Posted By: Francis Koster Published: October 7, 2024

Microplastics in the Foods Students and Teachers Eat (October 6, 2024)

All K-12 students appear to have microplastics in their bodies. All Americans who have been examined have been found to have microplastics in their bodies …

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Posted By: Francis Koster Published: September 14, 2024

A Moral Quandary for School Leaders Who Want to Improve Indoor Air Quality (September13, 2024)

Our School System's Leaders Are In A Politically Created Moral Quandary. There is no requirement that North Carolina K-12 schools be routinely tested for lead …

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Posted By: Francis Koster Published: August 27, 2024

School Funding Formulas May Hurt the Neediest Schools (August 26, 2024)

Most of our local K-12 schools are starting up this month. And in North Carolina, as kids go back to aging buildings, their health and …

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Posted By: Francis Koster Published: July 3, 2024

Public School Funding in North Carolina–An Expression of Whose Values? (July 2, 2024)

NORTH CAROLINA PUBLIC SCHOOL FORUM has published a powerful article about the September, 2023, expansion of the Opportunity Scholarship Program ("voucher" program). Appearing in many …

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Posted By: Francis Koster Published: May 5, 2024

Overcoming the Challenges Around Obesity (May 5, 2024)

Surprise!  Bringing about student weight loss improves learning and graduation rates.  And North Carolina's public K-12 schools show up badly in national rankings. You can …

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Posted By: Francis Koster Published: February 11, 2023

Making the invisible visible is crucial to our survival

Our world is changing.  As the pace of change gets faster, the personal and national stress level rises.  Covid + egg prices + climate change + school …

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Posted By: Francis Koster Published: January 22, 2023

I Thought Congress was supposed to be working for all Americans

One in six dollars owed to the IRS are not being paid.[1] An astonishing number of wealthy Americans do not pay the taxes they owe.  What …

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Posted By: Francis Koster Published: December 12, 2020

Congress Has Been Cutting Law Enforcement Funding Behind The Scenes

When I was a kid, my mother used to start all serious conversations with some remark about “The only certainty in life is death and taxes”. I did not like hearing this, because it was usually followed by some explanation of why some exciting planned trip to the beach was not going to happen. Now I learn she was wrong (one of only a few times, I must admit.) Turns out for an astonishing number of Americans, even having to pay taxes is not certain. The IRS estimates that individuals and corporations fail to pay one dollar out of every six that should have been paid to the federal government.^[1] This is enabled by our Congress who cut funding for law enforcement audits and collections. Starting in 2010, Congress has reduced the IRS law enforcement budget by millions of dollars each year. It is now only 80 % of what it was in 2010. The number of employees was also reduced by one fifth. ^[2] In 2019 the IRS had 8,004 auditors – less than it had back in 1953 when the economy was about one-seventh its current size.^[3],[4],[5] As a consequence, three major bad things happened.

Posted By: Francis Koster Published: October 4, 2020

Do you know you eat enough plastic each week to make a credit card?

Imagine an evening (pre-COVID-19) where you take your family out to dinner and all order a family-sized meal of seafood gumbo full of clams, shrimp, and other delights.  Yous.  You may get more than you bargained for. Turns out that when someone throws a plastic bottle into the ocean, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces until it becomes invisible to humans – but it does not go away.^[1] Most of the plastic made in the world winds up in water where it breaks down into invisible but long-lasting pieces which gets eaten by wildlife.  The bodies of fish, clams, crabs, and other water critters consume these microplastics contain plastic they ate.  Bigger fish eat the little fish, you eat the big fish and when you eat the seafood, you also get a dose of plastic.^[2]  No charge will appear on your bill - but you will pay for it in your healthcare bills. If you ordered hot tea with dinner, things could get worse because a surprising number of brands of tea have plastic in the teabag dissolving astounding amounts of invisible microplastics into the hot tea water which wind up in your tummy.^[3],[4]

Posted By: Francis Koster Published: September 28, 2020

Why “Global Warming” Is An Obsolete Term

Some years ago I took my son and young grandson fishing on Lake Norman here in North Carolina, near where we live.  Lake Norman had a historic reputation for big record setting fish, and I wanted to give him a chance to make a grand memory.  As I planned the trip, I had a fantasy of him standing with his arms outstretched as he bragged to his buddies about the one he caught. What surprised me as I was planning that trip was learning that the breed of big fish (striped bass) that set all the size records back in the day no longer survives in Lake Norman. Between 2000 and 2010, due to climate change, the lake water got so warm the traditional breed of striped bass could not survive. After they all died out, new breeds of fish had to be transplanted in Lake Norman that can survive these still rising temperatures.^[1] Why do I tell this story? Because in my grandson’s lifetime, the same thing that killed off the fish can kill him, and many of his generation.  And it is not rising temperature.