Happy New Year!

If 2011 builds on the foundation of its predecessor, this year will continue unprecedented federal spending on public schools and a horrifying lack of spending by budget-strapped states.

I'm upbeat thanks to a public far more educated and aware of education's fiscal and public policy dynamics than ever before. Think about it, people may be anxious about the condition of public schools but most education funding levies still pass by healthy margins. Education is one of the few services voters agree to raise their taxes to pay for.

This New York Times story recounts a pullback by parents burned out on volunteering in schools. Yet, those portrayed, and the hundreds who took to the comments section to air their grievances about heavy volunteering loads, acknowledge parental importance to the basic functioning of schools. Zero parent involvement would be akin to shutting off the lights or getting rid of the teachers, learning would cease immediately.

I bet you're wondering if that's not an overstatement, considering the armies of teachers and specialists deployed to each school. No, I don't think it is. Class sizes are up (after tens of millions spent to lower them to something more manageable) at the same time a growing body of brain research tells us children learn in varying ways and ought to be taught in a way that reaches them.

My New Year's resolution (I know, I know: old habits are hard to break) is to be more present in my own life, which means being less present in other people's lives and that includes school. But it doesn't mean disappearing. I'll remain the art docent for my son's class. I'll pass on the grueling PTA meetings held smack in the dinner hour and opt for the PowerPoint read at my leisure. Easy to keep up with national education trends via the PTA's news website. How about you?

Portugese Love

That is the title of my favorite song by Teena Marie, the incomparable soul singer who died this week at the unbearably young age of 54. I wrote this column about Lady T's impact on race relations for the Seattle Times and this blog post for the opinion page's blog, Ed Cetera.

Besides her silky, incomparable voice, I admired Teena Marie for making no apologies for being a white girl doing her thang in a black genre. Certainly more than a few eyebrows were raised over "Fire and Desire", her sizzling duet with Rick James. The song emoted such passion, some of it real for the couple who had a romantic relationship but ended with a good friendship that lasted decades. Racists must have seen their worse miscegnationist fears realized and more than a few black women wondered why Rick James had to share his success with a white woman. None of that slowed Teena Marie for a second.

I learned from her that if you're going to play someone else's game, play it well.

Here's a sample of Tina Marie singing my favorite song:

Higher ed: what have we wrought?

In this editorial I wrote for the Times, I cautioned folks to react less to University of Washington Athletic Director Scott Woodward's inartful statements and subsequent apologies about academics at the University of Oregon and concentrate instead on the full context of his remarks.

Woodward's remarks stung U of O graduates but he was basically asking all of us to consider what steep budget cuts have wrought. Rep. Reuven Carlyle, a Seattle Democrat, has been doing a lot of thinking about this and offers a compelling assessment on his blog.

I've written about the lack of policy attention and money going toward higher ed, even as America and private philanthropy invest billions in early learning, K-12 and workforce training programs. Here's my response to President Obama's call for an extra 8 million college graduates by 2020. If only saying it would make it so.

I've said it before and I"ll say it again, we need a call to arms around higher education. The reality is that unless you're extremly talented in an arena and compete with others who may carry less talent but more academic credentials, students can't stop at a high school diploma. The competition out there is too stiff.

Geoffrey Canada, who runs the Harlem's Children Zone, talked about this yesterday at a luncheon before 1,200 people in a ballroom at the Westin Hotel. I interviewed him and plan to post here what I write for the Times. Canada said that it isn't enough for him to expect the children enrolled in his programs to excel in school and graduate. He wants them to work toward college. If they don't choose to attend that's fine, at least they are academically qualified to make the choice.

The horrors of child prostitution

This Seattle Times story about an annual FBI and local law enforcement sweep rescuing young girls, some as young as 12, from street prostitution grabbed me.

This is the 5th year the FBI has led the sweep in dozens of cities across the nation. I'm hopeful even as I note that the small number of children they rescue - 69 from efforts over the weekend - is a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands of missing and exploited children nationwide, according to this center and the estimated 300-500 kids working the streets in King County.

I wrote this editorial for the Times opinion page. During my reporting I learned about a three-year pilot project offering young victims emergency shelter and other social services. Learn more about the City of Seattle 's program and if you care to, contribute to the Prostitute Children Rescue Fund.

Lynne goes to the White House

I had barely been back for a few days since my trip to Columbia University during New York City's Education Week confab that attracted national and world leaders to convene on the topic of K-12 education (more on that later) when an email came advising that the Trotter Group, an organization of newspaper columnists, were invited to the White House to interview President Obama on a range of subjects.

Only 16 columnists would be allowed and I was number 16. How's that for serendipity. And so despite a suitcase still packed from NYC, despite a kid looking at me like I was derelict in some important duties and a husband rightly feeling we were ships passing in the night, I hopped on a plane to D.C.

I wrote this column, this editorial and this Ed Cetera blog post and this one based on my interviews with Obama. I've got a notebook full so stay tune. It goes without saying that the president didn't suddenly decide to connect with the media - contrary to his style of open, friendly dialogue he runs a tight ship with limited unrestricted contact with the media. But with the midterm elections just weeks ago, the White House has finally grasped its failure to communicate to the country the problems and how it was resolving them. Indeed, one of the things the president said to us during our hour long meeting was his regret that the public has seen the large numbers involved in stimulus spending but told little about why the spending was so high and what the goal of it was. Thus, the public anger over the last year, fostered not simply by the GOP but also the ascent of the Tea Party grew largely unchallenged by the White House. Not a good strategy. As this New York Times story predicts about Congressional races, the House, and maybe the Senate, is likely to go from Democratic to Republican on Obama's watch. It will be hard to sustain such political losses and argue credibly for a second term.

Just when it was finally getting good college became passe

So the University of Washington ranks 23rd in the world. Wow! Perhaps it will get some respect from the state Legislature and a little loosening of the purse strings. I plan to write more about this for the Seattle Times editorial page. But essentially the problem is this: state investment in higher education hasn't kept up with the tremendous growth in students attending college and increasing competition to keep valued faculty from other poaching schools.

As I wrote here for the Seattle Times, a high-level, smart conversation about higher ed is needed. Public policy demanded a more diverse and larger student body than the privileged few. We demanded that universities offer top-notch educations in the latest scientific and engineering arenas while remaining strong in the classics. We called for greater attention paid to student needs, from lifestyle-oriented dorms to dining halls that resemble restaurants. For the most part, universities and colleges gave the public what it wanted. But tuition and state assistance hasn't kept up with the spending.

There are many solutions. Schools could reconfigure themselves and not be all things to all students. Should there be two universities within two hours of each other that both excel in the performing arts? Some say it is time to stop vying for star faculty, many who earn six figures, and go for non-celebrities who can teach just as well. Or, others argue, time to step up the research and grant applications and better fund positions with outside money.

There is a movement, however, to eschew college, a rejection that is partly in response to the high cost of a 4-year degree - $25,000 in some cases but also a real question of whether everyone needs and education. Hedge-fund manager James Altucher argues that tuition money is better spent building a nest egg for our kids to use to travel the world, open a business or whatever they want. Altucher correctly notes that many post-high school are simply not mature enough to head straight to college.The same article lists successful people, including Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg as college drop-outs.

Yes, and they dropped out of Harvard, meaning they had a leg up to begin with. Sorry, but all of this poo-pooing college smells of the haves telling the haves-not what's no longer in fashion. As soon as anyone from the deepest barrio or reservation was able to realistically set college in their sights, now they're being told it isn't necessary. But what they aren't being told is that resumes are still screened with an eye toward not just college, but where you attended college. Unless you can get Altucher, Allen or Zuckerberg to make some calls for you - or finance your trip to France - the best way to get your foot in the employment door remains college. With unemployment tipping at 10 percent, even industries that don't rely on a college education can afford to use it as a marker to separate quality candidates from the rest.

To me, the utility of higher education goes beyond jobs. It is truly about learning. Some of us were privileged enough to grow up in households where the classics were read and discussed, where a passport was as common as class pictures and magazines from National Geographic to the Smithsonian and The New Yorker laid strewn about. By the time we got to college, it was really about burnishing the credentials we already owned.

Not so for many others. College remains the place to decode the best literature, languages and the world before our time. It is where our political and personal views are formed without the influence of our parents.It is where we learn what society looks like beyond the borders of our closed communities. And increasingly, it is helping to level the economic playing field as this story on Washington state's tuition guarantee to poor children and those in foster care details.

The end of summer and my silence

In order to avoid blaming this blog for missed sunsets or evenings grilling in the backyard, I stayed away from "Living to Learn," this summer. Since one of the chief topics of this blog is public education and schools were out for the summer, I thought I would spend the summer listening, reading and thinking, not with my usual purpose to regurgitate it later into something thoughtful- or not so thoughtful - but simply as part of living life.

It was nice.

But now I'm back and today was the first day of school in my district and many around the nation. I was pleasantly surprised to see my son's teacher is a man and a young one at that. My son, like most kids of elementary-school age, is cognizant of the world's preset gender roles. Contrary to my protests, he is certain only girls look good in pink, ballet is for girls and males once they're adults and in need of a fun job. Despite how many times it has happened, he remains pleasantly surprised, and impressed, when a girl disdains baking and expresses an interest in Legos and Bionicles. (Yes, this is a phase that shall pass.)

Meanwhile, I worry that outside of my husband, my son sees too few male role models in arenas he may believe to be the domain of women. That's why I sought out a male pediatrician and point out male classical dancers every time we pass the ballet studio near our house.

School is another area where the only male he sees is the gym teacher and the janitor. Teaching is a female-dominated profession with women accounting for 70 percent of the teachers in Washington state, according to this story. Improved recruiting, coupled with a recession is slowly changing the ratio, primarily in urban centers. Superintendents, the job where the real authority lies, remains largely male. I'm certain gender plays a role in how we view issues in education, from teacher accountability to pay. This piece explores the gender bias and obstacles men going into teaching face.

Its too early for me to think very deeply about what a male teacher will add to my fourth grader's educational experience this year. Certainly it will be different, but how to place a value on that would seem premature. I just know that I'm excited for my son to see this guy, in many ways a 20-year-older version of himself, and understand the many possibilities of his future. Fourth grade is one of the toughest years in school. It is a pivotal point in emotional maturation but also in the coalescing of basic skills now to be refined.

I'm looking forward to the energy, creativity and sense of fearlessness emanating from his classroom. I'm referring to the teacher but I wouldn't mind if my son takes on a swashbuckling attitude as well.