It was a big week. It actually started last Friday afternoon. I was on the phone with the mayor’s office of a major metropolitan city with my Director of Strategic Growth. We’ve had probably close to a dozen such calls with him discussing the potential for a SMASH site in 2013 in their city. About a month ago we sent him a budget with several scenarios including a planning year proposal. The long and the short of it is that we got a verbal commitment from his office that they will fund a 2012 planning grant for $150K and the full cost of 1 or 2 SMASH sites for 2013 and beyond ($600K to $1.1M in Year 1 alone!). We have not worked out details yet and are planning a call with the other staffers who would be providing the funding from a private foundation. This was completely out of left field and unexpected, but a real windfall if we can agree to terms – and secure a university partner. We’ve been talking with folks at a prestigious local university for some time now and I have another call with them on Tuesday. This university happens to be the mayor’s alma mater and he has the president’s ear, so there is an assumption by his office that they can help make this work. The $150K planning grant would allow us to hire a project director who would be based in that city, but spend this summer working at SMASH sites with different individuals to learn all of the ins and outs of the program. This is an unbelievable opportunity to partner with one of the most high profile and progressive mayor’s in the country. Right now, we are cautiously optimistic about this opportunity.

Then, on Tuesday evening, our servers crashed from too much traffic to our website. This is how it happened – over the weekend, Mitch Kapor (LPFI evangelist, board member, major funder, and overall educational and tech visionary) contacted me to tell me that he was going to be speaking at an event with White House CTO, Aneesh Chopra at Twilio (thanks for the free t-shirt!) which is up the street from our offices. Aneesh asked Mitch to speak about his commitment to summer programming for students (i.e. SMASH). Mitch invited me (and two staff and one alum). There was a TechCrunch reporter who cornered Mitch who passed him off to me. We chatted for 5 minutes about SMASH. Two minutes later, this appeared on TechCrunch: and sent 1200 unique users to our website – thereby crashing the server. Thank you so much to our IT team for rushing back to the office to fix the situation (and miss the MJ Cirque Show that night!). We were also mentioned on the White House blog and The Next Web.

Let’s continue the good news. On Thursday morning, I had a voice mail on my phone from the Director of Philanthropy at a major software company. In conjunction with the opening of a new store, they were looking to donate $50K-$250K worth of Microsoft supplies to a local nonprofit and he thought of us. We had lunch with him (thanks to a board member intro) last Spring and he took a SMASH:Stanford tour this summer. Right now, our IT department is looking at the list of eligible products and we’ll be putting together a list for him. If nothing else, we should be getting tens of thousands of dollars in free software for SMASH and LPFI laptops which would be a huge cost savings.

All in all, not a bad week at all. Raised over $1M on a phone call; crashed our website based on a five minute conversation; parlayed a lunch meeting into over $100K in software.

I started this blog series with the notion that baseball is America’s Pastime not because of the quality of play on the field or the popularity of the sport (both in decline), but because of the politics and economics that drive Major League Baseball and how eerily similar they are to the politics and economics of our country. One of the most controversial issues in our economic recovery is the outsourcing of knowledge worker jobs by technology companies. The news abounds with stories everyday like this one or this one. Baseball has not only been outsourcing for years, but has been investing in training academies in Latin America which have exacerbated the opportunity gap for Latino and African American prospects in our country. This is now being replicated in tech and the outcomes will be devastating.

In 2010, 28% of players on opening day rosters were born from outside of the United States. The Dominican Republic leads with 86 players in the majors. Venezuela was next with 58, Puerto Rico was third with 21, followed by Japan (14), Canada (13), Mexico (12), Cuba (seven), Panama (five), Australia (four), Taiwan (three) and Colombia, Curacao, South Korea and Nicaragua (two each). I have no problem with foreign born players playing US major league sports, but the Domincan Republic has a vastly disproportionate number of players in the MLB. Why and how does that relate to our American economy?

$18M was spent in 2009 for 30 player development academies in the Dominican Republic operated by major league teams, as well as six in Venezuela and one in Brazil. An additional $3.2M was spent on operating the Dominican Summer League, originally created in 1985 as a development platform for prospects who did not have a visa to travel to the United States. Sounds a lot like the use of H1B visas by technology companies. Silicon Valley is relying on the visa program as opposed to investing in diversifying their workforce from local populations. This is economically short-sighted of these companies and – shameless plug – they should be investing in programs like SMASH (Summer Math and Science Honors) Academy. There is plenty of talent in our country in baseball and in tech, but those who would reap the benefits of homegrown talent (MLB and Silicon Valley in this case) are not investing as much as they can in helping to prepare that talent – particularly talent from diverse populations. Even Mark Zuckerberg’s $100M investment in Newark schools is a budget dust for the multi-billion dollar company. I think they spend much more on talent acquisition and retention than this.

Baseball does also fund their RBI program – Revive Baseball in the Inner City. It’s been going for 21 years, yet the percentages of African American player has been on a sharp decline. 17% of players 20 years ago were black – now it’s just 8.5%. I don’t know of a major foundation in America who would keep funding a program with such dismal results. The next post in the series will examine the history of African-Americans in baseball and how they are losing ground – just as they are losing ground in our schools.

Part III: Brown v. Board of Ed and Jackie Robinson

In reading the LA Times this morning (yes – even though I moved to NoCal, I still read the LA Times), I came across this story on baseball teams far exceeding their debt limits. It made me think about how we are running up against this same challenge as a country where President Obama has to ask Congress to raise our debt ceiling. I’ve been saying for years, that baseball is not really America’s Pastime anymore. Perhaps I’m wrong.

This series of blogs will explain my reasoning as to why baseball is still America’s Pastime. SPOILER ALERT – it has little to do with the game itself and lots to do with how the game is run with politics, power, and privilege. During the course of the next couple of weeks I am going to draw numerous comparisons to how Major League Baseball operates with how our country works (or doesn’t work). Even though college and professional football have a much more ravenous following and more kids play soccer and basketball growing up, somehow, baseball is still considered our national pastime. It must have to do with the politics and governance of the sport as opposed to the product on the field. The debt ceiling is a prime example. Others issues I will be discussing in the coming weeks include:

1. Outsourcing as opposed to growing talent at home
2. Brown v. Board of Ed and Jackie Robinson
3. Opportunity Gap (for Low Revenue Teams)
4. The Old Boys Club in Ownership
5. Cheating and Hypocrisy
6. Why we go to watch games (fried food and beer!)

Am I missing anything? On a somewhat related note, I watched Inside Job yesterday. A must-see documentary on our financial crisis and how it was created and exacerbated by the only people the crisis has benefited – financial execs – and how our government has helped them do it.

It’s been four years since the first graduating class of View Park Prep HS walked across the stage. That means, college graduations are happening. I had the honor and privilege of attending one of them last Friday. One of my students was graduating from Loyola Marymount University with her BA in Biology! I happened to be in LA anyway and was able to attend the Kente Graduation Celebration for African American Students.

Anyone who says that scholars are not idolized like athletes should have come to this event – where at least for a day – they were. There must have been a dozen standing ovations – the processional, the recessional, the student speakers, the presentations of the Kente cloth, and on and on. The highlight was the conference of the only African American student PhD at LMU this year. The standing ovation and applause lasted for at least two minutes. I’ve been to Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Finals, and the Rose Bowl and the atmosphere was just as electric.

Much progress has been made at LMU. 20 years ago, the first Kente Celebration honored 12 students. This one honored 77 including the doctoral student and a dozen masters students. I have a lot of respect for LMU and the work they do in promoting pathways for under-represented minority students to college. They live up to the statement in their mission, “By intention and philosophy, we invite men and women diverse in talents, interests, and cultural backgrounds to enrich our educational community and advance our mission”. It’s nice to see they do not just pay lip service. I have seen their admissions staff recruit deserving students of color and most importantly, ensure that they are successful once they get to LMU. Charles Mason, Assistant Director of Admission was deservedly honored by the graduates for not just ensuring that students are treated equitably at admission time, but that they are supported throughout their journey at LMU. I have seen Charles work a room of high school students and I have heard from my 6 students at LMU how much he is there for them well after admission decisions are made.

While the chapel was standing room only, it will be a great day when the chapel can no longer be used for the ceremony because it’s too small. That day will be soon as LMU continues to work towards achieving true campus diversity “by intention and philosophy”. I’m proud of all of the ’07 VPP alums either graduating from or persisting in college!!

France recently enacted a law forbidding (Muslim) women from wearing veils which cover their full face – called a niqab. This has little to do with France trying to preserve their cultural heritage and promotion of unity as many supporters of the ban state. It has somewhat to do with trying to legislate against a practice which most in the non-Muslim world see as part of the subjugation of women. Where can one draw the line? One cannot deny that some Muslim men view Muslim women as subservient and nothing more than chattel. Women in the Muslim world are discriminated against, beaten and killed for trifling “sins”, raped, forced into marriage, and denied countless rights as a human being.

Is France taking away another right by removing the choice French-Muslim women are making in wearing the niqab in public? Or, is France taking a stance against thousands of years of repression and tyranny on behalf of Muslim women? Does disagreement with the French policy tacitly connote acceptance of oppression guised in a thin veil of freedom of choice?

Would the US ever create a similar ban? Should they? The biggest difference is that France was not founded on the idea of religious freedom for all – an ideal that we do not quite literally live up to in America. Does religious freedom trump women’s rights? Does the banning of the niqab do anything to promote women’s rights? I definitely have more questions than answers on this one as I am torn and unsure which side of the fence I am on. I’m looking forward to reading a new book by Irshad Manji, “Allah, Liberty, and Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom” to help reconcile some of these questions.

People often blame comments they make as being drunk or in a fit of rage. In reality, it’s such comments that are most truthful of what one really feels. So, when Kobe (in a fit of rage) called a referee a “faggot” he was showing his true emotions as opposed to his statement where, “My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period.  The words expressed do NOT reflect my feelings toward the gay and lesbian communities and were NOT meant to offend anyone.” I doubt that Kobe would have made such a comment if he weren’t frustrated. However, he was frustrated and he did say it and his statement afterward was neither an apology nor an admission of guilt – it is him trying to explain away something unexplainable. Here’s my attempt at explaining:

Kobe’s hidden biases came out in this time of frustration and rage – biases which he can normally mask when in a calmer and more thoughtful state. It’s what he thinks deep down which normally do not manifest themselves in hateful words or actions, but in reality, define who he really is. Think Mel Gibson’s drunken rants. His friends have defended him saying it was the alcohol or his frustration with his girlfriend. Is he anti-semetic? Absolutely. Was he anti-semetic when he filmed Ghost and co-starred with Whoopi Goldberg? Absolutely – but it was part of his hidden biases.

Once again, isn’t alcohol truth serum? Where do we draw the line? What if the shoe were on the other foot and the referee, frustrated with Kobe, as I’m sure he was, called Kobe the n-word? The referee would have lost his job and there would have been an incredible media outburst as opposed to the fine and slightly inflated press coverage. I hope Kobe learns from this as biases are not immutable. He has not started learning from it yet.

Note: This is coming from a Laker fan. I defended the possibility of Kobe’s innocence during the rape accusations in Denver. I cannot defend him here.

Christine Brennan writes in USA Today, “Psst. Women have a hoops tourney, too.” She argues, among other things, that the NCAA, USA Today, and other media outlets ignore the woman’s tourney even though the quality of play has increased greatly and this is patently unfair. She asks the question that if the NCAA moved the women’s tournament up three weeks so that it doesn’t conflict with the men’s, would it make a difference? She seems to think so. I’m not so sure. Is this an issue of fairness or just an issue of fan-ness.

I’m a huge believer in girl’s/woman’s sports. Title IX – with all of it’s flaws – has been a huge boost to fairness and equity in high school and college sports, providing opportunities for young women all across the country to play sports. However, Title IX is about participation, not exposure. Professional women’s leagues have failed over and over again because fan’s will not pay to watch. The lone exception, the WNBA, probably would have failed a long time ago if it were not under-written by the NBA.  The bottom line is that men are the majority of sports fans (74%) and that most men will not pay to watch women play. As a principal, our school had more sports teams for girls than boys. When asked, however, all of our girl’s hoopsters watched the NBA and only about half watched the WNBA. I loved watching the Lady Knights compete just as much as the boys, but have to admit than when it comes to college and professional sports – I pick the men almost every time. Should the NCAA and media conglomerates cover woman’s sports equally? They can’t until their sponsors do.I can’t even see the newly formed Lingerie Football League lasting.

Does anyone have an answer?

Texas legislators are considering a bill to punish those who hire undocumented workers with up to 2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Of course, that is unless the worker happens to work in your home. Have no fear hypocrites! – you will not have to fire your maid, gardener, nanny, etc. because that would be way too inconvenient. The reason – firing all of those workers would, “stifle the economic engine” in Texas. Essentially, if wealthy individuals cannot hire and underpay undocumented workers to do jobs that legal residents would prefer not to do (at least not for the same cost), then these individuals would have to spend time doing the chores themselves or paying a decent wage to others. This would clearly take their time and money away from more important things – like running Enron into the ground.

It is more than ironic that the “economic engine” of Texas is so reliant on a population of individuals Texans do not want in their state at all. That’s like walking into a Porsche dealership and saying, “I’ll just take the chassis and tires” – and please help me push it to this hill. Similarly, we bemoan that there are not enough highly educated individuals in our country, but we don’t pass the Dream Act. I don’t think America should have completely open borders or ignore those who come here illegally, but why not have commonsense immigration reform that will benefit our country as a whole and not just be convenient for whomever it suits. A story today, highlights wealthy individuals and corporations trying to take a proactive stance to comprehensive immigration reform. Maybe there’s a chance.

Los Angeles Unified School District is set to renew the charters of two schools from the charter management organization Crescendo, even though their CEO John Allen, instructed schools to hand out test questions directly from the state test for students to study. Strong enough evidence exists for the board of Crescendo to have disciplined Mr. Allen and the five principals for their actions in 2010. Anecdotal evidence exists that this practice was probably also occurring in 2009. It is the belief of the LAUSD charter office that, “the board did respond appropriately and took some swift action”. Mr. Allen was suspended without pay for 6 months and demoted to Director of Facilities and the principals were suspended 10 days without pay. Is this enough? Should LAUSD do more?

I think it is incumbent upon LAUSD as the charter authorizer to shut down these schools – for the sake of the students. What Crescendo students are learning here is that cheating is ok, unless you get caught, and when you do, you can still keep your job. Is this the type of lesson we want to impart on middle school students? In the least, Crescendo should have to completely divorce themselves from Mr. Allen and begin anew with a leadership team with a track record of honesty and integrity. If LAUSD feels compelled to keep these schools open, at least grant them only a 1 year charter as opposed to a 5 year renewal and monitor them throughout that year, making them re-apply.

Is it a worse consequence for students to shut down the schools or to keep them open? If the schools are shut down, chances are another charter management organization would re-open them under different leadership or the parents would find other charter schools in the neighborhood. In this scenario, students would learn that fairness matters always – not for 10 days or six months, but always.

Crescendo just happened to get caught – many others, traditional public and charter alike have participated in cheating of this form or another. The highest profile case was this past year in Atlanta Public Schools and is  just another consequence of high stakes testing and the implications of philanthropic dollars being tied to standardized test results. This does not excuse the behavior and there is no pretense that any of this cheating is “for the students”. In fact, high stakes testing is high stakes for everyone except the students (but that’s a whole other blog).

When I worked in schools, I used to say, “I don’t mind teaching kids how to be adults, but I hate having to teach adults to be adults.” And part of teaching kids to be adults is that fairness does matter – in fact, it may be the most important lesson we teach our students; when adults are not acting that way, especially when they are working directly “for the students”, the only lesson we can impart here “for the students”, is that the consequences of our actions are real. Our students are inundated with images of high profile cheating in sports (Tiger, Cam Newton, et. al.), finance (Bernie Madoff, Martha Stewart, et. al.), and entertainment (Charlie Sheen, Jesse James, et. al.). We cannot control the consequences for these figures, but we can control what happens in our schools, and we owe it to our students to do so. .

I had about 90 minutes to kill between the end of my last session at the TFA Alumni Summit and having to leave for Dulles.  My hotel was down the street from the National Geographic Museum who was hosting the America I Am exhibit. I barely got through it in the 90 minutes I had, but I did get the time to trace the steps of the African American people from the time of Columbus in 1492 through slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, civil rights, and the present. What I was most struck by was the incredibly positive message depicted throughout – our country would not be as great as it is if it were not for the sacrifices, intellect, ingenuity, and resolve of the black people forced to come over here in the first place. While highlighting the generations of injustices, heroes were put to the forefront and their stories along with the stories of communities were told through the perspectives of economics, culture, socio-politics, and spirituality.

The exhibit also made me, as a white male, have what I feel is the correct sense of shame, anger, and disappointment in the white males who founded our country and the generations of white males after who contributed to the severe oppression. There was no blame game in the exhibit- it’s just how I internalized it all. I think more than the exhibit, the fact that I was in the museum for 90 minutes without seeing another white person – or for that matter – any non-black person was particularly troubling. I have been to the Holocaust Museum and while many of the attendees are Jewish, I don’t think it’s even half. I walked with at least 200 people in the museum and not one was white.

In the end, I left with a sense of hope that while the achievement gap is still pervasive and the election of a Barack Obama is not the cure-all people thought it might be, we are making progress as a country – we could just be making so much more if we took time to learn about people different than us, their struggles, their triumphs, and their ideals. What we’d learn is that they’re not that much different than we are and in many respects they are better.

The other thing I left with was the “America I Am: Pass it Down” cookbook and I can’t wait to try some recipes at home. There is no better expression of a person’s culture than their food.