Is anyone in public education championing progressive reform today? Are local school boards and superintendents working to only improve Academic Performance Index scores and Adequate Yearly Progress goals at the expense of gutting classrooms from meaningful intellectual inquiry? I learned last week that there is still tremendous passion for progressive reform in Santa Clara County for our public schools. For that I am grateful and reinvigorated.

With the firefighters’ union becoming the first labor organization to formally reach a deal on compensation concessions with the city last week, this week’s City Council meeting will feature even more discussions regarding labor negotiations. Other items of note will include the approval of assistance for low-income housing and a proposed rate increase for recycling.

Last week the council took up the firefighters union contract with more than 100 firefighters in attendance. I thought I would share why I voted no. First, I think it is clear that if you have worked in city government over the years that things are drastically changing due to structural budget deficits. Second, if you are new to working in city government, you will most likely not have the same career as those before you.

After the City Council voted 9-2 on Tuesday in support of the agreement reached with San Jose’s Firefighters Union, three more unions, representing city architects and engineers, trade worker supervisors, and mid-level managers, have reached a similar agreement.

Last week, Pat Dando, who announced back in December that she would be leaving her post as Chamber CEO at the end of this month, decided to extend her stay in office. Her stated reason is that she wants to give the Chamber search committee more time to find the perfect candidate. What’s more likely is that she’s keeping the seat warm for Pete Constant.

Thomas Freidman in his column in the NY Times on Sunday summed up my feelings perfectly with respect to the federal budget impasse. He wrote: “So far, the GOP is calling for cuts in the things we need to invest more in—like education and infrastructure—while leaving largely untouched things we need to reduce, like entitlements and defense spending. A country that invests more in its elderly than its youth, more in nursing homes than schools, will neither invent the future nor own it.”

The vote on the convention center has been covered extensively, but a resident I spoke to asked me to please share my view on San Jose Inside. As we know, the Council vote was unanimous in supporting the renovation and expansion.  Although I cannot speak for my colleagues, I would say there were four major constituencies who advocated for the renovation and expansion of the convention center.

By now, the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig, could have, and many say, should have, made a decision as to whether or not the A’s should be permitted to move to San Jose.  The A’s ownership group wants to make the move, and San Jose city officials have been working to assemble the land for a new stadium.  What’s the hang up?

The battle over redevelopment agency dollars will now be confined to just the city and state here in San Jose. On Wednesday, a settlement was reached between the city and Santa Clara County, which was owed $62.9 million.

Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose), who represents California’s 15th Congressional District, has gotten out in front on the effort to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Declaring with colleagues that “funding of a war that costs over $2 billion a week [is] unsustainable,” Honda, co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s Taskforce on Peace and Security, went public with a series of statements following Gen. David Petraeus’s Wednesday testimony to the House Armed Services Committee.

Pat Dando confirmed Wednesday that she will be extending her stay as CEO of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. Dando has held the role since the summer of 2005 and was expected to have her last day at the end of this month.

The San Jose McEnery Convention Center is in dire need of an upgrade to avoid losing business to rival venues in San Francisco and Santa Clara. The cost of just the most urgent improvement is $26.5 million. It’s money that the city doesn’t have—what the city does have is a $105 million deficit. On the other hand, the Convention Center brings in about $12.5 million to Downtown businesses, and this could be lost if no upgrade takes place.

I know you care deeply about the success of our nation’s educational systems and the student clients they serve. You and your boss advocate for an education system that is second to none. Early childhood education can be the great equalizer between poor and wealthy families. The $21,495,317 that Santa Clara County receives in federal funding for Early Head Start and Head Start saves the taxpayer at least four times that much, if Head Start did not exist.

The Police Officers Association published a report of a weekend drive-by shooting to show why it says the public will be less safe if officers are laid off due to the city’s budget crisis

On March 22, the city and the firefighters union, Local 230, will formalize an agreement for a 10 percent cut in total compensation over a two-year period. The agreement will also set a standard for fire engines to be staffed by four firefighters instead of five for further cost savings.

The brouhaha over Councilmember Pete Constant refusing to hire a union receptionist at a $70,000 annual salary made its way to the airwaves this week. Constant sat down for an interview with Fox Business’s Stuart Varney.