Go with what works: not big government
August 29, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward
The real lesson of Hurricane Katrina: private organizations, not governments, respond most effectively to disasters.
Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi a year ago today. The category three displaced hundreds of thousands of people and caused billions of dollars of damage. A year later, life has yet to return to normal.
Heritage national security expert James Carafano writes in The Philadelphia Inquirer that America needs to learn not only what went wrong after that disaster but what went right.
Not only have we fixated on only one kind of disaster; we also have come to expect that in the wake of any catastrophe, Washington should be able to solve all of our problems. That’s a terrible idea. In fact, the opposite is true - and Katrina proved it. The most rapid and effective responses were those of local communities.
One district in Louisiana, for example, had 40 operating shelters in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Tens of thousands of people were sheltered and fed by local groups. Local faith-based organizations responded quickly and effectively by providing facilities and resources and by mobilizing volunteers - all without government direction or assistance.
In fact, Louisiana residents generally rated the assistance provided by private sources such as nonprofit, community, and faith-based organizations substantially higher than they did assistance from federal, state and local governments and national organizations such as the Red Cross. Local groups are and will always be the core of any effective response by a community to disasters large and small.
To prepare for future disasters, Carafano concludes, “We should be building on the successes that saved lives—not simply throwing Washington’s time and money at the problem.”
Success for school choice
This has been “a breakthrough year for school choice,” Heritage education expert Dan Lips writes. While many students still attend failing public schools, tens of thousands of students are now able to attend better schools thanks to school-choice programs.
In 2006, more than 100,000 students will participate in tuition scholarship programs that allow families to choose the right school for their children. Half a million children will benefit from tuition tax breaks to help pay for private school tuition. And more than a million children will attend one of the nation’s 3,700 public charter schools.
Next year, even more children will benefit from school choice. Already during the 2006 legislative session, eight states—Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wisconsin—have created or expanded parental choice programs. Next year, nearly 150,000 students in ten states and the District of Columbia will participate in tuition scholarship programs.
Unfortunately, far too many children lack these opportunities. Powerful interests—liberals and their labor union allies—are doing everything they can to block the reforms that would properly educate the next generation. But the tide may be turning.
As Lips writes on FoxNews.com, children attending Baltimore’s city schools are among the many who would benefit from a new federal program designed to encourage school choice. “The city’s high-school graduation rate has slipped below 40 percent—worse than every city in America except Detroit,” he explains. “Some 22,000 students languish in schools that have failed state benchmarks for six or more years.”
The Opportunity Scholarship Initiative could help turn Baltimore schools around by giving “private-school scholarships to disadvantaged students in some of the country’s lowest-performing public schools.” Strong evidence, Lips continues, suggests that such a program would help students at both public and private schools as the government-run schools improve their standards to compete for student dollars.
Playing make-believe with taxpayer dollars
The federal government has decided to play games with the budget instead of prioritizing and making real cuts where necessary. The Associated Press reports that the government will withhold Medicare payments for the last nine days of the fiscal year, Sept. 22 to 30. By doing this, the government will shuffle $5.2 billion onto next year’s budget.
These sorts of tricks don’t get rid of the problem of overspending on costly entitlements. Shuffling money around just hides the problem and allows lawmakers to pretend the problem doesn’t exist. Playing make-believe is no way to manage taxpayers’ money.
Congress needs to address the real issue: runaway entitlement spending. Spending on Medicare and other programs is set to grow out of control, and it’s high time our leaders stopped looking the other way.
In other news
- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld expressed frustration yesterday with how easily terrorists “manipulate the media” with their propaganda. “They are actively manipulating the media in this country,” he said, adding that the terrorists can “lie with impunity” since they are held to no standards of honesty.
- A passenger jet crashed outside Lexington, KY, on Sunday after veering onto the wrong runway during takeoff. 49 people on board were killed.
- The northern edge of Tropical Storm Ernesto brought rain to southern Florida this morning. The storm is expected to make landfall tonight after briefly strengthening. Before being downgraded, Ernesto was the first hurricane of the season.
- Mexico’s special electoral court yesterday overruled a leftist challenge to the country’s presidential election. Vote tallies, nearly complete, suggest that the more conservative Felipe Calderon won the election.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.
- On Wednesday, September 6 at noon, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) will discuss the need to restore public confidence in our immigration laws by controlling the border and enforcing the law internally.
- On Wednesday, September 20 at noon, Heritage hosts a special screening of Things of the Spirit , a film on the personal and political life of President Calvin Coolidge, who was more than the “capitalist tool” he’s remembered as.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
