Category: Guest Authors

Even $19 Billion Won’t Save LA Schools

By Joe Guzzardi

In what is certain to be financial history’s worst-ever return on investment, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) unanimously approved an $18.8 billion budget.

The district’s central budget will be $12.9 billion, but separate funds will contribute to the $18.8 billion total that will also be designated for adult education, the student body fund and construction projects. Funding will include the last federal government COVID-19 cash infusion which, in the aggregate, will reach more than $5 billion. State and federal taxpayers have paid into the LAUSD, regardless of where Sacramento officials claim the monies come from – the “separate funds” cited above. In education, the taxpayer is the first, last and only funding source.

For the astronomical, staggering almost $19 billion, parents and the taxpaying community, deserve educated graduates who are ready to meaningfully contribute to society. The goal, taken for granted during California’s golden 1960s era when the states’ public schools were the nation’s envy, will be elusive, and perhaps beyond reach. In truth, there may not be enough billions to reverse LAUSD’s downward spiral and insurmountable problems.

To begin with, the district’s geography is vast. LAUSD covers 710 square miles, an area 41 percent greater than the City of Los Angeles, and the district has 575,000 students, with about a 90 percent minority enrollment and about 120,000 English Language Learners. Within the Los Angeles metro area, more than 185 languages are spoken, and immigrants’ children are the most represented among LAUSD enrollees.

Unfortunately, and only partly of its own doing, LAUSD is barreling in the wrong direction academically. The COVID-19 school shutdown devastated LAUSD’s most vulnerable students. The latest state test scores revealed disappointing decreases in student performance. For poor, vulnerable students, the decline was more dramatic.

The 2022 assessment tests showed just 28 percent of LAUSD students met state standards in math, and only 42 percent met English standards in the 2021-22 school year, declines of two and five percentage points, respectively, from the 2018-19 school year. LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho acknowledged that kids most at risk – blacks, Hispanics and females – lost the most ground. “Five years of gradual academic progress…. have been reversed,” said Carvalho.

Test scores won’t improve unless chronic absenteeism is reversed. Nearly half of all LAUSD students missed classroom time post-pandemic, a two-fold increase from prior years. Carvalho found many students did not have either what he called “adequate care” from an adult at home, “were caring for young siblings” or working multiple low-paying jobs to support their families. LAUSD implemented strategies, such as targeting early absenteeism and going to students’ homes for follow up, but the programs’ specifics are vague, and the end results far from certain.

Carvalho has other plans with noble goals. Highest among them is his commitment to expanding a literacy intervention program called Primary Promise, originally limited to K-3 students, to students at higher grade levels. While parents applaud the more inclusive outreach, veteran educators know that if the basics aren’t mastered during a student’s earliest years, the climb to literacy will be long, hard and too often unsuccessful.

As challenging as the 2023-2024 academic year is, the worst is yet to come. COVID-19 funding goes away next year. Many of the 75,000 full- and part-time workers, including about 25,000 teachers, will have to change jobs or job locations, and unfilled classroom and staff positions will remain vacant, a true crisis for students already behind. If bus drivers are laid off – a strong possibility – then poor children without other transportation options will be unable to get to school.

The important question, however, is what long-term outcome awaits students whose fundamental reading and math skills are substandard? In an era that increasingly relies on automation and artificial intelligence, the undereducated young adults, whether their futures lay in California or elsewhere, will have a rocky road forward. The $18 billion is a high cost to taxpayers for failing Los Angeles’ children.

Even $19 Billion Won’t Save LA Schools

Cooperstown Must Tighten Standards To Restore Excellence

By Joe Guzzardi

With the Hall of Fame induction ceremony set for the July 21-24 weekend, here’s a baseball quiz. The question: What do Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Scott Rolen and Fred McGriff have in common? Not many fans are fooled. Although Ruth, Cobb, Rolen and McGriff have skill levels that range from extraordinary to above average but not great, all four are Hall of Fame inductees. In many scribes’ minds, the vast talent gap between the enshrined great and the very good is proof that the institution has lost its exclusivity. In too many cases, induction isn’t warranted.

Ruth and Cobb are baseball titans elected along with Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson in 1936; the five superstars represent first-ever HOF class. In 2022, on his sixth ballot appearance, Rolen squeaked into the Hall with 76.3 percent of the vote, 1.3 percent over the minimum 75 percent required. McGriff took a more circuitous route. After failing to reach the mandatory 75 percent for 10 consecutive years, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, as per its rules, dropped McGriff’s name from the ballot. A few years later, McGriff reappeared on the Contemporary Era committee where he was unanimously elected. The Contemporary Baseball Era includes players from 1980 to the present day, while the Classic Baseball Era spans the period prior to 1980 and includes Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues stars. In other words, just because the BBWAA initially rejects a player – and in some cases, resoundingly rejects – doesn’t mean that he won’t reappear on either Classic or Contemporary Era ballot.

Rolen and McGriff are very good players and would be welcome additions to any roster. But they’re not Hall of Fame worthy. Without getting too deeply into sabermetric weeds, McGriff in his 19-year career notably hit 30 home runs or more 10 times and led the league in that category twice. But McGriff never finished higher than fourth in Most Valuable Player award voting, a telling evaluation of his overall value to the six teams he played for. Many feel that Hall of Fame inductees should be the dominant players of their era, not merely key contributors.

Rolen’s Hall of Fame credentials are less persuasive than McGriff’s. Like McGriff, Rolen never finished higher than fourth in MVP balloting, but he had no league-leading categories, and was elected on the basis of his eight Gold Gloves – nice, but not Hall of Fame stuff.

The moment a debate about a candidate’s credentials arises, he’s probably not Hall of Fame material. Center field: Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio; Right field: Henry Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Frank Robinson; Catchers: Johnny Bench, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Bill Dickey, Pitchers: Bob Feller, Tom Seaver, Whitey Ford – no one argues about their top place among the greats. But when five failed ballots have been cast, and on the sixth, the player gets elected by the slimmest margin, as is Rolen’s case, he doesn’t belong.

The solution: eliminate the extra committees which are designed to expand the total inductees, reduce the ten-year eligibility to three years, and increase the approval margin from 75 percent to 90 percent. The truly great will easily reach the 90 percent plateau, while those who fall short will remain on the outside looking in. Hall of Fame members returning to Cooperstown to honor the Class of 2023 include: Jeff Bagwell, Harold Baines, Johnny Bench, Craig Biggio, Bert Blyleven, Wade Boggs, George Brett, Rod Carew, Orlando Cepeda, Andre Dawson, Rollie Fingers, Pat Gillick, Tom Glavine, Goose Gossage, Rickey Henderson, Whitey Herzog, Trevor Hoffman, Fergie Jenkins, Derek Jeter, Randy Johnson, Chipper Jones, Jim Kaat, Tony La Russa, Barry Larkin, Greg Maddux, Juan Marichal, Fred McGriff, Paul Molitor, Jack Morris, Eddie Murray, Mike Mussina, Tony Oliva, David Ortiz, Tony Pérez, Tim Raines, Jim Rice, Cal Ripken, Scott Rolen, Ryne Sandberg, John Schuerholz, Bud Selig, Ted Simmons, Lee Smith, Ozzie Smith, Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, Joe Torre, Alan Trammell, Larry Walker, Billy Williams, Dave Winfield and Robin Yount. Not all would reach 90 percent.

Baseball will never see another class like 1936, but the BBWAA should keep Cobb, Ruth, Wagner, Johnson and Mathewson’s greatness in mind when they vote.

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Cooperstown Must Tighten Standards To Restore Excellence

Employers Voice Annual False Lament About Labor Shortage 

By Joe Guzzardi

People may be fleeing New York and Chicago for sunny Florida, but not many are looking for jobs once they arrive. Or so goes the claim. The Census Bureau identified Florida, whose population between 2021 and 2022 increased by 1.9 percent to 22,244,823, as the nation’s fastest growing state. New arrivals, which include the 3.1 million that relocated to Florida during the last decade, were unevenly distributed among the state’s 67 counties. A third of the newcomers settled in Orange, Hillsborough, Lee, Polk and Palm Beach.

Despite so many new residents, CareerSource Palm Beach County officials said that their analysis of 2023 H-2B foreign worker visa applications showed that a record 52 employers, including hotels, clubs and resorts, are seeking to bring people from other countries to fill an also record number of positions, 3,123. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago and other ritzy golf clubs are among the visa petitioners.

Companies filing requests this year include The Breakers in Palm Beach, BallenIsles Country Club also in Palm Beach Gardens and The Polo Club of Boca Raton. Listed too are 111 positions for the Mar-a-Lago club that serves as the former president’s main residence and another 51 jobs for Trump’s golf clubs in Jupiter and suburban West Palm Beach.

The notion that the nation’s most exclusive resorts can’t find employees, and must import workers, simply doesn’t compute. In addition to the millions of newcomers, Florida has 13 state universities, 26 community colleges and 32 private colleges with tens of thousands of students willing to work to earn money to contribute to their tuition and living costs. But the probability is that those coveted jobs at upscale locations will go to H-2B workers because employers prefer cheap foreign-born, nonimmigrant visa holders to Americans. The White House is onboard with subverting U.S. workers too. Last year, the Biden administration made 55,000 additional visas available on top of the annual 66,000 allotment, the largest H-2B visa increase since 2017.

Every year, the media promotes the false idea that employers can’t find workers and that the only solution is more H-2B visa workers. But a quick look at the southern border proves that plenty of people are available to work, and their totals increase every day. Millions of migrants have crossed into the U.S., with the vast majority having received parole, a classification that includes work permission. Numerous studies published by liberal-leaning Washington think tanks have determined that, despite Chamber of Commerce and other corporate lobbyists’ insistence, the U.S. doesn’t have a labor shortage. After studying the top 15 H-2B occupations that include the leisure industry, the Economic Policy Institute concluded that persistently flat wages undermine the claim that labor shortages exist.

Nevertheless, Congress’ House Appropriations Committee proposed expansions in both the H-2B and the related H-2A guest worker programs for fiscal 2024. Behind closed doors, these increases also might be slipped into a House continuing resolution. Any guest worker visa increase, especially during this extended and ongoing open border period, is a harmful if not devastating blow to low-skilled black and Hispanic Americans who have low worker participation rates and are experiencing rising unemployment. As reported in The Hill on July 7, the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed that “black Americans make up nearly 90 percent of those who are unemployed in the U.S. since April.”

Even though blacks and Hispanics are the demographic that Democrats court and depend on for their re-election, Congress’ annual behind-the-scenes maneuvering for increases in H-2As and H-2Bs stacks the deck against their long-time voting base. The U.S. labor market needs a pause in employment-authorized immigration whether its paroled migrants or congressionally approved visa hikes. In the meantime, if employers sincerely believe that the labor market has a worker shortage, they could adopt the historic, tried-and-true solution – offer higher wages.

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Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Employers Voice Annual False Lament About Labor Shortage 

RFK Jr Is Biden’s Biggest Problem

By Joe Guzzardi

The biggest threat to Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection is not the opposition GOP, but rather fellow Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

If Biden allows Democratic primary debates to take place, and as of early July, neither the president nor the DNC has indicated that they would permit them, Kennedy would have a direct opportunity to challenge the administration’s open border policy that has prevailed since Day One. Under normal circumstances, the incumbent’s party doesn’t hold primaries, but Kennedy is polling at 31 percent in a Newsweek poll taken among 2020 Biden voters, and a Washington Post-ABC poll found that 62 percent of Americans said they would be “dissatisfied” or “angry” if Biden were reelected.

Would-be voters who hope for a more above-board, democratic process got a rude awakening when the DNC rearranged the primary voting states. New Hampshire and Iowa, where Biden did poorly, were pushed back behind South Carolina which essentially sewed up the president’s nomination. For voters who think that the fix may be in, canceling debates and rescheduling primaries that favor Biden give credence to their suspicions.

Unlike Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the border czar, Kennedy has visited the border at hotspot Yuma, Ariz., a town with a population of fewer than 100,000 that is flooded with 6,000 migrants weekly. Officials in the border town say the unsustainable scenario has driven the community to the brink of collapse. Illegal crossers have created $22 million in unreimbursed hospital expenses, and the gotaways trapsing across pathogen-tested agricultural acreage endanger Yuma’s crops, valued at $4 billion annually.

Kennedy shared his first-hand Yuma experiences with Manchester, N.H.’s WMUR9, and brought to light facts, some gruesome, that have been hidden by the establishment media. Kennedy said that he expected to see mostly Central American crossers, but that the first busload was mostly military-age Africans from Senegal. More busloads included families from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tibet, Kazakhstan, Nepal, China, Pakistan and other countries. After a cursory interview with Customs and Border Protection, Kennedy watched illegal immigrants board airplanes provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. While he was in Yuma, Kennedy learned that pregnant migrants occupied 32 of the 35 available hospital beds. Local women have traveled to San Diego or Phoenix to have their babies delivered.

The cartels “control all the immigration,” Kennedy said, and “recognized a huge profit opportunity.” They communicate broadly via videos and social media to recruit people worldwide. The business-savvy cartels have lawyers who work with them in various countries to tell prospective recruits exactly what to do to get into the U.S.: get on a plane to Mexico City where the cartel will help secure a visa, and then get passage on an internal Mexicali-bound plane. Once at Mexicali, the cartel arranges for parking lots full of buses to take migrants on the final leg of their journey.

Meanwhile, for the 1 million-plus legal immigrants who arrive every year, and the millions more who have waited in line for years, Kennedy said that Biden’s border mess is “a stick in the eye.” For citizens who want to maintain a sovereign America, Kennedy stated the obvious: “No country can survive if it can’t control its borders.”

To emphasize the humanitarian crisis that Biden permits, if not encourages, Kennedy spoke of the “rape tree…where the cartels extract their final payment from women who come across.” Human traffickers hang the undergarments of women and young girls as a trophy display and challenge to other cartel members. Amnesty International reported that 60 percent of all women and girls trafficked north to be brought over the open U.S.-Mexican border are raped along the way. Parents send their minor-age girls off with morning-after pills, knowing that rape is probable.

In the end, Kennedy said that the border is “a humanitarian crisis that we’re creating through government negligence. And we need to end it for everybody’s sake.” Assuming Kennedy were to make immigration a campaign focal point, a logical conclusion given what he saw at the border, Biden would have little to say in defense of his persistent disregard for immigration law, as U.S. communities like Yuma have paid the price for his disdain.

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Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.