The Curmudgeon Speaks

Cindy and I have been able to avoid COVID until this morning. I have had a deep cough. I used a self test kit two days ago and generated a negative reading. Symptoms (the cough) have grown a little worse. I had already decided not to attend this morning’s outing because it is raining and I did think I would like walking in a cold rain. Cindy convinced me to take the test the boat makes available (the one with the deeper sinus swab) and this came back positive. 

Cindy is still negative. It would have worked out better if the self test had come out positive because we could just isolate while we were on the boat. We had extended our trip by four days to spend some time not on the boat in Switzerland. If all goes well, we now must stay one day in a hotel and the find a way to catch up and connect with the tour group. I want to delay the long plane flight until I feel better.

A short note. The Pfizer vaccine was developed in Mainz, Germany. This happens to be where we are. As part of the walking tour that included the museum, the guide identified famous residents past and present. We learned that the researchers working with BioNTech (Ozzie and Tureci) responsible for the Pfizer vaccine live and work here. Ironic. No complaints regard the vaccine. So far I am fairly comfortable. 

We have been stranded.

We were returning from watching one of our grandkid’s games when the engine began cutting out and the check engine light came on. This is not a pleasant situation when trying to get through Minneapolis traffic during rush hour. The reliable Dodge Durango now sits in our driveway until mid-October. We have had to cancel a road trip we had scheduled.

Here is the rest of the story. When we purchased this car we added an unlimited warranty. Why not just take the car in? We tried to phone our dealer for an appointment and were told there were no openings until mid-October. Cindy called Dodge to see where the warranty would be good and we were told we could use other Dodge dealerships, but after checking for us we again were told the earliest opening was mid-October.

I am not a car guy, but based on experience as a car owner my guess is that the problem is a tank of bad gas, a clogged fuel filter, or the fuel pump. We could just go to any repair shop and this would make sense if the problem is the gas quality or the fuel filter, but we would have to pay to replace the fuel pump and I am guessing that is pretty expensive. The appointment falls into the category of “diagnostic” according to Dodge and evidently, there aren’t a lot of slots for diagnostic visits.

We have been getting around with my Ranger pickup so we are not totally dependent on walking. I keep wondering what happens to people with one car in a similar situation? You must have to rent a car for a month or so. Is this another example of the recently common problem of not having enough workers with the necessary expertise? Maybe we should not have told them we have an unlimited warranty.

Strikes seem to be everywhere and the influence for me is close to home. First, it was the Teacher’s strike in Minneapolis. Now, it is the Nurse’s Strike. Soon it is predicted to be BNSF (railroad). Two teachers are married to my own kids. Two of my kids work in health care. The railroad is the most cost-effective way to bring resources to the upper midwest. The consequences are immediate.

One of my daughters is a physical therapist with a practice specific to the physical damage done by childhood cancer and chemotherapy. She was very upset last evening being pressed into service to help in the child cancer ward to substitute there for the nurses that would normally care for these children. These are the same children and families she works with as a therapist. I don’t know if physical therapists have a union or not, but she was not pleased with the attitude of those in the nursing union who thought they should have a 30% increase in salary over the next three years and how they decided to pressure the hospital to respond. I understand the hospital offer to be about half of that amount. She cares for the same children, goes to the same funerals for some of her patients, and is a dissertation short of her PhD. (Not DPT) so I respect her opinion on the situation. 

I have done a great deal of thinking about the recent circumstances that have impacted who are commonly called essential workers.  Are essential workers taken for granted? I suppose so. Are they underpaid? Perhaps more accurately, are they underpaid because they are essential. I don’t know and this is what I have been trying to work out for myself. Clearly, nurses working in critical hospital settings can argue that their labor is essential. Does this type of work warrant more money because it is essential? Ask parents how they considered the absence of teachers to care for their children during the pandemic or during a strike. Aside from the obvious mission of educators to educate, one could argue that any productive engagement of children so parents can pursue their own occupations is essential. Part of the reason the economy was thrown into chaos during the COVID pandemic was the lack of care for children. This role in combination with the concern we now have for children being months behind when it comes to normal academic progress clearly justifies the label of essential worker for educators. I really think that many more occupational roles qualify as essential. How about the role migrant workers play in tending and harvesting crops or butchering chickens and turkeys? If you value fresh fruits, pork, and chicken, you should probably consider their labor to be essential. 

Just what is fair when it comes to salaries? Working conditions are important too, but salaries seem to be the issue that eventually becomes the sticking point and what catches the attention of the general public. What should the role played by a union or the immediate impact of a job be on the functioning of others in influencing salaries? When is leverage acceptable to secure the salary you want?

I certainly don’t have the answers, but I have been trying to review the work of some economists whose work seems to focus on this issue. My investigation has been specific to K12 education because I have an interest in this vocation and because the data are available. 

It is important to admit that I have no background in economics. I can read what economists write and I think I understand the logic related to the arguments they make, but I write this without knowing for sure.

One approach economists take is to compare the average salary for one vocation (educators) with the salary for comparable occupations. This makes some sense, but while this logic was explained in most sources I read online, my background always encourages the examination of the methodology applied in research. How are key variables operationalized? So what is meant by “comparable vocations”?

Finding the specifics was not easy, but here are a couple of examples. 

The NEA offers some data on comparable salaries and in one study I located this list of vocations:

Accountants and auditors, Architects, Archivists, curators, and museum technicians, Clergy, Compliance officers, construction, health and safety, and transportation, Computer programmers, Conservation scientists and foresters, Counselors, Editors, news analysts, reporters, and correspondents, Human-resources, training, and labor-relations specialists, Insurance underwriters, Occupational therapists, Other teachers and instructors (excludes preschool, K-12, and postsecondary), Physical therapists, Registered nurses, Technical writers.

I would not include several of these occupations. I know, for example, that physical therapists and occupational therapists are now required to secure a three-year doctorate to be licensed in the states most familiar to me. You can at least begin teaching with a BA/BS. Comparing starting salaries given these different economical demands would not seem appropriate. What about computer programmers? Anyone can learn to program. I programmed in several languages during my career without ever taking a course. However, I also know that getting an undegrad degree in computer science is challenging and while it may anger some I will suggest that getting through such a CS program is more difficult than meeting the requirements for a teaching certificate. 

Here is a different list. This is the collection used by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) I find it more reasonable.

“ …workers with comparable skill requirements, including accountants, reporters, registered nurses, computer programmers, clergy, personnel officers, and vocational counselors and inspectors …”

Both the studies conducted by the NEA and the EPI concluded that teachers were paid less than those in comparable occupations.

Here is a related argument I find most convincing. Comparable occupations may be difficult to define in a way that does not involve opinions about competitiveness and difficulty of getting through qualification requirements (e.g., what proportion of entering college freshmen have the aptitude in a given major). However,  trends should be informative if comparable groups are compared over time. From this perspective, K12 educators are losing ground. Whether it be starting salary, average salary, etc., the gap between educators and comparable vocations is growing. So avoiding arguments about whether groups being compared are similar, it seems to me that the gap should not be increasing if fairness was really being applied. 

If you are interested in specifics, here is an interactive page allowing users to select their state from a map and obtain data on teacher salaries.

The Biden commitment to forgive part of college student loans has generated a mixed reaction. Republican critics see it as unfair to those who have repaid their loans and those not attending colleges. This is a complicated issue and not a topic I can address fully here. I would like to take on one piece of this puzzle. This piece concerns the cost of higher education and the role tuition serves paying these costs.

I have a specific context from which I view this issue. I spent 17 years as the chairperson of a Psychology department at a small state public university. I use the word university here in a specific way because so many institutions now describe themselves as universities. My situation was at an institution with multiple graduate programs assuming students in most of these graduate programs would commit to their education full time for several years most likely spending their time working on campus. The institution also generated sufficient external funding and published research to be classified as R1/R2. This ranking is important because it plays a large role in the types of external grant funding you can apply for and are in a position to compete for successfully. Both of these factors are important because they strongly influence both how you must spend money and whether you receive external funding.

The funding for the operation of a university of the type I have described comes from multiple sources – tuition, state appropriations, alumni/other contributions, and grants. The point I want to be understood is that several of these categories are competitive and the institution must spend money to compete for funding. The obvious example here is what it takes to qualify as an R1 institution. To qualify in this category, an institution must have the infrastructure and human capital to be regarded as worth the investment from granting agencies. Grants at this level can be massive and typically come with overhead. This category of the money awarded is intended to cover the infrastructure costs of the university at a general level. So money spent here can be applied to cover costs of buildings and labs, library resources, technology infrastructure, etc. The university’s value beyond supporting the grant’s work is that these services benefit all.

Institutions hoping to compete at this level and perhaps not yet there or on the margin of being successful, face a chicken and egg problem. To compete for this type of money, the institution must have the quality of research faculty producing quality work, the infrastructure necessary to implement a sufficient quantity of such work, graduate students who both support and benefit from involvement in significant work, etc.. You must already be successful to secure the resources you need to be successful. There are special funds set aside for aspiring institutions, but you can only promise so many times and you really need funds from other sources to make it into the highest categories. If not already clear, the faculty and grad students capable of doing the work at this level are more expensive to hire and keep. 

Tuition dollars are another category that involves a significant competitive component. The quality of the institution, money available for student support, quality of the athletic programs, living and dining facilities, access to campus health clubs, etc. are all part of the investments that appear to attract some students. The game involves attracting more tuition dollars than what you invest to attract these students. Increasing the tuition and fees charged students can be part of this process and again where does the investment cause the return to head in a negative direction? What do the buildings look like? What does the student Union look like and what amenities does it provide? What meal options are available on student meal plans? Are the tickets to athletic events reduced in price (or free) and how many seats are set aside at the lower price? Does the health club made available to students have plenty of pool space and plenty of basketball courts? Are aerobic classes available and free? Are the programs with low enrollments, high costs, and little chance of securing external funding available just because they provide opportunities that play a role in offering students a total educational experience? 

It is my impression that the state support category has decreased and the tuition expectation has increased. Of the four types of resources I have mentioned, all are interrelated and tuition and state support are related closely. 

Maybe I am wrong about student expectations for services not directly influencing their classroom experiences. I don’t think so, but I also am careful to describe college as a setting that provides important experiences happening outside of the classroom. Money invested to create a diverse student body is part of this experience. Money spent to encourage a life-long interest in a healthy lifestyle is important.

What about tuition? I believe tuition plays a larger role in the total budget than it used to. Maybe this is fair and maybe not. How much should one expect from the state when only a certain proportion of the citizens benefit directly from a given institution? How much of the increase in tuition is a reaction to the expectations of students and would there be ways to change expectations for unnecessary services? How should state funds be allocated across the type of institution I have described here and the institutions falling into other categories? 

My point to everyone jumping to a quick decision about high tuition costs (beyond the issue of loans and loan costs) is that the factors influencing tuition levels and the role tuition plays in college budgets are complicated and there are many interrelated variables that must be considered. 

A couple of informative sources related to the tuition controversy:

Sacramento Bee

Washington Post

The next school year approaches and the big news is that many districts are still searching for teachers. Solutions range from increasing salaries to retain more existing teachers to allowing first responders to teach. As a retired educator, some of the factors associated with the difficulty of finding and retaining qualified staff are easy to understand and accept, but other issues are infuriating and the solutions irrational. The proposal to bring first responders into classrooms is one of the solutions that seems completely bonkers. Yes, people tend to hold first responders in high esteem, but what about the backgrounds of firefighters or police officers would provide the content knowledge and social skills necessary for them to succeed in classrooms?

Yes, certain factors associated with the decline in the number of those interested in teaching make sense. The pandemic was particularly difficult for those adults trying to accomplish traditional duties at a distance or in environments that might be face to face one week and at a distance the next. Salaries that are marginal given the education required and the college debts to repay. Educators must listen to comments about their summers off.

These issues aside, the assumptions of parents spurred on or lead by politicians telling educators what they can and cannot teach would really get to me. Yes, public educators are employees of the people, but they are also trained professionals. State legislatures have proposed 137 laws in 2022. All but one were proposed by Republicans. Most have not passed, but the sentiment and the attitudes that are conveyed have a chilling impact and also encourage parental activities supporting similar expectations.

The analysis defines educational gag orders as “state legislative efforts to restrict teaching about topics such as race, gender, American history, and LGBTQ+ identities in K–12 and higher education.”

I can see why many teachers feel disrespected.

Efforts to restrict the teaching of racism and bias

State legislatures propose education gag orders

School culture wars

Becker (MN) teachers sue over school gag order

We took the road from southern Oregon to Winnemucca, Nevada, today. It is an interesting trip for several reasons – i.e., the isolation with no gas stations for at least 100 miles, roads with great views and drop offs into deep canyons.

Here is one of our more unusual experiences. We encountered two herds of cattle being driven toward us on the highway. We had to stop and wait while the cattle passed around us. We had brief conversations with the cowboys as they passed. Not your everyday experience.

Additional experiences from our trip are offered on my travel blog – Grabe Travels.

We have not been able to a long road trip for several years, but we are now driving from Minnesota to the west coast. So far things have been going well and we have had a great time watching the flat lands of mid America drift by.

I have a travel blog keeping a record of our trips for the past five years. The blog is photo heavy with personal comments about the locations we visit,, If you are interested, the blog is available at GrabeTravels.

I have joined Truth Social. I think of it as watching a bit of Tucker Carlson on Fox News. I did this as a type of experiment. Could I engage with the Trump supporters who are offering comments I know are false, respond with fact check links or links to evidence contradicting what was claimed, and engage in what I call argumentation. I write about argumentation as a learning activity a lot. If the term puzzles you, translate it as debate.

One of the most prolific posters on Truth Social (I am not sure what the equivalent of a tweeter is on Truth Social) is Dinesh D’Souza. Dinesh is one of those individuals would posts continuously originating or relaying any negative comment about Biden, Pelosi, the Jan 6 Committee, or Democrats in general that he can find. I often respond to indicate that the claims made can be evaluated using a site like Politifact or pointing to other sources disputing the claims made.

Here is the type of thing I encounter. The following post appears to be a short statement explaining a link. When you enter a link in a social media service (e.g., Facebook), you often get something similar to this link. The title and intro sentences are automatically generated with an image from the post. This is what commonly happens. Here is what is problematic and outright deceptive about this specific D’Souza post. Note the word I have enclosed in the red box.

Like I said, when you link to another online article with a link in a social media service you typically get what you see here – the title, intro comments, and a photo. I spend a lot of time in Wisconsin (I am in the state while I am writing this) so I follow the political scene in the state. I was interested in the Republican activities contesting the 2020 election and wanted to read this new development. The following is what I found when I followed the link.

Read the title. The word “of” in the D’Souza post has been substituted for “if” in the actual title. This completely changes the message. Of course, if fraud is proven this is a serious issue. The point is that it has not been proven and “of” has been substituted to imply a very different meaning. One of those autocorrections or finger fumbles while typing. This is not the way a link in social media works. The individual posting the link just enters the link and the image and text are selected as part of the feed. The title has been altered.

Strawberries grow well in Northern Wisconsin and we spend time near a great berry farm. You can purchase for $20 a bucket or pick your own for $12. We took the gang at the cabin and made short work of picking. I designated myself the documentarian.

Click for a short video – https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TbZ8zcnGFBA

Lindy’s Berries Facebook page – an interesting site offering daily updates of interest to those wanting to pick their own or to those wanting a short-season job picking berries. The pay is $4 per bucket and a 5 hour work day.

I grew strawberries as a kid in our home garden. There is a lot of work and the process takes a couple of years. Picking weeds out of a strawberry bed led me to believe purchasing berries at the store was the way to go. I have no idea why their fields have so few weeds. I am guessing the following is year-one – no harvest the first year.

We have installed solar panels on our home and I thought others might be interested in the economic impact. We were able to able to add 13 panels which is determined by the orientation of our house.

Our system allows Internet access to the data from our system which I have attached below. You can see that the productivity of the system varies day to day depending on cloud cover. I assume this should be one of best months because of the length of daylight.

The system allows a user to enter the cost per kWh from your provider and you can generate an estimated value of your system. As you can see, the system generated $64 of power in June.

This amount of power was not projected to cover the cost of our system over the anticipated life span. We knew this going in and made the investment trying to do what we could to change the source of the electricity that we use.