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Get riled up with the AJC!
Naturally I was drawn to Cynthia Tucker and her column “So . . . illegals can work but can’t learn?”
Since 2000, Georgia’s colleges have employed a sensible policy that recognizes the academic potential of some illegal immigrants without swamping the state treasury. The Board of Regents voted to allow public colleges and universities to admit them if they pay out-of-state tuition rates. But the regents also gave each college president the latitude to waive that higher tuition for a limited number of students. That policy has worked well.
When I took a public finance class (around 1995 or so) at UGA I remember hearing that tuition covered about 20% of the actual cost of college for the average student. Out of state tuition was about two and a half times that of in-state tuition, so even if illegals are paying the out of state rate taxpayers are still picking up part of the bill. They are also displacing legal students who would otherwise be accepted. Also note how government acceptance of illegal activity doesn’t faze her at all.
She closes with
But Johnson has described employers who hire undocumented workers as only “part of the problem. If they [illegal immigrants] are here working and not using taxpayer funds, that’s not as much of a burden.” So, he said, he and his colleagues will take a close look at any proposal to crack down on hiring practices, making sure new laws don’t “impose an undue burden” on employers. After all, business executives are a reliable GOP constituency, and they fight any move to curb their access to cheap labor.
Apparently, Georgia’s official policy is this: We like illegal immigrants just fine, as long as they work for dirt and stay out of sight. They’re welcome to pay state income tax and local sales taxes, but that’s where the welcome ends.
Well, yes. You try to maximize the benefits while minimizing the price. How revolutionary. One thing to note, is that the current situation is entirely dependent upon the voluntary behavior of the illegal immigrants. Under the reign of cruel business they still don’t have to come here.
About 9 years ago I attended a Future of Freedom Foundation seminar on illegal immigration led by Jacob Hornberger (who, if memory serves was a really nice guy and a class act in general) who suggested that we let them come over to work but deny them all health, social and educational benefits. His prediction was that our kids would work for their kids.
I think that’s worth a shot. It’s certainly better than the look the other way policy we have now. It would also keep the self selection going in the right direction.
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Stuck on stupid
One of the generals in charge of the NO cleanup delivers a smackdown to some earnest reporter type.
I think we’d all be better off with more of this. Journalists seem to think their entire job consists of asking loaded questions at press conferences instead of actually going places and discovering things.
I would also like to see the dollar cost of each story to the network or paper. Are you listening PJ Media?
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Merits a read
This story about a carjacking in North Cobb is quite worth the read.
When I just ran the spell check the Blogger software wanted to replace “carjacking” with “churchgoing”.
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Got the laptop case
Oddly enough, I got the laptop case today. Still no word on when the new Dell will ship.
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Emo Reporting
The current trend of newscasters morphing into viewer advocates is shameful to behold. Instapundit put it very well in his latest MSNBC column.
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Sheehan gets weirder
From her blog on the Huffington post
if a human being is hungry, then it is up to another human being to feed him/her. George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power.
Pull out of New Orleans? How would we feed the hungry there? The conspiracy theories of New Orleans have gotten downright incoherent.
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Prediction
Bush will nominate Janice Rogers Brown to take over the Sandra Day O’Connor slot. Three names must replace 3 names. Also she’s a black woman, and pleasantly libertarian as well.
You heard it here first. I also think she will be announced right after Roberts is confirmed.
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A pleasant surprise
For no particular reason I happened upon on the Tracy Chapman on the Tavis Smiley Show. I barely remember any of her songs, but I recall not liking any of them in particular (too earnest). So I was pleasantly surprised by her performance on the TS show. It was polished, refined and overall a very fine performance.
What struck me most was the difference her guitar made. I’ve been accustomed to hearing dreadnoughts for so long that the sound of a regular OM (I think) was striking, particularly since she did not belt out the song (she sang at a fairly moderate intensity). Now I really want to get an OM model as a third guitar, but I probably won’t.
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Observation about Clinton
I saw Clinton (Bill) on This Week yesterday. Stephanopolous was giving one of his usual sympathetic interview to his old boss. Clinton said nothing surprising, the only memorable quote was that “we should not allow the enterprise in Iraq to fail”.
The amazing thing though was his ability to turn every question into a discussion revolving around himself. Be it the Tsunami, Katrina, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, it all soon became “What I would do” in such and such situation. Every single topic. Amazing.
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Statement of no progress
The Erie PA pizza bomb case remains unsolved with no leads. It’s good people are still paying attention to it. My original post about it was here.