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Bill: "Peace Through Strength" & Education Revitalization Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Capitalist Working Families
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This bill proposes to change the allocation of funds in the budget. It requires more than half of the legislature to vote yes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: October 3555
Description[?]:
| Dear the Distinguished Members of the Parliament: (1) As per the State of the Economy, our recent passed proposal to create a *Negative Externality* to discourage *Consumption*-based spending in favor of *investment* spending worked *slightly* by increasing the *investment* component of GDP from 14.25% to 14.27%, or .02 percentage points. However, the increase has failed to alleviate the unemployment situation in Kragusrov which is an unbelievable ***9.30%***. (2) Our evaluation of the passed economic proposal is that it did not work because consumer demand tended to be ***inelastic***, or not responsive to the price level. Therefore, we are recommending that the Parliament revoke the unreasonably high Sales Tax of 35% for non-luxury essential goods such as food and clothing. However, we strongly recommend that the Sales tax on ***Luxury*** goods be kept in place in which the proceeds from the budget surplus will be directed evenly between the Defense Department and the Education Department in order to promote a ***Strong National Defense*** and a ***sound*** privatized education system that is ***publicly financed*** since the people of the Commonwealth of Rutania believe that Education is a ***Negative***-Right of citizens. (3) That being said, according to a recent poll that actually measures the *Will* of the *People* of Rutania, the *People* have spoken by *fulling endorsing* Capitalism and/or ***privatization*** over Socialism and government-run industries by an *overwhelming majority* of ***551/2%***: cf. http://classic.particracy.net/generatepoll.php?nation=6®ion=0&leg1party=0&leg1second=0&leg1voted=0&r11party=0&r11second=0&r11voted=0&r21party=0&r21second=0&r21voted=0&leg2party=0&leg2second=0&leg2voted=0&r12party=0&r12second=0&r12voted=0&r22party=0&r22second=0&r22voted=0&inquiry=opinion&ideology=MAR&election=party (4) First and foremost, the solution on fixing public education can't simply be "give more money" to public schools because the Province of Kragusrov *already* allocates 50% of their cities budget (20 billion RUT) to the Dept. of Education bureaucracy which amounts to 11,000 RUT per child and the public schools are still disgraceful--[NOTE: By disgraceful, we are referring to the fact that poor children are still trapped in failing public schools with a graduation rate of 40%; in some Provinces, that rate is an abysmal 30%]. (5) Second, we identified the problem with public education: the Government has a *monopoly* on education distribution in the cities. In other words, the government "sells" education via the Dept. of Ed to Kragusrov students with ***no competition***. For example, imagine if McDonald's owns *all* of the restaurants in Kragusrov. Then, they can charge any price they want while the quality of the food is decreased. However, when Mcdonald's is forced to compete with Burger King and Wendy's in the same market, the customer gets a better quality hamburger at a cheaper price. (6) Therefore, our education reform plan simply says: (a) The National Government mandates that each City in the Provinces transfer *direct ownership* (the land, property, resources) of their public schools directly to the United Federation of Teachers' union (whose board members are democratically elected by the Teachers) for free where they can manage and control the schools as their own *Private Corporation* and thereby charge tuition for students to attend. Furthermore, the UFT can put the corporation on the Terran Stock Exchange, break it up into 4 Billion shares or so (while keeping 75% of the shares to maintain control), and then sell the remaining shares for a price such as 10-20 RUT per share thus raising *billions* in investment capital to renovate the public schools. If this plan were implemented, then the public school teachers would no longer be working for a miniscule wage by the government but a profit dividend of maybe *200,000 RUT* per teacher, or even more. Moreover, ***educators*** will be making policy/school decisions instead of *Government Bureaucrats*. (b) Then each City then distributes the 20 billion RUT that is earmarked to the Department of Education bureaucracy to ***every*** single Rutanian parent/student via a 10,000 RUT Elementary Pell Grants (e.g. similar to College Pell Grants that the Federal Gov't gives students to attend private colleges) so they can have the freedom to ***choose*** whether to send their children to the UFT's "Union School(s)" or a Patriarchial or ***Secular*** Private school in the market. If the government gave the education budget directly to *parents* to send their children to any school of their choice, it would create a market for private education where *Hosian* Churches (and even *Yeudish Synagogues*) would start their own private schools to compete for the education Pell grants given to parents/students by the Government with the Patriarchial Church. This current bill allows the Education Department of the National Government to give Local governments extra funding to accomplish this ***publicly financed*** Privatized Education system. (c) Remember, the *only* way to improve the *quality* of public education while decreasing the *cost* of it is to create a market for education and letting all of the schools ***compete*** for those education dollars. What are your thoughts? Thank you very much for your potential support. ----Joint Parliamentary Conference by Brandon Adams (Minister of Defense of the Capitalist Working Families Party) & David Yost (Minister of Finance of the Minarchist League of Rutania); |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Sales tax on essential goods such as food and non-luxury clothing.
Old value:: 35
Current: 20
Proposed: 0
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change The education system.
Old value:: There is a free public education system and a small number of private schools, which are heavily regulated to ensure they teach adequate skills and information.
Current: There is a free public education system alongside private schools.
Proposed: Education is private, but the government subsidises the cost of it for everyone
Article 3
| Ministry | Current Budget | Old Budget | Propesed Budget |
| Head of Government | 22,000,000 RUT | 14,750,000 RUT | 14,750,000 RUT |
| Foreign Affairs | 285,000,000 RUT | 354,000,000 RUT | 354,000,000 RUT |
| Internal Affairs | 2,463,000,000 RUT | 708,000,000 RUT | 708,000,000 RUT |
| Finance | 150,000,000 RUT | 253,700,000 RUT | 253,700,000 RUT |
| Defence | 5,624,000,000 RUT | 12,478,500,000 RUT | 19,278,500,000 RUT |
| Justice | 285,000,000 RUT | 767,000,000 RUT | 767,000,000 RUT |
| Infrastructure and Transport | 15,313,000,000 RUT | 5,605,000,000 RUT | 5,605,000,000 RUT |
| Health and Social Services | 28,750,000,000 RUT | 3,835,000,000 RUT | 3,835,000,000 RUT |
| Education and Culture | 16,850,000,000 RUT | 6,785,000,000 RUT | 13,585,000,000 RUT |
| Science and Technology | 6,763,000,000 RUT | 6,785,000,000 RUT | 6,785,000,000 RUT |
| Food and Agriculture | 5,931,000,000 RUT | 383,500,000 RUT | 383,500,000 RUT |
| Environment and Tourism | 1,255,000,000 RUT | 354,000,000 RUT | 354,000,000 RUT |
| Trade and Industry | 2,663,000,000 RUT | 354,000,000 RUT | 354,000,000 RUT |
| Total | 86,354,000,000 RUT | 38,677,450,000 RUT | 52,277,450,000 RUT |
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 05:14:30, October 04, 2013 CET | From | Capitalist Working Families | To | Debating the "Peace Through Strength" & Education Revitalization Act |
| Message | http://classic.particracy.net/viewbill.php?billid=393358 Dear MPR, You originally voted *against* the sales tax increase in the previous bill. How come you are opposed to this bill that *eliminates* the sales tax??? ---Brandon Adams, Minister of Defense |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||
| yes | Total Seats: 275 | ||
| no | Total Seats: 65 | ||
| abstain |
Total Seats: 215 |
| Random fact: There are two countries based on Egypt in the game. Cobura is based on modern Egypt with a retro twist, while Hawu Mumenhes is based on Ancient Egypt with a modernist twist. |
| Random quote: "When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'" - Martin Luther King Jr. |