Importing Professionals

One thing which struck me in the papers this morning is a statistic from Baltimore--10 percent of its teachers now come from the Philippines.  (A while back the Post had an article about a teacher from there who worked in Prince Georges County, but I didn't realize the trend was exploding so fast.)

E-Gov at USDA/FSA

I've always been curious how many farmers actually make use of the e-government options on the USDA website. ("Always" = 1992, back in the old days with Infoshare, which was a pilot project initiated by the Republican administration. The project had lots of hype, but it wasn't clear how many farmers could take advantage.) Now I've seen an indication of the answer.  USDA has submitted for OMB a collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act for the USDA's e-authorization process, the means by which a USDA customer gets a login/password. Level 1 has minimal security requiresments; Level 2 permits doing business on-line, such as applying for benefits, but requires in-person verification.  The estimate of usage is 40,088 for level 1 and 18,088 for level 2.

That seems small, given the option has been available for a number of years. Why isn't the usage higher--my suspicions:"Build it and they will come" doesn't work  But that's probably what's happened in USDA--people have built different functions and put them out, but without any nurturing. The way FSA is organized there's no one in charge of e-government programs, no one to watch how much usage there is, to figure out where the problems are and what the fixes might be.  Conversely, FSA has 70+ years experience of trying to improve service through county offices.

It's also true these e-government options probably don't have great potential to benefit the farmer. Someone who farms in multiple counties might gain, but I doubt they'd gain much.  To see what I mean, look at a contrasting application, Treasury Direct:  If you want to buy a bond from the Treasury Department, you used to have to establish a paper account with an FRB.  Most peopel did their purchases through brokers, paying the service fee.  But with the Internet you can buy on-line without ever talking to a live body at Treasury or exchanging a piece of paper, or paying a transaction fee.

I think e-government won't advance much at FSA until either they reorganize to make it a focus on the program side and/or they're able to provide access to all of the farmer's information, particularly GIS data. Or maybe integrate FSA GIS with the farmer's own record keeping software?

Getting Out

The Times has a piece on the various measures we collectively call "bail-outs", including a discussion of the difficulty of getting out, of unwinding. It reminds me of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, an entity created under the Hoover administration which made loans for various purposes, over the years amounting to close to twice the annual government budget under Hoover.  It took until 1957 to wind down its affairs and close the doors. x

Grand Plans and Sad Realities

All too often people of my stripe get carried away by the brilliance of their own ideas. And sometimes they are able to convince others, convince enough others to get them implemented, at least in part. But when the idea meets the rude reality, the resulting heat is often enough to melt the best idea.

Prof. Negroponte of MIT had such an idea, a simple, tough laptop for the third world. Here's a progress report.

My Mind, What's Left, Is Blown

From the NYTimes:

Vietnam, for years a bitter foe of the United States, is now a friend. The clearest evidence of how far things have changed may be the Ho Chi Minh Golf Trail, a route that connects more than a half-dozen luxury golf courses and resorts. (Like its namesake, the golf trail runs north-south, but presumably the resemblance ends there.)

Who would have thought, when the Johnson administration was debating whether to bomb the Ho Chi Minh trail, they were really debating whether to help create sand traps and water hazards for wealthy golfers?

In Defense of Bureaucrats

Mr. Stier in the Washington Post writes an op-ed saying bureaucrats "...deserve better from their president. As the nation's leading public servant, you are their boss, and they take their cues from you." He's upset by Obama's references to government bureaucrats in the healthcare debate and ends "...you should avoid demoralizing those who are serving their country by portraying them as nameless, faceless "bureaucrats."

I think that's a lost cause--defaming bureaucrats is now too deeply engrained in the political psyche to reverse.  Our only comfort is knowing that while politicians come and go, the bureaucrat endures forever.

Milestones and Memory

The Post today has a nice piece on a schoolteacher using a 9/11 curriculum package to teach the event. It's a reminder that 8 years means there are students who don't really remember 9/11.

It's also a reminder of something I thought of watching the commentary on Ted Kennedy's death. It's been 40+ years since he was elected Senator, so anyone under 55 probably doesn't remember that, despite all the glowing memories and statements about how "we all" remember (the RFK eulogy, probably). Anyone under 60 wasn't really impacted by JFK's death. Few personally recall HST (I claim to be precocious.)  We may live on the same earth but we remember distinctly different worlds.

Kevin Drum on the Blogosphere

If you're at all interested in adult commentary and the blogosphere, read this interview with Kevin Drum.

Organics = Liberal

That's why they can get away with such items for their committee to consider as "Personal Body Care Standards". I can just hear what some on the right wing might make of that.

Good News Day

Seems the child mortality rate in the Third World has dropped dramatically since 1990. Plaudits to the Gateses and all others involved. Not mentioned, but this is a prerequisite to trimming the world's population--if you can be sure your child will live and provide for you, you'll have fewer children, eventually.