Hispanics, gambling, success

At a number of communities where we have our newspapers, there have been large Hispanic population increases, including major growth in Iowa and Arkansas.

Hispanic America grew by 60 percent in the last decade. The 1990 census totaled Hispanics at 22.4 million. Ten years have passed, and Hispanics have gained 13.1 million people. The 2000 census shows 35.3 million Hispanics residing in the United States, 3 million more than predicted by the Census Bureau. The Hispanic population is 12.6 percent of the nation's 281 million people. The 2000 Hispanic population reached levels that demographers had anticipated would be reached by 2005.

As a result of this increase, Hispanic America has had a major impact in the United States -- everything from political campaigns, business marketing to food. Salsa is more likely to sit on America's kitchen tables than ketchup. Whatever the outcome Hispanic America is growing at a faster speed than anticipated.

While Hispanics are primarily concentrated in the Southwest, California, Florida, Illinois and New York, new immigrants are surprisingly moving to states such as North Carolina, Georgia and Iowa, where in 1990 the Hispanic presence was almost nonexistent. Much of the increase is due to the fact that Hispanics are younger and of childbearing age. Hispanic families also tend to be larger than non-Hispanics. Immigration has also contributed to the growth, especially immigrants without documentation.

Betting on gambling: During the high-flying 1990s, with the stock market soaring and tax revenue pouring in, many states went on a spending spree. Now, spendthrift states face either deep spending cuts or big tax increases, both hugely unpopular. Unwilling to make the tough spending decisions, some states are turning to gambling as a source of free money. Newly elected Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich of Maryland is betting on gambling to bail the state out of its budget woes. But at what price? Numerous studies, including the report of the national Gambling Impact Commission chaired by Dr. James Dobson, have detailed the social costs of gambling.

Some Americans view government's grabbing a share of gambling revenues as a kind of voluntary taxation that might otherwise keep politicians' greedy hand out of family pockets. But don't bet on it. This much is clear: No family-friendly tax code includes an expansion of gambling. -- Washington Update

Ten misconceptions about success:

1. Success is best measured by money.

Money is usually the worst measure of success. To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

2. Success requires special talents and education.

History demonstrates that any person -- regardless of race, wealth, status or education -- can be successful if he or she chooses to do so and is willing to pay the price.

3. Long hours are required to succeed.

Working smarter instead of longer gives success. Several years ago a new Navy jet fighter shot itself down. Flying at supersonic speed, it ran into cannon shells it had fired only a few seconds before. The jet was traveling too fast.

4. Success is achieved overnight.

According to Diana Ranking, "It requires 20 years of hard work to become an overnight success."

5. Success requires luck.

Not true. Success is the result of careful thought, hard work and a refusal to quit. Those who don't quit do get luckier.

6. Successful people don't make mistakes.

Successful people make mistakes, learn from them and then move on. Double your rate of mistakes, and you will increase your success.

7. Successful people play it safe.

Wrong again. To discover new lands requires leaving the sight and safety of the shore.

8. It's too late for me to succeed.

Age is not a factor as long as a person can dream and will pay the price of success. Harland Sanders began his KFC empire at age 65 with one Social Security check.

9. Success is easy for some people.

It only looks that way from the outside. The mountain of effort and determination required to produce the mountain peak of success is seldom seen. But, it's there.

10. Success creates stinginess.

The most successful are often the most generous. It's also true that generosity breeds success. Zig Ziglar says, "You can have anything you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want in life." -- Pure Living

They never learn: A state judge recently ruled that New York's education funding arrangements are unconstitutional because they allegedly shortchange New York City. The majority of the city's public schools are indeed abysmal, but the answer is not a court-mandated version of throw-more-money-at-the-problems.

The Big Apple spends about $9,700 per pupil, more than 16 percent above the national average. Houston spends about $6,000 per pupil. Test scores there are improving, and violence is declining. No wonder President Bush appointed Houston's superintendent, Roderick Paige, to be his new education secretary.

Iowa and Minnesota spend barely two-thirds of the amount the Big Apple does per pupil, yet their students' test scores are traditionally among the top 10 percent in the country. Not content to sit on its laurels, Minnesota several years ago instituted an innovative school-choice program offering parents a mix of tax credits and deductions to help them send their kids to the schools of their choice.

Fifteen years ago a federal judge effectively seized control of the Kansas City, Mo., school system. He decreed a near doubling of property tax rates. Per-pupil spending skyrocketed. Result: Student performance remains miserable, and schools are even less integrated than before.

One thing President Bush should do is push a bill that was passed by Congress in 1998 but vetoed by then-president Bill Clinton. The measure would give vouchers of up to $3,200 a year to 2,000 Washington, D.C., parents to help pay tuition for their kids at schools of the parents' choice. Such a program in the nation's capital, where schools are visibly failing, would be a shining example of what accountability and choice can achieve and would be promptly imitated in the rest of the nation. -- Steve Forbes

Gary Rust is chairman of Rust Communications.