The Next Generation.

So while on a recent trip to the only other town I've called home, I was reminded, oddly enough, of the security guard in my building.

I took a day-trip to Bellingham, WA, as some college friends were playing in a soccer tournament. So I decided to head-up and do what I've always done: sit on the sideline and mooch some beer while getting sunburned.

The soccer tournament has become an annual pilgrimage for me and my fellow Western Washington University Alums to get together and relive the old days...in my case, the good old days.

It is a great time and a fun way to reconnect where we all met and recount the old times while catching-up on the new.

But back to the security guard.

He is an older fella. Approaching/past retirement age, by my estimation. And he, like most folks in my building, pretty much kept to himself offering nothing more than the slightest nod of acknowledgment as I entered/left the elevator. I can't say that I blame him, security guards have the worst job on the planet, they are basically like the police- deemed a necessary evil by most and never there when they should be...except this poor old fella doesn't get a gun, or even a stick! Which may explain his standoffish nature.

However, my perception of this fellow changed a few months back. See, my building requires a magnetic key to enter the front door. A magnetic key that (apparently) requires a battery to operate. Well, one dark and stormy night (it really was), as I was stumbling home, intoxicated, I went to scan my key at the door and “Voila!” – Nada.

D'oh!

As I stood outside, drunk and poorly dressed for a night spent sleeping on the street corner, I began to ponder which corner of the entryway offered the most protection from the wind. After what felt like forever and just as my hope of another alternative began to fade, I looked in the front door and there he was, the security guard.

I beat on the door like a crazy person and flailed my arms about pointing to my key as I tried to pantomime “Technology has let me down again. Batteries suck. And I am cold and drunk, please don't make me sleep on the street, sir. I really do live here! Really!”

Either I am the best pantomime in the history of all mankind or the standoffish security guard has a heart. I'm voting for the latter.

Needless to say, I was able to get into my building and -Gasp- the security guard talked to me!

As it turns-out he, like most folks, is a heck of a nice guy. I came to find out that he lives far away from downtown Seattle as it was “way too pricey for a guy like him.”

So what does a soccer tournament in Bellingham have to do with a security guard who saved my drunk ass?

Glad you asked.

The soccer tournament reminded me of college. The security guard reminded me of my Dad.

I've never held education in a very high regard. School/college was just something that I did. It was not an option.

Until I finished at Western and entered the workforce, it never really dawned on me that folks didn't go to college or that getting a degree was that big of a deal.

But as I sat there at my old haunt, The Beaver Inn in Bellingham, surveying the day-time crowd of 'townies' as we referred to them in college (while looking down our noses a bit) I realized, these 'townies' were more of a reflection of my family than the people I was sitting with.

So does that mean that I look down my nose at my family?

Honestly, I probably have in the past, but as I look at the security guard, working into retirement doing what he has to do to get by, I come to appreciate the work ethic and nobility of the Workaday Average Joe, like my Dad. (I realize like I sound like a pompous above-the-fray a-hole in that last sentence, but it's the realization I had.) *By the way, Thank you Mom and Dad, I couldn't have done anything without you.

It's an interesting dichotomy, being the first generation to get a degree. In theory, the degree will better your station in life. Yet as a result of that education, you begin to see the world differently than those who put you in the position to make that jump.

Now let me say this, having a degree does not make you smarter/better than anyone else...it simply means you were willing to jump through hoops and could afford to do so. I know plenty of very intelligent people who do not have degrees, they just simply weren't dealt the same cards that I was...and many of those folks are no worse for the wear for it.

So how does one rectify the situation?

My Mom, is still Mom. Pops is still my Pops. And I still have my degree and will forever be a lil different than them for it.

Does getting a degree in your early-to mid-20's trump the life experience of those who have been working since high school?

Hell No.

Am I impressed by someone who had the intelligence and tenacity to get an advanced degree?

Heck yeah.
*I know, I just talked down the importance of a degree a couple of paragraphs ago. But they don't just give college diplomas away, there is some work involved.

So I guess I am still trying to figure it all out.

I'll get back to ya when I have it all dialed-in.

Don't hold your breath, my four-year degree took me five and a half years to complete...

Edu-tax-cation

So I came home last week to a piece of mail that surprised me.

No, it wasn’t a delayed-delivery Christmas card with a crisp C-note in it…Darn it.

Instead, it was a ballot.

I had no idea there was a special election taking place and opened the ballot to see what pointless recount/initiative was causing all of the hullabaloo.

Color me embarrassed, but I soon realized the special election was about something I value greatly, education. The election was simple, the Seattle School District offered-up two levies for approval.

On the face, these levies appeared to be the Seattle School District foisting even more taxes upon the over-burdened citizens of Seattle. *I should say, the Seattle School District foisting even more taxes upon the over-burdened Property-Owning citizens of Seattle.

I note that last distinction because I’ve previously been a property owner and now understand what property taxes are. They can be a rather foreign concept to a renter, and my previous stance was to approve any property tax increases as it didn’t affect me…I also think kids deserve books and enjoy paved streets/public transit. So why not approve everything and let someone else foot the bill?

But I digress, as I delved into the nuts and bolts of the levies being proposed, I noted they were not proposing any new taxes, but simply requesting to maintain existing, but expiring levies.

Now that I am back to renting, I am on-board with approving property tax hikes, as long as they make sense. So I am not going to tell you how I voted, but I think you can figure it out. *I will note that even when I was a property owner, I stayed pretty true to my blue-state leanings and usually sided with tax increases, as long as I thought they served a greater good. By the way, Education = a greater good in my book.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. I hate the saying, as it’s pretty cliché, but it’s so damn true. As I hear of cuts to what I consider vital social programs: education, mental health, social services, all in the name of a balanced budget that is anything but, I get a lil fired-up. It is akin to cutting off the nose despite the face.

These programs (education especially) are in no less demand than this time last year, 4, or even 10 years ago. So why are they on the chopping block?

Simple answer- Politics.

Letting a levy expire is a backdoor way of lowering education spending without having to take the PR-hit that goes along with actually cutting education spending.

I’ll grant that every levy is a term-limited proposition. As such, everyone knows the levy will expire at some point. But I see levies as band-aids, not solutions. A levy is a short-term fix as a (hopefully) better long-term solution is researched and implemented.

That obviously hasn’t happened here. And the economy has worsened, so offsets to budget shortfalls by donations from the private sector have disappeared. Which only increases the need to, at a minimum, maintain current spending on education.

Not that any of this matters to me anyway.

I am a single fella with no kids who rents his house. So the tax hike won’t burden me, much the same way letting the levy expire won’t benefit me.

Yet here I am ranting away, Why?

Because a poorly educated populace does no one any favors. Isn’t giving kids a decent education worth a couple hundred bucks a year?

Poor education is not a blue or red issue. It’s a societal issue. Everyone is entitled to the right of being able to “read, write and arithmetic” regardless of political leanings. Kids are not a political token and education is not a place to cut corners, Period.

Maybe forcing senators and other such elected officials to take some of the unpaid furlough days they’ve forced on other lower-level public servants will drive the point home…

And the fists flew...

So I recently came across an article on the front page of the Seattle Times web site, that got me a lil fired-up.

The story re-hashed an incident dating back to 1997, where tempers flared in a high school basketball game between Garfield and Redmond. The story notes that the cause of the friction wasn’t adolescent male aggression, but race. The re-telling of the story was prompted by a recent brouhaha between the two schools earlier this month.

Shocking...A media outlet playing up-the race card.

The first question that came to mind, was: “Why bring-up such an old story?”

Is it still relevant today? I mean, if race relations are as bad as this story makes them out to be, why did they have to dig so deep into the archives to find another example? Shouldn’t race-fueled acts of aggression/violence be peppering the headlines every day…and not happening once every 10 years?

I am not going so far as to say race-relations are perfect now that we are in the ‘Age of Obama,’ but why harp on the negatives?

More upsetting to me was the gross over-simplification of the cause of the fight by the mainstream media.

There are a myriad of issues that play into the grudges that do exist between Suburban and Urban schools. Not the least of which is economics.

Sure, race is an easy divider. But the one that really hurts is economics.

As a white student at a predominantly black high school, I saw the dichotomy from the other side of the coin. I shared the same angst towards the ‘Eastside’ (read: Rich/White) schools as any other Rainier Beach High School student (read: Not Rich/Not White).

The feeling of being short-changed in comparison to the ‘haves’ of the world was exacerbated when taking one of the few AP-level classes Rainier Beach offered. The class was nearly canceled as there were not enough textbooks for the class. Meanwhile, on a visit to an eastside school that same year, I saw laptops and new computer labs. (Laptops were a very big deal in 1996-1997.)

I really didn’t have an issue with any of the eastside students just because they were white, I had an issue because they were so well-off and not only seemingly didn’t appreciate it…but they acted as if it was owed to them. *Maybe those eastside kids were unwittingly on to something, perhaps every student is deserving of a top-notch education. But all I did know was that we at Rainier Beach sure weren't getting one.

Only adding to the condescension was when eastside schools would ‘adopt’ or ‘partner’ with Rainier Beach. This was when in an attempt to broaden horizons, (read: assuage white-guilt) a school would invite Rainier Beach students to their school for a look at the good life and then, in-turn would spend a day slumming on a tour of Rainier Beach.

Instead of seeing how much we had in common, these tours only magnified the differences between the haves (them) and the have-nots (us).

So what does this have to do with a fight at a basketball game? Quite a bit actually.

Over-simplifying the cause of this brawl by attributing it to race is simply wrong. The issues are socio-economic.

And as long as everyone wants to focus on attention-grabbing headlines instead of reporting on the actual root causes of problems (urban decay as wealth has left the cities for the ‘burbs and/or the fact that in cities like Seattle the average blue-collar family has been priced-out of home ownership) fights and tensions are bound to persist.

For the record, high school dudes are gonna fight. Fights happen in high schools all over the country, regardless of racial make-up. Testosterone and egos are a volatile mix (regardless of age). Add a cheering crowd and maybe a couple of cute ladies and viola- a young fella is gonna get a over-zealous and the fists start flying.

To claim race is the driving force of tension is making a mountain out of a molehill and subverting the bigger issues like offering all American youths the same shot at a quality education.
For what it’s worth, I was able to complete that AP class in high school, and though I am not sure what the subject was, I’ll never forget that I was only able to do so because the teacher was able to finagle getting the books from a ‘better-off’ school.

I used experiences like that as fuel as I paid my way through college. But looking back at stories like that, it’s easy to see why so many kids feel like second-class citizens and just give-up

I am living proof that urban schools produce reasonable members of society. But I had to work a lil harder than suburban kids as my resources were limited.

Am I still pissed about it? Hell yeah.

But seeing as I am not 16, I am not going to punch anyone in the face over it. And I don’t think any other members of my graduating class are either. We need to work together to bridge the gaps in education/opportunities given to all students.

The real question is why don't we see anything about the education gap on the front page?

A tough Good-Bye.

It’s now been (sigh) over 10 years since I last roamed the halls of my high school. But recent news has brought my alma mater to the forefront of many discussions here in Seattle.

I was born and raised in Rainier Beach. I graduated from Rainer Beach High School in 1997. As such, I have a special affection for the school. High school was the first time I was allowed to go to a Seattle school. I attended elementary and middle schools in a nearby district as my parents thought they were better options. Yet, come high school, I was allowed to go to RB, which was sweet as I finally got to go to school with all my friends from the neighborhood.

After four years, I graduated with a decent GPA, having lettered in a couple sports and being about as extracurricularly active as one can ask for. I participated in Student Government and even got to meet John Stanford, still one of the most impressive men I’ve ever had the chance to shake hands with.

I loved/love RB. Which is why the next sentence is one of the hardest ones I’ve ever tapped-out on a keyboard.

It’s time for RB to go.

During my time at RB there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 700-800 registered students. If 75% of those kids showed-up regularly, I’d be shocked. And now, per the Seattle Times, RB enrollment in 2007 had dropped to 455.

Even back when I was a student there was talk of combining Cleveland High and RB. We actually had a joint-wrestling team as neither school was big enough to field a full team on their own.

It simply makes no sense to keep RB open.

Being a lifetime resident of Rainier Beach, I understand what the school means to the community. But what is a poorly functioning school really doing for the community? I remember my math teacher having to work-out a trade (maybe just steal) text books for my Pre-Calculus (one of the few AP-level) class. How is it fair to ask students/teachers to show-up to school with a broken-down crutch, when other schools in the district have powered wheelchairs?

I now live in the Central District, just blocks from the newly renovated Garfield High School. And the place looks amazing! My younger brother works for the Seattle School District and played quite a role in rolling-out the high-tech remodel of Roosevelt High School in North Seattle. So I got an insider’s tour of the wi-fi hot-spots and interactive touch-screen whiteboards introduced at Roosevelt. The Roosevelt remodel followed the highly publicized renovation of Ballard High School. All are great examples of the Seattle School District upgrading to stay with the times to offer students the best possible opportunities to learn.

By comparison, RB got a new Sports Complex.

What kind of message does that send to the community?

While the Sports Complex is very nice, where are the wi-fi hot spots? Where are the new computer labs? Where are (at the very least) the textbooks?

It’s long been a gripe that the N. End schools- Ballard, Roosevelt (read: well-off, white) were treated better than those on the S. End- Cleveland, RB (read: poor, minority). The vast discrepancies in services/upgrades seem to corroborate that fact. *Cleveland just did receive a remodel itself, to be fair.

N. End schools, get upgrades that prepare students for college. While S. End schools get upgrades that prepare student athletes for college sports.

Some might say, “Hey if you are being prepped for college sports, at least you are going to college.”

But, far too few students benefit scholastically from an athlete factory. RB has always had an athletically gifted student body: perennial powers in Track and Basketball, producing College-level athletes in numerous sports. But what about the kids like me, whose future (like 99% of students) doesn’t lie in College Athletics? Where are the resources for them?

The question of whether RB must be closed is moot.

What should be asked is: How did RB get to the point that it must be closed? How/why was it allowed to fail?

There are a modicum of factors that go into answering that question: Cultural nuances, changing demographics and simple finances. And I am not going to presume to have an answer.

However, it is critical to ponder those questions as to prevent a similar failure at Cleveland after merging the two.

It makes no sense to keep RB open as Cleveland was recently renovated and is simply a bigger and more up-to-date facility. The money has been spent and in times like these, stretching a dollar is the only way to go.

Will I be sad to see RB close? Yes.

Instead of (understandably) focusing on anger and spite to keep RB open, people must focus on strengthening Cleveland. To prevent the same missteps that caused RB to be shuttered.

As much as this is about a community losing one of the few positive anchors, it is more important to think about the current RB students who deserve better.

Here are some links to stories about RB:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008471680_rainier05m0.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008467004_schoolclosure04m.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008467126_webschoolclosure03m.html
*I recommend reading some of the comments. It’s interesting to see how prevalent stereotypes still are. Maybe we aren’t as far along in race relations as Obama’s election would make people think.

Screw campaign finance, take a look at higher education

So I am sure most of you have seen those ads on TV hocking student loans.

Has anyone bothered to ask why we’re seeing those so often nowadays?

It’s been over a year since a cutback in federal funding for student loans.

Anyone see a correlation?

After doing a bit of research, and by research I mean typing “Student Loan” into Google, I came to some disturbing realizations.

First off, I am lucky. I am a college graduate and benefactor of the old student loan program. I also happened to graduate at a time when interest rates were at 40 year lows. I was able to consolidate my student loans and lock-in a rate below 4%. That’s darn near free money.

Especially when weighed against going the route some of my classmates, who charged books and other expenses on their credit card(s). At rates ranging from 9.99-24.99%, and being that most of their cards were “baby’s first credit card” the rates were at the higher end of that spectrum.

So the Federal Student Loan Program did me quite a favor. It allowed me to educate myself, paid for me while I was in school and created enough earning potential that paying my student loans off was a reasonable expectation. (The fact that I am now unemployed notwithstanding.)

The same cannot be said for those who allowed Visa, AmEx, or Mastercard to foot the bill.

Is starting-off in the world with 4- to 5-digit debt the best way for a young person to enter the workforce?

No.

But then again, I didn’t want to borrow the money to buy my condo. But such is the cost of being an American and living the dream.

There has been quite a bit of scrutiny of the credit card industry and the tactics they use, especially the targeting of younger college-age consumers.

One worry was that these poor college kids, who didn’t understand the financial ramifications of high interest credit, were being saddled with debt before they even finished college. Student loans were ok, as they were a bargain that was offered by the government for the betterment of American society.

Student loans seemed to be alright, until July of 2006.

That’s when the gravy train went away.

The sentiment behind the move seemed reasonable enough. Why should the government take the financial risk when plenty of private financial institutions were willing to?

We’ve all seen how good private institutions are loaning out money, just look to the mortgage industry. (Which I used to be a part of.)

By taking the government out of the mix, the move was promoting business. And the free market would keep rates at a reasonable level, as there would be multiple lenders to choose from.

Which is all well and good, until you start looking at the APR’s from these various lenders:
Astrive.com: Rate: 9.67%. Total finance charge & principal: $23,280.80
Thinkfinancial.com: 9.22%. Total finance charge & principal: $21,663.00
*All rates/finance charges are on a $10,000 deferred repayment loan with a 240-month term. Rates/fees are from each lender’s web site obtained on 10/4/7

All of the sudden, the reality of allowing the free market to determine how much it really costs to go to school doesn’t look too rosy.

If it’s a bad idea to give an 18-year-old a $500 credit card at 15%, how does it make sense to give that same youngster $10,000-30,000 at over 9%? And these are variable rates, meaning they can change.

Earlier, I mentioned earning potential, which is the idea that as a college graduate you can command more pay over the span of your career. According to the 2000 US Census, graduating from college nearly doubles one’s lifetime earning potential. Earning potential is all well and good, until you look at the real cost of college. Per the rate quotes above, borrowing just $10,000 will cost the average student ~$12,000 in interest. Higher interest means higher payments, which may mean that entry-level job coming out of college won’t pay the bills.

For the record, I went to a public university, graduated in 5 years and accumulated over $22,000 in debt. Yet, my relatively meager student loan payment allowed me to take a lower-paying job to get my foot in the door and establish myself. I am not so sure that will be an option for future college graduates.

Just imagine what school will cost future college students, as tuition, not to mention interest rates, continue to increase. According to the website postsecondary.org, tuition increases have out-paced inflation by 4.6%.

Which brings me to my point.

Is privatization of the student loan industry really in the best interest of the students? A simple look at the increased costs, will say no.

So is pricing education out of the reach of common Americans in the best interest of American society? The obvious answer is no.

As Federal funding of education continues to decline and the credit industry continues to contract, it returns college, once a luxury of the elite, to its exclusive status. As the rest of the world continues to educate itself to make its populace more competitive, America is taking steps backwards. One big example of this is the decrease in access to college education via finance.

By making college something that has to be paid out-of-pocket, the American dream is relegated to a relative few in America, effectively ending the American dream for many lower- to middle-class American families.

Is education really still the great equalizer?