Bravo! Dream big for Detroit. I know you are, but even bigger, Look inside look outside.
In colonial times there wasn't much money and most people made their way by doing what they knew how to do or what they learned how to do. I think every city, county, and state should find a path by remembering those days. By the way, you are starting to look a bit like Jimmy.
You have people who have lost their jobs and are going to lose their houses. Educated people. It's time to forget about about teaching degrees, unions, and school budgets. What you need' is to take the tutoring plan and make it massive. Trade with people for their skills. Make people independent contractors and work out a way to keep them in their houses if they will agree to tutor kids. From the looks of things you need bodies more than buildings. Of course you have to monitor things, so use your teachers, to make teachers out of them. Then have them monitor a small group of kids to make sure they are succeeding. With 200 Million dollars I could educate everyone of your kids. I am not applying for the job though. Yes advice is like ___holes everyone has some. Saving a city is flying by the seat of your pants, which is politically unwise. It's time cities, states and, counties got over what is paralyzing them. Politics and money! If there is a study that can be done a politician will do it. It makes no sense to spend a million of dollars studying something rather than fixing them. A study is just a way of covering there you know what, so they have someone else to blame.
Building structures that are going to be torn up the day after they open is a waste of cash. Who says a school has to be built from scratch? The one thing kids want is to be safe. Schools used to be fairly safe, but it was not because they had 10 million dollars in security equipment. We traded hall monitors for cameras that can't react when the need arises. Cameras are a good tool, but they are not a replacement for people. Forget the teaching certificate, get honest, caring people into the halls.
It's not about how much you can spend. It is about getting good results. Teacher's unions have all copped out to the attitude that inner city kids are, so crippled by their circumstances that they are likely to fail. Starting with the attitude that you will fail is a formula for failure. Imagine if I built planes and told people that: Due to the poor manufacturing process, they were more likely to crash, but that has to be accepted. The goal is the outcome. Giving kids safe nurturing, environments, that build their self esteem can help get you to that goal.
The schools are not the answer to pitching campaigns for every social ill. Education is about teaching kids how to make good choices, not what choices to make. Some how we have gotten to the point where we want to control everything about the people in our community. Unfortunately, people will not allow themselves to be fit into a round hole. Our country has always had problems, but we always tried to teach people respect and civics. When that ended all hell broke loose. Personally I think that America has to many anal retentive people. Those people spend so much time looking for things they don't like, that their whole life is spent trying to end those things. They have no clue of what life could be like if they took advantage of what was around them. The whole thing leads them to become nomads that are focused on when and where they can move to escape their latest pet peeve. In the mean time their kids are trying to run from them, because they want peace and stability.
The point of this is, that, we must stop running and start facing problems. If you have no cops and no money, go to a city, county, or state, where they have cops and ask them to volunteer some time. They are a brotherhood, so they should want to travel to help out. Firemen too. Then ask yours to help them. There is no more money. A 100,000 became a million, and a million became ten million and so on. Politicians wan to throw money at everything. We can't fix it, so we'll spend our last penny to hide it. Now, the public expects money to fall like rain every time we hit a bump. Well the drought has finally come.
We have to go back to resolving issues now. We must think outside the box we've put ourselves into. We have to stop watching propaganda from big money and fix the problems that have destroyed our cities. We have to do it block by block. We have to do it face to face.
I know you know this. It's more preaching to the choir, but it's time to take out the middle men and get our hands dirty. Hands on problem solving.
No one knows where to cut. Well, cut the advertising money. Stop spending money to pass laws that already exist. Stop trying to stop your neighbors from smoking by screaming at them day and night through the air waves. Stop spending money on any ad that caters to special interests of any kind. You don't have it. Change starts by changing yourself. If your not willing to practice what you preach, change is not going to come. You may not smoke, but you may be in need of exercise. You maybe thin, but your spending a thousand dollars a year on bottled water, which goes to the landfill. Leave your neighbors alone and stop sending ads out to tell them they have bad breath or hairy legs. Walk over to them and introduce yourself. Maybe you should actually get to know them. Maybe you will find that you have things in common and not all bad things. Ask your neighbor to plant bushes to hide that old rusting car. Better yet, plant bushes yourself. I know it's not all this simple. I also know that we do not talk to each other or listen to each other. We talk at people. Blah, Blah, Blah. Saturated fats will kill you, so were not letting you use them. Air pollution doesn't exist and it's all the smokers fault that we get sick. Your kids to fat. Come to the anorexia clinic or we will drag you their in chains. Gingivitis offends me. Enough! If 5 ads a week don't get it, 50 won't either. The only thing your accomplishing is; making yourself feel better. "Land of The Free" people.
You keep swinging Dave, because your going to hit a home run eventually. In the mean time advance the runners.
I guess that's like making your free throws in basketball or a lay up.
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