Last week, the New Schools Venture Fund-Aspen Institute Summit in Burlingame provided another example of the incredible work being done across this nation by educators, thinkers, academics and entrepreneurs. There is absolutely no doubt that if jaw-dropping increases in academic achievement can happen in Denver, New York and Houston, they can also happen here in the Valley of Hearts Delight, irrespective of income or the color of a child’s skin. The list of tenets that will help us reach the goal of SJ/SV2020 is actually embarrassing simple.

SOS (…- - -…) is the commonly known Morse code distress symbol, not an acronym. That said, many think of “save our ship” or “save our souls when the term is used. During my tenure as a principal, school board member and SJI columnist, I have a different distress signal. If I could, I would tap out the code “Save Our Schools” every single hour of every day in all cities across Silicon Valley.