News Story

FCC Chairman: Agency Aims To ‘Stamp Out’ Spam Calls

Head of federal commission says it’s the No. 1 citizen complaint and it ‘drives me crazy’

Americans frustrated with the growing number of spam phone calls may take some comfort in knowing that the head of the Federal Communications Commission feels their pain, and says he’s on the case.

“This issue drives me crazy,” said Ajit Pai, chairman of the FCC, during an interview with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Lansing last week. “And I’m not the only one. For years, robocalls, unwanted robocalls, have been the No. 1 source of consumer complaints to the FCC.”

American consumers and businesses were hit with an estimated 30.5 billion robocalls in 2017, which was a record, according to YouMail Inc.

Pai said the FCC is doing all it can to “stamp out” those billions of calls, including encouraging carriers to experiment and use new call-blocking technologies. Pai said the FCC has demanded that all carriers carry all phone calls since before he was appointed as an FCC commissioner by President Barack Obama in 2012.

He said the FCC is encouraging the tech world to create “call-authentication standards,” something he said involved a lot of complex engineering.

But Pai said once perfected, it would work this way: “If you see a phone number on your phone, ultimately once the standard is in place, you will be able to answer it knowing it is a genuine number, that has been assigned to real person who is authorized to have that phone number.”

Pai said he is also working with his foreign counterparts to get them to crack down on robocall centers in their countries. Pai related one conversation he had with an official in Asia about illegal call centers.

“I said, ‘This is a really important issue, we have evidence that there are call centers in your country that exist solely for the purpose of robocalling American consumers,’” Pai said.

The FCC is taking action against those who are involved in robocalling.

In 2017, the agency proposed a $120 million fine against a Florida man who had made 96 million “spoofed” robocalls during a three-month period. Spoofing happens when an robocall appears with a similar area code and perhaps the same three first numbers as the target’s personal phone number. By spoofing, robocallers hope to fool people into thinking that their calls are local.

FCC rules specifically require that a telemarketer show its telephone number of behalf of the person making the call. The FCC also requires that businesses display a number a person can call during regular business hours to ask to no longer be called.

“This is a huge issue for us and we are going to try to stamp it out the best we can,” Pai said.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

News Story

Oakland ISD Head Says School Funding Broken; Not At Oakland ISD

Head of midlevel management and school service agency paid $250k in 2017

The superintendent of an intermediate school district in Southeast Michigan wrote an op-ed in the Oakland Press titled, “Time to fix Michigan’s broken school funding system.”

Wanda Cook-Robinson, whose pay from Oakland Schools was $250,279 in 2016-17, argues for a “new, fairer school funding system” that she says would help the 207,000 students she oversees.

What Cook-Robinson did not mention is that state funding for the midlevel agency she presides over has risen from $10.6 million in 2011-12 to $37.4 million in 2017-18, a $26.8 million increase. When adjusted for inflation and stated in 2018 dollars, that $10.6 million in 2011-12 is the equivalent of $11.6 million.

Oakland Schools didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Cook-Robinson also made a similar argument in a Crain’s Detroit Business article published in May. Crain’s stated in its article: “Michigan's public school funding has eroded in the past 18 years. Since 2000, pre-K-12 spending, adjusted for inflation, has fallen by $663 per pupil, while the U.S. average has increased by more than $1,400 per pupil.”

The per-student spending figures Crain’s used failed to account for there being 224,000 fewer students today than in 2000-01.

According to a Senate Fiscal Agency report, after adjusting for inflation, state public school funding on a per-student basis is almost the same today as it was in 2000-01, largely because of declining enrollment.

State-only funding for K-12 schools was $6,297 per pupil in 2000-01, the equivalent of $8,914 when stated in 2018 dollars. Michigan schools are budgeted to receive $8,811 per pupil in 2018-19.

The Senate Fiscal Agency reports that state funding for Michigan’s K-12 public schools, which does not include federal or local dollars, was $10.7 billion in 2000-01. The current 2018-19 state education budget authorizes $13.0 billion in state K-12 spending.

When adjusted for inflation, the $10.7 billion spent in 2000-01 is equivalent to $15.2 billion in 2018 dollars. State school funding fell during Michigan’s Lost Decade of the 2000s, followed by the Great Recession of 2008-09.

The trend reversed, beginning in 2011-12. School spending by just the state has risen from $7,144 in 2011-12 to $8,811 per pupil in 2018-19. After adjusting for inflation, Michigan’s K-12 schools are receiving $967 more per pupil this school year from the state than in 2011-12.

Intermediate school districts receive money from the state. They also have the power to levy property taxes; the Oakland ISD certified property tax rate was 3.3079 mills in 2017. Their officers are selected, in most cases, by the regular school district boards within the ISD. Legislation has been introduced to select ISD governing boards in popular elections.

 

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.