Economy Hits Back to School Hard

In a recent article, Associated Press's Education Reporter, Libby Quaid stated that the higher cost of major components to our schools are causing out of step funding to miss its mark.

The article mentions that high fuel costs are causing districts to cut back on busing students from home to class, and delivery of materials such as pencils and paper.

"Field trips? Forget about it."

At a time when the economy is struggling and gas prices were over $4 a gallon this summer, many schools are finding it difficult to pay for the everyday tools their students need to learn, study, and simply be comfortable.  Heating and cooling costs have also increased.  Even keeping an entire building at a comfortable temperature might be compromised.  

"In rural Minnesota, one district is skipping classes every Monday to save fuel. On the other days, classes will be about 10 minutes longer.

"I think it's a great opportunity," said Candice Jaenisch, whose two sons and daughter will be making the switch. "You're cutting expenses that really don't affect school."

The article goes on to say that teachers asked students to bring tissue for the classrooms, but now they ask for things like copy paper instead.

The national site, Donors Choose, allows teachers to talk about a specific project they wish to do but cannot fund. They then ask donors for materials or dollars to help fund the project. But how do you fund the costs of gasoline to get kids to school, or enough to pay for high gas bills in the winter?

No longer are utensils like crayons, art supplies, drama books, or playground equipment suffering from budget cuts. Now they're dealing with school districts and whole days of class.

"In Jacksonville, school lunch prices will rise from $1.45 to $2 for secondary schools. "It's a huge jump," said LaTasha Green-Cobb, whose sons are in the seventh and eighth grade.

As fuel prices have rocketed, the cost of food has followed suit, especially for lunch-tray staples like milk. As a result, most schools will charge more for lunch, the School Nutrition Association said.

Schools will still not break even. More than half of all school children in this country get free and reduced-price lunches, and the government reimbursement is often not enough to cover the cost."

It goes on to say that costs of more nutrient rich foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and the like are often twice as expensive.

In the end, its young people who are being asked to compromise.... again....

Young Voters Matter at Netroots Nation

The yearly convention of progressive bloggers known as Netroots Nation took Austin, Texas by storm this past weekend. Last Thursday, bloggers met in caucuses tailored to their interests where everything from rural bloggers to LGBT bloggers to young bloggers Latino bloggers ... all were represented.

The youth caucus combined bloggers, activists, and representatives from organizations together in a circle to discuss the youth movement, issues that matter most to young people, and best practices when doing outreach to there peers. A major conversation thread was the difference between college students vs. non college students and how we can do outreach to both communities.

Barack specifically addressed the ease of energizing his college campus and the difficulty in finding young voters when they aren't congregating on a 50,000 person campus.

Many candidates and politicians joined in the conference to court the endorsement and coverage of their candidacy from bloggers within their state and nationally. Candidates from California, Florida, Washington state, to Kansas held events and plugged their social networking sites in panel discussions and some broadened the discussion to better ways they can do outreach to the netroots community.

All had an enthusiasm around young voters. Particularly, Democratic National Committee Chairman Governor Howard Dean who spent a few minutes with us and talked about the ways in which he sees young voters making an impact this election. According to Dean, young voters are a key component to the DNC strategy. He plans to drive the "Register for Change" bus through many college towns across the country.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also spent some time with us talking about her faith in young people and her belief that they are not only the future but the leaders on many new communications and technologies. Pelosi said she felt young people truly cared about global warming and the war on climate change.

We ran into tons of politicians from Mayor Gavin Newsome from San Francisco to Joe Garcia running for Congress in south Florida. We talked with Secretary of State Robin Carnahan about voter ID laws and their impact on young voters, and met up with candidate John Powers running for Congress in New York in the Netroots for the Troops room where volunteers were putting together care packages to send overseas.

Even Libertarian candidate for president Rep. Bob Barr stopped by Netroots Nation to talk to folks and sit in on a few panels. Rep. Barr told us he thought young voters were about to impact this election like never before.

As a blogger it was a profound experience to finally meet people I've read for years and discuss important topics that can help me be a more informed citizen. At the same time it was great to just have fun with friends. Many of whom I'd never actually met in person but have known for a year or more. It was a wild weekend! I heard some people even rhode the mechanical bull! Anything's possible in Texas!