For the love of god I really am starting to be ashamed to be an American. Why should I care about Gary Coleman’s marital disputes, Janet Jackson’s philosophy on love and discipline, or what Britney Spears had to say about Bionce and Tina Turner. Is this really the crap that America is concerned with? Apparently it is. And its not isolated to the smutty, idiodic little world of Entertainment Tonight. Apparently our (yes, your’s and mine) congressmen feel it is their responsibility to spend an enormous chunk of their time (our time) determining exactly what performance enhancing drugs may or may not have been used by some former baseball player(s) and which former baseball trainer(s) or player(s) may or may not have lied about it during the interminable initial waste of time investigating the ’scandal’. I swear to god I’m considering either emmigrating or hanging myself. And as I sit here watching the biggest loser dancing supernanny wife swapping American idol apprentice gladiator geek, I’m already stringing my neckties together wondering if the light fixture in the cieling can support my weight.

I am once again disgruntled, disheartened and generally pissed off. With whom I’m not exactly sure. Perhaps it should be myself for being so naieve as to think our state leadership was genuinely concerned about supporting our schools over personal political gain. Once again, I’m proved wrong.

We recieved our Year Two allocations for the Classrooms for the Future grant yesterday evening and I was shocked to discover that while I had applied for the $838,000 that our district was eligible for, we were actually only awarded $163,000. I know it seems I’m…how does the saying go?…punching a gift horse in the mouth, but $163,000 does not go far to provide the technology supports necessary to fully implement the classrooms of the future that fundamentally transform instruction in the ways this initiative intends.

Lets take a look for a minute at the actual distribution of money. Keep in mind that the governor was somehow able to get the full proposed budget for this project past the state legislature in a difficult fiscal climate. This year we see 255 additional high schools recieving funding for CFF, bringing the total to 358 schools - a total of 303 districts recieving money. Now a clear stipulation of this funding was the readiness of the district to implement good programs using the technology. An existing infrastructure to support classrooms for the future and definate evidence of potential sustainability was the clarion call of year one application. You can not convince me that the majority of schools in Pennsylvania posess the infrastructure to adequately implement this level of technology saturation….well, lets modify that statement….they can’t support the INTENDED level of technology saturation.

In my opinion, they effectively destroyed a very well intentioned, ground breaking, poineering, and potentially revolutionary program by diluting the focus to satiate the political machine. This hypothesis might be more substance if I actually could determine who THEY are. Who made the funding decisions? Who determined how many additional districts to fund? Who determined the level at which to fund them? I can tell you this much…I was a peer reviewer for this year’s Year One grant applications and I can tell you that the quality of some of the applications was absolutely inexcusable. Many showed little or no evidence for sustainability, little or no evidence of exisiting support structures, little or no foresight of implementation, little or no committment to local buy-in. And some of these districts recieved funding. Hmmm. Maybe I just didn’t understand the scoring protocol. Was it scored like golf?

I know I’m sounding a little bitter, but thats just pure dissapointment in the abominable implementation of a project that had the greatest potential of any I have seen in my professional career to further the cause of educational technologies, instructional reform and foundational change. Yes, we will be able to provide projectors and interactive whiteboards in a bunch of classrooms. Yes we may even be able to purchase a couple laptop carts (to share among classrooms), but this initiative was about getting laptops on ALL student desks and ensuring our teachers had the skills and supports necessary to fully integrate computer resources into instruction. It assumes all teachers have access to these tools - not shared, not scheduled, not accomodated, not workarounds and good enoughs.

We were supposed to be creating model schools and gathering the data that could justify future investments in instructional technology. How can we get that data from half-assed program implementation? All we’ve done is dilute the potential of an enormous amount of tax dollars in order to ensure that we make all the voting delegates of our state legislature happy by distributing a token to their constituent school districts. And I feel slightly dirty for being a part of it. I lobbied our local representatives and dog and ponied with the best of them, but if I could do it over again with the mature understanding of how this kind of politicing works, I’d recommend against the entire project. Put the money into social welfare programs, because we’re going to need to support our future generations if we continue avoiding substantive educational change.

I’m not sure if its bewilderment, disgust, irritation or indigestion, but I just have an upset stomach seeing things like this report commissioned by the PA Legislative Budget and Finance Committee entitled (and tell me the premise of this report wasn’t preconcieved) “The Cost to PA’s Economy Resulting from School Starting Before Labor Day”.  I really should think about starting my own company that contracts to produce these piles of doo-doo they call reports.  I can certainly manage a few fancy words that tell a committee exactly what they want to hear.  Bottom line of this report, the state would gain $378 million annually if we sent our kids into school a week later.  How do we do it, you ask?  This outfit writing the report suggests we just get rid of teacher in-service.  I should also point out that they further lament the poor teachers loosing an extra week’s worth of pay from their summer jobs.  Boo F-ing Hoo.

 Check out that LBFC site (under REPORTS).  Its filled with some real gems.  How about the report from June 06 under the Transportation section that focuses on motorcycle accidents subsequent to the repeal of the helmet law in 2003.  Hey, guess what?  Lots more people are dying or suffering permanent brain injuries now.  I’m willing to go out on a limb here and say, while its not specifically defined within the article, that this statistic might have something to do with the fact that they aren’t wearing helmets.  I wonder if that repeal was a good idea.  I guess it is, because we have more registered motorcycles than ever.  What does our state value more - revenue from cycle registrations or human life?  Read the report. 

I’d really like to spend some time on my site here babbling a little bit about the social and economic outlook for Susquehanna County - and unfortunately this begins a conversation about politics. I love this area. I’d prefer to live nowhere else. But for the eight plus years I have spent in this county, I really haven’t seen any proactive economic development. It just baffles me that this county, adjacent to major transportation routes and multiple metropolitan regions can offer virtually nothing in terms of employment opportunities for its residents. Besides the hospital and school systems, there exist no major regional employer. The only other significant employer is the quarry industry - and while these provide excellent opportunities for earnings, most likely offer employees no retirement or insurance incentives. This just isn’t good for families and community building.

Why aren’t we seeking large manufacturing or distribution companies and agressively courting them? This county is in dire need of employment for the average resident in order to generally improve the quality of life for all residents. Its time to stop concerning ourselves so much with fundamentally inconsequential issues, and get down to the business of finding ways to bring jobs into Susquehanna County. Until we do…absolutely nothing else matters.

I know this is starting to sound like a campaign speech, but its time we start talking about these issues and get serious about them. It absolutlely astounds me that this County decided that we should dissolve our Economic Development Committee and outsource economic development to a neighboring county? Come on! What is the Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission doing, or even planning to do, for us? I know its not fair to start playing the us/them game, but lets be realistic…we posess some significant attributes that make our county uniquely attractive to businesses that other “northerth tier” counties don’t. Let’s start reaping those benefits and get residents some opportunities for meaningful work.

Susquehanna County should be able to retain its own core group of exceptionally qualified individuals that can AGGRESSIVELY market Susquehanna County’s assets to major employers. In my opinion, we can’t afford not to.