Relevant data takes time to process

$520 million is what it cost Pittsburgh to run the public school system last year to serve 29,000 students. These are not the exact figures but check them out; I'm just rounding out the numbers. It took me about ten minutes to find this information and I'm still not confident about the the figures. Sure it may take another ten minutes or so to get it down to the penny but that's not what matters.

What do we want to know about how the school board is spending our money? Wikipedia has some relevant information about our schools but no real analysis. I need about an half hour or so to find some meaningful information and about a week to read it and a day to write it. That would still only be my personal analysis. I want everyone to find information and post it so we can be well informed.

I'll try to pin point the most reliable information so we can discuss it. However, there is a wealth of information that is relevant. Meaningful discussion might not happen for a long time. But if you participate then we can discuss more immediately.

Sorry for the poor prose but research of a bulk of this effort.

National vs. Local (but mostly op-ed today)

The impact of national events effects citizen directly. These seems like a noble reason to cover the broad issues. To capture the zeitgeist and be the first draft of history is exciting to read and, I would imagine, to write. Stirrings of the heart and intellect ignite from a Supreme Court decision or a nation election.

Meanwhile local news only raises a heartbeat when a murder or massive scandal erupts. But local politics have the deepest effects in our day to day life. What happens when you dial 911 or park in the wrong spot or send you children to school is governed locally. In other words, our voices are not diluted by the great masses. We are more empowered to change our own lives and others influence us the least.

But it seems like we shun our local responsibility. After all it is more exhilarating to wield power over others than to exert self-control. Perhaps this is to harsh of an opinion. Maybe we simply do not have resources to take on this job so we leave it to others. After all what do we know about the logistics of trash management and who wants to. As long as someone else does a decent job at it even better.

However, trash never comes up as an important issue, unless some screwed up. Education has always been like a major concern for American. Yet there is so little reporting on local education. Stories that provide useful information would help guide us through the monolithic edifice of education.

The editor's goal of this news project should be to provide a usable resource of information on local education. We, as the Fourth Estate, need to pool this information like any other governmental body possess their own information resources.

Considering I'm the "editor" of this project I will begin to gather some useful information. Also as the "editor", I want you, the "reporter" and member of the Fourth Estate to collect this information and add it to our "library." Just email it to us - lenspittsburgh@gmail.com- and I'll post it.

Opinions, stories and advice are also information so send anything. Besides this project is so large I can't possibly do all of it, unless someone pays me. (hint, hint) This would be my dream job but since it doesn't pay it's a passion. (By the way passion literally means "enduring pain and suffering.")

Can Wikis Solve the Problem with Semantics?

News these days wave the banner of objectivity. I, too, would like to be objective. It seems these days news outlets are constantly calling the other bias or worse "inaccurate." I would like this news project to try to be objective. But is it possbile?

After all we all have our own subjectivity. We see things from different perspectives and there is no one that has the complete "objective" stance. Maybe objective means holding personal emotions aside for a moment. Perhaps it means unbiased but still subjective?

I don't want to define it. My personal definition is not valid. What is valid is our concept and usage of "objective." We need to agree to find a working definition for all words that seems to lose meaning after so much misuse. The color and vibrancy of words have been wornout in the spin cycle of mass media.

(Please comment on style as well as content, I could use the help. I should probably kill that last little darling.)

I suggest using a wiki to re-define some words that have lost their luster and edge. Much of what I read in dissucion boards and op-ed pages are differences in semantics. Such a basic problem could be obviated if tools, like wiki, were in place to align words with meaning. Perhaps, then a higher and deeper level of discussion could take place. Maybe an elegent solution to problems in society could be also be reached.

Right now this project is making me a jack of all trades. I've done some of the academic and scholarly research to work out some of the theoritical issuse with this project. But I have very little techincal and computer skills for this kind of stuff. Yet the excitement of this new project keeps me motivated. I keep learning new and relevent stuff everyday.

It's a long work in progress. Perhaps years and decades. But I'll chip away at it. Currently I'm learning the basics of mediawiki, HTML, and RSS feeds. There is a mountian of information to learn. I wish I had all day but I've got to go earn some cash.

Principles of Public Journalism Concerning Local Education

The title sounds like a thesis project and perhaps some day it will be. However, I believe that this topic should not be held captive in the ivory tower of academia. This project has more to do with shaping popular culture rather than merely adding to the body of scholarly work.

Pop culture? Yes pop culture. I believe popular culture can be more than light entertainment and escapism. In fact there might even be a desire for people to spend just a few minutes a week to better their community and have some of their dreams realized.

I don't think this is a pipe dream. There a good chance you are using Mozilla Firefox right now. This is becoming a pop cultral icon like Wikipedia and other open source media. These are models for this project. By working as a collective we can create a phenomenon that is much more than the sum of its parts.

People who work on Mozilla and Wikipedia are directly shaping the culture of our time. We too can influence culture with our collective vision. It is impossible to see how this vision will become reality at this point but hopefully I will lay some ground work for this to possible.

This is not a radical project but one that I hope will be a common tool for people to inform themselves about education policies and the schools in our neighborhood. Perhaps there is a parent or a studernt who has a fantastic idea to change our schools and this can be the platform for their voice to be heard.

The democratic principle of public journalism key to this experiment. But then again the U.S. Constitution is an expeiment in democracy. Gandhi's autobiography was aptly called "The Story of My Experiment with Truth." The potential of this experiment is only as great as the number and efforts of the participants. And hopefully this will be a part of popular culture.

Religion in Schools?

Religion in public schools. Those four words bring the best and worst out in people. But what does it really mean? Whose religion and how much of it? What is religion? What is acceptable and what is not? New York Times recently carried an article about religion in school.

The executive, legislative and judicial branches give most of the power to the local schools to make these kinds of decisions. So in essence it is up to us as a community to make these decisions. We are the fourth estate.

I went to my daughter’s holiday program at her new school yesterday. She got a ribbon for participating in a school project. She seems to like her new teacher, school and students. So I have a bit of trust in the school.

The program was mostly about awarding the 100+ ribbons (individual!) and a few songs the third graders sung. They were all x-mas songs. And I mean x-mas not really Christmas songs, except Silent Night in German. Rudolph, Felic Navidad, and a song about a “toy catalog?” sung in discordant but cute, childish voices. All explicitly referring to Christmas.

But no other “religion” or holiday was mentioned. Not even a picture on the wall or small gesture. I assume that there is a large majority of Christians in the school. But how many might object just a little? Christian who believe in the First Amendment and don’t want the state to endorse a particular religion might also object? I felt uncomfortable because someone else might feel offended and rightfully so. However, I’m personally not going to file a lawsuit.

Is there other solutions?

What kept going through my head is there must be other more tactful and sensitive songs the school could teacher our children. What about song solely about winter or the New Year’s Day? Or some of the major religions just to know that the school isn’t endorsing one particular religion?

We need to talk about this in our own communities and come up with our solutions. Please leave a comment or email so we can start to publish this information. Together we can gather better information.

This story is also in Kearny on the Web. Check out this site it has similar principles to this one. Perhaps we can be better.

Still Working

Sorry for not posting on a timely manner but I’m not slacking by any means.

Right now I listening to a lecture by Jay Rosen and researching other Public Journalism projects. This research is critical to defining how this news project will operate.

So far it seems like this is on the cutting edge of journalism. Especially on the local level and the specific topic of education.

There are more links that I’m finding that will give a better understanding of public journalism. Hopefully this will be a resource that would show transparency to the readers and a guide to the contributors.

I will also give a bibliography of books, articles, websites and scholarly literature that has formed my concept of this type of media. I will post these in the next few days.

Anyway, I hope that you, the people, will also contribute to this body of knowledge through posts and emails. The greater the network of people eho contribute should make this project better. I’ll publish everything people send my in some form or fashion. This after all is the public’s news media.

I sincerly hope to read some of your thoughts soon.

Teacher-Student Sex Abuses Stories

An example usually helps when trying to formulate an abstract project. So here’s one to that can stimulate some conversation.

Attorney on public school issues and college professor, Charles Steele, said that teacher-students sex abuses will be bigger than the Catholic priest scandals that shocked America in the nineties. (Full disclosure, Dr. Steele was my professor for “Issues of Law in Education” course.)

A Google news search for “teacher student sex” will show a teacher charged with abuse at least once a week. However, given the 30 million teachers in America this “epidemic” appears to be a relatively small number. There is no national statistical information on the numbers of teacher- student sex abuse.

Currently the laws and policies for teacher student relationship explicitly forbid any inappropriate conduct.

Also traditional news handles it only in the framework of legal issues. The stories all follow the same format:

Teacher X is charged with a sexual crime by unnamed student. Teacher X is suspended from Y school. Followed by details of the incident and teacher's history.

So how should we as the news handle such a story?
There appears to be a difference when the teacher is, say, a 26 years-old and the student is say 17 years-old than if it was a 26 year-old and 8 year-old.
Is consent from a minor really consent?
Is there preventative treatment for this, like alcohol and drug abuse, for teacher that may have the urge but have not acted on the impulse? Should there be?
Is deviant behavior really “abnormal” behavior?

I have not had time to do the reporting but I have a lead on a Pittsburgh story regarding this issue. At a kids Halloween party I met a Pittsburgh detective for Sex Assault and Family Violence. He said that the Pittsburgh School Police tried to keep a report of abuse to themselves and did not report the offence to the city. Obviously the charges were finally reported to city police. I didn’t get all the details and frankly it’s not my “job.” (Yet)

Shouldn’t part of the story be how the school handled the situation and what they are doing to see if any other students were involved? What did other teachers know about this? It would be gross negligence for another teacher to not report any knowledge or suspicions to the principle.

Please let me know how else the story could be covered.
How can the community be involved in this discussion?
This is the important part of the project, your input?