Daily Archives: 02/02/2014

(Community Matters) NYT: Eclectic East Austin

A mile from downtown, East Austin has historically been a working-class neighborhood, a vibrant enclave heavily populated by African-Americans because of an earlier era of segregationist laws — and later, a home to Mexican-American residents. These days, it’s also the city’s newly fashionable arts district, with studios, galleries, cocktail bars, cafes and all manner of food trucks popping up on most every block.

(Community Matters) Loved flying from LA to Santa Barbara as we hugged the coast.

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(Community Matters) from Politico’s Playbook:

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, to David Gregory on “Meet the Press “: “Later this week, you’ll hear the president talk about Connect Ed. This is an opportunity where several private American companies are going to commit over a half billion dollars to ensure that our schools across the country have the kind of technology so that our kids can compete in this economy. … FCC says it’s going to wire 15,000 schools, get 20 million kids online in the kind of learning — not the way you and I grew up, David, which is you had a computer science lab where you went to once a day. They sit at their tables all day with laptops, with tablets. That’s the kind of education we want our kids to have.”

President Obama’s Connect Ed

• • Upgraded Connectivity: The ConnectED initiative will, within five years, connect 99 percent of America’s students to the digital age through next-generation broadband and high-speed wireless in their schools and libraries.
• • Trained Teachers: The ConnectED initiative invests in improving the skills of teachers, ensuring that every educator in America receives support and training to use technology to help improve student outcomes. The Department of Education will work with states and school districts to better use existing funding through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to strategically invest in this kind of professional development to help teachers keep pace with changing technological and professional demands.
• • Build on Private-Sector Innovation: These investments will allow our teachers and students to take full advantage of feature-rich educational devices that are increasingly price-competitive with basic textbooks and high-quality educational software (including applications) providing content aligned with college- and career-ready standards being adopted and implemented by States across America