How far does one have to go to fulfill a promise?  There has never been a promise that reach 100% of a targeted group on day one.  In fact when your talking about thousands and millions one needs to talk more about years.  Nonprofits and government too many times want to make a big splash when lots of little splashes will have the greater longer term impact.  A promise is only Empty if you do not try.  The FEDEX promise delivers each day, one package at a time.

•  Obama promised to recruit an army of new teachers.
•  Obama promised to make college affordable.
•  Obama promised to recruit an army of young volunteers.

There is talk of having to delay these efforts.  However, I find such an option of the too big of problem to handle syndrome.  It is the opposite of too big to fail syndrome and that produced billions with no measurable result to date.

Let’s make it simple.

1. As part of a college students graduation requirements have internships via a formalized volunteer program via the colleges in communities targeting the top 10 issues of that community.
2. Expand the loan forgiveness program to facilitate college students to be able to afford working in government or the nonprofit field.
3. Promote the creation of public school supporting nonprofits to allow businesses, foundations and individuals to give to their local school.  This effort has an immediate impact on a school.  This provides for enriching the educational experience of students.

I know these three ideas work because I have done all three myself but by accident.  Obama can start his Education Agenda with these three low cost efforts to begin a coordinated effort to make an impact in education in his first year.

(pics by thomas hawk and dave boudreau)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Public Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.