http://localfoodsummit2012.blogspot.com/2012/04/participate-in-local-food-victories-of.html

First, I had no idea that almost one quarter of kids in my district qualify for reduced lunch. That’s a lot of families and kids with financial and food insecurity. Imagine waking up in the morning with that feeling in your belly each morning. The feeling of possible hunger and then the feeling that you know you have less than the kid sitting next to you in school. Brutal.

Second, we pay a lot of taxes in Washtenaw County. I always see this conversation about schools and funding being approached from the “what can we cut to keep things the way they are” angle. What about approaching it from “how can we reinvent the way we do schools to give the best most practical education for the least amount of money” angle?

There are many organizations in this area working on wonderful innovations and projects that can change the way communities interact and evolve. Why isn’t the school system working with these organizations to help solve our problems? It’s like the school system is in a closed loop. You cannot solve issues without constant input from multiple sources. If you have the same people proposing fixes to evolving problems you’re eventually going to run out of ideas and start gambling with public funds and kids futures along the way.

Electing a board of education is only one step in the process of managing the most important public project. Each family, concerned citizen or taxpayer needs to take an active role. I propose the Ann Arbor public schools actively engage the local community in the following ways:

Use the local food community to provide solutions for providing nutritious food for each child that wants it each day the schools are open.

Use the U of M complex and the amazing community colleges in the area to focus our education system on STEM principals so we may inspire new generations of engineers.

Work with permaculture and sustainability experts to transform our schools grounds and buildings into learning labs. These hyper efficient spaces could serve a dual purpose as learning environment and community incubator. The tools inside these buildings should be accessible to all residents.

The larger question here is, “Do we have the will”? I think we do.