Alabama Accountability Act - the bright side

I flogged the Alabama Accountability Act a few days ago, and I've been turning it over in my head.  If I was to vote on it today, I would vote "no".  However, I am coming around to the idea of the act.  The reason I like the act: it gives a framework for starting an independent school in Alabama.

School Funding Framework for Innovation

Imagine this: a group of people capable of obtaining accreditation can start a school, and they know they can get $3,500 per year per student.  This is AWESOME!  There are so many ways to do low cost (or free), above average course delivery:

* Khan Academy
* Coursera
* Harvard Online Courses
* MIT Online Courses
* Stanford Online Courses

And 1000s more sites with online training, exercises and more.  With the online courses, a school could teach students to take charge of their education.  This school could also focus on partnering with local businesses to bring back apprenticeships.  Imagine the value of a school that delivered 4-hours per day of structured liberal arts training paired with practical real world apprenticeship programs.

Anyone willing to take this risk, would know the budget would guarantee: $3,500 / student / year.  Optimizing student improvement per dollar spent would be a good metric to start building an innovative education platform.

Retort to Del Marsh's Opion of 'Alabama Accountability Act'

The shortsightedness of Del Marsh's summary of the "Alabama Accountability Act" misses many major points about the economics of education in Alabama.  In fact, he speaks of Alabama Education like he does not know the past, like he is an alien who landed on a planet looking to solve a problem.

The "Alabama Accountability Act" is not innovative.  It will not advance education of the state.  I could have predicted this bill 35 years ago during school integration.  The Act will have effects, but none of them will improve education.

Alabama Inequality of Schools is Due to Racism

Del Marsh begins his article with:

Image for a moment that you are a parent of a child forced to attend a public school with reading and math scores that rank at the bottom of the state ...

You know your child shows promise, but circumstances seem to conspire against putting them in a better learning environment. 

Then, he goes on for another two paragraphs about how we should rescue children from failing schools.  Little does Del Marsh realize, he is the one who puts kids in failing schools (as we all are).
Birmingham's "over the mountain schools" have world-class school systems that were explicitly created  to legally avoid integration.  Montgomery private schools are built for the same purpose.

We have an opportunity for equality with schools, and that is with true integration.  Until then, it is my belief that all plans such as the "Alabama Accountability Act" are more of the same.

Alabama Schools Have Competition

The competition to poor education is to move your family to a better school district.  In Alabama cities a family can move 2 - 3 miles and be in another school district.  Del Marsh should know.  He is zoned for Anniston City Schools, but he sent his children to Oxford City Schools.  Del Marsh found the competition and utilized it.

In Alabama, to move your family is much cheaper than attending a private school.  Often, it is a $600 rent versus $800 rent.

Private Schools Can Discriminate

Unlike public schools, private schools can discriminate.  This discrimination is not blatant, it is disparate.  They do this with entrance exams and higher tuition.

All types of entrance exams have been found to be racially discriminatory.  Just like the "Alabama Accountability Act", the entrance exams seem simple at face value.  Only when uncovering the statistical effects, does one realize the outcome.

Let's do some math on the $3500 tax credit. The tax credit is in arrears.  Any parent who wishes to send their child to private schools must first pay private school tuition for one year before receiving the tax credit.

The price for tuition and fees at Shades Mountain Christian School is $4,695 / year for one student plus a $500 signup fee, plus a $95 book fee.  Just to get started, we are talking about $5,290 / year.  The closest public transit to the school is the 31 express bus on MAX.  In research, this is the average cost of the average lower level private school.

90% of Birmingham City Schools are students who received free and reduced lunch.  The free and reduced lunch program is based on the federal poverty levels, which is $19,530 for a family of 3.  Since 90% of Birmingham City Schools students participate in free and reduced lunch, it is a fair assumption that the average family income for a Birmingham Student is around $19,530.  Assuming a standard deviation of +- $15,000, a majority of families will make less than $35,000 / year.  It will not be possible for the average family to pay $1,500 up front to get started.

Majority white private schools will remain majority white private schools.

Consequences of the Bill

* Subpar private schools will spring up chasing $3,500 / student tax credit.  Think for-profit colleges chasing federal govern backed student loans.  These private schools will minimize costs and set a tuition cost of $3,500.

* An industry for subprime high school student loans will spring up.  These industries will advance families $2,000 or $2,500 with a claim on the families $3,500 tax credit.

* Only people currently paying a private school bill will see a benefit.  Everyone else will just incur more costs.

How to Improve Schools

* Set a clear mission for the Alabama School system.  Teachers are trying to optimize for too many variables: college prep, paperwork, testing, teaching time, classroom time, etc.  Instead of adding days, and adding responsibility -- simplify.  Simplify the goal and simplify the process.

* Moneyball metrics for schools.  Schools have statistics on everything -- use them.  Use the statistics to find kids who change patterns early.  Use those statistics to intervene, and hold students accountable.

* Put Superintendents back in the classroom for 7 hours per week.  The unions are against this because it takes a teacher out of the class room, but who cares what the AEA says.  Superintendents need to remember what teaching is like.  Superintendents should be teachers first.

* Measure teachers on the grades of their students for all courses the students take.  Mrs. Frye told me: "There is not such thing as a math person and an English person.  Anyone can do anything."  Athletes are judged by a plus-minus differential while they are on the floor (i.e. when this athlete is on the floor, one with a positive differential means he increases leads).  Measure teachers the same way for students across all of their courses.  A math teacher should encourage English capabilities as much as math.  Measure teachers on a plus-minus system across all their students in all subjects.

Coffee Free for on Week -- Recovering Abuser

I don't use the term "coffee abuser" lightly.  Before, my recent hiatus, I was drinking a significant amount of coffee.  The day before I quit, the best I could remember I had consumed 7 cups of coffee.  But, it wasn't the caffeine I was after -- it was the ritual.

I wasn't drinking drip coffee from filters. I was drinking the good stuff.  French press and AeroPress with Primavera Coffee (http://primaveracoffee.com/).  The Primavera Coffee Columbia blend was/is my favorite.  I ground the beans, boiled the water, prepared the containers.  I would do this multiple times day: before breakfast, breakfast, when I arrived at the office, around 10:30am, after lunch, and at night around 7pm.  Then, there was another random coffee session or two.  I felt like Bilbo Baggins.

I had to quit cold turkey.  I am not of the type who can just stop.

Day 1
Consumed a copious amount of water -- about 1.5 gallons of water to relieve the need to have coffee.  It was the hand to month habit that I had to fill.  Eyes got heavy around 3pm.

Day 2 - 3
Continued to consume an amazing amount of water.  Began to have headaches that felt like someone pressing a 2x4 into the front of my brain.

Day 4 - 5
Clarity to my brain returned.  With the amount of coffee I was consuming, I had lost something, some productivity, some ability to focus and think.  When I sat down at work the Monday after I quit, it was like my brain was fresher than it had been in a while.

Day 6
Brain clarity continued.  Refrained from coffee.  Headaches were gone, and continued to drink water in quantity.

Day 7
Reintroduced a small mid-afternoon coffee.  Didn't finish it.

The week without coffee was a reset on my body, my brain, and my habits.  As a friend put it, "it wasn't that I was drinking coffee, my problem was I was drinking coffee excessively."

Personal E-mail Policy

I treat E-mail as a non-urgent, semi-important mode of communication.  If you have urgent communication, please call me at: 205-924-3472.  I respond to most email messages within 2 weeks. If you feel your E-mail message cannot wait 2 weeks, please wait a day, then call me.

I do this because I am excessive unitasker.  I am incapable of doing multiple things at once.  I focus on singular problems, and I do that well.  Most of the time, E-mail gets in my way of effectively working.

If you just want to chat, please call me: 205-924-3472.

Must-Have Skills : "Productivity Improvements"?

While cruising WSJ, I ran across an article "Must Have Job Skills in 2013."  Written like a Horoscope, the skills listed could have applied for any year from 5 A.D. to 3000 A.D.  However, the one that jumped off the page was "Productivity Improvement".  I rallied around it because we judge employees on their productivity.

In our knowledge-centric atmosphere of software, productivity isn't making widgets faster and moving the production line.  Productivity is choosing the best of an ambiguous set of desired outputs.  Achieving that output with minimal effort.  Finally, minimizing future effort required to persist the output.

Skills required for productivity are decision making and systems design.  Assisting influencers are: understanding of the system and consumer and previously crafted tools to leap frog from.

The more I thought of it, I doubted the ability of one individual to unilaterally affect the productivity of an organization.  It must be a cultural, cumulative shift.

Improve Everyone's Decision Making Ability

Do you know how to achieve 100% productivity gains right now?  Choose not to perform a non-productive task.  Productivity gains in the US workforce haven't come because we've gotten better at doing.  Productivity improved because companies have only enough workers to do important tasks.  Fellow employees felt the pain of individuals not doing the most important tasks and corrected the person.

Improving decision making in a corporation happens by answering the following question: How can everyone in the company answer the question 'what should I do now?' with the correct answer quickly and with as little effort as possible?

Isn't that the purpose of the business crap we learn about?  Goals, visions, values.  Give everyone a common target, and people and teams will self correct.

Understanding the System, Future of the System, and Consumer of the System

Edwards Demming emphasizes the idea of Systems Knowledge.  He says, every action in a company has a person consuming the output of that action.  The key to understanding what to do and quality of output is to understand the needs of that person who is accepting the output.

YC alumni have the motto: "Make something people want."  The depth of the motto is the lack of definition of product and the consumer.  Something can mean actions, products, ideas, processes, art, performance, knowledge, or a life.  People can mean end-consumers, direct-customers, sales team, support team, business owners, or spouses and families.  "Make something people want" means different things to the consumer of the organization.

To my wife, "make something people want" means "make [a life] that will be fulfilling for our values."

To most of our customers, "make something people want" means "make a database platform that enables me to do what I do best."

Brandon Mathis is the UI Expert at MongoHQ.  He is a good designer, but he is amazing at understanding the consumers of our tool.  He asks the overlooked questions that differentiate the output of our product.

When designing and development for a system, the next visible step is not always the best step.  Understanding the system allows you to take confident steps toward the best outcome.  When designing a system, don't forget the hidden element of time: are you designing your system for current consumers or future consumers?  Will your decision today stand the test in two months?

Emphasis on Internal Tools and Rewarding Improvement

The US is individualistic.  I am individualistic.  I like to think my single action affected the output more than 50% so that I can claim ownership of the win.

Corporations, by definition, are not individualistic.  There are room for heroes, but the ability of people derives from the system are bound.  Dysfunctional systems can kill the output of heroes.  Well oiled systems enable super-human output from everyone.

Building the culture of improvement and the tools for understanding a system isn't a phrase that sounds sexy and productive.  Github, a company by which all young companies measure themselves, has made "internal tools" sexy.  "Internal tools" for Github are:

• Dashboards that display previously unknown information that is concise, actionable
• Improved communication tools that distribute knowledge to all employees
• Scripts and code that turn a 30 minute task into something no human ever has to think about again

With the "internal tools", Github is optimizing output for every consumer in the organization.  They are also building a culture of improvement.

. . . I've re-read this post.  It appears, I too have been as generic as a horoscope.

How to Commute on the Bus in Birmingham, Alabama

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been commuting in Birmingham on the bus.  I've used it for a couple of pleasure trips and some business trips.

My first trip was a Saturday exploratory trip.  I live in Cahaba Heights, so I peddled my bicycle up the hill to the Summit. The 280 Limited Stop route leaves the Summit for downtown hourly weekdays at 20 minutes after every hour, and weekends at 40 minutes after every hour.  There are two stops at the Summit, one on the road and one with a covered shelter.  The first go of it, I didn't know about the covered shelter.  When I showed up, I was glad to see others also waiting.  It meant something was coming.

My first trip started with the 2:41pm Inbound Saturday bus.  The other two gentlemen waiting were employees from the shops at The Summit.  I could tell by their attire, with logos of local companies.  Honestly, on this trip, I was as fresh as it gets.  I didn't know what was about to happen, and I had many questions on my mind:

• What am I going to do with my bike?
• Will the bus get here sometime today?
• How will I pay to ride the bus?
• Where will I get off the bus? As the routes and stops are sparse on the website.

The guys at the bus stop answered a couple of my questions about fares and bikes.

As the bus arrived, I am sure I stuck out like a sore thumb to the other men waiting.    I popped up like a jack-rabbit, grabbed by bike, and waited for the bus to navigate the final 200 yards.  The other two men calmly let the bus meander.

I could see the bus had a bike rack on front.  The bike rack was in the up position.  Great! I had to figure out how to use this puppy.  So, I just started pulling levers and finally found the silver bar that lowers the rack just after the bus driver rose from his seat to assist me.  Then, I placed my bike on the rack and affixed the restraint to my bike.

Walked around, boarded the bus and it was packed--easily 25 people on the bus.  Looking around, they were from the shops up and down 280 and they were heading back home.

The bus made it to Five Points South in just 12 minutes.  I chose to get off the bus at Five Points South because I had no idea what I was doing.  So, I got off the bus as Five Points.  Then I rode my bicycle down the hill all the way to 2nd Avenue.  I found Urban Standard and worked there until my outbound bus departed at 6:10pm.

I arrived at 5:55pm at the Central Station on 1st Avenue N.  This time, bording the bus was old hat. My only surprise on the outbound bus was the number of stops in downtown before heading to The Summit.  I learned the bus stops actually have bus route numbers on them, and those bus route numbers  are important to navigation.

Best thing about the bus?

First, let me get this out of the way: the bus is better than most people think.

Secondly, it is different. I've started to feel good about the capability of someone to live in Birmingham without an automobile.  As I'm riding the bus, I've realized I could leave my house, get on the bus, go to the downtown station, board an Amtrak train, and head to New Orleans or New England.

Third, coldest air conditioning in the South.  ~ 72 degrees.

Worst thing about the Bus?

It is the bjcta.org website.  It is impossible to read.  Sometimes, it is impossible to know what is about to happen without having prior experience.  To overcome this, you should take some exploratory trips.

Why is the bus always empty?

The bus is empty when it is going to same way most of the cars are going.  Generally speaking, the bus is full of people when it travels the opposite direction of rush hour traffic.

One morning, I caught the 7:20am inbound bus at The Summit.  The outbound bus was standing room only, with a full bike rack on the front.

What are the must haves?

• $1.25 fare cash (dollar and a quarter)
• General idea of where you want to travel (know some of the routes).  iPhones wouldn't load the terrible Flash based maps on the bjcta.org site -- so you can't make adjustments easily while mobile.
• Newspaper and a hat a-la Mad Men
• (Optional) My bike has made it easy to get where I want to go.  Also, it has made it easier to recover from boarding mistakes.

College Football Athletics: The Case for Unionization

Balance of Power

In college football, the only remaining amateur participant is the athlete.  All other parties receive healthy compensations: coaches, administrators, TV deals, conference commissioners, athletic support staff, college presidents.  The best interest for everyone, except the athlete, is a maintenance of status-quo.  The other parties are compensated only due to the risk and choices assumed by the student athlete.

The students have the least power: their image is sold, their bodies are used, and their time is required.

Anti-Trust: Cannot Play NFL until 3 Years After High School

For three years of a players life, end of high school to NFL eligibility, universities in the United States are a football monopoly.   College football is the only opportunity for advancement for student athletes -- it is the path.  It is essentially required for student athletes to put their bodies at risk for sub-par compensation.

If the NFL allowed students to enter the NFL draft out of high school, this anti-trust question would be insignificant.  However, the 3-year rule appears to be a back-room handshake among college administrators and the NFL.  Colleges receive cash flows from the athletics for 3 years, and the NFL can mitigate the risk of paying a high school senior millions of dollars.

The Only Way Out of Current Predicament

What are the moral obligations universities have to their most productive revenue streams:

• Athletes receive nominal compensation compared to the athletic revenue: $100 million in revenue for the the top institutions, and their athlete compensation is negligible.
• Athletes in marketable sports are spending massive amounts of time chasing an opportunity to show themselves worthy to play professional sports: practice, weight lifting, practice, training.  These activities do not often translate into employable skills in other disciplines.
• Body damage: concussions and other injuries.  What is the long-term cost of a concussion?  What about future income lost because of a concussion?  What about quality of life?  Given more information on concussions, do institutions have obligations to protect the student for the long term?

Largely, I believe unions are detrimental to industries.  However, when the balance of power between employers and employees are as skewed as college athletics: a strong athletic union is the only way to restore the balance and fairly compensate all parties.