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05/03/2007: "Commissions, Hospitals and Education"

I never thought I’d live to see Stan Lundine’s name again in print. The former Congressman from Western New York who Mario Cuomo tabbed in 1986 to serve as lieutenant governor and whose career went downhill as a result, was chosen by Governor Spitzer to head a commission whose mission is to reduce the number of taxing jurisdictions in New York State.

While I’m happy to see the governor recognize that New York is being strangled by the vestiges of an antiquated governmental octopus, I am concerned that Lundine may not provide the leadership needed to combat those who are happy with the status quo – including the major political parties.

The success of the commission will depend in large part on Mr. Lundine’s leadership style. If he is passive and accommodating, then excuses will be found to do very little and to do it slowly. On the other hand there may be a ray of hope if he recognizes that it is critical to act now in order to give New York in general and upstate New York in particular a chance to avoid going down in the history books as America’s 21st century version of Appalachia.

This could be your legacy Stan. Give it all you’ve got.

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Has anyone wondered if there’s a connection between the crisis facing hospitals in this country and the continued existence of a separate government-run system of VA hospitals? The VA system was leaking oil long before the Iraq conflict, resulting in many veterans receiving second class treatment in poorly run, deteriorating institutions. Iraq has brought that system to its knees as evidenced by the recent scandal at Walter Reed.

Non-VA hospitals are also in crisis due to changes in medical technology which has resulted in shorter stays and alternatives to hospital care. Instead of accepting the need to change, however, many of these institutions are fighting to hang onto their 20th century way of life. The solution? Vouchers for veterans. Let veterans chose where they go for medical treatment. This should result in competition to provide attract veterans’ dollars, giving VA hospitals a reason to shape up and non-VA hospitals an opportunity to serve a new patient community. If it turns out that veterans prefer going to non-VA hospitals, as I believe many will, then the VA can start closing institutions. Separate but equal was deemed unconstitutional when it came to education. Why should it be any different when providing health care to the men and women who risk life and limb in our armed forces?

P.S.: Some will defend the VA system by pointing out that it has expertise in treatment war-related injuries. But it doesn’t follow that the VA system has to be in the healthcare delivery business. It can continue to develop specialized treatments that can be exported to non-VA hospitals in a fashion that allows the system to re-coup the cost of developing those treatment modalities.

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It’s a sad day when special needs children are being treated in negative ways in the name of treating all people alike, but that is what is happening in many of our schools.

Back in my day, special education kids were kept away from ‘normal’ children. No wonder many of us displayed a lack of compassion whenever we encountered those children.

The mainstreaming movement was motivated by a belief that separating children was not good for either group. However, in the name of equal treatment special education children are getting millions of dollars worth of services that they cannot benefit from as well as patronizing behavior from teachers, aides and administrators.

What does that mean on a day-to-day basis? It often means that there’s no expectation that these children pay attention, work on school related activities or even wash their hands when they come in from the playground for lunch. Putting such demands on these children may be met with resistance or failure. Thus, many teachers and aides compensate for the bad break the children have suffered by not expecting or teaching them to behave ‘normally’ or achieve academically.

Worse are the misallocation of expensive services driven by parents who have now started suing schools if their children do not receive the most outlandish devises and benefits. (See “A Costly Education,” Forbes, April 9, 2007.) Some parents find they can avoid having to work for a living by constantly advocating for more government benefits.

As a final blow to these children there is almost no supervision of teachers in special education. Administrators for our most school systems have no idea what these children are or are not capable of achieving. They therefore place little or no demands on the teachers. An annual review might consist of sitting in on a class for a few minutes and making sure the paperwork is filled out properly.

Computers and other advances in medicine and technology offer hope that children who in the past might have languished can today hope to lead productive and semi-independent lives. But without educational leadership another generation is likely to be lost to an educational system that pretends to be committed to leaving no child behind and to parents who measure educational quality by the amount of money the government can be forced to spend on their children.