By Matthew Fox, Aug 23, 2030 A useful education today must instruct us in our creativity so that we do not turn it over to others and so that we use it for purposes that are life-giving and life-affirming (biophilia) rather than destructive or death-affirming (necrophilia) When Hildegard of Bingen was very sick, she had an overwhelming experience of a …
Access to internet is a critical divide
Colorado Sun, Aug 2020 excerpt Colorado Department of Education in late March and early April found about 53,000 students across the state didn’t have access to a device and about 66,000 didn’t have reliable internet at home, Rebecca Holmes, CEI’s president and CEO, said during Wednesday’s media briefing. Black, Latino and low-income families were most significantly affected by the shortage …
The Professor Who Turns Climate Change Into a Game
By Eric Roston, Bloomberg, April 21, 2020 John Sterman has spent his life explaining why big systems fail. A professor at MIT Sloan School of Management since the early 1980s, his research extends from global supply chain disruptions to the collapse of the biosphere. He literally wrote the book on how to manage complexity, Business Dynamics, and has guided generations of MBA …
Start with cancelling student debt and making public colleges free: $3 or $4 dollar return on each dollar invested
We’ve seen a lot of progressive candidates build policies around free college. But it’s not just a progressive idea. The Republican-led government of the state of Tennessee created the Tennessee Promise, a program that makes certain schools free to attend for Tennessee residents. This is because for every dollar that a state spends on higher education, they get a 3 …
For every $1 invested in public colleges and universities, the state gained $4.50 due to reduced poverty, fewer arrests and incarcerations, and higher tax revenues
July 16, 2020 by OtherWords Bernie Sanders Is Right, Now Is the Time for Free College: With youth unemployment and student debt skyrocketing, young people need free higher education. by Margot Rathke in Common Dreams Even before the pandemic, the exorbitant cost of higher education was holding our country back. (Photo: Shutterstock) After graduating from college last year, Hayat Rahmeto …
Cities pledge to make connectivity a utility as COVID-19 exposes the digital divide
16th July 2020 Sarah Wray in Cities Today A common theme in cities’ broadband plans is a focus on public-private partnerships Estimates as to the size of the digital divide vary, with figures suggesting that anywhere from 21 million to 162 million citizens in the US lack access to broadband or connectivity of an adequate speed. What is clear is that the …
3 Things Protesters Are Pushing That Could Actually Move the U.S. Away From Racist Policing and Bring Sustained Long-term Improvements? Deal with crime as a public health issue.
FACES ON THE FRONTLINES RESEARCH & COMMENTARY – JUNE 29, 2020, This article was produced by Local Peace Economy, a project of the Independent Media Institute. By April M. Short Protesters against police brutality and racism have gathered to demand systemic change since the end of May, holding events in all 50 U.S. states and around the world. Impelled by the police murder of George …
The Black Radical Tradition Can Help Us Imagine a More Just World + What Everyone Should Know About Reconstruction 150 Years After the 15th Amendment’s Ratification
Excerpt, June 28, 2020 – Truthout https://truthout.org/articles/the-black-radical-tradition-can-help-us-imagine-a-more-just-world/ (see below that for article on history and links regarding the Reconstruction) The educational theory of the enslaved cannot be detached from the origins of the Black radical tradition, one that was forged in resistance, providing the empirical basis for freedom struggle. As Cedric Robinson suggests, the Black radical tradition was birthed from the …
Studies continue to prove that systemic racism is very real
By Lee Camp, Counterpunch. June 27, 2020 | EDUCATE! Racism is like sewage. Whether we’re currently engaging in a national dialogue about it or not, it’s still there. It runs under our streets, our buildings, our society. Millions of tons of shit. Rarely is racism truly visible to the naked eye. More often, it trickles along beneath our collective consciousness, quietly infecting everything. …
Just a few (incomplete) benefits from replacing existing diesel buses with electric school buses
This report summarizes analysis conducted by VEIC on Denver Public School’s bus fleet and the suitability of replacing existing diesel buses with electric school buses. Colorado is undertaking efforts to reduce harmful emissions from diesel engines as part of a legal settlement with Volkswagen Group of America. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (DPHE) is administering over $68.7 …