This is the third in a series of four blogs that we will post during Connected Educator Month. In our first blog, titled "Education: Making the Connections," we introduced the concept of a triangle with the student at the center and with the family at the top and the school and the community at either tip. We see the tips of the triangle as the pivotal points at which we need to make the proper connections in order to improve the quality of education. In the second blog, we focused on … [Read more...]
Charter Schools: Cure or Curse?
This is the second in the series of four blogs that we will post during Connected Educator Month. In our last blog titled "Education: Making the Connections," we introduced the concept of a triangle with the student at the center and with the family at the top and the school and the community at either tip. We see the tips of the triangle as the pivotal points at which we need to make the proper connections in order to improve the quality of education. In this blog, we focus on schools and … [Read more...]
Education: Making the Connections
This is Connected Educator's Month (CEM) -- a month in which thousands of educators in on-line communities and learning networks across the country participate in a myriad of events to share knowledge and to learn from each other. As a result, we decided to devote some posts in October, as we did last year during "Connected" month, to share some of our thoughts on education. We must confess we come at this from the outside in rather than from the inside out. We are business people and … [Read more...]
Stand Your Grounds! Let Them Eat Crumbs! Stick ‘Em Up!
Last week was just another week that wasn't in terms of a kinder and gentler America. On Tuesday, September 17, Starbucks chairman, president and CEO Howard Schultz appealed to patrons not to carry firearms into his coffee houses. On Thursday, September 19, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would reduce funding for food stamps over the next decade. On Friday, September 20, the House passed a bill that would keep the government running and avoid a shut down but only if … [Read more...]
Time to Make Job Creation a Team Sport
The American jobs machine is broken. To fix this, we need to bring more cooperation to capitalism and make it a team sport. In our previous two blogs we looked at the condition of labor and workers in the United States and recommended worker cooperatives as a means to address that condition. In our final blog in this series, we explore why this is an essential action at this point in time and what cooperatives of all types can bring to the table. America has always prided itself on rugged … [Read more...]
A Formula for Reawakening Labor: Capitalism, Communities and Cooperatives
Based upon the rhetoric at the quadrennial labor convention held in Los Angeles this week, it appears that the labor movement will be trying new things and working diligently to break out of the daze we described in our most recent blog. Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, in his keynote address at the convention declared, "We must begin, here and now, today, the great work of reawakening a movement of working people -- all working people, not just the people in this hall, not just the … [Read more...]
Labor Daze: A Murky Future for the ‘Average’
This past Labor Day was a national holiday. There wasn't much to celebrate, however, for labor unions and the American worker. In the week before Labor Day there were marches, protests and polemics. The most well choreographed was the 50th anniversary march commemorating the "Jobs and Freedom" mass march on Washington that was made famous by Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. On the day after the anniversary march, in much lower-key events, fast food workers in more than 50 cities … [Read more...]
Going Postal: The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos and Model Building
Last week when Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for a "mere" $250 million, he gave new meaning to the phrase "going postal." Newspaper acquisitions have become increasingly popular as of late. Billionaire investor Warren Buffet has purchased newspapers in smaller locales with distinct market niches over the past few years. Billionaire John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, bought theBoston Globe for $70 million in early July. Billionaire real estate investor and hotelier Doug … [Read more...]
Students Alone: Under Utilized, Underpaid, Under Water
Before Congress broke for its August recess, the Senate passed and the House approved a bill that rationalized the student loan process. The bill gave students certainty on the rates that they will pay on the educational loans that they receive. In spite of this, students remain alone on a number of issues that affect them and their future. These include: the increased cost of a college education; decreased financial assistance; reduced employment opportunities and/or underemployment upon … [Read more...]
Snap, Cackle and Slop!
On June 20, when the House unexpectedly failed to pass a farm bill for the first time in "at least" 40 years, many observers felt that things couldn't get much worse. Then, on July 11, the House passed a farm bill by a narrow margin and they did. That's because the House bill: (1) Did not include any provision for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP -- more commonly thought of as food stamps). (2) Passed along the vast majority of its rewards not to the average family farmer … [Read more...]