From "Is $34.06 Per Hour 'Underpaid'?" in today's WSJ:
1. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public school teachers earned $34.06 per hour in 2005, 36% more than the hourly wage of the average white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty or technical worker.
2. The urban areas with the highest teacher pay are famous for their abysmal outcomes. Metro Detroit leads the nation, paying its public school teachers, on average, $47.28 per hour. That's 61% more than the average white-collar worker in the Detroit area and 36% more than the average professional worker. In metro New York, public school teachers make $45.79 per hour, 20% more than the average professional worker in that area. And in Los Angeles teachers earn $44.03 per hour, 23% higher than other professionals in the area.
3. Evidence suggests that the way we pay teachers is more important than simply what they take home. Currently salaries are determined almost entirely by seniority -- the number of years in the classroom -- and the number of advanced degrees accumulated. Neither has much to do with student improvement.
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Friday, February 2, 2007
Teenage Unemployment
From today's BLS employment report:
1. Overall unemployment rate for January: 4.6% (up from 4.5% in December)
2. Unemployment rate for teenagers: 15%
3. Unemployment rate for black teenagers: 29.1% (240,000 unemployed)
4. Unemployment rate for white teenagers: 13.2% (793,000 unemployed)
Bottom Line: There are currently more than 1 million unemployed teenagers who are actively looking for employment and are unable to find jobs.
Question: Will a 40% increase in the minimum wage make it EASIER or HARDER for these 1 million unemployed teenagers to find jobs? See the cartoon above for the answer.
1. Overall unemployment rate for January: 4.6% (up from 4.5% in December)
2. Unemployment rate for teenagers: 15%
3. Unemployment rate for black teenagers: 29.1% (240,000 unemployed)
4. Unemployment rate for white teenagers: 13.2% (793,000 unemployed)
Bottom Line: There are currently more than 1 million unemployed teenagers who are actively looking for employment and are unable to find jobs.
Question: Will a 40% increase in the minimum wage make it EASIER or HARDER for these 1 million unemployed teenagers to find jobs? See the cartoon above for the answer.
The New Big 3: GM, Toyota, Chrysler
From today's Detroit News: "For the first time in recent memory, Ford Motor Co. fell to No. 4 in U.S. auto sales behind General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp., and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group, demonstrating just how far the automaker has fallen as it battles to stop a decade-long decline in market share.
At the same time, the Detroit automakers' share of the American auto market fell to just 50.6%in January as they narrowly avoided selling fewer cars and trucks than foreign makers in a month for the first time ever."
MP: 1.09 million vehicles were sold in January, and 16.55 million vehicles were sold in 2006. At an average price per car of $20,000, U.S. vehicle sales in 2006 were about $330 billion. To put the size of that market in perspective, if the U.S. vehicle market were to be considered as a separate economy, it would be the 21st largest economy in the world, after #20 Sweden (GDP of $354B), and ahead of Saudi Arabia ($310B), Austria ($305B), Poland ($300B), Indonesia ($287B) and Norway ($283B).
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Interesting Research
From an article in the Chronicle for Higher Education:
"More than a quarter of the black students enrolled at selective American colleges and universities are immigrants or the children of immigrants, according to a new paper by sociologists at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania.
The finding suggests that native-born African-American students are even more underrepresented at selective colleges than is commonly understood. The paper is likely to add fuel to a long-standing debate about the meaning and purpose of affirmative-action programs.
Selective colleges have expanded their enrollments of black students by "increasing the number of immigrant and multiracial black students," said Camille Z. Charles, an associate professor of sociology at Penn who is one of the study's authors.
"If you're a purist" -- that is, if you view affirmative action as restitution for the harm done by American slavery and segregation -- "then you'll think that this is not in the spirit of affirmative action," Ms. Charles continued. "But if you're a diversity purist, and your idea is to expose everybody to as many different kinds of people as possible, then you'll think this is great."
"More than a quarter of the black students enrolled at selective American colleges and universities are immigrants or the children of immigrants, according to a new paper by sociologists at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania.
The finding suggests that native-born African-American students are even more underrepresented at selective colleges than is commonly understood. The paper is likely to add fuel to a long-standing debate about the meaning and purpose of affirmative-action programs.
Selective colleges have expanded their enrollments of black students by "increasing the number of immigrant and multiracial black students," said Camille Z. Charles, an associate professor of sociology at Penn who is one of the study's authors.
"If you're a purist" -- that is, if you view affirmative action as restitution for the harm done by American slavery and segregation -- "then you'll think that this is not in the spirit of affirmative action," Ms. Charles continued. "But if you're a diversity purist, and your idea is to expose everybody to as many different kinds of people as possible, then you'll think this is great."
Euphoric India Becomes a World Power
From the IHT article "Corus takeover turns India euphoric"
"India, a former British colony, is discovering that it is far better to take over than be taken over.
India erupted with serves-them-right jubilation this week when Tata Group, an Indian conglomerate, won a bid for the Corus Group — the Anglo-Dutch descendant of British Steel — for more than $12 billion, the largest acquisition ever by an Indian firm. Headlines spoke of empires striking back, while pundits and industrialists said India had at last arrived as a world power.
The takeover of Western companies by Indians has struck many here as evidence of a delicious reversal of fortune: a once-proud civilization, having fallen to the humiliations of colonization, is now buying out the hallowed corporations of the West."
"India, a former British colony, is discovering that it is far better to take over than be taken over.
India erupted with serves-them-right jubilation this week when Tata Group, an Indian conglomerate, won a bid for the Corus Group — the Anglo-Dutch descendant of British Steel — for more than $12 billion, the largest acquisition ever by an Indian firm. Headlines spoke of empires striking back, while pundits and industrialists said India had at last arrived as a world power.
The takeover of Western companies by Indians has struck many here as evidence of a delicious reversal of fortune: a once-proud civilization, having fallen to the humiliations of colonization, is now buying out the hallowed corporations of the West."
Borat Banned in Russia
People in Russia won't be able to see the movie Borat, not legally anyway. The BBC reports that the Russian Culture Ministry has refused to give the film a distribution license because it could humiliate members of some ethnic groups and religions.
What would Ali G say? Me thinks that's racialist, innit?
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