Trois Reins

a right-wing article of faith says that government should be run more like businesses in the private sector. the rationale is that practices and actions are made good and without prejudice through the free market. 

this past week the federal government - the u.s. department of agriculture specifically - told the government of the state of maine - governor paul lepage and maine’s department of health and human services specifically - that maine cannot recover overpayments the state made through the food stamps program to needy people through this maine agency’s mismanagement by going to the people the state paid the money to. the federal government cut a deal with the state to lessen the amount the state owed the federal government, but it told maine’s governor and maine dhhs it could not collect the money from needy people in maine. 

it is appalling that the state of maine, after mismanaging this social safety net program, and after being told by the federal government in 2011 that they were not managing the program properly, and after not working with the federal government to fix the problems, and after overpaying needy people, it is appalling that the state of maine would arrive at a solution whereby it would go to needy maine people in an attempt to recover money through its negligence overpaid. what the fuck is the state of maine thinking?

apple ceo tim cook apologized for the half-bakedness of the company’s iphone this week, even as the corporation took money from consumers for 5,000,000 new iphones. specifically people were upset about the new mapping tools apple developed to replace google’s mapping tools, though not everyone disliked the apple’s maps. 

other problems noticed on the latest-and-greatest version of the iphone included chips on handsets, camera lens problems, screen glitches, and app store update issues. 

however, all the problems with apple’s newest smart phone acknowledged, it is important to remember what apple’s ceo, and what the corporation he leads, did not apologize for this past week, or at all. 

apple has not apologized for conditions of workers of chinese companies - foxconn specifically - it has contracted to build the corporation’s iphones and ipads some of us love and care for better than people. 

apple has not apologized for the low pay of its apple store employees, the people who actually help many of us figure out how to use the corporation’s products. 

as a corporation apple has successfully marketed itself to consumers as something more than a corporation with the primary goal of taking our money. consumers, especially a large and passionate base of consumers, can influence and even direct a corporation’s terrible actions. why hasn’t this happened with apple? it’s as if in accepting our fealty to apple we’ve forfeited our willingness to call the corporation on what’s right and what’s wrong.

a science and technology charter high school has been approved for portland, maine, and a lot of people of all political stripes are excited about it. facebook status messages exploded with the social media equivalent of football touchdown cheers when the state board overseeing licenses for charters said the baxter stem school, to be located downtown, was approved.

let’s be clear about this, because a lot of people who should know better are deluding themselves:

charter schools are a tool of the right-wing to diminish and to eventually do away with public education as we know it in the united states. many right-wingers believe public school systems are a part of the social safety net and the welfare system — not philosophically, literally.

people, even educated, left-wing, liberal people, support charter schools despite their being a means, and a fairly effective means, used by the right-wing to tear apart public education. let’s not call it selfishness, but these people support charters through an overwhelming self-interested desire to give their children opportunities, even if that means opportunities at the expense of other children.

people, especially including educated, left-wing, liberal people who should know better, are enabling the right-wing in its mission to end public education as we know it in this country. public education is supposed to be about providing quality learning opportunities for all children, no matter their race, ethnicity, religion, or the economic status of their parents.

to be realistic means to be honest — and there are problems in our public schools. in portland, maine, and in maine in general, public schools are actually quite good, despite the fear and anxiety the right-wing is successfully fomenting. the itch for charters — and, stuff for another soapbox, virtual schools — are not a wholly negative reaction to a desire to do better by children in the public school system.

charter schools are the wrong solution. charters are not a fix.

charter schools further stratify our segmented society between haves and have nots — not philosophically, literally.

charters have a limited capacity to provide specialized, directed education to students lucky enough to get into the schools. the kids still stuck in public schools where the problems were recognized, where the future backers of charters said, for example, “hey, the 1,200 student high school in my neighborhood doesn’t do stem! we need a 300 student charter for the state to so that 300 kids can do stem,” they still have to suffer through the problems we haven’t solved by opening limited-capacity charters.

creative portland corporation, the city of portland, maine’s arm to encourage creative professionals to live and work in portland, maine, wants to add 10,000 people to the city. there are a couple problems with this:

portland, maine’s population is about 60,000. but, to be fair, when we talk about “portland, maine” we have to consider the region and not just where the cities boundaries are drawn on a map. still, the population is about 60,000.

housing: it’s well known that the number of apartment rental stock in the city, especially on the peninsula, is low. that should be a problem when the city through one of its entities proposes a plan to add 10,000 people to the population.

assuming that 10,000 people move to portland, maine, and yes, we understand they’re not going to come here in one single enormous wave, but the question does merit asking, what are these people supposed to do, as in how are 10,000 additional people expected to earn a living?

there are problems-a-plenty with the city of portland, maine’s open invitation to 10,000 creative professionals to move to and live in the city. some others:

transportation isn’t very well thought through in the city, or region, though some portland, maine city councilors are laying the necessary groundwork to get people thinking about non-vehicular transportation, like a streetcar, which if implemented with routes throughout the peninsula would be good.

schools over-crowding has been in the news in portland, maine recently. despite the addition of new, larger elementary schools in the munjoy hill and back cove neighborhoods school districts haven’t been updates since 1992. they need to be to reflect population shifts throughout portland, maine. thankfully, it appears schools redistricting is on-the-table.

portland, maine’s city council generally seems overly focused with commercial activity on the peninsula, and in the old port and along commercial street specifically. call it “peninsula envy.” maybe portland, maine’s city councilors need to be reminded that cities are comprised of neighborhoods. the city of portland, maine needs to recognize and encourage economic development outside the old port.