It was a year or two ago that The New Republic wrote a column calling Herb Kohl one of the most irrelevant members of the U.S. Senate. But Kohl has suddenly become a frequent name in the news, the darling of Slate and the Heritage Foundation, and a mortal threat to Nigeria. How’s that for clout?
Kohl and Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania were co-sponsors of a bill that would revoke the sovereign immunity that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) enjoy. This would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to sue the oil cartel for price-fixing. The bill was approved by large majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives, but President George W. Bush has threatened to veto it.
No one has pushed harder on this cause than Kohl, who has repeatedly introduced this legislation since at least 2000, but never got much traction. Apparently it takes a huge hike in gas prices to make an oil cartel really unpopular.
As Kohl has noted in past speeches, the Justice Department has gone after German and Swiss companies for conspiring to fix the price of vitamins they sold. He’s also gone after countries, including Iran, for failure to pay for aircraft parts, and against Costa Rica for violating the terms of a lease.
So why should OPEC be immune from legal action? It seems a U.S. Court of Appeals decision (in 1981) ruled that OPEC was protected from a lawsuit because its decisions were “acts of state” made on behalf of sovereign countries. The bill that Congress just passed would revoke that immunity.
Kohl has argued that “blatantly anti-competitive action by the oil cartel violates the most basic principles of fair competition and free markets.” Heck, that’s not how the old Kohl’s groceries operated. The conservative Heritage Foundation backed Kohl while noting that OPEC’s profits may ultimately transfer funds from wealthy individuals and nonprofit foundations in those countries to terrorist groups.
A Slate column by Timothy Noah lauded Kohl and jumped all over President Bush for his unwillingness to go after OPEC for price fixing. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Tribune, whose impressive slogan is “Truth, Courage and Fairness,” informed its readers about the punitive actions one of America’s “leading senators” had planned for Nigeria. This may be the only newspaper in the world to rank Kohl so high. Still, for at least a week or so, he wasn’t overshadowed by the junior senator from Wisconsin.
The Mystery of Milwaukee’s Busing Program
The U.S. Supreme Court decision on desegregation has opened the door to possible changes in Wisconsin. State Republican legislators have already walked through that door with a budget bill that would end the Chapter 220 program. This sounds like something that could reduce busing costs. But one look at the Milwaukee Public Schools busing program suggests the savings may be modest.
Beginning around 2000, MPS began a neighborhood schools initiative to reduce the number of students being bused. The savings haven’t been very impressive.
Between the 1999/2000 and 2006/2007 school years, the number of students bused by MPS dropped from 72,791 to 57,939, a 20 percent decline. But the amount of money spent on busing actually went up slightly during this period, growing from $57 million to $57.7 million. How is that possible? Blame it on that oil cartel and rising gas prices.
Still, there has been some savings. MPS estimates the cost of busing would have risen to about $66 million by now, so costs did decline in real, uninflated dollars. Busing now accounts for 4.7 percent of its total budget, compared to 5.8 percent seven years ago.
That’s not the huge savings that was once imagined because most students are still getting bused. MPS buses any child who travels at least one mile to school, which includes nearly every high school student and many elementary pupils. Black parents in particular may choose a school that’s further away. Thus, North Side high schools like North and Washington are under-enrolled, while South Side schools like Hamilton and Bay View have waiting lists. Elementary students have to attend school within one of eight district zones, but those zones are big enough that many students travel more than one mile to school. Many parents prefer to put their child on a bus.
Yet if busing costs haven’t declined much, there has still been some reduction in black-white integration. MPS officials note that a number of South Side schools now are heavily white and Hispanic with a lower percentage of black students than years ago.
As for the city/suburban Chapter 220 program, its real cost has come in instructional costs because both the sending and receiving districts get a state payment for each student. The bill for busing is a much smaller number. Indeed, if 220 ended, many of the black students who were transferring to the suburbs might choose either an MPS or private (non-choice) school that’s more than a mile from their home. Under either scenario, state law would require that they get bused or reimbursed for the cost of transportation.
In short, whatever decisions are made about school integration, don’t expect big savings or a big change in the amount of busing.
The Buzz:
-There’s never a problem having a partisan radio talker if it’s a Republican. Thus, state Republican Party leader Reince Priebus has filled in periodically as talk radio host at Kenosha’s WLIP-AM 1050.
-Democratic consultant Bill Chrisotofferson argues that the issue of tipping fees and the growth of out-of-state garbage, which I wrote about last week, helped defeat two Republican incumbent state senators in last fall’s election. Christofferson worked with the liberal group, the Greater Wisconsin Committee, which not-so-subtly portrayed Dave Zien (R-Eau Claire) and Ron Brown (R-Eau Claire) as garbage-lovers for opposing an increase in tipping fees.
-There’s lots of backlash locally against Miller Brewing for running an ad at Wrigley Field declaring, “We prefer a pennant chase to a sausage race.” Where’s the home town loyalty?
I’ll be on vacation next week.
And don’t miss critic Ann Christenson’s Dish on Dining.
