[nostatic]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Some comment:

Minimum standards at the federal level, all based on the three R's. We don't need the incredible mess that is the education bureaucracy to tell us what needs to be done. Politics invade at both the state and federal level, but the mistakes are magnified when the Dept of Ed goons it. Let state and school districts experiment if they want. Pay good teachers what they are really worth and change will follow.

The pay part of the equation is key, and I'm fine with having the states deal with most of the admin. But there has to be some fed bar to jump over.

Not sure. Health care is the 800lbs booger. HC needs revamping but it must include real reform in tort, pharm, etc.

Agreed. In my previous post I mentioned tort/insurance reform. They have to go hand-in-hand. I think that a "civilized" society really should provide a certain level of health care though. How we best achieve that without bankruptcy is the trick.

No funding for art at the federal level. None. State, sure.

I think we'll agree to disagree on this one. I'm not really clear on the details of how this would work, but I think that the arts are part of our national identity.

Agree but it would be a nightmare to manage...I have some ideas on incentives and think that the appropriations for the project must be clearly tied to metrics and benchmarks. Insane amounts of money could get wasted

So in other words, don't let SAIC run it?

Metrics and sane deliverables are key. But frankly overhead costs have just become ridiculous. We need to crack that nut.

Roles and missions need to be constantly refined...Gates is actually doing a good job. We simply cannot afford the military in it's current livery...manpower is an overwhelming bill that will have to be paid in the coming years. We are at the point in the curve where we are gold plating weapons systems to the point of absurdity. Best is the enemy of good enough and we can't afford billion dollar aircraft. Unmanned vehicles will rule the next century.

You get no argument from me...if only the contracting process could be a little quicker we might be pushing the UAS even harder into the next level

I think money needs to focus on efficient training and keeping people out of harms way. Education/training, intel, and UAS all help do that. Gold plated tanks don't.