Providing for an Innovation Based Economy

Just as our roads and bridges might need a boost, according to some Democrats, so too might our digital resources.  We often consider infrastructure to be just physical aspects of our society.  While highways, trains, dams, and other parts of our physical infrastructure are certainly critical to our daily lives, in the 21st century, we must also consider the critical nature of broadband, digital, mobile, and cloud based infrastructure as well.

Hoover Dam

Fast wireless and internet connections are critical to the growth and advancement of a high powered society such as the United States.  Because the world is "going mobile" it is critical that the United States keep up with the rest of the pack in supplying infrastructure for this to be possible.  Making sure America is at the cutting edge in cloud and mobile based technologies can promote innovation and cement the United State's status as the leading innovation hub in the world.  Enhancing this infrastructure means enhanced performance and enhanced performance means growth for this nation.

Local, State, and National governments, as well as private companies, need to take the lead to make faster internet and better data centers a reality.  According to an article in Wired Magazine, approximately 19 million American's can't subscribe to high speed internet, simply because they live in areas to expensive to serve.  Major companies have also had slow growth on upload speed improvements, the staple of cloud based computing.

Efficient, reliable, and rapid information transfer is critical in any economy, especially one that operates on a global scale.  This issue is critical to many other problems we face in this country, namely in health, national security, business, and education.

We need high speed internet access for most people, if not everyone, in this nation.  We are one of the most innovative countries in the world.  We can find a way.  The improvements made could help the economic production of this country enormously.  The first step in creating an economy with a strong innovation backbone is to improve our digital infrastructure for the future.

NOVA Science Now Future Tech

Watch What Will the Future Be Like? on PBS. See more from NOVA scienceNOW.

Here are some is another video detailing future uses of technology.

NOVA Science Now

Watch What's The Next Big Thing? on PBS. See more from NOVA scienceNOW.

This video shows some future technologies.

Fiscal Conservatism

Its quite true that the United States government and indeed many governments are spending simply too much money these days.  What both parties do not understand is that they are both to blame.

We need serious entitlement reform.  We also need to make sure that we aren't spending so much money on foreign wars.  A huge amount of money could be saved by engaging in serious entitlement reform and increasing the efficiency of how the military-industrial complex uses its money.

True Conservatism

We could use some true conservatism on the part of the Republican parties these days, and with a radical change to be more conservative, the GOP might gain some votes.

Being a conservative means thinking before acting.  It means conserving our resources-monetary and environmentally.  Spending less money and eliminating waste when possible is a very smart thing to do in government, though many "conservatives" are still content to spend on foreign wars and on pork in their districts.

Being a conservative also means conserving the environment.  Making sure through careful stewardship that our natural resources and parks are still there for our children.

Education Reform

As we make several posts on education reform, we'd like to share some very informative videos and articles that share interesting and different perspectives on education.  These varying perspectives are essential in revolutionizing our education system and adapting it for the 21st century.  Today, we'll share some clips of Salman Khan the man who founded Khan Academy.

Posted by ReasonTV, Khan talks about education reform in our country and how we can restructure the education system.  Early on, he advocates paying teachers more, establishing teaching as a profession on par of highly-trained doctors.  He feels the country needs to change to dynamic in the classroom and the teaching profession.

Below is a nice 60 Minutes piece complied by CBS.  It details the specifics of Khan Academy and how it can change education.

By creating videos such as this, Khan is effectively using technology to further education.  While technology used ineffectively can certainly stall student learning, there are many situations when technology can prove effective.  This is one of those cases.

Additionally, here is an interesting video put together by edutopia with more information on Khan and his creation, as well as his views on how it can be used.

Education Reform: The Problem

As many education reform proponents say, the difference between a good teacher and a bad teacher is vast.  A fantastic teacher can cover loads of material and inspire kids to become world leaders, while bad teachers can bring down an entire class, causing students to be ill-prepared for their ongoing education.  Eric Hanushek, a Stanford economist, contends that on average, good teachers cover a year and a half's worth of material as opposed to half a year for bad teachers.  This is one whole year's difference, and when tabulated cumulatively, can result in huge gaps in learning.

The problem then, is to find ways to get good teachers.  This is obviously easier said than done.  It is often not apparent that a bad teacher is bad until the teacher is already behind in the material.  Test scores can be used to track teachers, but it requires large sample sizes, with scores taken over many years, to get anything close to a clear picture of teacher performance.  The thing is, we want a way to quantify teacher success when there may not really be one.  A teacher that inspires his or her students to join a science summer camp would not have a measurable change in their student test score performance.  Good teachers also have intangibles, which are equally if not more important than testing performance.  Not having a clear way to distinguish a good teacher from a bad one is just part of the problem of our education sector.

If a teacher is considered bad, it is not always straightforward on how to get rid of them.  While some schools can certainly get rid of teachers, at others it is harder.  Powerful teaching unions, along with the use of tenure, have often been barriers to the removal of bad teachers, preventing better ones from being hired.

Money earmarked for education is also not always well spent.  Studies show that spending money on good teachers is more beneficial than classroom size changes.  This is a small example, but an example nonetheless of a situation where schools and educators must be aware of the economic impact of schooling.  Education is perhaps one of the most important services the government provides. We need to make sure that it is fiscally responsible in a way that it can continue.

Fiscal Cliff Deal

While a deal has been reached in the fiscal cliff saga, the result is a disappointment. There was no grand bargain, which was unfortunate, though grand bargains are likely going to be hard to come by in the near future.  The deal basically kicks the can down the road, meaning congress will have to deal with the situation later, or kick the can further away.  Remember, the fiscal cliff was a creation of congress that delayed tough decisions.  This strategy has been the new norm for any debt related debates, leading to a stagnant reform effort.

President Obama's Address in Connecticut

In the midst of a horrific tragedy, we feel it is important to concentrate on the events that have happened in Connecticut.  Here are the President"s remarks:

The Future of Gun Control

Many will call the events in Connecticut a tragic accident, or a horrible tragedy, but those descriptions are beating around the bush.  This was a senseless massacre of innocent life.  What makes it even worse is the fact that this is the 16^th such mass shooting event in the United States this year.  Those 16 shootings have left 84 people dead.  The question is, how many more people must be brutally murdered before legislators do anything?

Shooting killed 26 people in Connecticut

The time has come for some sanity on gun control.  The facts show that more guns correlate with more homicides (Harvard School of Public Health), just as the fact that states that have tighter gun laws have fewer gun related deaths (Richard Florida).   We as a country need to stop lying to ourselves that guns make us safer and finally get some results in gun control to ensure the safety of our population and ensure that such terrible killings will not happen again.

 

Many would argue that the Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms.  However, the very same document we uphold to be the law of the land and the reason why gun control should not be enacted once contained provisions upholding the enslavement of human beings, counting African Americans as three-fifths of a person, didn't allow women to vote, and didn't allow direct election of officials even after a democratic revolution. 

Moreover, when the founding fathers wrote that United States citizens had a right to bear arms, they did not write a provision in the Bill of Rights that upheld the right to carry concealed weapons, have firearms with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, wear body armor, and shoot up a crowded elementary school.  The wide availability to guns that people now have in this country creates an environment that violates the basic tenant that our government is supposed to enforce: keep our citizens safe.

We urge  everyone to write to their representative and Senator to spur action on this particular issue.  We cannot afford to wait for the next tragedy for us to be influenced into action.