They're not just voting on health insurance reform today...

The bill that modifies the Senate healthcare legislation also cuts out the middlemen in the government's student loan programs, ensuring that more money actually ends up benefiting students rather than lenders.

Education and the economy

Thomas Friedman discusses education in America and the findings of a recent McKinsey study:

If America had closed the international achievement gap between 1983 and 1998 and had raised its performance to the level of such nations as Finland and South Korea, United States G.D.P. in 2008 would have been between $1.3 trillion and $2.3 trillion higher. If we had closed the racial achievement gap and black and Latino student performance had caught up with that of white students by 1998, G.D.P. in 2008 would have been between $310 billion and $525 billion higher. If the gap between low-income students and the rest had been narrowed, G.D.P. in 2008 would have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher.

David Brooks had his own column about education last month, noting his belief that Obama is sincere in his desire to reform our educational system.

There's a reason Obama has linked education, energy, and healthcare to our economy: they are all fundamental challenges that will cripple our ability to compete as a nation in the future. There are many other reasons to act on all three of Obama's budget priorities, but you can't ignore the dollars and cents impact of inaction.

The need for education reform

Four years ago I was having lunch on a normal workday. I was reading an article titled "Still Separate, Still Unequal" in Harper's magazine. I learned that schools are just as--or more--segregated than they were 25 or 30 years ago. And then I read this:

High school students whom I talk with in deeply segregated neighborhoods and public schools seem far less circumspect than their elders and far more open in their willingness to confront these issues. "It's more like being hidden," said a fifteen-year-old girl named Isabel [name changed] I met some years ago in Harlem, in attempting to explain to me the ways in which she and her classmates understood the racial segregation of their neighborhoods and schools. "It's as if you have been put in a garage where, if they don't have room for something but aren't sure if they should throw it out, they put it there where they don't need to think of it again."

I asked her if she thought America truly did not "have room" for her or other children of her race. "Think of it this way," said a sixteen-year-old girl sitting beside her. "If people in New York woke up one day and learned that we were gone, that we had simply died or left for somewhere else, how would they feel?"

"How do you think they'd feel?" I asked.

"I think they'd he relieved," this very solemn girl replied.

I remember beginning to cry. I read on about Success for All, a scripted educational system for grade schools that is built on the same B.F. Skinner-inspired ideas that are used in prisons and drug rehab programs.

I walked to my car in a daze; I called my mother. For a minute or two I wasn't able to speak; I simply wept. Finally I choked out, "There's something horribly wrong with our country." It just seemed unbelievable to me--and tragic--that we could do no better for our children than to teach them as if we were dealing with criminals.

THE PROBLEMS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION are not confined to inner city schools. Obama today announced his plans for improving education in the United States. I don't know of anything that is more important for ensuring the long term health of our country.

Learn more about Obama's proposals here.

Obama's weekly address 3/7/2009

Here is Obama talking about the economy and encouraging Americans to have faith that the U.S. "will emerge strong stronger and more prosperous than it was before." He summarizes some of the steps that his administration is taking to help the country get through this recession and to prepare it for future growth.

(Video link)

AND HERE IS A STORY on the controversy over the President's willingness to sign the current budget bill which contains around 9000 earmarks (amounting to approximately $8 billion). The administration is arguing that the bill was largely negotiated while Bush was in office and that they will not accept earmarks in any budget they negotiate. I'm not sure if I buy the argument, but I'm also hesitant to make a stand over a relatively small number ($8 billion) when healthcare reform and investments in energy and education are on the table. Sometimes you have to choose your battles...

Are our kids ready for a post-apocalyptic world?

Maybe... maybe not...

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

Nevada's budget crisis threatens higher education

Governor Jim Gibbons' current budget proposal would gut higher education in Nevada:

Gibbons has left us with the false choice of avoiding severe layoffs or making serious budget cuts. Incapable of vision or leading the state in this time of economic crisis, Gibbons instead chooses a political stunt over a sound public policy. We would decry his budget at length if we thought it actually stood any chance of approval. What kind of leader supports killing his state’s higher education system and bankrupting K-12 of its most valuable resource – its teachers.

There is no way Nevada’s higher education system can exist if the type of cuts Gibbons proposed were enacted. There is no way Nevada’s school children could ever improve achievement as the lowest-in-the-nation funding is slashed again. The governor’s State of the State showed him to be in altered states. He defended his 50 percent cut to our universities by suggesting he values education more because it is a larger percentage of the state’s budget. Well, we learned enough in math to know that two percent of nothing is still nothing.

You can weigh in against his disastrous proposals by signing a petition here.

Obama talks about his budget outline

(Video link)

Obama's budget

I just wrote my Republican Senator John Ensign to urge him to support Obama's proposed budget. It's time to make some needed and overdue investments in energy, healthcare, and education.

You can find detailed information about Obama's budget at the Office of Managent and Budget's website. Peter Orszag, the OMB's director, has posted his first blog post:

This Budget puts us back on a road toward economic and fiscal health by:

Being honest. If this Budget used the gimmicks employed in recent budgets, it would show a bottom line that would appear about $2.7 trillion better over ten years. For example, these other budgets didn’t include the likely cost of natural disasters or the cost of permanently continuing the temporary patch that prevents millions of Americans from paying the Alternative Minimum Tax. Using gimmicks may make good politics temporarily, but it doesn’t help move the nation forward.

Cutting the deficit in half by the end of the President’s first term. We inherited a deficit of $1.3 trillion or 9% of GDP in fiscal 2009. Even though we increase the 2009 deficit to give the economy a desperately needed jolt, over subsequent years we reduce the deficit by more than half by 2013, the end of the president’s first term: to $533 billion or 3.0% of GDP. As I mentioned above, we inherited a path of projected deficits adding up to $9 trillion over the next ten years – and our policy proposals will reduce those projected deficits by more than $2 trillion.

Reforming health care. At the President’s direction, we have begun the process of doing a line-by-line review of the Budget. One of the lines we’ve started with is among the most important to the budget and to many other aspects of our economy: health care.

As I have long said, health care is the key to our nation’s fiscal future – and there are substantial efficiency improvements that are possible to deliver better results at lower costs in the health system.... This proposal is a starting point, not an ending point, for health reform as additional resources will be needed to improve and expand health care for all Americans.

Making key investments. The Budget also makes key investments in education, energy, and infrastructure. It invests in early childhood education;makes Pell Grants for college into a reliable source of support for students and indexes their value above the ordinary rate of inflation so as to better keep up with the rapidly rising cost of college tuition; and helps at-risk students complete college. The Budget also lays down a comprehensive approach to transform our energy supply and slow global climate change. And it makes infrastructure investments that will provide our nation a foundation for long-term economic growth.

Good governance is a two-way street. Learn about the budget. Read the White House and OMB blogs. And contact your own members of Congress here: Senate and House.

"We will rebuild"

Last night I was in Primm at a Blondie concert. Talk about a flashback to the 1970s and 80s!

And tonight after a busy day, I finally had a chance to sit down and watch the address that President Obama made to Congress and the nation yesterday.

In many ways, the last eight years have felt to me like a strange sort of limbo. Right now I feel , at last, that the 21st century has finally begun.

If anyone had any doubts that Obama was unready to lead the nation, or any doubts about America's ability to renew itself and lead the world once more, I can't help but think that they must now be looking at our president and at this country a little differently.

Obama explained our financial crisis and why the economic stimulus plan was necessary (as well as some of the highlights of what it will do for the country). But even in this time of crisis, he seized the moment to call for investments in the critical areas that will determine our future: energy, healthcare, education, and reducing the federal budget deficit. He called on Americans and their representatives in Washington to step up to a new level of responsibility. And somehow--despite the partisan divide in Washington--he brought all of Congress to its Democratic and Republican feet 34 times.

If you haven't watched the speech, you can watch highlights here or the full address here (both videos are also below). Here is the transcript.

A couple of passages that particularly moved me:

But we know that our schools don’t just need more resources. They need more reform. That is why this budget creates new incentives for teacher performance; pathways for advancement, and rewards for success. We’ll invest in innovative programs that are already helping schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps. And we will expand our commitment to charter schools.

It is our responsibility as lawmakers and educators to make this system work. But it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it. And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma. And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country – and this country needs and values the talents of every American. [my emphasis] That is why we will provide the support necessary for you to complete college and meet a new goal: by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world....

These education policies will open the doors of opportunity for our children. But it is up to us to ensure they walk through them. In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a mother or father who will attend those parent/teacher conferences, or help with homework after dinner, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, and read to their child. I speak to you not just as a President, but as a father when I say that responsibility for our children's education must begin at home.

And:

As we meet here tonight, our men and women in uniform stand watch abroad and more are readying to deploy. To each and every one of them, and to the families who bear the quiet burden of their absence, Americans are united in sending one message: we honor your service, we are inspired by your sacrifice, and you have our unyielding support. To relieve the strain on our forces, my budget increases the number of our soldiers and Marines. And to keep our sacred trust with those who serve, we will raise their pay, and give our veterans the expanded health care and benefits that they have earned.

To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend – because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America. That is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists – because living our values doesn’t make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger. And that is why I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture.

In words and deeds, we are showing the world that a new era of engagement has begun. For we know that America cannot meet the threats of this century alone, but the world cannot meet them without America. We cannot shun the negotiating table, nor ignore the foes or forces that could do us harm. We are instead called to move forward with the sense of confidence and candor that serious times demand.

The highlights of the address:

And the full speech:

Speaking against Nevada's higher education budget cuts

Following on a big rally at UNLV last month, students will be traveling to Carson City to protest the severe budget cuts that Governor Jim Gibbons supports:

On February 25-27, eight students (two from each of Southern Nevada’s student leadership institutions, including both undergraduate and graduate student body leaders) will travel to Carson City to lobby on behalf of Nevada’s students.

On Wednesday evening, they will attend a legislative dinner and meet with state leaders that evening as well as Thursday afternoon to discuss student interests and needs in relation to budget cuts.

This event is being co-hosted and organized by the student governments of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), College of Southern Nevada (CSN), and Nevada State College (NSC).

Seriously, how is this state ever going to become something more than a place driven by gambling and tourism if we don't invest in the education of our citizens?

More information on how Nevada's higher education institutions are responding to the cuts here; you can voice your opinion with our sorry excuse for a governor here.