Milwaukee Post
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/100931
December 28, 2012 ��� Milwaukee Post ��� 11 State awarded federal grant for Early Learning Challenge Post Staff MADISON ��� Wisconsin was selected to receive one of the coveted Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge federal education grants, it was announced recently . The state will use $22.7 million in funding to advance current state initiatives targeted at early childhood development. Wisconsin is one of five states that were eligible for funds in the second round of funding in 2012. ���Wisconsin has long been a leader in providing quality early childhood education,��� Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement. ���These funds will support innovative initiatives that will improve quality and outcomes for children, as well as create efficiency and accountability within the system.��� The state had proposed an ambitious reform agenda that built on the its commitment to highquality early learning and development programs. It also incorporates recommendations made by the Governor���s Early Childhood Advisory County in its 2011 report to Walker. According to a release, the Department of Children and Families is the lead agency for the four-year grant and will focus the funding on improving the YoungStar program to better serve high-risk children, help providers improve their YoungStar quality rating and strengthen efforts to engage parents and improve their children���s early learning and development. ���All children need to be ready for school and it is imperative that we address the school readiness gap that exists between kids of different economic and racial backgrounds,��� Department of Children and Families Secretary Eloise Anderson said. According to a release, the grant also will help build an early learning and development service delivery system across three state agencies, the Department of Children and Families, Department of Public Instruction and the Department of Health Services. It will provide resources to the three agencies to build an early childhood data tracking system that will allow the state to align services and standards across such programs as YoungStar, HeadStart or 4-year old kindergarten, and track outcomes so that quality improvements can be targeted to those programs where the most high-risk children are enrolled. Additionally, the DCF will also pursue the creation of a private-public partnership board that will leverage private-sector resources and engage communities to improve early childhood development. The DPI will provide additional coaching and mentoring in line with the state���s model early learning standard. It also will support efforts to improve early childhood teaching preparation programs, and data systems. ���High quality early learning opportunities are key to preparing all students for school success and reducing achievement gaps before they start,��� state Superintendent Tony Evers said. ���This grant significantly strengthens the partnerships that provide for Wisconsin���s youngest children and our future.��� OPINION Wanted: A few Wise Men Matthew Good is having a ... well, a good Christmas this year. Matthew was the second winner in the $587.5 million Powerball Jackpot drawing on Nov. 28. Matthew didn���t want to come forward until all the feverish excitement had died down. The enviable winner resides in the salubrious Fountain Hills section of Phoenix, Ariz., and wanted to claim his winnings sometime in 2013. Mr. Good had a 180-day grace period to assert his claim of the lump sum, post-tax prize of $192 million. Good was enjoying his anonymity consulting with his financial advisers until he was told lottery winners��� names in Arizona are a matter of public record. The Associated Press had already filed an open records request, so it was just a matter of time until we all knew who had the big payday. Good and his team of financial advisers really had no choice but to come forward. In exacting his bounty, Good, this son of America, a country whose national ethos includes a set of ideals with a cornucopia of freedoms that include, among others, the opportunity for prosperity and success, even when it comes with the purchase of $10 in lottery tickets, used uncouth words. The rapacious gambler stated he took his winnings this year instead of the next calendar year because of the looming fiscal cliff crisis. That���s correct; the $192 million-winning unctuous pissant Matthew Good inferred he wanted to escape the prospect of paying a tiny bit more in taxes. Because he was new to the tony neighborhood, a small number of Good���s neighbors had acknowledged few in-depth interactions with him but that did not stop them from stating Good was the ���best darn neighbor anyone could ever have.��� The prospects of a new playground and community center seem a little more likely now. In keeping with Good���s cocksure tax dodge, we should not be surprised about another tax issue related to greed during this season of giving. There is currently a hot-button issue being quietly lobbied on Capitol Hill that has to do with the taxation of charitable deductions. I hold a slightly contrarian, perhaps more libertarian view of charitable tax deductions. I don���t believe you should receive any tax deduction for charitable contributions, but that���s not practical. Taxpayers have been allowed deductions for charitable giving in this country for almost a hundred years. In 1917 congress passed the War Income Tax Revenue Act because Americans were paying income taxes at a rate of 77 per- Murph Speak TODD ROBERT MURPHY cent to fund the war. So the act was passed as a way to relieve tax burdens and encourage charitable giving. Did you catch that, everyone? The tax rate was 77 percent. Currently, 32 percent of Americans itemize their taxes. These folks tend to be the wealthiest of Americans who have many tax advantages. And, 82 percent of that 32 percent claim charitable deductions, and it���s estimated that those deductions amount to $170 billion in charitable contributions. This is a good thing. However, there is a ���not so much of a good thing��� going on and it makes for very strange bedfellows. As it now stands, if you have a few more bucks than 67 percent of Americans, for every $10,000 you give to charity, you get a $3,500 deduction or 35 percent on each dollar, regardless of tax bracket. For the fourth year in a row, President Obama has proposed the rate be 28 percent, so that $10,000 contribution would only get you a $2,800 deduction, or 7 cents less on each dollar you give. The funny thing is that the people who you���d think would not be allied with the silk stocking gentry in their support for keeping the deduction at 35 percent are the non-profit groups. In fact, the Council of Nonprofits is leading the charge in Washington to preserve the larger tax deduction for the richest households in America. That���s right; the food pantries, churches, synagogues, domestic violence shelters, early childhood programs and many other worthy charities have thrown in with the money changers. I understand why. They think if the rates for charitable deductions are lowered to 28 percent from the current 35 percent, the haut monde among us will give less. It���s an emotional ���Catch-22��� for the nonprofits but it just doesn���t seem to pass my smell test. On Christmas Eve, my dad looked like a traffic cop in the foyer of our house, taking coats and welcoming family and friends and even strangers into our home. My mother was the consummate hostess; refreshments were replenished regularly and there was an abundance of food and drink. All were welcome. My dad would love stealing away a few moments with our many guests to discuss the issues of the day. The celebration of Christmas would go on long after the triumph of my weary eyes into blessed sleep. My parents were generous souls but their quiet benevolence extended far past our doorstep. My mother was somewhat of the unsung heroine and she would abhor any type of recognition for their acts of kindness. It was the faces of children in other households whose hearts were much lighter on Christmas because my mom, a person who gets things done, made the hearts of children much lighter this holy night with her quiet giving. All my siblings were aware but we really didn���t know ��� if that makes any sense. I can���t imagine my dad ever took into consideration the potential tax advantages of helping those who needed a helping hand. Of all the acts of kindness and generosity I observed from my parents, not one of them had a measurable quantitative value on anything but the individuals themselves. I think if anything, the tax deduction they would have earned would have cheapened the quiet meaning of the act itself. A couple of weeks ago, I stopped to pay my respects at the funeral services for our childhood next-door neighbor. She was widowed at age 40 and left to raise eight children; the youngest was still in diapers. I had not seen any of the eight children in a few decades or in some cases longer. As my wife, Mel, and I met in the funeral home lobby with some of the children I commented what a special person their mother was, given all that she had to bear when their father passed. They all agreed and noted she never complained. Then the second-oldest, one of three daughters said, ���We couldn���t have done it without the help of great neighbors.��� Somewhat chagrined I said, ���Yeah, those Kripeendoffs were great neighbors.��� Everyone chuckled and then she leaned in and kissed me on the cheek and said, ���Thank you.��� I know I was sheepishly and undeservedly accepting the loving expression of gratitude as a surrogate for my mom and dad. Melony, Albert and I wish you all the love and loyalty of family and friends and a very blessed holiday. Mise le Meas (Todd Robert Murphy pays attention; you can contact him at toddrobert@wi.rr.com.)