Put aside the State’s raid of city funds for a moment and instead, lets be thankful for one of the best gifts cities have received from the state legislature…Assembly Bill 321 (AB321).

AB 321 allows cities the flexibility and discretion to lower speed limits on two-lane streets adjacent to public and private schools, which are currently posted at 25 miles per hour.  For example,  San Jose has many schools that are located in residential neighborhoods that have two lane roads with a 25mph speed.  These streets may have the speeds lowered to 20mph or 15mph by implementing AB321.  However,a school that is located on a four lane road would not be eligible, nor a school alongside a road that has a higher speed limit then 25 mph

Now that we have the nation’s number one Rose Garden we must seek to have the nation’s number one schools. Many of San Jose/Silicon Valley’s children began a new school year yesterday to acquire the skills and knowledge that will lead them to productive, fulfilling lives. Yet, there are many thorny issues that will prevent all the children from reaching the successes they deserve and which we need for our economic survival.

It has been 644 days since America elected its first African-American President and race issues continue to plague our nation in ways that indicate a trend line of grave concern. The racial achievement gap is one of the most pressing issues of our time. SJ2020 is working on a strategic plan to eliminate the achievement gap in the next 10 years in San Jose and Silicon Valley.

Last week in SJI I wrote about the criticality of strong leadership from our candidates running for governor to fix California’s public schools. It will not be the leaders that make the difference, but each of us who are willing to speak out and put our money where our mouth is. The assembly Democrats have a proposal that supports our children and schools, but it will not pass unless we become engaged in the debate right now.

Where are the bold and courageous leaders that give us the facts and inspire us to new heights? In Attorney General Brown’s website announcement on his candidacy for Governor he says he will speak the truth, yet his three-minute commercial is filled with the platitudes he says he abhors.

Many times in this weekly post I have opined that the education of all our children is our most important nationally priority. I frequently get chastised on SJI for supporting a system of public education that is perceived as weak and inadequate. There is no doubt in my mind that our public education system is our best path to the ideals that our Founding Fathers dreamed and that we commemorated on Sunday.

Should your son or daughter earn a college degree? I know college is not for everyone.

However, if you want a future for your children that equals the opportunity you had in your life, an undergraduate college degree is nearly imperative. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 4.7 percent of those with college degrees are unemployed in 2010.

The 2010 high school graduation season is now just a memory. Even though we celebrate the accomplishment of commencement from high school with gifts and praise, it is not the ticket to life’s success it once was.

Lithium and crude oil are essential resources to bolster our global economy. Some even speculate we are in two wars because of their importance to our nation. Whatever the truth is about Afghanistan with its lithium deposits and Iraq with its oil reserves we cannot lose focus on the undeclared war of educating all children adequately. A quality education for all children must be a guaranteed fundamental right of all governments, but particularly for the wealthiest nation on the planet.

Are we crazy or what? It costs the state of California more than $225,000 to incarcerate one youth in the Department of Juvenile Justice system per year, yet we are only compensating school districts about $7,000 per year to educate a student.

The BP Gulf Coast oil disaster continues unabated. The gushing oil and gas are poisoning the gulf waters and polluting Louisiana’s coastal beaches in the most horrendous environmental catastrophe of the 21st century. This appears to be America’s Chernobyl. However, this incredible fouling of our nation’s waters and beaches pales in comparison to the degradation of our nation through the declining American educational system.

Yes on Measure J: Bring the Super Bowl, etc., to Santa Clara. Yes on all the school bond measures, with one caveat. Yes on Measure K: A safe and sane sin tax.

Dear President Obama,

I have read that you will be in San Francisco today to stump for Senator Barbara Boxer’s re-election at an evening reception at the Fairmont. In addition, on Wednesday you are touring Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturing facility in Fremont. I hope while you are here you somehow see this letter. As a 34 year public school educator and a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Education (elected on Nov. 4, 2008, like you), I am writing to you about the importace of including art and music education in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The Pomp and Circumstance March is echoing from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Universities across the nation have been issuing tens of thousands of parchment diplomas this month while final plans are being made for high school commencements and grad nights. With each newly issued high school and university diploma comes a time for each graduate to ponder the next stage of life.

With the unemployment rate at over 10 percent in California and Silicon Valley, too many newly minted college graduates will not have an easy time in securing a job in the area of their undergraduate course of study. At the same time, high school graduates are having an increasingly difficult time securing student slots at community colleges and public universities due to the state’s economic crisis

I served as a principal of public schools for nearly 20 years, so it is with tremendous empathy toward the administrators at Morgan Hill’s Live Oak High School that I write this week’s post. I also have empathy for the students on both sides of the political maelstrom.

Sometimes when I read the blog responses to my weekly post I feel like my opinion on educational funding issues is in the smallest of minorities. Sometimes I wonder if I am a lone voice in the wilderness. I was quite heartened when I recently read the results of a new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California funded by William and Flora Hewlett Foundation that places my opinion with most of my fellow Californians. I now feel vindicated, but so what?

California public education is in deep crisis, but more to the point, a huge fiscal crisis. The depth of the lack of funding and its instability due to the economic downturn is unparalleled in my career. There is folk etymology that was popularized by John F. Kennedy that indicated when the word “crisis” is written in Chinese, one character means “danger” and the other means “opportunity.” For the sake of argument let’s say the etymology is true.