Sorry it's been so long between postings.  In addition to the vacation up north, where there in neither electricity or internet access, a lot has been happening around the home front, and not insignificant stuff - - we are our selling our house.  As of now we have an accepted offer and are dithering on the corrections part of the buyers home inspection.  Last we heard is it will be forthcoming and accepted as is, but we haven't seen it yet.

On the buying front we have located a home in Glendale and have submitted an offer contingent on closing the sale of this one.  It seems, and I am repeatedly assured by our agent and others, that selling a house in less than 4 months in this market is exceptional.  There is no doubt the market is saturated because I can see no fewer than six for sale signs from my front steps.  On the other hand, what I really learned that is if you are willing to drop your drawers further and faster than anyone else you are likely to move your home sooner.  In other words; price rules.

By going with an agent, friend of a friend with a great reputation, I had hopes of coming out ahead on this deal but as it stands we will be lucky to make enough for a new set of bathroom towels for the new place.  Oh well.  

Why the move?  In a word - - schools.  In Wisconsin's open enrollment program any child can go to any school so long as there is enough room and transportation is provided by the parents.  This worked out fine for the 10 and 8 year olds but suddenly there is a space shortage.  In the same week we received permission from Milwaukee Public Schools to send our 4 year-old to another district we received notice from that district she was listed 6 out of 6 on a waiting list.  Our good luck ran out.  

We were planning to move that way eventually anyway so we just moved it up on the life plan schedule.  Good news is the extra money needed for a new house will be more than offset by the savings on daycare which relocation renders unnecessary.  Woo hoo.  So financially, it's pretty much a wash.

I have a hard time being jerked around by uncontrollable circumstances and when the base cause of those circumstances is government sponsored schools it is particularly galling.  The Milwaukee Public School System is a cancer that has been slowly killing this city for nearly three generations.  It leads the nation, in 50th place, in the achievement gap between 4th and 8th grade, and boasts a graduation rate of about 30%.  Couple that with an out of wedlock birth rate among Milwaukee African Americans, also leading the nation at 90%, and it is extremely difficult to be optimistic about the future of Milwaukee. 

We do have a world class ball park, zoo, art museum, park system and other great attributes but in the end that's all just lipstick on a pig.  So long as the teachers union retains it's choke hold on the school system and its activist minions keep their hand-picked and financially backed candidates locked in for life, there is no realistic hope for genuine reform.

The poison of a monopoly is that without real competition the institution has no incentive to improve so it can, and does, spend most of its energies and resources on maintaining the monopoly.  The result, as predicted in any economics textbook since the great depression and before, is exactly what is happening in Milwaukee; a self-perpetuating cycle of higher prices and lower quality.    

It's simply a matter of the status quo having worked for and achieving complete control.  When elections are foregone conclusions they don't matter, as a result, neither do the citizens.  The only thing as entrenched and predictable as the demise of the Milwaukee school system is the union/Democrat political machine installed to keep it that way.  That my friends is exactly where we find Milwaukee today.  Instead of being the crown jewel of the Great Lakes it is continuing its slide toward Detroit, another once great city crippled by the effects of multi-generational Democrat control. 

This isn't right-wing talking points or talk radio mimicry; its the view from my front porch.