Example of Tax Dollars at Work

My wife is a licensed and certified speech therapist. She works for an educational co-operative that provides specialists to a number of independent school districts in the county. In the process she deals with children who have a broad range of communication disorders and a huge spectrum of service requirements. They come from diverse backgrounds and this nation being what it is, we've convoluted the funding process from the very simple concept of local school districts funded by local property taxes to a very complex mix of money sources.

In Texas more than half of local school funds come from the state currently. There is also a chunk of federal money, but it isn't proportionate to the level of federal interference in public education. That however, is a topic for another time.

The special services in public schools, things such as speech therapy, special education, physical therapy, and others are funded in part by Medicaid. Here's where it gets to be fun.

To qualify for those Medicaid dollars, our leaders have instituted a convoluted process to insure that only those who are "qualified" get the services. That means a ton of paperwork to get a student eligible and then continued documentation to be certain the Medicaid recipients are receiving services. That makes sense at least at some level.

But now there is this, the Random Moment Time Survey. A private agency is hired to conduct random moment surveys of what a teacher who might or might not be providing Medicaid services is doing at that moment. Sort of a "pop-in-the-door" event to check on activity. How is this done?

She receives an email a week or ten days prior saying she must login and respond to the Random Moment Time Survey online at 9:50 AM on Tuesday, October 13th! Whoa! That is no longer a "random moment" in time! It is a scheduled event. How would you do that?

Well, I would enter the appointment in Outlook, of course. Then at the time I could login and answer the three-question survey. But, my activity then would, by default, be logging in and answering the bloody survey!

I inquired whether she might actually list the work that she would be doing if she were not taking time to complete the bureaucratic circle. Could she, for example, say canceling therapy for a student, preparing for an evaluation conference, attempting to contact a half-dozen participants in a planning meeting, trying to get a teacher to remember that a student needs appropriate instruction for their problem, and emailing a parent for approval to evaluate their child. Oh, and seeking time to complete Medicaid paperwork regarding therapy that had to be cancelled for all of the other paperwork the government requires.

The answer was that couldn't be the response even if true. Responses had to be properly phrased and formatted to be accepted by the survey. In other words the non-random, not-what-I'm-really-doing, work interrupting survey required only answers which met their approval. And, nobody is going to read them anyway. Failure to play the game, however, will result in loss of Medicaid funds for your district.

So, what do you think they are really learning? Can't you just wait for national healthcare?