Ross Douthat's Fantasy Primary

Ross Douthat defends the fact that Santorum is still afloat in the Republican primaries,

Even the elevation of Rick Santorum as the last not-Romney standing testifies to the Republican electorate’s relative sobriety. For all his follies and failings, Santorum is a more plausible presidential candidate than most of this season’s alternatives — more experienced than Cain and Bachmann, more substantive and eloquent than Perry, more principled than Gingrich.

Douthat's damning of Santorum with faint praise reminds me of the old joke, "In heaven, the food is French, the police are British, the engineers are German, the lovers are Italian...." Douthat would be making pretty much the same claim no matter who else was left in the race (except Gingrich). Douthat also reveals his dream candidates, purporting that other than Jeb Bush, whose disastrously incompetent brother "tarnished [his] (last) name", the only reason they're not running is that "the current presidential campaign arrived too soon for them to be entirely seasoned."

If the current race pitted Jeb Bush against, say, Mike Huckabee and Mitch Daniels, nobody would be talking about how the party has gone off the rails.

Why not? To borrow from Douthat's style book, Huckabee has all of the economic sense of Herman Cain, and all of the aptitude for foreign policy of Michelle Bachmann. Mitch Daniels seems to inspire all of the enthusiasm of Jon Huntsman - Douthat lectures, "Republican voters probably should have given Jon Huntsman more consideration", but fails to explore why they did not. Jeb Bush has what... two terms as governor in Florida in which he didn't mess anything up too badly and the family name? What's not to love.

If it were being held two years hence, and featured Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio, the excitement on the Republican side would rival what the Democrats enjoyed in 2008. But those four, and others like them, decided they weren’t ready yet.

Although I understand why Douthat wants to fetishize those four as wonderful up-and-coming leaders, fantasy often collides with reality in a most unpleasant fashion. Rick Perry was a great presidential candidate, the guy who was going to clear the field of the weaklings, until he actually started a campaign:

As The New York Times's Ross Douthat said when Perry first entered the race, quoting a Texas competitor, "Running against Rick Perry is like running against God."

I suspect Douthat in part wants to build a Frankenstein candidate - Christie's bombast, Jindal's wonkishness, Paul Ryan's ability to spout absolute nonsense and be taken seriously, and Marc Rubio's assumed charisma. But had they run, I would not be half surprised if Douthat were writing the very same editorial, but damning Santorum with somewhat modified faint praise, something along the lines of, "For all his follies and failings, Santorum is a more plausible presidential candidate than most of this season’s alternatives — more experienced than Christie and Rubio, more substantive and eloquent than Jindal, more principled than Ryan."

Calling "Shenanigans" on Charter School Rental Schemes?

Indiana is questioning whether companies that rent school buildings to nonprofit charter schools can claim a tax exemption, bringing to mind some of the dubious rental agreements charters have been shown to have entered.

Statewide, a lot of money is spent. Taxpayers will spend more than $3.2 million in rent this year on just four Indiana charter schools. Most of the dollars are flowing to a Kansas City, Mo., real estate company that earned $84.7 million in profits last year. And while the Allen County board is scrutinizing the property tax exemption sought for the company’s property on North Wells Street, Entertainment Properties Trust can’t lose: Its triple net lease agreement makes the tenant – Indiana taxpayers – responsible for maintenance costs, utilities, insurance and taxes.

It's inevitable that when you bring private businesses into the field of education, some of them will bend and break the rules. Corruption occurs even in public school boards, so why should we not expect the same or worse when we increase the number of players, add a 'right' to extract profits, and reduce the amount of oversight? That said, it is in no small part the advancement of charter schools on ideological grounds that opens the door to this type of looting of the public purse. When legislators care about the quality of education and the responsible use of public funds, they provide checks against windfall profits for those who are supposedly stepping in to help educate children.

In Indiana, the four Imagine charter schools have budgeted $4.3 million for rent and operating costs. At the Imagine Life Sciences Academy West in Indianapolis, those expenses amount to more than 22 percent of the school’s total budget. The common guideline recommended for charter school organizers is 15 percent for facility costs....

Gov. Mitch Daniels has criticized traditional public schools for spending too much on buildings, while bills he supports targeting teacher seniority are clearly aimed at driving down education salaries. But in his zeal to open more charter schools, he appears to give them a pass on education management agreements and real estate deals that collectively shift millions in tax dollars from classrooms to out-of-state interests.

When can we expect Daniels to push legislation capping what charter schools can pay in rent, at least to the level he has already deemed excessive for public schools, and prohibiting the "heads we win, tails you lose" lease arrangements that JERIT CS Fund LLC was able to 'negotiate' with Imagine Schools?