Recommend this

I am now done with the first phase of my COWS project. I have a decent draft of a tuition reimbursement policy recommendation. It's pretty sweet. It pretty much only applies to Wisconsin, but it could be adapted if there are any lawmakers in other states willing to put the appropriate statutes in place to make the policy possible for your businesses. I'm waiting to hear from you, America.

I don't understand it

I was just reading the Austin American Statesmen's sport section and noticed that UT running back Selvin Young is on academic probation and is taking classes at ACC this spring. While maybe it's not unusual for a college football player's grades to slip during the season, what they demand of those kids to generate some revenue is a bit intense, I'm not sure that I understand how a kid who was hurt and sat out the entire season can use that as an excuse. Sure, my minor was sport and exercise psychology, so I'm well aware of the negative effects of not participating on highly trained athletes, but I had lots of bad shit happen when I was an undergrad and I made it through okay. I didn't have the benefit of a team of tutors whose sole responsibility is to see that I do well in skill. It's a shame that the kid couldn't make the most of his situation and focus on his classwork.

One down

I hate applications, but I'm thinking that my one completed internship application may not be enough. Perhaps, I should get on the ball. I've applied to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. I'm almost done with my Congressional Budget Office application, that's due at midnight tomorrow. Apply for the sexy ones first.

I have a question that I'd like answered, but apparently nobody has really answered it. Joe Soss says that I should answer it myself, which seems hard. I guess that's why I'm in graduate school, to answer questions. Here's the question: I'm looking at Earned Income Credits. It's a nice state tax policy and a complement to the Earned Income Tax Credit. Past data indicate that EICs are much better incentive to get people into work and off of welfare than is the typical southern welfare policy of small welfare benefits and harsh sanctions. It would seem that EICs would be a great component to any state's welfare program that would have very small administrative costs. It would also get people into work and subsidize their wages. Seems like a good idea to me. It also seems to be policy that is very consistent with most of the southern states that handouts are bad and people should work for the money. This policy not only rewards work, it provides an incentive for work. I'm thinking of changing my stats project to looking at this question. It's late though. It would mean a ton of work. So, if anyone has any ideas, send them my way. And yes, I know that this kind of policy can't work in Texas because there is no state income tax which makes it difficult to provide someone with a refundable state income tax credit.

UPDATE: Not that anybody is keeping score at home, but I now am officially applied to the CBO as well.

I learned something today

What I've learned is that, as free labor, I should never ask questions at work. These questions result in more work. If you don't understand, consider this:

My job at COWS is to write a small policy recommendation for how companies can alter tuition reimbursement policies to make them more applicable to contract division worker training. What this means, is that sometimes businesses in Wisconsin contract with technical colleges to provide very specific training for their workers. This could be basic, technical, or soft skills (management type), training. Tuition reimbursement programs don't cover this type of training. Either the businesses pay all of the costs, or they pay overhead and the employees will pay the entire tuition. If it were a standard class towards a degree or certification, the tuition reimbursement programs typically would cover some of the employee costs. We've come up with a good way to change this policy. So, I ask my bosses this simple question: "Do we know how often tuition reimbursement programs of the participating companies are utilized? With that information, we could better illustrate the potential of such programs." Now, I've got a survey about all sorts of aspects of job training and tuition reimbursement to put together. I've also got a new paper to work on about other types of job training programs. I'm taking Social Welfare Policy and Management this semester. We've been focusing on human capital development for the past three weeks and it is about to drive me crazy.

Too much workforce development makes Brendon something, something.

How do you do MTV2

Meredith just called me away from my busy fake studying to show me a Jimmy Eat World video on MTV2 that was of a song about getting out of a crappy small midwestern town that was shot at Madison West High School in my current city of residence. Immediately after that, was a random montage of the Austin Rollergirls.

One of those tests

Have you ever felt like screaming, "What the fuck was that?" after a test? I hate tests like that.

So, well, hmmm

I guess you could say that posting has been relatively sparse lately. Once in about two months is nothing if not sparse. I have an advisor now. Strangely enough, his wife is my boss at my internship. This means that one couple controls my destiny. I'm working on my first stats assignment of the year, and it's not going terribly well. I'm struggling with SAS. Sure, I got an A in AP Computer Science in high school, but clearly none of what I may have learned still resides in my brain. That's what years of social science and sandwiches will do to a man. How do you test factors that mediate a kids perception of the chance that they will graduate high school by the age of twenty, or that they will graduate college by age 30 if you can't get the stupid program to let you create a variable that will turn that into a dummy variable. Beyond that, the project is going swimmingly. Wednesday is the day that my policy analysis professor begins what he calls pop-briefings. He randomly selects some students and makes them give a five minute briefing on their analysis project which is immediately followed by a five minute question and answer period. I get to study ways to reduce the property tax burden on low-income and elderly Wisconsinites. Thanks to Kevin, I can be sure to not propose caps. I guess I could really thank Florida or California for making that clear. I think Colorado is trying to make sure that I understand the failure that is capping. I appreciate each state's assistance in my research. Don Nichols has a good proposal. I'm not going into it now, but maybe later...you know, when I'm feeling saucy. For now, I have an exam in the morrow as well as an education article to produce.