Great resource for establishing basic metrics by which to measure your energy usage at the school, business and civic levels. Thanks kt!

Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America, is interviewed here in the NY Times. Here’s my favorite excerpt:

Q. What’s your two-minute commencement speech?

A. My two-minute commencement speech would be to tell graduates to take on the world’s inequities now, because they’re huge and have such important human consequences. But they are solvable. It’s just that it takes incredible amounts of time. They’re very complex problems. So better to start early so that you have enough time.

And also, I just think there’s actually a huge power to inexperience. In the context of deeply entrenched problems that many people have given up on, it helps to not have a traditional framework so you can ask the naïve questions. That can help you set goals that more experienced people wouldn’t think are feasible.

You set those big goals, and you wake up a year later after insane amounts of work and realize you actually met them. So I think that that would be my message.

Funding for the Town and Village of New Paltz to evaluate options. Congratulations!

I’m going to be attending The School Law Institute at Teacher’s College. Can’t wait to see what thought processes and writing develop from the experience!

This blog has all sorts of information about unions. Worth reading and bookmarking.

School budgets were salvaged mostly by stimulus funds this year. And next. But the funding issues will not dissipate with time or even economic recovery. We need to make tough choices. Here is a Times-Union article that outlines a few options. They may seem drastic. At this point, we need any and all ideas PLUS we need the leadership and stamina to make the tough choices.

While the banks are flailing, many are turning to “angel” investors. Or peer-to-peer lending. While the internet definitely provides access for more people than before, the systems are relatively free of the regulatory confines of more traditional banks and thus may not have provisions for protecting the rights of many. Economic development is hard work and requires constant creativity and copious quantities of elbow grease to achieve a viable, successful and sustainable project. These networks and investors are creative and provide an important role. It is incumbent on our existing systems to ensure that we find ways to serve applicants equitably, providing support in many ways, for all of our citizens. Not just, as the Slate article points out, the pretties ones.

Urban areas are an environmental asset from the perspective that shared walls, public transit and density all minimize the footprint while making maximal use of the space. We all need open space, which is why public parks and gardens are included in many places. There are many who crave “the country,” their own space away from the busy spaces inherent in city life. Here’s a great article that details the value of open space, and how builders are recognizing and planning for it in those non-urban homes.

Oakland schools are under “re-newed” management - the local school board is in charge for the first time in 6 years. This is a district with great needs, under-resourced by many standards before the state got involved. In regaining control, what metrics are in place for the district to ensure equitable education for all?