One might get discouraged...

At least someone is listening, while they do not understand, at least I know they heard me...
This was in response to my emails to Ga. Senate Education Committee members 1 of the 10 I have been emailing weekly asking not to vote on the waiver to media expenditure controls:

"Dear Melissa:
Thank you for contacting me. Unfortunately, our state is facing a very real economic downturn that, of course, affects revenue. We must cut spending by $3 billion this year and next year looks no better. We are cutting K-12 education by half of what we are asking other department to cut because it remains our highest priority. And, to allow local systems to determine how best to spend the limited resources, we are granting temporary flexibility. I hope that does not mean libraries are cut, but the local school board will make that determination.
Eric Johnson"

Unfortunately the economy is being used as a reason for whatever policy legislators chose to introduce right now. As of now media centers in Georgia are already having the funds that have not been spent for this year rescinded in the mere anticipation of this bill passing - one can only imagine what will happen next year! But I can give you a preview - money that should be spent on books and materials for the media center will now be spent on copy paper and laminating film!

Oh and the sunset on this bill has already been extended another year while in committee, think it won't be extended again next year?

NTIA Roundtable - A "Debate" on Innovative Programs

As the discussion of the stimulus package money and what do do with it continues, this interesting discussion addresses the concept in the bill that refers to "innovative programs." As usual, a bill has passed with some ambiguous and ill-defined language. With 7.2 billion up for grabs the question arises with many stakeholders - what is considered an innovative program?

In a March 17th NTIA roundtable meeting various stakeholder groups, including the American Telemedicine Association, The American Association for Community Colleges (AACC), OneEconomy Corportation (and what is that you ask? I too wondered - see below) and the American Library Association (ALA), discussed how their organizations are or could be providing innovating programs.

ALA Executive Director, Emily Shekatoff, argued for a greater investment to be made in public libraries, as they are "the premier public computer centers in America's communities. Libraries are the sole source of free access in 73% of America." Yet over 60% suffer from slow connections that impair their patron's ability to access information. When asked about definition of innovation Shekatoff follows with the amount of bandwidth that it takes for libraries and schools to provide all of the innovative resources they do to the public to everyone,"no matter where you live or how wealthy you are." Nice finish I think!

So score 1 for Shekatoff as she makes the good point that people are turning to libraries more and more during the economic troubled times and in many small communities the library is where people go for internet access. And +1 for finishing with flair!

While the Hermes from the AACC argues that they are even more crucial than libraries because they provide a link "back to into the educational fold for people during economic downturns." An by educating people here in their communities they are providing better skilled workers to come out and be productive members of the community.

OK sounds impressive AACC (score +1 for impressive argument), but definitely has more limitations on it than the general population that would be impacted with libraries. So that's going to cost you .5 points Mr. Hermes.

Next up, Ramsey from OneEconomy Corp. He slams the libraries and schools, in that they are inaccessible for many people. For example, people can't get there during their hours because they are working or do not have transportation to get there. He says the only way that American can make sure that everyone has access to broadband is to bring it to their homes. He even goes on to bring poor Dorothy into it with "there's no place like home!"

Well, well, well Ramsey comes out swinging with the equality card for lower-income groups and kids. In that people that only have access at libraries are "second-class citizens." Whew! I would have loved to see Shekatoff's expression on that! But here is the fatal flaw - he goes on to comment that once people have access and are aware of the advantages that broadband can bring to them they will find it affordable. What? Really now-is the man behind the curtain going to make that appear as well? And have you asked these people would they even use and access broadband if brought to their doorstep? Because as we have seen in previous readings this is debatable!

So Ramsey gets the point (+1) for tugging at the heart strings, but loses (-1) for defiling the Wizard of Oz and ignoring the usage issue.

Finally, Linkous, CEO of American Telemedicine Association. He begins with first trying to define his own organization's interests, in which he takes the broad approach in that it can cover expanding broadband services not just to health care facilities, but to homes of undeserved populations as well.

Linkous goes for the jugular with the "oh yeah well we can do both argument" and argues for diversity in access points. He warns against projects overlapping and duplicating each other which would be a waste of money.

Linkous I am sure scores here (+1) with the scare factor - "oh no, someone is going to bust us for wasting the stimulus money" fear that I am sure is in the back of  NTIA's mind. Yet when asked to specifically describe some example of these innovative projects he skirts the issue with Stating there will be applications we haven't even thought of yet.

So who wins? Who scores the big bucks? Your guess is as good as mine! It might be helpful if some definitions, standards or guidelines were present, but we all know that is not going to happen.

Right now it is just a backyard brawl to see who is going to get the biggest piece of the pie!

Info:

One Economy Corporation-this is taken from their web site: Is a global nonprofit organization that uses innovative approaches to deliver the power of technology and information to low-income people, giving them valuable tools for building better lives.We help bring broadband into the homes of low-income people."  AH HA - here we go! So here we see their focus is on the home so of course they are down playing the libraries' and schools' importance. Also note the use of "innovative" in their mission statement - one wonders if that was in there a couple of moths ago...

Obama to Limit Use of Signing Statements

In a Washington Post article President Obama said that he would only issue signing statements to "address constitutional concerns." Apparently Bush had a tendency to use these statements to make changes to the intentions of bills as he signed them into law. What a sneaky way to get around the intent of the bill! Another example of his blatant abuse of power!

Of course there are those criticizing Obama for not completely doing away with the practice. The ACLU in articular says that these statements can be used in an abuse of presidential authority to change the meaning of legislation that they don't like instead of the intended purpose of providing guidance. Obama promised to use the signing statements sparingly, but only time will tell and you can be sure people will be watching and taking note.

Crossover Day 2009

The Georgia Legislature is in full swing and we have almost reached crossover day! Crossover Day is Day 30 of the session. Legislation that originates in one chamber must make it to the other chamber by Day 30 in order to be considered for passage this session. Day 30 is rapidly approaching-this Thurs. March 12th. So legislation is starting to move very quickly at the Georgia General Assembly this week.

The bill I am watching is HB 278 - this bill would waive media center expenditure controls for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years. This means that the money that is designated (from FTE count) to be spent for media materials (books, periodicals, supplies...) would now just go into the general fund and media centers would get whatever was left. This means money will not be spent on books for students. This is a huge issue for the media centers because I believe once the expenditure controls are waived they will be gone forever.

So I have been busy emailing Senators and the Education Committee today. The bill has already passed through the House 147 to 6 and 27 members excused. Also Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle's office has stated that he is in favor of the expenditure control legislation and plans to have the Senate act on it quickly. Additionally, he is already proposing that the sunset provision be extended - here we go already! So it does not look very promising that we can stop this, but just have to keep trying!

Stimulus to Help Retool Education

From Arne Duncan (U.S. Sec. of Education): "D.C has had more money than God for a long time, but the outcomes are still disastrous, Duncan said in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters. He said the unprecedented influx of cash, which will begin to flow in the next 30-45 days, would target states, local school systems and nonprofit organizations willing to adopt policies that have been proven to work."

Well what a novel idea - "proven policies that work." Now does he go on to define these proven policies that work? Of course not...

This money will probably go to education in one way or another, but in reading his ideas I am not sure it is going to be the most beneficial way, in the way it was supposed to be-to reduce the amount of teacher layoffs. In reading his "education reform ideas" it sounds as if Mr. Duncan has his own agenda and and it didn't seem to be about the teachers.

On a positive note he does mention libraries and that is good, but in the same breath he also questions why are school building that offer all this technology only open for 6 hours a day. Well because they are schools and we are teachers, and we are there to teach the children. If I had wanted to work nights and weekends I would have chosen to be a public librarian.