DES MOINES REGISTER'S INFLUENCE COSTS IOWANS $6 BILLION, OF WHICH AT LEAST $3 BILLION WAS INEFFICIENTLY WASTED IN PAST 10 YEARS
5-1-10
THE NUMBERS AND CONTENTS HEREIN SHOW WHY THE DES MOINES REGISTER IS IOWA PUBLIC ENEMY # 2
Results are often over looked for individuals and organizations involved with the public. Some even foolishly believe results can't be measured. The following fills the void for the Des Moines Register--Iowa's largest newspaper. The newspaper is in decline and its impact on Iowans has pretty much gone unnoticed, until now--when its impacts for the past 10 years are described herein, with very disappointing numbers. The newspaper has obviously fallen far from its prime!!
This is evidenced by the May 26, 2003 editorial telling Iowa school officials to dumb the tests, keep two sets of books and do anything legal to make schools look better than they are. This editorial substantiates the numbers and contents that follow.
The following table shows the increase in taxes Iowans paid in the past 10 years, and the Register backed most of them--and complained about none of them. It has yet to see a tax increase it didn't like. As a result, the Register influenced at least $6 Billion of the $18 Billion total accumulated tax increases, shown in the table below. The $6 Billion was derived using methods for determining advertising outcomes as well as Iowalive's proven algorithms and data base, as discussed on website: http://iowalive.net/ .
THE REGISTER IS CREDITED WITH CAUSING AT LEAST $6 BILLION OF THE TOTAL $18 BILLION INCREASE
IOWA'S 49.5% TAX INCREASES, IN 10 YEARS, ARE STAGGERING! IOWANS ACCUMULATED TOTAL TAXES INCREASED BY $18.24 BILLION IN TEN YEARS. Source: Legislative Services YEAR TOTAL STATE, LOCAL OPTION, UTILITY REPLACEMENT AND PROPERTY TAXES PAID BY IOWANS TOTAL ACCUMULATED TAX INCREASE FROM BASELINE YEAR 1999 FY 1999 $7,626,777,734 FY 2000 $8,048,497,467 $421,719,733 FY 2001 $8,239,675,877 $612,898,142 FY 2002 $8,201,306,655 $574,528,921 FY 2003 $8,451,342,468 $824,564,733 FY 2004 $8,888,493,846 $1,261,716,112 FY 2005 $9,459,740,537 $1,832,962,802 FY 2006 $9,939,317,764 $2,312,540,030 FY 2007 $10,565,865,396 $2,939,087,662 FY 2008 $11,312,546,632 $3,685,768,898 FY 2009 $11,402,447,589 $3,775,669,855 TOTAL $102,136,011,964 $18,241,456,887 IOWANS PAID 49.5% MORE TAXES IN 2009 THAN THEY PAID IN 1999!
It is very noteworthy the Register's negative impact would have improved from $6 Billion to $3 Billion total tax increase--had it but ignored the ISEA teacher union's misguided influence. The Register is doing the union's UGLY work--and it costs the Register and Iowans dearly, as union officials laugh all the way to the bank.
Business advertisements in the Register did much better, with a net 4% average return on advertisements. Thousands of Iowans read it and took heed to what it was reporting and opining. The newspaper editors changed--but it continued to decline.
The Register promoted or condoned all of the following school program failures:
SCHOOL PROGRAM FAILURES TO DATE
New Math, Constructivism, Whole Language, higher teacher pay, Phases I, II & III, teacher training, special education, kindergarten, state aid to schools, teacher in-service days, smaller class size, kindergarten, pre-school, self esteem and feel good about failure, and the next failure will be the Core Curriculum. The total cost of these failed programs is at least $11 Billion to date 5-1-10. The academic and mind development impacts on our kids are included in the 65 Year and Mind Development charts farther below.
Anyone at the Register who claims to have better numbers is asked to provide them for evaluation and comparison with those in the tables--which were derived and provided at no cost to anyone.
