If anything interesting happens I’ll update this post later tonight. My prediction is that things will be pretty quiet. For better or worse the majority of the town seems to be unengaged and I think the biggest hurdle the committee as a whole faces is finding ways to get more people involved.

Last year, the state legislature overwhelmingly passed a law that requires all high school students to take some online classes to graduate, and that the students and their teachers be given laptops or tablets. The idea was to establish Idaho’s schools as a high-tech vanguard.

To help pay for these programs, the state may have to shift tens of millions of dollars away from salaries for teachers and administrators. And the plan envisions a fundamental change in the role of teachers, making them less a lecturer at the front of the room and more of a guide helping students through lessons delivered on computers.

via Idaho Teachers Fight a Reliance on Computers – NYTimes.com.

I think that this shows what happens when you pit the policy makers against teachers and administrators. There is no question that to get most jobs or to succeed students must be literate with technology. However, students cannot become literate with the technology if their teachers are not. This means the teachers must be trained. Meanwhile, while the technology changes, people are still trying to figure out the most effective way to use it in a learning environment. By mandating the technology the policy makers seem to be creating problems and confusion instead of advancement.

I think that the worst part of technology in the classroom is the use of it as a glorified whiteboard. Typically a regular whiteboard will do. The money spent on most fancy setups is a waste when a portable projector and iPad or laptop is all a teacher needs to show a YouTube video to their class. The money is better spent on individual workstations for students to use on research or tools for their own independent learning.

Finally the independent learning component of technology is the part that the teacher in the story does not seem to understand. The content on the web can be used to learn and for many people it is effective. Companies like RosettaStone sell software that teaches individuals foreign languages with great success. Chris Anderson at TED gave a great talk about how video on the web is fueling innovation:

Yet students without access to broadband and powerful computers at home cannot harness this innovation. This is why we need schools and libraries to fill the gap. Computers might not make sense in a classroom setting but schools should be making sure that students are able to access them during free periods and after school. Otherwise the students without computers or broadband are at a disadvantage compared to those that have it.

Finally schools should be teaching students how to use these tools as part of their curriculum. It’s not enough to just put someone in front of a computer and have them search YouTube. They need to know how to do things like format their reports in Microsoft Word or calculate formulas in Excel. They need to be shown where they can find open courseware or how to more effectively use Google. If they do not know the answer to something they should know where to go to find it.

It is unfortunate that policy makers have resorted to a mandate to solve their problem. The mandate will not make their students smarter nor will it make teachers happy. Instead they should have worked with these technology companies to start pilot programs in the districts to bring in the technology and train the teachers. They should have worked to identify the needs of the teachers and students and find ways for the companies to fill the gap. After working with a few districts they could have learned from the successes and failures and adopted those to a larger state-wide program. That would have been a win-win for the state, the technology companies, teachers, and especially the students.

Winds of Change….

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed
around.

_*Congressional Reform Act of 2011*_

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no
pay when they’re out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social
Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the
Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into
the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the
American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all
Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.
Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and
participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the
American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void
effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this
contract with Congressmen/women.

Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in
Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their
term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will
only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive
the message. Don’t you think it’s time?

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete.
You are one of my 20+ – Please keep it going, and thanks.

Then my response:

1. Members of congress do not have any sort of tenure privileges the way a teacher or college professor does. Some are in Congress a long time but that is merely because their constituents re-elect them. In regards to the salary/pension issue, some legislatures operate that way (see New Hampshire). I think its a bad idea because without a source of income from serving the members are then forced to find outside income. This means they must either be retired, independently wealthy, or have an outside source of revenue. This means we’ll have more of the 1% in Congress or greater conflicts of interest due to outside influence.

2 + 3. Members of Congress do presently participate in the social security system. Wikipedia informs us a little more here:

The Social Security Amendments of 1983 required all Members of Congress to participate in Social Security beginning January 1, 1984. As Social Security and CSRS benefits sometimes overlapped, Congress called for the development of a new federal employee retirement program to complement Social Security. This new plan was enacted as the Federal Employees’ Retirement Act of 1986. This act created the FERS program, under which new Members of Congress are currently covered.

So the Congressional Pension is merely a supplement to Social Security income. Members of Congress are of course free to decline to participate or to buy any other retirement plan available on the open market. However they do not get a 401k and would have to setup a traditional or Roth IRA.

4. Congressional pay normally raises by cost of living which has recently been less than 3% and Congress has voted not to give itself raises in current years (see http://thehill.com/homenews/news/97971-obama-signs-law-blocking-congress-pay-raise). Again I’d view this as poor policy because millionaires like Nancy Pelosi do not suffer when the pay raises are eliminated but members of congress without money are impacted since they must absorb the inflation. For a story that does a great job of describing the impact of freezing salaries for public officials you should read this New York Times articles on judges leaving the New York Bench.

5. Members of Congress participate in the same healthcare system as other federal employees (see http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/health-care-for-members-of-congress/)

6. This is already the case.

7. This is the dumbest thing I have ever read. It’s not really clear what he is saying here but it is terrible policy to break contracts because then people will no longer trust the contracts you make in the future. This was best understood by Alexander Hamilton when, at the founding of the country, he worked to have the United States assume and pay back its Revolutionary War debts (see http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2008/09/18/past-present-alexander-hamilton-and-the-start-of-the-national-debt)

Finally there is the issue of a citizen legislature. I think its important to note that majority of our founders were professional politicians. They were made-up of lawyers, wealthy businesspeople, doctors, and scientists. Many interest groups are concerned that term-limits and other limitations that make legislatures less stable cause a loss of institutional knowledge and prevent legislators from developing expertise both at their jobs generally and in certain issue areas.

Part 2: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/The-Malloyalists-2343742.php

and we have 18 more coming! Not going to comment on it because so many have already. Ted Mann’s writing speaks for itself.

This may be the first election where I do not vote for every Democrat on the ballot. While I am still a proud Democrat, I have been inspired by the courage of two strong women. That is why I am asking you to join me tomorrow in voting for Mary Beth Maluccio and Maria Kokinis-Tougas, candidates of A Wethersfield Party, for Board of Education.

Their bravery began over a year ago when they decided to reach across party lines and work with the Republican members of the Board of Education on the issues facing our schools. While the members of the United States Senate were fighting over issues like healthcare reform, the members of the Wethersfield Board of Education worked together to rebuild the school administration. When the United States Congress spent months failing to agree on how to tackle our national debt, the members of the Board of Education worked together to rebuild the work of the Board committees where members could develop expertise and focus on specific issues. They set an example that put our leaders in Washington to shame.

Yet working together came at a political cost. When it came time for Mary Beth and Maria to be nominated for re-election their party abandoned them. They could have chosen the easy way out; they could have walked away and let someone else do their jobs. Instead they took the bold step of forming their own election committee and appealing directly to the voters. They held meet-and-greets and walked door-to-door to listen to the voices of the people. They pounded the pavement over the past few months because they worked so hard to put the schools on a promising path and they know their work is not done.

That bold leadership of navigating the Board through an ethics scandal, rebuilding the central office, and working together to tackle the problems facing our school system is the kind of leadership we need if our schools are to prosper. I trust Mary Beth and Maria because I know they are intelligent, thorough, and unafraid to ask the tough questions. If you care about the future of our town and our schools, then tomorrow, please join me in voting for these two strong women for Board of Education.

Sincerely,

Matthew Zagaja

I spend a lot of time out in the Digital Disneyworld, and I dont see much breadth or depth of opinion writing. Many blogs are spottily maintained, and few argue a point for more than 50 or 60 words. The Connecticut blogosphere often looks like chaos in Genesis 1:2 — formless and empty with darkness over the face of the deep.Theres a lot of “stuff,” but not much rises to the level of an opinion piece on an op-ed page. There are noteworthy exceptions such as Don Pesci, who publishes damn nearly daily on his conservative site “Red Notes From A Blue State.” Ezra Pound he is not, but Pescis posts usually go on for at least a few hundred words of essayish prose.I could name seven or eight Connecticut sites where somebody, on a regular basis, writes recognizable commentary, but no more than that.

via Op-ed fills void: The Courants op-ed page filled a void in 1976 and still does – Courant.com.

Overall it shocks me how easily the media is able to shape the mindsets of the people. Cynicism seems to serve as a replacement for critical thinking. Since people see more stories about corruption than the things the government succeeds at they assume its corrupt. The thing that really drives home the ignorance of many is this chart about the percentage of people participating in government social programs that do not believe they are.