No one is really solving the money problems at Milwaukee Public Schools, but finally the school board is at least talking sense about some of the costs. Last night the school board made it clear that if MPS teachers want the district to restore teaching positions (particularly in elective-type areas like art and music), they would have to help the district cut costs.

The teachers in MPS are overpaid, thanks to the hard work of their union. The problem with MPS is not “lack of funding” which is often cited. It’s the employee costs. In March it was reported that the average MPS teacher salary is $56,500, with an average benefits package of $43,505,  for total average compensation of $100,005 per teacher. That’s simply more than the job is worth, and more than the district can afford. While employees everywhere are taking cuts in pay and benefits, the teachers of MPS keep being given more and more.

Yesterday it was reported that Milwaukee Public Schools is cutting 684 jobs, which includes 260 teachers. The reason? Out-of-control employee costs, thanks to the teachers’ union.

The first thing you’ll hear is how the district doesn’t have money, and more tax money needs to be directed to MPS because it’s for the children. But the problem is not that the district doesn’t have enough money. I’ve reported several times on how the enrollment is declining while the budget keeps going up. The total budget gets increased year after year, and on a per student basis, the budget is skyrocketing. Witness:

On January 7, 2009, Barry Minkow and the Fraud Discovery Institute issued an initial report on Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN), citing 10 Red Flags of Fraud.  Lennar immediately came forward and called FDI and its investigators liars, saying in one press release:

Today convicted felon Barry Minkow, acting as an agent for a disgruntled litigant, Nicolas Marsch III, posted false and inflammatory accusations concerning Lennar.

Every year we hear how Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has a budget problem. We’re told they simply don’t have enough money to operate the school system. That is an outright lie.

Every year they increase spending. Here is a breakdown of the budget and enrollment by year:

The 07-08 budget was $1.19 billion. The 08-09 budget was $1.24 billion. The 09-10 budget was $1.34 billion.

And it’s worse if you look at spending per student. In 06-07, they spent  $12,976 per student. In 07-08 they spent $13,758 per student. In 08-09 they spent $14,520 per student. In 09-10, they spent $16,385 per student.

There are many different types of welfare. There are straight-up handouts to those who haven’t earned them. There are programs to bridge a gap and help a family in dire need. There are things like unemployment, which people somewhat earn while they work, and collect after they lose a job. There are tax “credits” which are a fancy way of disguising welfare payments. Most are bad. Some are even worse.

And this story on WalletPop.com about a man on unemployment emphasizes why it is so important to reduce all welfare to the absolute minimum, helping only those who are worst off and in an emergency situation.

You don’t have to look far for examples of the ineptitude of the American Government. They waste billions and billions of dollars each year, but somehow, we’re supposed to believe they’ll do better with health care?

Hardly. It’s not even a challenge to find examples of waste and mismanagement in our government. And it would be irresponsible for citizens to believe they’ll do anything different when they’re in charge of our health care. In addition to the massive amount of money our government will waste, they will simply do a bad job with health care. Sorry, but I trust my current doctor more than I trust the system.

Timothy Sykes is a fantastically successful blogger, penny stock trader, and educator. He makes a living by teaching people how to recognize “pump and dump” schemes by penny stock promoters… and then short those stocks for a profit. They make money when the price of the stock they’ve shorted goes down… which is inevitable if you can identify a stock that is all hype and no substance.

What is a pump & dump? Essentially the promoters of a virtually worthless stock (worthless, because the company is a sham of some sort) do mass mailings of marketing materials. This is the pump. They hype a company with false and misleading information, hoping to interest people in buying the stock (taking long positions). As those people start buying up shares, the price of the stock rises rapidly. While this is happening, people who previously held the stock start selling (at an inflated price, thanks to the all the buying activity generated by their hype). This is the dump. The people selling make a ton of money on their stock.

Overstock.com (NASDA:OSTK) is truly the gift that keeps on giving if you are a fraud investigator. The company and its wacky and incompetent CEO Patrick Byrne have been caught in yet another lie.

The antics of Overstock, Byrne, and paid stalkers Judd Bagley and Mark Mitchell have been documented over and over. I’ve really only touched the surface of this issue. Journalist Gary Weiss and reformed criminal Sam Antar have documented all the gory details.

One type of case I really enjoy working is suspected arson. On either a personal or business level, an insurance company may be looking for a motive when arson is supsected. A difficult financial situation is one obvious motive for arson.

Today’s article about a fire at the house of a women accused of defrauding Wisconsin’s child care system brought this to mind. Latasha Jackson has gotten rich off of providing daycare services in the city of Milwaukee. But not just any daycare services. The ones paid for by the Wisconsin Shares program, essentially a welfare program that pays the daycare costs for low income families.

Back in the day, a government-run delivery service was a good idea. It put some quality controls in place and made the service more reliable. People could actually count on their letters getting to their final destination.

But in this day and age, the U.S. Postal Service is no longer needed, and I suggest that we get rid of this drain on tax dollars.