Higher Learning - letters - Letter to the Editor

Reason, June, 2001 by Michael W. Lynch

Since this was Cato, Fuller was outnumbered three to one. Dennis Coates, an economist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, was the toughest adversary. He employed a PowerPoint presentation to expose the flaws common to the studies that justify public financing of stadiums. "If you hire a contractor, what would you call it?" he asked. "A cost, right? The state calls it a benefit." Coates also helpfully explained the technical term "opportunity cost," which he says the studies rarely account for. "Most people understand opportunity cost at an intuitive level," he said, perhaps thinking of his wife. "If I'm laying on the couch drinking a beer, then I can't be mowing the lawn."

Fuller retorted that he didn't need to account for opportunity costs, since the bonds are revenue-backed and therefore don't crowd out other meritorious public investment. Said Fuller, "There's no limit to revenue-backed bonds, so long as you have the revenue."

Yet Coates wouldn't budge from his contention that the joy of stadiums doesn't stem from a stimulation of local economies. In a study of 37 cities that funded stadiums, he found no economic benefits to the communities. Not surprisingly, it's the owners and players who make out.

That said, Coates didn't categorically rule out publicly financed stadiums altogether. Using Baltimore's Camden Yards ballpark as an example, he said it cost, on average, $14 a year per person in the metropolitan statistical area. "If that's worth it to you, then you should support it."

Subj: It's about freedom

Date: 4/04/01

From: mwlynch@reason.com

Theodore J. Forstmann made a triumphant return to the National Press Club. It was there three years ago that the New York financier announced the formation of the Children's Scholarship Fund, which raised $200 million to provide partial private school scholarships to 40,000 low-income children, including 400 here in the District of Columbia. He was surprised, and then inspired, when more than 1 million families applied for the scholarships.

Today he announced a new group, Parents in Charge, and a new national campaign. On hand: Joseph Califano Jr., secretary of health, education, and welfare during the Carter years; Martin Luther King III; Guy Doud, the 1986 National Teacher of the Year; and Rose Blassingame, whose inspiring efforts to educate her grandchildren in D.C. are chronicled in my January 2000 article, "Rampaging Toward Choice."

Forstmann is launching a major campaign to educate parents on their right to choose where their children attend school. "It will look like a national political campaign without a candidate," said Forstmann, explaining a model that might work well for the next presidential election. "The idea is to get millions of parents to join us and demand the rights they once enjoyed and were taken away from them.

The press conference was filled with hyperbole and a bit of insight (making it, on balance, distinct from most such events). Califano praised Forstmann for providing "a cry in the wilderness of a desolate public education system in this country." Guy Doud provided some well-rehearsed humor, thanking the moderator for getting his name right: "Recently I was introduced and they called me 'gay dude.'" "We need more choices," he said. "I love coming to a city like D.C. I'm from a small city in Minnesota where we have a small number of restaurants. Here I can have Indian and [other ethnic foods]. We need that choice in education." Martin Luther King III brought it back to Pops. "My father really challenged America to be a better nation," said King. "We are challenging our educational system to be the best it can become. We are nowhere near that today."