California’s 1978 tax revolt, Proposition 13 and Ronald Reagan’s promise to “get government off our backs” ushered in “morning in America” and unrelenting darkness for the poor. Will Bunch’s book, Tear Down this Myth, puts a corrective lens on the misty-eyed nostalgia of that legacy:

His 1981 tax cut was followed quickly by tax hikes that you rarely hear about, and Reagan’s real lasting achievement on that front was slashing marginal rates for the wealthy – even as rising payroll taxes socked the working class. His promise to shrink government was uttered so many time that many acolytes believe it really happened, but in fact Reagan expanded the federal payroll, added a new cabinet post, and created a huge debt that ultimately tripped up his handpicked successor, George H.W. Bush. What he did shrink was government regulation and oversight – linked to a series of unfortunate events from the savings-and-loan crisis of the late 1980s to the sub-prime mortgage crisis of the late 2000s.

Indulging our belief that taxes encourage bloated, ineffective government, we shrunk taxes and funding for social services, and looked away as unions became weak, while well-paying manufacturing jobs fled the country. Declining real wages and rising housing costs now cause 12 million people to pay over 50 percent of their income for housing. Combined, these forces chip away at the structures that support the middle and working classes. Poor families, vulnerable to every storm, such as illness or losing a job, live on the treadmill of choosing to buy food, or medicine, or pay the rent, or buy gas for the car. Struggling to stay afloat leaves scant life energy to  nurture, nourish and educate children to become the confident, intelligent, compassionate adults that we desperately need.

The consequences of this stinginess is more bizarre, irrational and even violent behavior. In the wake of the collapse, we helplessly watch neighbors, friends and families slip through the cracks to land on a concrete safety net.

California’s Proposition 13 has put the state in a vise. Did adults pass this legislation?

.. resulted in a cap on property tax rates in the state, reducing them by an average of 57 percent. In addition to lowering property taxes, the initiative also contained language requiring a two-thirds majority in both legislative houses for future increases in all state tax rates or amounts of revenue collected, including income tax rates. It also requires two-thirds vote majority in local elections for local governments wishing to raise special taxes…. Passage of the initiative presaged a “taxpayer revolt” throughout the country that is sometimes thought to have contributed to the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980.

The New Jersey governor announced a budget that remedies it’s nearly $11 billion deficit by cutting spending – laying off 1,300 workers and cutting $820 million in aid to public schools – rather than increasing taxes.

For the country that sent men to the moon, discovered the cure for Polio, and rebuilt Europe after World War II, how did we become tolerant of families, children and veterans being homeless? The corrupting influence of money on politics. Lobbyists spent $3.47 billion in 2009 influencing Congress. Did they represent your interests or big pharma, big agriculture, health insurers and the banking industry?  This must be the government that we deserve. Congress, paralyzed and dysfunctional, reflects our culture and our tacit allowance of money to corrupt what was once a somewhat venerable institution. Reining in lobbying will be tantamount to eradicating cockroaches.

The responsibility of living in a democracy is being vigilant and requiring that our fellow citizens have a decent place to live and a fair shot at succeeding in life. Yes, it will require higher taxes. If you love this country, children, and feel gratitude for veterans’ sacrifices, think of it as giving back or paying it forward.

Don’t you want to say lead, follow or get out of the way? Politicians who extend a life line to struggling Americans, will get my vote. That won’t happen until we build it from the ground up and show Washington a better way. That will take time. Until then, we cannot wait for government to fix what is broken, we must create a new model in which we help each other. Communities that support each other will be safer, more vibrant, with better health and education outcomes. In other words, a decent shot at life for children and a dignified existence for everyone, particularly the elderly and veterans.

For more info: New Community Vision is working to spawn a movement to think about our social and housing paradigms in a new context. Community gatherings to address our universal challenges are the fertile soil in which durable solutions take root. Please subscribe to this blog and contact us for more information.

Students with astronaut Nancy Currie, PhD

Thirty years of fiddling, and ain’t-it-awfuling, hasn’t made a dent in the tragedy of  our children being cheated out of an adequate education. No child left behind’s focus on test scores has left learning behind. When the dismal scores pile up, we typically go after the teachers and the schools, the obvious culprits, right? Central Falls, Rhode Island plans to fire all of its teachers at the end of the year. Forty percent of the children at this school live in poverty, less than half graduate from high school on time and only seven percent of 11th-graders performed grade-level math. This is a travesty.

One thing is certain: if children do not arrive at school ready to learn, teachers cannot teach. To be ready to learn, a child must have had a good dinner, a good nights sleep, a good breakfast and an emotional state that permits concentration. How many children in that community meet those criteria? How many children in this country meet it? Indeed, how many adults do?

Diane Ravitch, education historian observed that dismal education performance is caused by being on the “have not” end of the household income demographic.

The fundamental issue in American education – I say this after 40 years of having read and studied and written about the problems – is one that is demographic…Poor children…simply face too many problems outside the classroom. If you don’t buttress whatever happens in school with social and economic changes that give kids a better chance in life and put their families on a more stable footing, then schools alone are not going to solve the problems of poor student performance. There has to be a range of social and economic strategies to support and enhance whatever happens in school.

So, as tempting as it is to blame the teachers and the schools, they can only work with what they are given. Einstein observed that you can’t solve a problem at the same level of mind that created it. We expect schools to pick up the slack for parents who are stretched very thin. Last year, when schools closed during the H1N1 flu scare, it eliminated the only meal that some children would receive that day.

Firing more teachers and creating more charter schools is not going to solve the education problem if the root cause is poverty and dysfunction. If we broaden our scope and begin to think of creative ways to support our communities, and see people and resources everywhere lying fallow, we could think of a new way utilize them. The economic collapse has taken a severe toll on every sector. Tens of thousands of social workers, substance abuse and domestic violence counselors are collecting unemployment.  Can’t we come up with some way to tap the hard won skills that are trapped in their hearts and heads when we need them more than ever?

It is painfully obvious that no government program is about to be hatched that can solve our problems. Therefore, the solution has to come from within our communities. When the Supreme Court reduced Exxon’s penalty for the Valdez oil spill from $5 billion to $507 million, Cordova, Alaska residents, turned to each other. Rikk Ott, PhD said “After our fish runs collapsed, we had nothing more to lose. When you reach that point, it’s very freeing … you have only each other.” When they accepted that help was not coming from the outside, they turned to their community to heal from within, achieving impressive results.

Here is one idea: bolster families by bolstering communities. When communities gather to brainstorm for solutions to our universal and wrenching problems, in an environment where people can talk about what they need, they may discover that someone with the capacity to meet that need lives on the same block. When communities respond appropriately to each other, with genuine care and helpfulness, we will learn that we don’t have to handle everything alone. Families and communities will become strong, resilient and healthy. Children, living in safe, secure environments that nourish their bodies and souls, will soak up knowledge in vibrant, thriving schools.

For more info: New Community Vision is working to spawn a movement to think about our social and housing paradigms in a new context. Community gatherings to address our universal challenges are the fertile soil in which durable solutions take root. Please subscribe to this blog and contact us for more information.

Photo credit: Students with astronaut Nancy Currie