The Visit from Jack O'Connell and the Chosen Few:

I really enjoyed the California Finance presentation sponsored by Redlands University because it allowed the people in attendance to grasp a better understanding of what is happening with the state budget. I really liked the what Mr. O'Connell had to say about us remaining focused on the task at hand, which is to educate students.

As for the other participants, I felt some of their views were from an essentialist perspective. One of the superintendents kept referring to making parents the primary solution for student success. I disagree. I happen to think they have a stake, but not more than the educators. His perspective was the typical "blame the victim" mentality. The other superintendent focused solely on numbers, which I thought was very interesting. It was interesting for me because unfortunately, that is one way our students fail. If we detach the names from the numbers, it is easier to make decisions that affect them.

Although, I didn't not like most of the things I heard that night about money not being available for our students, overall, I genuinely think these men have education in the students' best interest.