kaiyen: pepper

Monthly Archive: January 2011

an olive branch turned into stifled innovation

Disclaimer:  The Tech Steering Committee Innovation Grants offered by Santa Clara University are a terrific idea in support of those that have viable proposals to move teaching and learning forward.  Without these grants, many projects could not even get off the ground.  That these grants even exist at a smaller university is a testament to the commitment from the very highest levels of the university to innovative uses of technology in meaningful and hopefully important ways on education, learning, and university experience.

Having said that…a recent experience with the TSC grants has left a very bad taste in my mouth.  It seems contrary to the goals of the program, in fact.  It takes what was an olive branch offered in line with the very criteria for a proposal and turns things all around, potentially stifling innovation.

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January 11, 2011 Higher Education IT, Musings, Rants, and Random Thoughts 0 Read more >

Jerry Brown’s budget cuts deep, looks to extend tax hikes, reshapes government| PolitiCal | Los Angeles Times

Jerry Brown’s budget cuts deep, looks to extend tax hikes, reshapes government| PolitiCal | Los Angeles Times.

My first reaction to this is “what!  cuts again!  this is wrong, this cannot be tolerated this…etc.”

And fundamentally that is my reaction.  These budget cuts tend to hit education particularly hard (lobbyists just aren’t as strong, let’s face it), and it’s easy to say “well, if we increase ratio to 25 students to each teacher, that ripples through savings of X.”

But the state’s budget is a mess.  I honestly don’t know how any governor can do anything to improve the situation without screwing over just about everyone.  So many expensive budget items are not only in the budget, but are so entrenched that it’s impossible to get things changed.

And when it boils down to it, lobbyists come into play.

What was interesting was watching the nursing community put up such a huge fight when Whitman was running for governor against Brown.  My wife is a nurse and to see such a strong response makes me realize how weak of a position education really has.

January 10, 2011 Articles from the Web, Getting Political 0 Read more >