Too many bad ideas for 100 days

If it wasn't for the Goldwater Institute, I'd certainly have more free time because I wouldn't have to beat them up on some of the truly brainless ideas they throw about. In Wednesday's (18 Jan 2006) free advertisement in the East Valley Tribune, the Institute's president and CEO, Darcy Olsen hands down from the mountaintop their "100 ideas for 100 days." That's the amount of time the Arizona Legislature is supposed to be in session.

Since there are 100 of their "ideas" and they're pretty short, I'll attempt to do the same here. Not that all of them are bad, but some are downright silly. Here goes.

Dumb education ideas:

#4: "Early education funding should be modified into direct education grants to families."
Why it's a dumb idea: First, what new State bureacarcy will handle administration of these grants and ensure they will be used as intended and not to buy a car or bills? Second, why not give it to the schools, which already has the systems in place to manage them, and let them enhance existing programs, especially since most parents will likely send their kids to public schools anyway.

#5 "Create the nation’s first statewide system of direct education grants, allowing parents to use their child’s portion of state equalized base funding to pay tuition at a school of their choice."
Why it's a dumb idea: Again, uses money to create a new state bureacracy (isn't this more and bigger government?) to allow rich folks to underwrite their tuition fees with taxpayer's funds because they know most parents don't have the time to haul their kids to private schools when the public school bus comes directly to the neighborhood.

#6 "Consider creating education savings accounts for families, providing more cost effective use of funds, greater choice for parents, and a wider range of opportunity for students."
Why it's a dumb idea: Parents already have this capacity. There's also the "Gifts to Children Act" that is a great way for parents and grandparents to set aside money for their kids education.

#9 "Require the Arizona Department of Revenue to honor requests of tuition scholarship organizations to post their financial information so donors can review salary, overhead, and related administrative expenditures."
Why it's a dumb idea: I can't find any reason why these tuition scholarship organizations can't post their financial information if they want to. We need to grow the bureaucracy to do this, too?

They have 25 “ideas” for education and 18 require increasing the size of government to implement those “ideas.”

“Idea” 37 would eliminate corporate income taxes. Corporations should then pay for their own sewer systems, police and fire protection and educate their employee’s children, too.

Of their 51 “Economic Prosperity” ideas, 22 have to do with tax cuts or reductions in rates. Of those 22, 15 would reduce revenues to the state that would make their 25 educational “ideas,” among others, impossible to implement for lack of funds.

Goldwater would eliminate state medical oversight. They would tax freeway use for people who live in “congested” areas. They want a new State bureaucracy to manage conversion of HOV lanes to a toll-road. They think private sector management of state services is always less expensive (remember Halliburton?).

Comedian Lewis Black called Republicans “the Party of bad ideas.” Since so many of Goldwater’s “100 ideas” grow the size of government while at the same time starving it and destroying existing capabilities, they clearly prove his point.