Dept. of Education Rewards Incompetence Just Like the IRS

Oh it's so fun and easy to poke fun at government and its bureaucracies.

Hopefully all of you have heard about the IRS agents that didn't pay their taxes that received bonuses. How about the Department of Education employee that gives advise on student loans that self admittedly made mistakes on her student loans?

The stupidity of this is astounding. Nicole Callahan released an article named "4 Mistakes I Made With My Student Loans and How You Can Avoid Them." This is not advise from someone in the public sector but someone that works for the government. Her position? Digital Engagement Strategist at the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid.

Yes. She openly admits she made mistakes on her student loans and yet gets a job related to student aid. What could go wrong?

So what were her four mistakes?

I should have kept track of what I was borrowing
I should have made interest payments while I was still in school
I should have kept my loan servicer in the loop
I should have figured out what my monthly loan payments were going to be BEFORE I went into repayment

Half of her problems were "I didn't do simple Math."

However she is only a "Digital Engagement Strategist" and hence she is just more web designerish right? (Don't let Obamacare roll out affect you judgement of government web technology experts) Let's blog-search her name.

Oh no!

About 120 results

Let us list every headline associated with her name. Page one only.

• 6 Things You Must Know About Repaying Your Student Loans ...
• 4 Mistakes I Made With My Student Loans and How You Can ...
• Need Advice About Your Student Loans? Your Loan Servicer ...
• ED.gov Blog
• 7 Ways to Promote FAFSA Completion at Your School | ED. ...
• 5 Reasons You Should Complete the Free Application for ...
• 4 Common Student Loan Mistakes | ED.gov Blog
• 5 Things You Need To Know About Your Student Loans | ED. ...
• 7 Things You Need Before You Fill Out the FAFSA | ED.gov ...
• 4 Things to Do During Your Student Loan Grace Period | ED. ...

So there may be a bit of advice coming from Nicole on about 120 articles? And how does she describe herself in the 4 mistakes article?

So while I don’t claim to be a student loan expert, I have learned a lot of lessons along the way, mostly through trial and error.

Admits not an expert. Is this government promoting incompetence or an individual covering their posterior?

Shouldn't the Department of Education use an expert to give advise on student loans? Why are they using an amateur?

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Crazy Grants : July 10th

Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science for Research Relevant to the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (P50)	$4,000,000
More research into how bad tobacco is so that it can be used in regulations policy.
Climate Change and Archeology in Northwest Alaska: Nuluk STudy	$47,000+
Study how in the past man reacted to climate change. Study how climate change will affect archaeological sites.
Strategic Trade Management Law Industry Outreach - Mongolia	$200,000
Influence Mongolia's trade laws.
Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Pacific Northwest CESU	$124,000+
Study Alaskan trout.
Fuel Tax Evasion Intergovernmental Enforcement Grants	$2,000,000
Find people evading the fuel tax. I can do that. One year later : Looks like everyone is honest. No evasion here. Can I have my money now?
Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission - 100th Meridian Initiative	$49,000+
Don't let zebra mussels spread into the Columbia River Basin.
ADVANCE: Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers	$9,900,000
Get more women into STEM ( Science, technology, engineering, & Mathematics ) because a lack of diversity means that those areas do not perform well. Also, teach everyone more women need to be in STEM otherwise STEM will suffer. STEM suffers if there is not enough vaginae in the field.
Computer and Network Systems (CNS): Core Programs	$60,000,000
Computer R&D. This should be handled by the private sector only. No place for government unless done internally in the intelligence community.
Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF): Core Programs	$100,000,000
Computer R&D. This should be handled by the private sector only. No place for government unless done internally in the intelligence community.
Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS): Core Programs	$100,000,000
Computer R&D. This should be handled by the private sector only. No place for government unless done internally in the intelligence community.
Nitrogen: Improving on Nature	$8,000,000
Good lawrd! The hubris of it all! Quote from the grant: The ultimate aim of this Ideas Lab between the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in the UK is to help meet the challenge of sustainably producing enough food for a growing population while reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The grant is about greenhouse gasses resulting from the production of nitrogen in fertilizer and how unused nitrogen in run-off enters the environment. Warmer weather is GOOD for plants. CO2 is good for plants. Nitrogen is 78+% of the atmosphere. WTF is this really for?
Today's Total	$284,320,000+

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Crappy Idea

This is what you can call extreme recycling. In China toilets are being recycled into school desks! Maybe that is what the U.S. Department of Education needs to buy when providing their crappy education.

Okay. That's unfair. This month they are promoting appreciation and study of the Arts in school.

That is fine and dandy except for a more recent release of some statistics, to which I want to say:

RACISM PREDICTION

A new blog post at ED.gov is titled "New Data from U.S. Department of Education Highlights Educational Inequities Around Teacher Experience, Discipline and High School Rigor." The very first paragraph is as follows:

Minority students across America face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous high school curricula, and are more often taught by lower-paid and less experienced teachers, according to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

You can see how this will become the next big racism story. The problem is that the government that pushes for equal outcome, not equal opportunity, are the ones running the schools. Their own policies are producing unequal outcomes. [ See the inequalities in chart form. ]

So why did I mention the Arts? Because Calculus is mentioned as the lacking rigorous high school curricula. The way I see it is "you cannot have everything. What do you want? Art or Calculus?"

If we want to be honest about this study, can we get some literacy rates with this too? What if the schools lacking Calculus have low literacy rates? Remember the following quote/saying/meme:

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

To state the obvious: the results in these statistics are not based alone on the availability of certain classes and teacher pay scale. The social and economic makeup of each district drive these numbers. Cost of living is different everywhere. What will the DoE push for? A flat pay rate?

There will be no flat pay rate. Unions control the education system. Seniority equals pay increase. Low seniority teachers are first to get cut. So if the problem schools and children have low payed inexperienced teachers, blame the teachers with seniority for not requesting transfer to these schools. Blame the unions for ensuring a balance of seniority and new teachers. Blame the DoE for not ensuring a balance.

That is not going to happen. The system will keep the inequality alive and blame it on racism. Next they will say they need more money to fix the problem. How? Probably promising to give teachers more money to teach in the problem schools. That would be followed by seniority staff complaining about not making as much and demanding a raise.

But that is just a prediction. The good news is most predictions are wrong, and I am just a cartoon dog.

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UPDATE: March 10th,2012

It seems that this wasn't much of a prediction. This story actually started hitting sites the day before my prediction. It has just gone unnoticed and not made big news front pages.

But the stories out there are claiming racism.

I will try to get my predictions ahead of the curve next time.

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Math Money

Do you hate Math? Why? It is easy money.

A woman in Texas has won four multi-million dollar lotteries.

Luck? Perhaps, but she is a Mathematician with a PhD in statistics. Coincidence? Or maybe it is time to hit the Math books a bit harder.