Weekend Digest: The Ideas In Education Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

SAVING SACRAMENTO
Vivek Ranadive is the NBA’s Sacramento Kings’ new owner and he is an eternal optimist who kept the Kings from leaving town when he took control last June.

Yet nothing Ranadivé has ever done is on the scale of what he’s up to now.

“We are building the 21st-century city,” he explains, zero doubt or irony in his voice. “It goes back to Rome. Cities are built around their coliseums.”

To remake Sacramento, the city will own the new arena, and the Kings’ group will develop the area around it, igniting a downtown renaissance.

The billion dollars he and his partners are sinking into Sacramento, he says, will be “one of the best investments in a decade.”

Forbes has the inside story on the King’s owner and the plans for his “renaissance” of Sacramento, but is his gamble too risky?

Ranadivé’s gamble hinges on the often tried, often failed ‘if-we-build-it-they-will-come’ model of economic development, this time stealing from San Francisco. As for the new arena, city financing has yet to be approved. He doesn’t care.

“There is no point in going to a place that’s already big,” he says. “The point is to build something here.”

For the full story, jump to this link.

WHICH COLLEGE DEGREE GETS THE MOST JOB OFFERS?
Well, it’s not sociology. But you may have already guessed without even going to the story, so we’ll go ahead and tell you. It’s computer science by a whopping margin.

Nearly 70% of computer science majors had at least one job offer before they graduated from college last year, according to data gathered by the National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE), which surveyed nearly 10,000 college seniors who were set to earn bachelor’s degrees in the spring of last year.

But the second and third place majors had a huge percentage of offers as well.

What are they? Forbes has posted the list of how some of the most popular majors placed for job offers. But those majors don’t necessarily pay the highest starting salaries. To find out which ones do, go to this link.

INTERVIEW WITH THE CEO OF A “SMART GLASS” COMPANY
What is smart glass? It is glass that when installed in a building or high-rise gets “smart” and goes dark when needed to cut down on sunlight and save energy.

Rao Mulpuri’s company, View, manufactures “dynamic glass” that promises to be more energy- and cost-efficient than the conventional stuff — no small matter when most modern office buildings are more glass than anything else.

As CEO, Mulpuri has worked with an array of organizations — NASA, the Marine Corps, hotels, universities, and medical centers — in his quest to make glass structures smarter around the globe.

Fortune has “10 Questions” for Mulpuri including what daily steps he takes to promote sustainability.

Go to this link for the interview that reveals more than just Mulpuri’s business side.

CLIMBING THE ECONOMIC LADDER
A new study reports it is no harder to climb the economic ladder today, but at the same time, income inequality has increased so the rungs on that ladder have grown farther apart.

Children born in 1986 to the lowest income families have about the same chance — roughly 9% — of reaching the highest income levels as their peers born in 1971, according to an academic paper published Thursday.

For those born more recently, the paper’s authors compared the likelihood of poor children going to college against their richest peers since many of these kids are still in school or just entering the workforce. They found the gap for children born in 1993 to be only slightly smaller than those born in 1984.

Do children entering the labor market now have the same chances of moving up in the income distribution (relative to their parents) as children born in the 1970s? And what about regional differences and income inequality?

CNN Money takes a look at this hot button issue that both Republicans and Democrats are embracing with “key talking points.” Click on this link to learn more.

THE ‘VIRGINIA WAY’
This past week former Virginia Governor Bob Mc Donnell and his wife Maureen, a former Washington Redskins cheerleader, were indicted by federal prosecutors on corruption charges in a gift-giving scandal. The New York Times reports that “would be ample evidence of a possible crime in some states,” but not in Virginia.

But no Virginia laws bar elected officials from taking $165,000 worth of Oscar de la Renta dresses, a Rolex watch, Louis Vuitton shoes, Cape Cod weekends, golf greens fees and cash that prosecutors have accused the McDonnells of accepting from Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the head of a struggling dietary supplement company that sought aid from the state. Nor are there restrictions on what gifts family members of Virginia officeholders can accept or any limits whatsoever on the source or size of campaign contributions to politicians.

So how did this “anything-goes” culture evolve and why no strict ethics laws? Could this latest scandal that has become “culture shock to Virginia” force a change to that culture?

What did newly inaugurated governor, Terry McAuliffe, do on his first day in office and how will Virginia’s legislature handle ethics law suggestions? Go to this link to find out.

STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESSES EMPHASIZING EDUCATION
Governing reveals, “education is taking center stage early in the State of the State season,” and has posted the more “interesting proposals governors are floating.”

Here are a few:

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, isn’t giving up on an idea to tie a portion of a school’s base education funding to how well its students perform on standardized tests. The state’s GOP legislature wouldn’t go along with the plan last year because some feared it would hurt already struggling schools in higher-poverty areas. But Brewer is rebranding the performance-pay proposal, more commonly found in higher education, not K-12 but as “Student Success Funding.”

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal wants to pay the full tuition costs for students who choose to pursue four career areas state businesses have identified as “high need.”

For a look at other proposals, plus the innovative ideas Indiana’s governor has about “teacher choice,” click on this link.

SCHUMER + THE TEA PARTY
As radical as it might sound, third-ranking Senate Democratic Leader, Charles Schumer from New York, says his party should aggressively promote a pro-government agenda to win over middle-class Tea Party voters this fall.

Schumer laid out his vision for political success in a major speech Thursday addressing the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a pro-Democratic advocacy group, intended to energize fellow Democrats who have been on the defensive since the botched rollout of ObamaCare last year.

He lamented that Democrats have become “quiet, defensive and even ashamed” of their pro-government views.

He also believes “Democrats could win over blue-collar independents who identify with the Tea Party, by touting the promise of government initiatives, such as raising the minimum wage and extending unemployment benefits.”

“We must stop playing defense and go on offense when it comes to the need for government. We must state loudly and repeatedly that we believe government is often a necessary force for good,” said Schumer.

Speaking on a number of other issues, Schumer also said the Obama administration should respond more forcefully to foreign partners, such as China, who fail to adhere to trade agreements.

For more details on Schumer’s remarks, go to this link from The Hill.

RNC WANTS TO SHORTEN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY CALENDAR
POLITICO reports, “The Republican National Committee is taking steps at its winter meeting this week to try condensing the 2016 presidential nominating calendar, with the goal of starting later and ending earlier than in 2012.”

Chairman Reince Priebus wants the party’s 2016 convention to happen between June 27 and July 18 – compared to the week of August 27 in 2012. The official date will be announced this spring, and the location will be selected at a summer meeting.

The party’s rules committee approved a number of significant changes. What are those changes and why is the RNC wanting to condense the 2016 primaries? For answers, click on this link.

McCONNELL AD FEATURES WHISPERING WORKER
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) rolled out a new ad this week that has people in the Bluegrass State and Washington “whispering.”

The ad, which you can view at this link, features a sick worker from a Kentucky factory. He shares his story and McConnell’s assistance in a powerful way.

But there has been political backlash over the high-profile TV spot. Read and watch more here.

IS BRUTALITY DECLINING?
Despite the daily horror stories of war, terrorist atrocities, and world-wide mayhem, The Wall Street Journal believes we may be living in a more civil society.

We believe our world is riddled with terror and war, but we may be living in the most peaceable era in human existence. It’s impossible to learn about these catastrophes without thinking, “What is the world coming to?”

But a better question may be, “How bad was the world in the past?”

Believe it or not, the world of the past was much worse. Violence has been in decline for thousands of years, and today we may be living in the most peaceable era in the existence of our species.

Sound shocking?  Click on this link for an extremely intriguing post that details “why brutality is declining and empathy is on the rise.”

THAT ‘SPARKLY NEW MUSIC APP’
Heard of it?  It’s called Beats and a big part of Beats Music’s appeal is its recommendation engine, which uses living, breathing humans to help make listening suggestions instead of relying explicitly on algorithms.

So far, our favorite recommendation feature is a section of the app called The Sentence. Essentially what The Sentence does is it crafts custom playlists tailored to your mood and sensibilities from a mad libs-style menu.

But Fast Company says because of that, sometimes things can “get pretty weird.” Well we’re up for it and we hope you are to. To learn more, app-it-up at this link.