Mike and I had a look at a recent investigation by the GAO which pointed to some concern over MARAD’s focus on training. Here are our thoughts on the report and MARAD’s role with regard to training:
GAO Report Shows MARAD’s Training Focus A Cause for Concern, But is it?
this should make for a very interesting discussion.
after I read the GAO report, I will return with the pointy stick!
It might be interesting if it were not "printed’ black on dark gray. It isn’t even worth attempting to read via that link as is.
Is anyone else seeing the same thing Steamer is seeing? Seems to look normal on my computer
[QUOTE=rob;130192]Is anyone else seeing the same thing Steamer is seeing? Seems to look normal on my computer[/QUOTE]
I used to get that with PDFs on an older Mac. The Adobe PDF plugin gets out of date and/or your version of Safari can cause it if old. If you experience it on a Mac, you can right click and save the PDF to your desktop. It will then open just fine in Preview.
One really big problem facing the state colleges is the ship situation. Texas doesn’t have one. SUNY and Mass have very old boats, both being outdated, especially the engines, etc. Cal and Maine are lucky. Their ships are newer.
There are not enough American flagged merchant ships to accommodate all the kids every year and Kings Point would bigfoot the state schools out of any available slots. Those training ships cost a bunch of money to acquire and prepare for the training purpose, so you can see why the government wouldn’t be too keen on spending the money. However, without ships the schools are going to face the impossible task of preparing the kid for license tests, but not providing adequate sea time.
SUNY Maritime does have a 2 year program to prepare kids for jobs not involving unlimited licensing. Nobody seems to know about it, and there are just about no students in the program. That fits some of the things noted in the MARAD study. Here’s the link to it.
http://www.sunymaritime.edu/Academics/Undergraduate%20Programs/ASSOCIATEDEGREE/index.aspx
I’m viewing with Explorer on a PC.
[QUOTE=Steamer;130202]I’m viewing with Explorer on a PC.[/QUOTE]
Maybe your glasses are dirty.
[QUOTE=Steamer;130202]I’m viewing with Explorer on a PC.[/QUOTE]
I assume that you’re referring to the GAO pdf not showing in explorer. sometimes Adobe changes the Adobe Reader plugin and, if the person makinng the pdf adheres to the new guidelines, the thing doesn’t work in older versions, which can mean months old. I don"t know what causes this, but I have run into it in the past. Of course that PDF was created by the government, so you have no idea what the clowns did.
Just try right clicking on the link from GCaptain and download the linked file to your desktop, or wherever, and open it on your computer.
The only sailing most of the “Barnacles” at Marad have is booze cruises on the Potomac on weekends. The funny thing is the name “Gov’t Accounting Office”. With 17 trillion in debt I’m sure the account will be accurate from the GAO. No one in Washington is accountable for anything.
[QUOTE=Rich Bogad;130198]One really big problem facing the state colleges is the ship situation. Texas doesn’t have one. SUNY and Mass have very old boats, both being outdated, especially the engines, etc. Cal and Maine are lucky. Their ships are newer.
There are not enough American flagged merchant ships to accommodate all the kids every year and Kings Point would bigfoot the state schools out of any available slots. Those training ships cost a bunch of money to acquire and prepare for the training purpose, so you can see why the government wouldn’t be too keen on spending the money. However, without ships the schools are going to face the impossible task of preparing the kid for license tests, but not providing adequate sea time.
SUNY Maritime does have a 2 year program to prepare kids for jobs not involving unlimited licensing. Nobody seems to know about it, and there are just about no students in the program. That fits some of the things noted in the MARAD study. Here’s the link to it.
http://www.sunymaritime.edu/Academics/Undergraduate%20Programs/ASSOCIATEDEGREE/index.aspx[/QUOTE]
The first thing MARAD and the schools need to do is stop wasting so much money on those antiquated and super expensive to maintain ships with dubious educational value. That might mean that some students will have to cadet ship on foreign flag ships, but that would be very good for them. Cadets would get a lot more out of sailing on large, modern, state-of-the-art, working, foreign flag ships.
If a significant number of cadets did have to sail on foreign flag ships, that might wake up Congress to the fact that more needs to be done to create a viable US flag merchant fleet of adequate size.
What is the point in training new mariners for deep draft US flag ships that no longer exist?
[QUOTE=tugsailor;130231]What is the point in training new mariners for deep draft US flag ships that no longer exist?[/QUOTE]
or at least in a US fleet where at least 85% of the ships in it are foreign built!
[QUOTE=tugsailor;130231]
What is the point in training new mariners for deep draft US flag ships that no longer exist?[/QUOTE]
There is a 2-part answer to that.
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Training them justifies the MARAD clan’s support of KP and its production of alumni feedstock.
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Admitting that KP and most of MARAD’s activities are pointless would end the facade that KP serves an purpose other than the above, and that MARAD performs any useful service to the nation.
I like that in the article he called the recent MARAD strategy symposium, “The maritime administration Kumbayah”
[QUOTE=Steamer;130183]It might be interesting if it were not "printed’ black on dark gray. It isn’t even worth attempting to read via that link as is.[/QUOTE]
I was wondering if I was the only one having that problem, I guess not. I scrolled over the text and made itt readable enough to find the link to the fuill report: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-14-212 The Coast Guard uses a pretty old version of IE, so that may be part of the reason for the back on balck color format, I don’t have the same problem at home using another browser.
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[QUOTE=Too bad steam is gone;130207]The funny thing is the name “Gov’t Accounting Office”. With 17 trillion in debt I’m sure the account will be accurate from the GAO. No one in Washington is accountable for anything.[/QUOTE]
The auditors met with our office as part of this, and again after. I was imnpressed at how quickly they learned and became familiar with the various segments of the industry. They came in knowing almost nothing and a few months later were more knowledgeable than many who have worked in part of the industry for years. I’m pretty sure their research was thorough.
[QUOTE=Steamer;130248]There is a 2-part answer to that.
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Training them justifies the MARAD clan’s support of KP and its production of alumni feedstock.
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Admitting that KP and most of MARAD’s activities are pointless would end the facade that KP serves an purpose other than the above, and that MARAD performs any useful service to the nation.[/QUOTE]
If you would like to know the numbers, the current budget for KP is about 85 Million dollars for about 1000 students, or about $85,000 per student. The total distributed by MARAD to the state maritime colleges is about $17 Million. The state school have something like 4400 students.
Believe it or not, the KP budget is down. Thats because, in recent years, they were spending 20 to 30 million bucks per year on “maintenance” and and “repairs”. This year they’re “only” spending about $10 million on maintenance and repairs.
sorry to say that I have had no opportunity to read all 42 pages of the report but am wondering if it in any way criticized MarAd for putting so much into KP at the expense of other stakeholders? if it doesn’t, then the report was just another form of federal government waste!