As this Yahoo! news article reports, many districts are going to a four day school week to cut costs. 

In one district, going to a four day week will save $65,000 on bus fuel alone.

Is this economic crunch a crisis;  or, are we teaching our kids a valuable lesson?

“I’ve got two teenage boys and they like brand names.  They can’t expect that this year.”

Crisis or opportunity?  We can take this opportunity to get back to the “nose to the grindstone” attitude that makes this country great.

Kids will now have to walk to school.  Uphill. Both ways!

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A multibillion-dollar bill has passed the US House.  The bill - America Competes Act (short for the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science Act) - will increase the available grants of many education related agencies.  Some of the agencies affected are: National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy’s science programs and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

This bill has a wide berth - not only does it cover basic technology in schools, but it has provisions for “obsticles to development of new energy technologies” and a government funded summit to “examine the health and direction of the United States’ science and technology enterprises.”

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Intel’s new processor chips now have 40% more transistors. It sounds like a commercial for Cheerios: “New Cheerios with 40% more nuts!” But, unlike Cheerios, Intel’s new processor chips will do a few billion computations a second.

Also, not only will these new chips be faster, but they will also be more efficient. As the circuitry in the chips ges smaller and smaller more electricity is lost resulting in more power needed to power the chip’s trillions of transactions. With these new chips, less energy will be lost resulting in longer battery life for notebooks and smaller power consumption in desktops and servers.

These new chips will be from 2 GHz - 3.2 GHz in quad-core processors and up to 3.4 GHz in dual-core models.

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The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is working with many states to upgrade their curriculum to incorporate 21st century skills such as:

• Flexibility & Adaptability
• Initiative & Self-Direction
• Social & Cross-Cultural Skills
• Productivity & Accountability
• Leadership & Responsibility

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GSN is holding its 2nd annual “National Vocabulary Championship.”  High school students compete via a qualifying exam either online or at a participating school nation wide.  Thanks to USA Today, American Heritage Dictionary, Sony, VAIO, Mead, Chipotle, JetBlue and others students will be competing to win $100,000 in tuition money.

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“Some Oregon high schools are adopting Mexico’s public school curriculum to help educate Spanish-speaking students with textbooks, an online Web site, DVDs and CDs provided free by Mexico to teach math, science and even U.S. history. ”

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Add a new T-shirt to the “banned list.”  Anything with the American Flag.

 ”Under a new school rule, students at Hobbton High School are not allowed to wear items with flags, from any country, including the United States.”

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In the era of college tuition prices skyrocketing it pays to hit the books and hit the college financing research center.

“Parents are building up their college bankrolls by turbocharging savings. And while Congress reshapes college lending in response to this year’s scandals, students and parents are figuring out new ways to find and negotiate the best loan terms.”

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State Senator Ernie Chambers of Nebraska has taken the fight against frivolous lawsuits to a “higher” court.

Senator Chambers has filed a lawsuit against God.

“Chambers lawsuit, which was filed on Friday in Douglas County Court, seeks a permanent injunction ordering God to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.

The lawsuit admits God goes by all sorts of alias, names, titles and designations and it also recognizes the fact that the defendant is omnipresent.

In the lawsuit, Chambers said he’s tried to contact God numerous times.”

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