The solution to reversing illegal immigration isn't a choice between rounding them up and sending them back or giving them all in-place amnesty. The right mix of incentives and consequences will get the majority of illegal immigrants to go back willingly. Those incentives can also help identify those who truly want to be Americans vs. those who intend to work awhile then go back permanently. See our website for a full treatment of this possible solution. AJ Average Joe Think Tank http://www.ajtt.org/?page_id=169

Parents who tell their kids 4 basic things tend to make a big impact on achievement: 1) School is important; 2) Work hard in school today; 3) Tell me what you learned today; and 4) I'm going to keep track of your grades. This is true regardless of income, language, family type, race, culture, etc. That's a significant reason children of college educated and Asian parents perform well in school. The problem is most poor families don't know this. Teachers who meet their student's families at their homes change this dynamic. Unfortunately, parental engagement won't likely be normal behavior until schools and districts have to compete to get those kids (and their funds) in their classes. AJ Average Joe Think Tank www.ajtt.org

Parental engagement has the biggest impact on student performance. This is regardless of household finances as many poor Asian students outperform affluent white students. However, most blue-collar and poor families do not actively encourage their kids to work hard in school. A complicating factor is the preponderance of poor performing teachers in poor neighborhood schools. Getting three or more poor performing teachers in K-8 means those kids are unprepared for HS coursework. Many dropout as a result of frustration. Poor schools need the best teachers not the lowest performing teachers. The current system refuses to reward great teachers who work in poor schools and protects bad teachers. AJ Average Joe Think Tank www.ajtt.org

If your child needed surgery, would you take them to a hospital that protected surgeons having a bad career? Would you take your child to a daycare center that protected employees having a bad career? If you were getting a divorce and wanted custody of your child would you go to a law firm that protected lawyers having a bad career? If you answered yes to any of those you're out of the running for parent of the year. Protecting poor performing teachers has a disproportional negative impact since they're bad for students and bad for morale. We'll never achieve excellence in education until incentives and consequences are aligned with providing an outstanding education for our students. AJ Average Joe Think Tank www.ajtt.org

If a policy doesn't reward good behavior and punish bad behavior the results will always be poor. The key to good policy is alignment of incentives and goals. Poor outcomes may be unintended but they are almost always foreseeable. One just has to pay attention to the incentives created and the behaviors rewarded to determine if the goal will be met or missed. AJ Average Joe Think Tank www.ajtt.org

Mr. Beauprez, I'm finally out of Colorado CD2 and am now in CD7. Please consider another run for Congress so I can be represented by a rational person. AJ Average Joe Think Tank www.ajtt.org

Taking money from the rich will not solve our budget problems. There are too few of them and they don't have enough money. Interest on our national debt is $383 billion dollars per year or $1.05 billion per day. Bill Gates, the richest man in America in 2011, has a net worth of around $54 billion. If the government took all of his net worth it would only pay the INTEREST on the national debt for a little over 51 days. If the government had all the net worth of the ten richest Americans, totaling $270.8 billion, they could pay a whopping 258 days worth of interest (almost - and if the government could find buyers to liquidate that wealth). The wealthy couldn't rescue Obama if they wanted to. AJ Average Joe Think Tank www.ajtt.org

That's 185 work days. Subtract out weekends. The regular work year is about 52 weeks x 5 days per week, so about 220 work days per year. Teachers work about 35 fewer work days or about 7 work weeks less than full time employees.

Even the mocking will work towards God's purpose. The more the media and pundits concentrate on Tebow's faith the more people will see how kind and joyful he is. Then many will wonder how they can find such fulfillment. Many of those will open a Bible for maybe the first time in decades. Many who open that Bible will be open to God's word and come to believe. The mockers will help God whether they want to or not. Tebow understands that, as a missionary, he will be mocked and that it will work to God's glory. That makes the hurt bearable for him. When I see our Colorado orange sunrises and sunsets I tell the kids that it's God's way of telling us he loves Tim Tebow. AJ Average Joe Think Tank www.ajtt.org

There are many good points below about morality, hypocrisy, and betrayal. I've not seen one though that takes up Prager's point about Carter and Dr. King. Carter's moral compass, aside from adultery, is incredibly confused. His words and actions regarding Israel and terrorism has the power to hurt the nation of Israel and embolden the morally bankrupt groups that want her destroyed. His fidelity to his wife hasn't helped his moral clarity elsewhere. Now compare that to Dr. King. Aside from fidelity his moral compass was outstanding. I'm not rationalizing adultery either. I've been happily faithful to Mrs. Average now for all of our nearly 20 year marriage. AJ Average Joe Think Tank www.ajtt.org