgery, then when the potential patient balks at the cost eventually comes down to $25,000. So the patient goes to France and has it done for $15,000. If I were Dr. Makary I’d spend a little time investigating how health care is provided and financed in France—but he doesn’t show that curiosity, unless I skipped over it. What is obvious to many of us, and so eloquently stated by my friend Carlton James (see my post Looking for Mr. James) is apparently lost on Dr. Makary.
He continues giving example after example of how outrageously silly and harmful our health care system is in so many ways, interspersed with examples of how markets sometimes seem to work, as around page 40 with elective procedures as an example—duh—a medical market virtue I addressed as irrelevant to the broader discussion in my post Spoonful of Sugar. Which is why I read his description of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma with skepticism expecting that it is all about elective procedures. I was wrong and it truly appears to be a fascinating outlier, like other providers appearing here and there in The Price We Pay, in our crazy system. Fair, transparent and market-based pricing still doesn’t obviate the need for insurance coverage—we’re not talking about a $500 car repair bill a modest emergency savings should handle—because few of us can pay out of pocket for child birth $12,000 or a hip replacement $15,000, much less a lumbar fusion, two levels, whatever the heck that is, at $50,000—all prices from the Surgery Center of Oklahoma’s website.
He visits a hospital administrator in Nebraska that is making money while not playing the game of charging multiples of actual cost then giving insurers huge discounts. It will discount 4% and that’s it. Medicare and Medicaid make up a normal part of its business and, unlike the usual whining from hospital administrators and government haters like the OCPA, it doesn’t lose money on those patients.
A favorite chapter of mine is the one on flight ambulances, a notorious source of examples where patients and insurance companies are over charged with the patient (remember they made a rational decision for a flight ambulance to save their life…not) usually holding the bag. Unless the patient’s health insurance is one of those bad, wasteful government run single payers—Medicare or Medicaid. He finds they don’t get gouged, so duh???, why not good enough for everyone. Relying on buyers to check price gouging sellers when the buyers have suffered a traumatic health event and may even be unconscious is just plain silly, if not stupid. It’s a classic example of the kind of market that should be regulated or controlled by a single payer with enough market clout.
The author at one point compares insurance brokers to the mortgage bundlers/sellers who fueled the subprime mortgage failures that led to the Great Recession of 2008 (doesn’t seem so Great today). What he doesn’t say or explore is how through government regulation strengthened or kept in place that catastrophe could have been avoided. So of course he makes no mention of a role for government regulation in cleaning up what bothers him with health insurance brokers.
Toward the end he declares that the diet wars are over, that it has been proven there are no benefits to a low fat diet—say what? He even blames low fat advocacy for the obesity epidemic—wow, here he lost me. Just Google up my diet man, Dr. Dean Ornish, if you want my version of the truth. No, the diet wars are not over and low fat doesn’t cause obesity.
He partially redeems himself by pointing out toward the end that Salk and Sabin refused to make money on the polio vaccine—probably because they recognized the overwhelming public good involved and knew monetizing it would send the wrong market signals. But the author ends with a call to more transparent and efficient markets and thus ends a book supposedly contributing to the public discussion about health care policy and not once mentions universal health care, single payer or Medicare for all—all ideas and policy proposals that exist specifically because of the broken system he documents so well.
So it goes; hope the food was good for the fellows of the OCPA last fall. Remember to vote for Medicaid expansion June 30; or if you vote absentee I’ll happily notarize your ballot. As always, a lunch or pizza on me for the first to ID the photo site.
OK, we’ve been watching the Ken Burns documentary, “The Roosevelts”. I intended to resume more regular critiques of the “research” by the limited thinkers at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and have been too distracted to do so till now. Over the first two and a half years of this blog I posted about 60 times doing just that, which I summarized in Dirty Dozen Data Drivelers over a year ago. I needed a break as one can only read so much of shoddy research and analysis like that produced by the OCPA without it causing feelings of frustration and despair. Besides, much of their work during that time was to convince the public and policy makers that teachers should not receive a pay increase. They failed; teachers received two consecutive years of raises, and the OCPA lost a great deal of relevance.
While public education remains the greatest responsibility of our state government, not far behind is providing for access to adequate health care for all Oklahomans. This issue is now front and center as the successful Initiative Petition effort has State Question 802 for Medicaid expansion on the statewide ballot set for June 30.
The effort gathered more than 300,000 signatures, the most ever in our state. If approved Oklahoma will join 36 other states in expanding Medicaid coverage to more of its residents, about 200,000, under the federal Affordable Care Act that has been available since 2014 but was prevented by our Republican legislators and governors.
Here is information about the effort from the Oklahoma Policy Institute—a real think tank, not a stink tank like the OCPA—and from the Yes on 802 support organization. I have posted several times previously on related matters and believe this is a matter of universal health care being good public policy. The United Nations has proclaimed that universal health care is a human right.
Around 1965 we decided that our population over age 65 should have health insurance which addressed the market reality that few in that age category could expect coverage in a “market based” model of insurance, i.e. old people are just too costly. I wonder how many of the geezers and old geezers on the OCPA’s board of directors rant and rave about the “ne’er do wells” of working age not deserving Medicaid coverage, but would also rant and rave if anyone tried to take away their Medicare coverage which in fact is being paid for by many of those “ne’er do wells” they would keep uninsured.
In my opinion, if our nation has the resources to provide insurance for old people who are past their years of real productivity (and if you think we Medicare recipients paid in enough to cover ourselves already, then why is the Medicare fund on the verge of insolvency?), then it has the resources to provide health insurance for those of, or soon to be, working age who are adding to the nation’s production, wealth and the Medicare trust fund. So it behooves us to invest in the good health and productivity of those who are making it happen, more so than for those of us who are no longer contributing.
Therefore, I will take a deep breath and, as painful as it will be, start checking out the OCPA’s website again looking particularly for their drivel in opposition to expansion of Medicaid, where they will try to justify the policy decision of our state Republican party to turn its back on over $1 billion the last six years—yes they believe our state, that is already a net taker of federal funds because of its relative poverty compared to our coastal sister states, is rich enough to turn its back on that funding and send money to Washington to fund health insurance for Massachusetts, New York and California…not. Enjoy and support SQ 802 Medicaid expansion by voting yes on June 30.
As always, lunch is on me for the first to ID the photo location.
When I learned recently that my second cousin Ginny took a new job with the Cooper Clinic in the Dallas area, I sent her this message:
Ginny,
We heard from your parents and hadn’t understood who your new employer is. Kenneth Cooper saved my father’s life. You may have heard this story but I never tire of telling it. While Clayton and I were away at college and/or starting our lives after college, late ’60s, early 70s, Dad (late forties) was diagnosed with severe heart disease. He had angina so intense he could not walk around our block. This was before bypass surgery was done; today it would be a no-brainer. Fortunately, his cardiologist recommended Cooper’s Aerobics program. Dad was very disciplined in everything he did so he faithfully followed the program working his way from slow walks to actually running miles at a time. Linda and I returned to live in Tulsa with our new son Ethan summer of 1973. Early fall that year, Dad challenged Clayton and me to a “race”. We went to the high school track and the ground rules were that Dad would run the quarter mile laps without stopping and Clayton and I would run with him by relaying every other lap. I think we both made 3 or 4 laps before being exhausted and unable to continue, meaning Dad had run 1.5 to 2 miles. When we could not continue and conceded his victory, he ran one more lap just because. He made his point; I started that week and now 47 years later can honestly say that I have faithfully and continuously maintained aerobic fitness as recommended by Cooper. Dad and I ran the first 15K Tulsa Run together in 1978 and a few more after that till he switched to biking. I ran in every one (or the same distance if out of town) for 30 years. My 30-year medallion given to all participating that year is with Dad now. Cooper saved my father from a certain heart attack death; allowed him to enjoy grandchildren and great grandchildren, travel and physical activity for many years, a quality of life not enjoyed by many. When he finally did have bypass surgery, I think in his early 70s, the surgeon reported that his blockage had been almost total likely for decades and it was the collateral circulation built up through exercise that kept him going. I tell this story whenever I can, hoping that Dad’s example might inspire someone else as he did me–all because of Kenneth Cooper’s pioneering work. So, I am proud of your work and the opportunity you and your coworkers have to help other people make a difference in their lives. I think we may have an early Aerobics paperback–if I find it would you be interested?
Gary
Here are the three of us at the Hale track after the relay that day:
Here’s her reply:
Hi Gary,
So nice to hear from you! I totally remember that about Uncle Herb. I told Dr. Cooper that afternoon I got hired. I am so proud to be working there. Being the Director of the Nutrition Department there is the cherry on the Sundae of my career. Dr Cooper just celebrated his 89 birthday and he still sees some patients. His son Tyler is an MD MPH and is the President and CEO.
Thanks for sharing this. There are so many stories like this here!
Hope you all are doing well!
Ginny Me with Dr. Cooper in his office 10/19
Post Script:
Check out my related Post Crybabies which also has my all time fave thinker photo. And what’s with the flying saucer on his wall?
About a year or two into my new training I decided to go to another track and check my time running a mile. I had thought my average time was a little under 8 minutes a mile, so I was shocked–and pleased–when I easily clocked a 6 minute mile at the track. If I just kept training I was sure to be some kind of running phenomenon! The track was at Will Rogers High School where a fellow Hale Rangers Class of 1965 was basketball coach so I called him to report my success as a further reality check. He chuckled over the phone and said, “Gary, it’s a fifth (1/5) of a mile track so it takes five laps to make a mile, not the four you ran.” I was sad when that track was replaced years later with the standard quarter mile version.
As always lunch is on me for the first to ID the thinker photo location.
It features comments from a blog post on the 1889 Institute’s (an Oklahoma Stink Tank) website by Byron Schlomach. I am quite familiar with Mr. Schlomach’s sloppy work about which I’ve written before:
Not wanting limited thinker Schlomach to spout more drivel unchallenged, I penned this letter to the World’s Editor:
Whether
or not closing all state schools for the rest of the school year is good public
policy is worthy of thoughtful consideration and debate. However, beware of listening to Byron
Schlomach of the 1889 Institute for reliable information to inform that
debate. In the run up to the Oklahoma
Legislature’s historic vote in 2018 to
increase teacher pay, Schlomach argued repeatedly against the increase and
supported his arguments by inflating average teacher pay by thousands of
dollars and statewide school district expenditures by hundreds of
millions. He also demonstrated he does
not know the difference between an arithmetic and a geometric
progression—understanding critical to estimating the costs of a pandemic. I’ll trust the numbers of “well intentioned
health experts” any day over those provided by Schlomach.
Stay
safe. I will continue to follow the
advice of “well intentioned health experts” and pay little attention to the
drivel coming from Stink Tank inhabitants like Schlomach.
A carry out
pizza on me for the first to ID the photo location.
