Can we reduce the drop-out rate, and increase character while reducing the risky behaviors of teens, one service learning project at a time? I think we can.

The Sword of Damocles hanging by a horse hair over the heads of the legislators in Sacramento is about to drop come Feb. 1.  The two choices have been to increase revenue and/or cut programs/spending in order to dig us out of the grave we starting digging when we passed Proposition 13 over 30 years ago. If I begin from the premise that K-12 education is over 40 percent of the state budget, then education, along with all other state-funded programs, must share in the pain.

As time marches inexorably on we find ourselves just a few days away from the dawning of a new year. With that celebratory sip of champagne at 2400 hours on Dec. 31, we christen 2009. I will clink the glasses of those I am with to toast a year where we will witness the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (formerly No Child Left Behind), which puts public education back on the right course. We have been off course for far too long.

My dictionary defines “oratory” as the art of speaking in public with style, cogency, and grace. In just four short weeks we will once again have a president that possesses high quality oratorical skills. Obama will make it cool to be an excellent public speaker. Candidate Obama’s speech on race in America, one of the best crafted, written, and delivered speeches I have been privileged to see and hear, was the equivalent to shooting a 35 foot jump shot with one second remaining on the game clock. And the shot got nothing but net…swish.

I believe we should seize the moment as educators, and use President-elect Obama’s public speaking skills as inspiration for the classrooms throughout Silicon Valley.

Roll call for the emerging Presidential cabinet of the United States of America: National security team…check. Green energy & environmental team…check. Economic team…check. The United States of America now has the star quarterback in President-elect Obama, VP-elect Joseph Biden as the back-up quarterback, pro bowl quality offensive and defensive teams, yet only today will we meet the person who will be nominated for the hugely strategic position integrally related to our national security and global economic survival…the Secretary of Education.

When a bright, eager, socially conscious 21 year old tells his family and friends he wants to go into teaching, he most often gets this retort: “Damn…that is a total waste of the good money your parents spent on sending you to college and a squandering of your talents and skills.” How sad. When I told my parents I wanted to be a teacher in 1973, they were proud of my career choice.

By Joseph Di Salvo

California spends a lot of money on education—more than $65 billion from all funding sources in 2007-08 for K-12. Yet nearly 40 percent of Latino youth and African-American youth drop out of school prior to high school graduation. Silicon Valley’s drop-out numbers are a little higher than the state average. How disdainful is this in the land of the wealthiest and most educated people on the planet?