pic by Robin Hutton

Stop thinking so hard on how to have a philanthropy inititive in tune with your business.  There is a great example. 

Stop thinking so hard on how as a nonprofit your organization can participate in education.  There is a great example.

Check out the Simon Youth Foundation as an educational alternative solution for Districts whom do not want the Charter school choice.

It is just one way for nonprofits and businesses to learn how to change their design and focus to join the education effort. 

Pic by Robin Hutton

Passing laws for the purpose of educational reform will not result in an improved educational system.  It takes change by individuals in Public Education schools to bring about dramatic improvement in students that are not achieving.  Lowering standards to allow students to graduate does no one any good if the result is a student whom is ill prepared for the work force or college. 

Educating students is not suppose to be easy under the current time limits.   It is easy to sit still and have time pass without the student participating.  It is easy to blame someone else for the failure of the education system.  It is easy to talk about change but takes time and energy to produce successful outcomes. 

So stop sitting back and get involved in changing education. the tools are there but it needs your effort to implement the change in your community.

pic by robin hutton

It is time to bring technology to the forefront in education to provide students the skills to be prepared for participating in the 21st century.  Nonprofits should help bring the Ebook solution to education and to its employees.  Taking advantage of these learning tools are effective for staff training and are sensitive to time constraints. 

Educators are supposed to know better about how to deliver education to the students.  However, there so many students failing or dropping out that it is creating a crisis.

One of the largest growing segments of the education system is home schooling due to the lost confidence in public education. 

Charter schools are the one means to keep families engaged in public education because it allows a level of parent involvement that does not exist at district schools.

Students respond to a confused system of priorities with the means they know best to communicate, emulating the education system’s means of communication. 

Maybe it is time we let students tell the educators how they wish to be prepared for the 21st century and achieve their best!

pic from PBS HAWAII.ORG

Students have the right to demand equal access to a good education even if it means the need to remote into the right course online.  The web needs to become a utility that all citizens have the right to access.  It is during periods of budget cuts that the education system shows its commitment to underachieving students to be weak.  While the district schools that state it is not their fault that students fail, they also fail to admit the fundamental problem that one approach does not fit all students.  The use of technology, especially the web, has been shown to bring access to learning. 

The public library is a critical source of such access and the Internet has opened this resource, where distance and time prevented access previously.  The public library system should be incorporated into all public schools as their library resource to equalize access.  This will further increase library access to neighborhoods and be safe havens for learning. 

pic from PBS HAWAII.ORG

What is 21st century learning? 

• Outcome based
• What students know, can do and are like after facts learned
• Learning by analysis and evaluation
• Research driven
• Active participation
• Global classroom approach through classmates and others around the world
• Student-centered
• Co-learners
• Integrated and interdisciplinary curriculum
• Grades based on what was learned
• A lot of student freedom
• Self, peer and others assess work
• Curriculum connected to students’ interest and real world
• Project based opportunities are used for learning and assessment
• Curriculum and instruction address student diversity
• Literacy goes beyond traditional 3 R’s of reading writing and math aligned to living and working globally
• Global model based upon a high tech society
• Education not driven by NCLB and standardized testing
• High expectation

pic from PBS HAWAII.ORG

The lack of sufficient improvement in the education system has given rise to charter schools which function as semi-governmental entities.  These charter schools are more accountable to higher standards, creating results and delivering what the market forces want from the education system.   

While district schools have a school committee that is elected by the voters, a charter school has a board and staff that are accountable to the students attending the school, as well as to their parents.  Each student is the customer and the educational achievement of each individual student is the goal.  That is what is called choice.  If the charter school does not adequately meet the needs of the student then the student has the right to go somewhere else.  The end result is that the charter school loses the funding attached to the student. 

Some larger urban district schools have begun to allow students to change their school, but have run into the problem that the schools being saught after are full.  Students seeking slots at charter schools with successful records have found a similar problem. 

The fact that some district schools have turned to setting exams to be admitted to some of their schools seems to go against equal access to an education.  Charter schools are prevented from taking such action and I am in agreement that no student should have to take an exam to get into a public school. 

The one fact that is hard to overcome is that there is not enough room for every student to go to the school of their choice.  The result is a lottery system, and luck plays into whether a student gets what they consider to be the best education. 

“The Race to the Top” should create opportunity to shut down low performing schools and reinvent them with the high expectations of performing schools.  If the statistics show that it takes at least an associate’s degree to obtain a job that pays a living wage, why would anyone allow an educational system to do less?  Allowing students to graduate with a D is not preparing students for college. 

Charter schools represent an opportunity to bring the higher standards to education and hold specific public entities accountable.  It is faster and cost effective.  Choice in the public education system is the fastest way to change it across every state and local educational authority. 

pic from PBS HAWAII.ORG

The “Race to the Top” initiative for education has the opportunity to make a major impact for the long term by learning what states and local educational authorities did with their stimulus money.  The question should be asked:  Will there be more of a lasting effect on education by giving the money to a district school or to a charter school? 

Those that changed the rules by lowering standards to comply or by supplanting federal monies for what would have been state funding or by refusing to participate show what the commitment is to performance and the economic strength of the country. 

The pattern that has been common among charter schools throughout the country is that regardless of the fact that charter school obtain fewer funds than school districts, the charter schools are able to meet or exceed the school district’s academic performance in most cases.  The first and foremost difference is that charter schools are creating brand new school facilities without taxpayers bonds.  It is through fundraising and fiscal management that this has been accomplished.  The second type of school facility is through renting old (private or public) schools, renting office space, renting mall space, renting warehouses or college space.  Charter schools, while pubic entities, are managed by a small group and are able to make decisions fairly quickly to get a facility negotiated and created into a school. 

The other aspect of a charter school is that it is much more open to the community taking an active role in the school.  The board of the school and its leadership actively want parent and student participation.  The charter school has a larger number of volunteer, work-study and internship opportunities.

pic from Hiking Artist

Finding that one idea for your nonprofit to build upon for sustainability is within the organization’s means of finding it.  Create your own solutions.

1. Print out by vendor the total dollar amount you spent in the last two years. 
2. Now check off whether any of these vendors promote recycling the products you purchased.  If the vendor will not recycle you should request that they do so or switch to someone who does.
3. Buy more that is locally made.
4. Come up with your own recycling program. 

Just a few ideas:

• Replace bottled water with a filtered watering system
• Return printer cartridges for a store credit
• Dedicate a location for returnable bottles for the office coffee supplies
• Have paper recycling
• Reuse the other side of the file folder or use a label

You will be surprised the amount of money that is saved each year and the impact the nonprofit has on lowering its carbon footprint.  So if you are not already doing something, what are you waiting for?

 pic from Spear

The one thing I hope nonprofits have begun to take away from the recession of 2008-2009 is that diverse funding sources are critical to their long term viability.  Nonprofits that have taken the long term view evolve their business model in ways to be more efficient and measurable, to be able to self-finance a base amount of programming.  The nonprofit industry has reached an evolutionary milestone in the business model.  History shows that a particular model of business must evolve beginning around its 30th year in order to stay viable.  I would state that the current models of 501 c 3’s are celebrating their 35th year.  As the original team retires from these nonprofits, the board should take a very logical long view of the future of the organization.  Where does the organization want to be 5 years from now or 10 years from now?  If the board wants a new leader to figure that out that is fine too, but it needs to be clear when making that critical hire.