Call your shot...

I've heard that Arnie Duncan is a baller.

That's black folk speak for "he can play basketball."

Whether this is literally true or not; I don't know. I've never seen him play. I do know Duncan and Obama used to play together here in Chicago. But does he have a game? Who knows. But Arnie Duncan is a tall guy, he looks like he's in pretty decent shape, so I'm inclined to give our Secretary of Education the benefit of the doubt.

***************

This weekend, I had the unique pleasure of wading through the minutia of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Fun. Fun. Fun. Can someone please explain to me why all Federal legislation is virtually incomprehensible? I mean...everyone is DC is a lawyer! Seriously. Go to DC and check it out. Your senator? A lawyer. Congressman? A lawyer. Hotel concierge? Underemployed lawyer. Cab driver? Unemployed lawyer. So why is it that finding someone in DC to construct a basic sentence is so hard? I thought the ability to write was a prerequisite to passing the bar exam. I guess times are a changing.

In any event, as I waded though rhetoric and conditions, qualified by caveats and assurances, sports metaphors kept racing through my mind. (Maybe it was because I was watching the Final Four while trying to figure out where all of this money was going). After spending hours reading, cross-checking, extrapolating and analyzing, I thought to myself....I think I know what Obama and Duncan really want to say here but can't. It would be...uncouth. But when you break ARRA down, when you get to the heart of the matter after all of the regulatory gobbly-gook, what I think they want to say is:

Rethink everything.

Or to use a basketball metaphor, I could see Arnie Duncan standing in the lane like Shaq, guarding the hoop (or in this case, a $5 billion dollar fund that he controls) like a hawk, saying to school boards, superintendents, school districts and principals from sea to shining sea: Bring it! Show me what you've got. You've got some money, but I want to know what you did, how you did it, and what you came up with that's new. And don't even TRY to come into the lane with some soft, tired, unoriginal retread masked as reform. If you do, I will knock that weak garbage back in your face. Come strong or not at all.

Show me something!

***************

A true baller is also a shot caller. A shot caller is someone who will tell you what they're going to do before they do it, dare you to stop it, and then do it. Jordan was the ultimate shot caller. I'll never forget one game where Dekembe Mutombo of the finger wagging fame was playing one of his typically annoying "I-just-blocked-your-shot-so-I'm-going-to-wag-my-finger-in-your-face" games against the Bulls. Jordan was fouled and walked to the free throw line. He yelled: "HEY MUTOMBO," closed is eyes, dribbled the ball and proceed to make the free throw with his eyes closed.

Yeah baby!!

THAT'S a shot caller!!

And THAT'S what we need in education.

With an unprecedented 5 BILLION dollar fund in his back pocket, $5 billion that schools will only get for showing innovative instructional practices, it's as though Duncan and Obama are daring the shot callers to step up. Shot callers are doers. Shot callers are innovators. Shot callers are Don Quixote; people who dream the impossible dream. People like my girl Ginger Lewman knocking it out of the park at Turning Point Learning Center doing GREAT things with GREAT people in the heartland of Kansas. People like Kelly Tenkely, rocking it out with a website on technology integration that you can actually use, creating something with her hands, her mind and her passion for absolutely no money that is of use and value to anyone, anywhere, anytime. People like my guy Korbus who is, I think, writing a primer for the educational uses of laptops for, like, all of South Africa.

Shot callers.

So you know I think? I think if I were a board member, superintendent, principal or a teacher in the trenches, I wouldn't be satisfied with that first wave of stimulus money. That's basically back fill and catch up money. I would want want more. That 5 billion Duncan has? That my money. I would call my shot. I've got kids who need me, parents who depend on me and 5 billion reasons to bring it; to come up with something new; something strong, something truly innovative.

So at the end of the day, don't fixate on the words of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. (Unless, of course, you're a lawyer and you like doing that sort of stuff). Focus on the meaning. And what is the meaning? That the status quo is not good enough. Come strong. Bring it like Jordan. Come get this money. But don't do it for yourself. Do it for your kids. Because they need you. Because if you don't do it, who will?

So create.

Think outside of the box.

Fight for the future of your kids.

Innovate.

Rethink everything.

*****************

I'm sending a shout out to all of the ballers and shot callers.

We've got a MAJOR one-time infusion of new funding. Kudos to Obama and Congress. But more is waiting.

Bring it!

Show Duncan and Obama what you've got. Show the world what you've got.

We're watching......

Waiting.......

Call your shot.

It's about the choices we make

Let me start by saying that I'm no longer really angry.

When I picked up a newspaper and read about the AIG bonuses, I was stunned and fired off a rapid fire, stream-of-consciousness blog about the hypocrisy of unconditionally bailing out an AIG while our schools and the students who depend on our schools continue to suffer. Apparently, I was not alone in my outrage. But today my mood has changed. Anger has given way to introspection. This morning, I find that I am far more more reflective.

I find myself thinking a lot about choices.

Life is not a zero sum game. Too often, we create these arbitrary ideological splits, these unnecessary "either/or" dichotomies that fail to account for nuance or shades of gray. I try not to do that. I try to look at the big picture, at the totality of opinions and varying points of view, but I also think it is fair to say sometimes life requires that we take a side and make a choice. In fact, I will go one step further. I think, in the end, our lives and our legacy are defined by the choices we make.

AIG was not the only news of the day. I also learned that over 1000 people have died as a result of the Mexican drug wars. (You might be thinking, what does this have to do with education technology? Please bear with me for just a moment, I'll get there). Over 1000 people dead is a staggering number. A tragic, stunning loss of life. It was this fact--over 1000 people have died--coupled with the news about AIG that made me focus so much about choices.

In a world too often defined by political correctness and efforts to offend no one while concurrently trying to appeal to everyone, we often find ourselves afraid to voice a simple opinion. We're afraid to make a choice. I absolutely abhor most of Rush Limbaugh's politics, and I find his self-aggrandizing style alternatively amusing and offensive, but, like it or not, the man has an opinion and he's not afraid to let it rip. I respect that. I sometimes wonder if Hillary Clinton's political fortunes would have been different had she simply told the American people what she thought. I thought her speech at the Democratic National Convention was amazing. I thought, where was that Hillary for the past 18 months? She finally let it rip. Sometimes it's okay to stand before the world and say, "Here I am. This is what I believe. Tear it down if you want, but this is where I stand."

Choices, everyone. We must all make choices.

I've made mine.

How many more innocent people have to die before we realize we can't win a war against drugs? Our jails are filled beyond capacity with poor black boys and poor Hispanic boys many of whom will be denied the opportunity to participate meaningfully in the American Dream because they have criminal records. How many more young children simply walking down the wrong street at the wrong time will die in a crossfire of bullets as rival gangs fight over "territory" and the right to control a street corner? We spend billions of dollars on this war, but what ground have we seized? Where is our Normandy? What have we gained? More importantly, how many innocent souls have we lost?

The point I'm making here isn't about drugs. It's about choices. We can only do so much. Our tax dollars will only go so far. Average people have to make difficult choices everyday about where and how they will spend their money. You may need a new car. But your child needs braces. What do you do? You may need a new suit, but your child needs clothes for school. What do you do? The house needs a new roof, but your son or daughter also needs tuition for college. What choice do you make?

I'm not a politician. I'm one man writing a blog that only a relatively few number of people will read or see. But if asked to make a choice, I will say it again and again and again...we have got to invest first in our children. We have got to invest more in our schools. Our schools should be models of innovation that educators from every nation follow and admire. Students in every district, rich or poor, should be able to walk into any classroom in any school and put their hands on the very best, most sophisticated, most powerful learning tools available to 21st century learners.

But that is not now the case.

So if asked to choose, I'd rather we took the monies fighting a war that it seems we cannot win and invest this money in the war we must win--a war for the hearts, minds and future of our children. Let's invest this money, dollar for dollar, in education. Let's refurbish our schools. Let's create 21st century classrooms. Let's get technology out of the labs and into our student's hands. Let's make wireless access a public utility; available to every household. Let's create new scholarships, fund new grants and provide universal access to low, fixed rate student loans. Let's blow open the doors of opportunity for every child by creating a system of public education that embraces every child, empowers every child and equips every child to compete and succeed in the global economy of 21st century.

Ask yourself this--If you could spend 100 billion on developing a cure for colon cancer or 100 billion on developing toxin free, hormone free, pesticide free, easily mass-produced food that is both healthy and inexpensive, food that could be made readily available to everyone irrespective of income, which would you choose? It is a difficult decision. But I would choose the latter. I would choose to invest in something that creates life. I'd rather invest in avoiding a problem than fixing a problem.

So in a strange way, the AIG story and the causalities as a result of the Mexican drug wars formed mental bookends in my mind. Both stories, in the end, are about the battles we choose to fight and the choices we choose to make.

I've made my choice.

Want to bolster our economic future?

Create better schools.

Want to wage a meaningful war against drugs?

Create better schools.

That's where I stand. In plain and simple language.

And I'm not afraid to go before anyone, anywhere, anytime, make my case for schools and for children, and say tear it down if you want to but this is what I believe.

But what about you?

What's your choice?

I'm angry folks; really angry

I'm upset.

Along with most tax-paying citizens, I find the thought of paying a bonus to anyone in any department at AIG to be simply unfathomable. And don't give me the bit about contract law. I spent 15 years as a corporate attorney, I know the drill. Most of the employees in question are employees at will. Yes, they might be contractually obligated to a bonus, but they are not contractually obligated to a job. For me, the choice would be very, very simple. Take your bonus and walk or forego the bonus and work with us, and the taxpayers who saved your job, and let's turn this thing around.

But more than that, I'm upset that while AIG has received, to date, about 180 Billion in bail out funds (and that's your money folks), apparently without conditions precluding the payment of bonuses, the Senate concurrently saw fit to scale back and whittle down the funding appropriated for schools. So let me get this straight. AIG.....here's a check. A really BIG check. Schools....here's some money, but let's hold off before we do too much more because we're not sure an investment in education is "stimulating" enough.

Fine.

That would be my Exhibit A under the definition of "short sighted thinking."

If AIG fails, we will survive. The country will go on. If our schools continue to fail the millions of children each year who are dropping out, checking out, or doing just enough to get by but are otherwise functionally illiterate and virtually unemployable, then the looming human crisis will make the current capital crisis look tame by comparison. I am not an economist. I have not spent one day on Wall Street. But I think our first priority should be to invest in people. In children. And in the institutions that will dictate our future.

Of course, that's just me.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe I'm just baying into the wind.

But I'm angry, folks.

Really angry.