Bottom-up-reform for improving education in Silicon Valley is more effective than top-down-reform efforts, however there is a paucity of examples of the former. In our climate of entrepreneurial know-how one would think there would be a bounty of examples of schools rearranging the apples on the proverbial cart to innovate and improve achievement for all. Yet, school the way we knew it back before the Apple II was introduced is still the norm.

The Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee, which I sit on, had a special meeting last Wednesday night. Usually, this committee meets during the day. This special meeting was being sponsored by the Independent Police Auditor (IPA) and the City Council stemming from the alleged racial profiling arrests Downtown for pubic intoxication. This is one of two meetings to be held at night to elicit public opinion about our police force. The next one will be spring 2010

The Mercury News Editorial Board used the “R” word again. You know, “Republican.”

In their Oct. 11 editorial, the Mercury News expressed its concern that the Nobel Peace Prize committee may have provided fodder for Obama’s political opponents by awarding him this year’s prize. “The award unfortunately emphasizes one of the biggest criticisms of Obama: that he gives lovely speeches but has no record of accomplishment. The condemnation he faced Friday was swift and largely ungracious, much like a week earlier, when Republicans reacted with glee after the U.S. lost its bid to host the 2016 Olympics.”

Before I get to the point of this column let me congratulate, Elinor Ostrom, who yesterday became the first woman ever to win a Nobel Prize in economics. Ms. Ostrom, a political scientist at Indiana University, was honored along with Oliver Williamson, an economist at UC Berkeley. This gets me to the topic of this week’s post. The economy and education are inextricably linked.

Last week, I toured the City of San Jose’s sanitary sewer system along with Public Works staff. For those of you who may not be aware, sewers in San Jose stretch out for 2,200 miles and range anywhere from 100 years old to brand new. The “sewer freeway” is at Zanker Road, where four large- diameter lines converge towards Alviso. They run side by side in different sizes and during the dry season we turn two of them off since the flow is slower without rainfall. This gives a rest to the other lines so they can be inspected and also helps move solid materials (grit) through the pipes.

This is SJI’s weekly open forum, where opinions on any matter are welcome. What’s on your mind?

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the smartest of them all?” That was the question posed by the Daily Beast this week, and San Jose and the rest of the Bay Area came in at an impressive 2nd place!

On March 16, 1964 in a special address to Congress, Pres. Lyndon Johnson said: “Because it is right, because it is wise and because for the first time in our history, it is possible to conquer poverty, I submit, for the consideration of Congress and the country, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.” Let me submit to the readers of San Jose Inside that the only means for us to eliminate poverty is to build a first class public education system for all America’s children.

At the Rules Committee last week, there was a proposal to amend the Graffiti Abatement Ordinance for juvenile offenders.

When someone gets arrested for doing graffiti in San Jose or other cities in Santa Clara county they are punished via the County court system. However cities do have a municipal code where offenders may pay a fine. State law does an adequate job of prosecuting adult graffiti offenders, however, some would say not such a good job of dealing with juveniles, since county probation does not want to spend the resources to supervise their community service work.

It’s the Oct. 3 edition of SJI’s Rants & Raves, an open forum where you set the agenda. It’s been a busy week in our city, state, nation and world. What’s on your mind?

It seems that San Jose is scheduled to receive a fair share of stimulus dollars from the federal government.  But, is it really “fair” or right for one of the wealthiest regions of the country to accept federal money?  I say, we should forward our money to another area of the country that is in greater need.

One of the first targets of state officials desperate for money to close the budget deficit were California’s redevelopment agencies. In 2008, the state took $350 million from them, and this year it plans to take more than $2 billion. But the agencies are fighting back…and winning. A State Superior Court judge ruled that the confiscation of funds in 2008 was unconstitutional because the money was earmarked specifically for development projects. Last week the state dropped its appeal, with repercussions for the 2009 court case that the agencies have initiated.

The ruling could have enormous repercussions for San Jose.

The age of significant life events is trending downward and middle school educators need to pay it more attention. The average age that today’s LGBT teenagers come out to their friends and in some cases parents, according to the Massachusetts Commission on LGBT Youth, is 13.4 years old.  As a middle school principal for 15 years I learned first hand that middle school LGBT students face extreme levels of harassment daily. Words can be very hurtful, leading in some instances to suicide. In fact, some data indicates that 30 percent of teen suicides are related to LGBT harassment. 

It is well known that the city of San Jose is on its way to banning single-use plastic bags starting in Jan 2011. An ordinance will come back to Council in 2010 for final adoption which will contain different options. The most problematic option I could see is a fee put on single-use bags.

Having Joan Baez open the series of high-profile weekend concerts might seem an odd choice at first, but it turns out to have been a brilliant programming decision. Her bicultural background (her physicist father Albert Baez was from Puebla, Mexico), local residence and iconic stature as an international political activist and singer certainly provide her with the credentials to fit the festival opener role. However, the great service she performed for the festival as a whole in her concert was to strategically place the traditions of Spanish-language songs (from Mexico, Spain, Chile and other Latin American countries) firmly within the context of her explorations of the “Great American Songbook,” thus affirming her own dual cultural background while illustrating and informing the intellectual and philosophical cultural crossroads the festival has become. 

The San Jose City Council is moving forward with its efforts to reduce the volume of plastic bags being used (and discarded) in the city.  By now, everyone’s heard, that an estimated one million plastic bags end up in San Francisco Bay every year. 

Perhaps bringing re-useable bags to the grocery store will soon become a common practice and habit that requires very little thinking.  And, perhaps the new requirements will generate measurable results.  But I do think that there are a couple of questions surrounding this issues that have received very little attention so far.