not ridiculous – 20 mill

so, if we’re seeking 20 mill… how is that not ridiculous?

not ridiculous - 20 mill

[might clean this up.. might not. the messiness bodes the idea well.. keeping up with the numbers is what’s crazy. no? a post conversation with myself and david on this – 12 bill 20 mill – not even getting yet – into the trill… into the quadrillion. we are not being careful – and we are missing it/us.]

one reason we flippantly picked 20 mill to begin with:
17.9 million has been granted to colorado for the race to the top initiative. one stated reason, that i heard, is that it’s a reward for being top innovators in playing the data game, ie: we’re playing their race to the top game well.
so how is it that we are also 6th in the nation for suicide rate? coincidence? perhaps. but i think not. i’ve been in the schools.. good schools… doing well on the tests.. they seem more in need of hospice, to be quite frank. we’re rewarding a tenuous people, with more of what got them there.

[add another 16.5 million to longmont for skyline to work on innovations within the classroom. the list of moneys is long. see below if you like. there’s plenty money. imagine using some to eradicate people’s brains, to get at the root of the issues we face today.]

The LMS market is huge: several billion dollars a year are spent on these systems. Once sold just to universities, the LMS is now used in corporate learning, and it’s increasingly a tool in elementary and secondary education; these companies see a huge potential market in the developing world as well.  – Audrey Watters,

it wouldn’t be difficult to track a quadrillion dollars spent on things that the majority of people would say – no thank you – to. there are 50 million 20 millions in 1 quadrillion. betting 20 mill on the sync. not ridiculous.

countless more ridiculous dollars addressed in Naomi Klein‘s this changes everything

585 billion approved for 2015 military:

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-senate-passes-585-billion-ndaa-military-authorization-1752207

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our pursuit, our why:
freedom.
freeing people up to be themselves, by creating (mental and physical) spaces of permission, so that the brilliance (art) inside each person/community can be shared.
*art: the thing you can’t not do. your gift to the world. because you are the only dna capable of sculpting/crafting/being that exact (thumbprint) on us, on it.

not only is my child’s, your child’s, our child’s, freedom priceless..
the brilliance, (those combined thumbprints), that will come out of that freedom is what will change the world, for good.

priceless.. yes.
ridiculous.. no.
the other side of priceless is that this is happening with or without that funding. those moneys would just help fast forward a revelation of our (everyone’s) research, so that we free people up in a more timely and humane manner.

on the side of – ok – i’m with you – but this won’t ever work.

maybe not. but what if it does? what if we don’t believe it could work – because we’ve never given – in the city (entire ecosystem of people/resources) and as the day (not after hours, not tacked on) – a try.

perhaps we give it a try – in a buffered/futuristic version. for that – we need most definitely need people free, then some resources/spaces, and then at least initially – some tech to accelerate the time between a person finding what matters to them finding their people.

What if it does this:

We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living. Bucky Fuller
What if that is exactly what this experiment unfolds. How could we not try?
Perhaps some of that cleverness, lies in realizing what we already have.
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more…

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..enabling professional and DIY scientists to bypass traditional institutional funding sources (governments, foundations, and corporate R&D labs), in the process undermining existing hierarchies that make it particularly difficult for younger researchers or those without approved credentials to be engaged in the enterprise of science.    – Marina Gorbis, The Nature of the Future

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MILESTONE: $1 TRILLION has been spent on the war in Afghanistan. 80% of that, during the Obama presidency.

Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/alexnklein/status/544488176338096128

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is it true that Target is spending 20 billion on ed in 2013-2014? wouldn’t it make sense to spend a fraction of that, on a horse of a different color?

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john green on health
8.5 trillion

tests and moneys

@joe_bower: Test preparation materials provide almost two-thirds of the profit that testing companies earn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spendingridiculous .. almost 900 bill in 2010 to Ed
1 trill to health…
http://www.denverpost.com/investigations/ci_19997418
Cost doesn’t spell success for Colorado schools using consultants to improve achievement

They are among the 5,000 worst schools in America, where the percentage of kids who can read or do math at grade level often hovers in the teens or 20s and only about half graduate.
These schools are sharing $5 billion in federal tax dollars in a massive, three-year rescue effort, but no one nationally is tracking how the money is spent and no one can say whether the influx of cash will end up helping kids.
A Denver Post investigation found one clear winner so far: consultants.
In Colorado — one of the few states willing to tally such spending — consultants are taking home 35 percent, or $9.4 million, of the $26.6 million that came to the state from the U.S. Department of Education in the past two days. The money is buying instructional coaches for teachers, leadership coaches for principals, analysts to pore over test data and pricey three-day professional-development seminars on changing school culture.

hmm..
we are crazy people.
we’ve forgotten how to think. how to question. how to be bold.
this is silliness.

5 billion to prove we can do something most of us don’t even believe in.
5 billion to make sure people can at least on a test at one point in time, rationalize a denominator.

oh my.

here’s per kid and 2010 showing almost 900 billion to ed.

350 bill to make sure we are all assessing the same, wrong, (right for a small few granted) things.
and now we’re gearing what moneys we spend on what tech – for that same reason.why can’t we be smart enough to focus on learning. and focus on the resources we do have.
and focus foremost on minds. curiosity.ugh
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estimate (by Linda Dobson here) that public ed uses (from 2010-11?):

Our national education budget already contains, from all sources, an estimated $1 billion a day. 

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for much more, but still no where near all, seediane ravitch et al

she is keeping us aware.. even if we just listen to her reports alone. .. it’s enough.national ed policygates funding
who is funding chartersed as 1.3 trill market
20-50 bill on testing
sell out
is algebra necessaryit’s getting crazy enough.. to perhaps wake us up.. as parents.. as citizens..as people.no?when you th awaken [you to whatever degree you decide]____________________________

and more…..

  • Tony Hsieh – city experiment – 350 mill in vegas – imagine if it was
  • christmas lights – Rhett Allain (@rjallainMy estimation of the cost of electricity to run Christmas lights in the US. Bonus: Griswald’s Christmas lights.bit.ly/VOnBym
  • super bowl commercial – 30 seconds, 3.5 mill
  • political campaigns – presidential 2012 – 2 trill-ish – plus 65 mill from non-profits for commercial bashing
  • war – washington on defense – 2013 – 1 trill
  • health – to fix a mindset perhaps ed created – reported as 2.3 trill in 2010
  • – 2009 – overpriced/unnecessary tests/treatments – 750 bill
  • Jacob Appelbaum talks of nsa spending 4bill on trailblazer – that didn’t work, 3 million for william binneys
  • via Josh Constine – martini media raises 14 mill to target ads at rich people
  • 2006 – 2009 – Duncan joins Gates and chooses Fenger as pilot school for High School Transformation. initial grant – 21 million, 3 year cost, 80 million. (read in P Tough’s, how children succeed)
  • the biggest experiment, which offered incentives to teachers in nyc, cost 75 million and took 3 years. and in the spring of 2011, fryer reported that it has produced no positive results at all.
  • money enough?
  • enough

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We spent $118 billion on travel abroad in 2012; we spend close to $25 billion per year to attend sporting events and, combined with Canada, nearly $11 billion on movie tickets. We buy ourselves an annual $140 billion worth of recreational equipment and $200 billion of electronics.
via: http://nation.time.com/2013/06/27/the-happiness-of-pursuit/#ixzz2XSD6xNlV

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us federal budget 2014 – via death and taxes

history of silicon valley – via Steve Blank

at 31 min in:

let’s put profs in universities to work in place

‘Let’s enlist universities directly in the war effort.’

fund universities directly.

steve blank slide

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fy15 budget

 

 

 

 

  • Early childhood education – a new $1.3 billion investment as part of a 10-year, $75 billion plan to provide “preschool for all.” Democrats have introduced legislation to create this program in both the House and Senate but it is not expected to pass this year.
  • A renewed emphasis on professional development and teacher quality:
    • A one-time, $5 billion investment in professional development for existing teachers.

what if we didn’t need pd, what if there was preschool (ish) for all…

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ed at 7 trill

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it wouldn’t be difficult to track a quadrillion dollars spent on things that the majority of people would say – no thank you – to. there are 50 million 20 millions in 1 quadrillion. betting 20 mill on the sync. not ridiculous.

and then again…

what if money were no object

let’s bet on getting/leapfrogging us to that mindset/life. rather than perpetuate this not-us ness.

a nother way.

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