US News reports:
President Obama announced five "Promise Zones" to partner with local communities to jumpstart the economy in struggling areas. In a rare show of bipartisan support, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul stood with Obama at the announcement.These "Promise Zones" are about nothing but the funding of crony government-private partnerships and Obama grasroots organizations and about Federal influence over education, starting at the pre-school level.
I consider this the most outrageous thing Rand has done to date.
From a White House fact sheet, the "Promise Zones" program includes for various localities:
- Empowering every child with the skills they need by increasing enrollment in high quality pre-K programs
- Increasing housing affordability by preserving existing affordable housing and partnering with housing developers to increase the supply of affordable new housing to prevent displacement.
- Investing in transit infrastructure including bus rapid transit lines and bike lanes, and promoting transit-oriented development (TOD)
- Putting people back to work through skills training and adult education; classes on small business development to support entrepreneurs; loans and technical assistance for small resident-owned businesses; and the development of a supermarket providing both jobs and access to healthy food.
- Improving high-quality education to prepare children for careers, in partnership with Drexel University and the William Penn Foundation, through increasing data-driven instruction that informs teacher professional development; developing school cultures that are conducive to teaching and learning; mentoring middle and high school youth with focus on college access and readiness; and increasing parent engagement.
- Implementing a sustainable economic effort across eight counties in the Kentucky Highlands region, focused on diversifying Southeastern Kentucky’s economy to make it more resilient.
- Creating jobs and growing small businesses by leveraging $1.3 million of private sector funds in a revolving loan fund targeted within the Promise Zone.
- Improving skills for tomorrow’s jobs, through workforce training for skilled trades and professionals and more rigorous summer and after-school programs.
- Leveraging its role as the largest employer in southeastern Oklahoma to create a strong base for economic revitalization by working with partners, like Oklahoma State University, Eastern Oklahoma State College, and the Kiamichi Technology Center to improve workforce training for skilled trades and professionals, with a focus on providing nationally-recognized STEM certifications.
- Investing in infrastructure that lays the foundation for economic growth, including water and sewer infrastructure; these infrastructure challenges have been identified as impediments to investment in an area with otherwise strong growth potential.
- Pursuing economic diversification by utilizing natural, historic, and cultural resources to support growth, including evaluation of market capacity for local farmers’ markets, as well as implementation of technology-enhanced “traditional” farming and ranching, and large-scale greenhouses and specialized training in business plan development, marketing, and financing to support the development of women-owned businesses in the Promise Zone.
- Modeled after the Administration’s successful Strong Cities Strong Communities and Strike Force for Rural Growth and Opportunity initiatives, which have created unique partnerships between local stakeholders and the federal government, these first five Promise Zones will benefit from intensive federal support at the local level to help them implement their economic and community development goals.
- Where necessary to achieve their goals, Promise Zones will get priority and be able to access federal investments that further the goals of job creation, additional private investment, increased economic activity, improved educational opportunity, and reduction in violent crime.
UPDATE
Another Rand dance, so the fanboys can think Rand ended up at the White House by accident. ABC News reports:
Among those attending the White House event Thursday were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a frequent critic of Obama economic policies. McConnell says he supports the "Promise Zone" designation for eight economically hard hit counties in his state, though he said the hardship endured in that coal region of the state is partly a result of the Obama administration's energy policies. Kentucky's junior senator, Republican Rand Paul, also attended the White House event[..]
Later, Paul said he appreciated the administration's efforts on behalf of struggling Kentucky communities. But he said his proposal would apply more broadly, lowering taxes dramatically in "economic freedom zones."It should be noted that the Kentucky part of the PZ program that Rand references with approval appears to be the most crony part of the program.
CODE WORD ALERT
ReplyDeleteSustainability in "Implementing a sustainable economic effort"
Nothing wrong with the ideas behind it. We should all try to be frugal stewards of what we have and work cooperatively.
But this sounds a lot like this:
http://www.amazon.com/BEHIND-THE-GREEN-MASK-Agenda/dp/0615494544
A note to the willfully ignorant fanboys of Rand Paul.
ReplyDeleteDo any of you understand that the type of educational systems they are talking about in these "Promise Zones" is most likely going to be Common Core. This untested horror is a fascist enterprise funded by Bill Gates, and is designed to create none-thinking worker drones. Sadly, most Tea Party fools believe it is a communist system, but they are too stupid to understand that it is Corporatism at its finest.
Most Tea Party adherents are products of failing public schools.
They've already made the Promotional Video for the Promise Zones:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P2iUJucbk4
Coming to a FEMA Camp near you!
CW
Hey Rand.........there's something on your chin.
ReplyDeleteWell???
ReplyDeleteWhere are the Rand-sycophants that complained beneath the previous article on this topic?
Ignoring the facts again and show up trolling the next time you read something about Rand you don't like?
Soon to be known as "Broken Promise Zones" not unlike the rest of the country...
ReplyDeleteThis is Agenda 21. The public in these towns/areas will be manipulated with the Delphi Technique to create exactly what the Globalists want in each of these areas.
ReplyDeleteInvesting in infrastructure that lays the foundation for economic growth, including water and sewer infrastructure; these infrastructure challenges have been identified as impediments to investment in an area with otherwise strong growth potential.
Pursuing economic diversification by utilizing natural, historic, and cultural resources to support growth, including evaluation of market capacity for local farmers’ markets, as well as implementation of technology-enhanced “traditional” farming and ranching, and large-scale greenhouses and specialized training in business plan development, marketing, and financing to support the development of women-owned businesses in the Promise Zone.
Modeled after the Administration’s successful Strong Cities Strong Communities and Strike Force for Rural Growth and Opportunity initiatives, which have created unique partnerships between local stakeholders and the federal government, these first five Promise Zones will benefit from intensive federal support at the local level to help them implement their economic and community development goals.
Where necessary to achieve their goals, Promise Zones will get priority and be able to access federal investments that further the goals of job creation, additional private investment, increased economic activity, improved educational opportunity, and reduction in violent crime.