If you can balance a checkbook, can you balance a budget?

Image by add1sun via Flickr

I’m confused.  Not too long ago during the never-ending November elections I heard a couple recurring themes. These themes crossed party lines and echoed true from candidates and constituents alike; the economy and education.  In fact, it seems to me that education is a priority for almost every candidate in every election. Why? Because candidates are smart enough to know that during election season they should talk about priorities that matter to people, and providing a quality education matters to people.

So when the Texas House released a budget draft calling for $10 billion in reductions to public school funding, I was more than perplexed.  Don’t get me wrong, I understand that the State is facing a budget shortfall of epic proportions and that the Legislature is charged with balancing the budget.  I won’t pretend to understand how difficult that is since the only thing I balance is my family checkbook, and it is miles away from the billion dollar level.  But then again, I do balance my family checkbook, so maybe I am qualified to make some judgments after all.

About 18 months ago our family faced a substantial budget shortfall when I had to resign from my job due to health issues. All of the sudden our monthly income was cut in half and medical bills were quickly piling up causing a budget deficit in the Escovedo household. My husband and I formed our own budget committee.  The first order of business was to explore new revenue sources. My current health status meant new revenue sources were not an option at the time, which meant it was time to start making cuts. So, we prioritized our spending. Those items at the top of the list stayed. The items at the bottom got slashed with the big red pen. Even after making deep cuts, our monthly expenses still exceeded our income.  Thankfully we had our own equivalent of a rainy day fund to pay off a few outstanding items and balance the budget.

And I guess that is why I’m so confused by our friends in Austin. Everyone keeps saying education is their priority, so why isn’t it at the top of the list during budget talks? Some may say it’s because the economy is also a priority, but that excuse doesn’t ring true.  If the Legislature makes massive cuts to public education, school officials could be forced to cut 100,000 jobs state-wide. According to a January 25 article by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), “The combined total of all these public and private-sector job losses would be more than 260,000. By killing so many jobs, the proposed budget would send the Texas unemployment rate soaring above 10 percent (from the current 8.3 percent) and would pitch the state back into severe recession.”

Strong public schools are essential to a strong economy. Communities with high performing school districts continue to maintain high property values and attract business growth. According to the National Education Association, “A high school dropout earns $260,000 less over a lifetime than a high school graduate and is 72 percent more likely to be unemployed.”  I think we can all agree that a lower unemployment rate and a more educated public are beneficial to all of us.

So what is the answer? I don’t think there is just one answer, and I think that is the problem. Currently, the House, Senate and Governor are all determined to put out a budget without investigating any new revenue sources or tapping into the rainy day fund. That only leaves one solution; cuts. When only one option is on the table, it’s hard to keep your priorities a priority.

Please join me in contacting your local representative and let them know that education is your priority and encourage them to look at all available options, including new revenue sources, the rainy day fund, and overhauling the school finance system to provide an equitable way to adequately fund public schools.

For more information on how your community or school district can get involved, visit Make Education a Priority at www.schoolpriority.com.

You Can Not *Not* Communicate

Image by hebedesign via Flickr

Of all the lessons learned, both in the classroom and the real world, the one that stands out as the most important is, “You can not not communicate.”  Everything you do or say, and often times more importantly what you don’t do or say, communicates something.

Over two decades later, communication professionals still look to the Exxon Valdez spill as a textbook example of how saying nothing communicates everything.  On April 21, 1989 the Exxon Valdez hit the shore off Alaska and dumped 250,000 barrels of oil into Prince William Sound. Certainly that is a crisis by any standards.  However, next to the pictures of baby water fowl covered in oil, what people remember most about Exxon is the deafening silence emerging from their corporate office in the days after crash. Exxon executives failed to issue a statement for almost a week, which they might have seen as effectively closing the communication lines to the media and the public. However, their silence communicated many things.

• It communicated a sense of indifference about the environment, the clean up efforts, and the community affected by the spill.
• To the media;  it communicated a refusal to cooperate on a story that portrayed the company in a negative light.
• To their stockholders; it communicated a lack of leadership during crisis as the media reported that Exxon’s chairman, Lawrence G. Rawl, did not visit the spill site until April 14, three weeks after the event.

But we don’t need to examine a national case study to see this principle at work. How we approach our spouse, our co-workers or our children often provides an equally powerful example.  When someone walks into your office and you continue to type and don’t look up from your computer screen, without saying a word, you are communicating that what you are doing is more important than they are.  Failure to respond to an e-mail in a timely manner communicates a message to the sender that they are not a high enough priority to merit your time.  Answering work phone calls during a family dinner time may tell your spouse or your children that work is a higher priority than your family.

And I’m sure you’ve had at least one of these conversations with your spouse or significant other.

“Are you mad at me?”

“No. Why would you think that? I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to say anything. You just seem mad.”

So what is the take away?  Is it to never answer the phone during diner, always stop typing when people walk in your office, and answer e-mails in a timely manner? Maybe. But you and I know that those life happens and there is a good chance both of us will do one of those things before the week is out. The more practical advice is to remember that you are always communicating something, so be intentional and communicate the message that you want your receiver to hear.  Remember that silence is often more powerful than words.

The comments are yours.  How have you seen attempts to not communicate communicate a bigger message in the end?

Four Reasons You Don’t Have to Be My Facebook Friend

Boasting more than 400 million active users, as of this posting as many people have Facebook accounts as live in the United States and the Philippines combined.  According to Facebook’s press page, the average user spends 55 minutes a day on the site interacting with 130 friends and sends out eight friend requests each month.

Along with letting you try your hand at farming and becoming the world champion Farkle player (whatever that is), Facebook has reunited families and friends from years (and dare I say lives) gone by, allowing them to interact on a daily basis crossing national, political, and generational boundaries. It has also become a viable marketing tool industries ranging from international for profit corporations to small public school districts and everything in between.

Logging on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to find you have 356 friends or 1489 followers can do a lot for your self esteem, especially on those days when your skinny jeans won’t button and your significant other forgot your anniversary. But every once in a while don’t you just have to ask yourself, “Who the heck are these people?”

Looking at my profile, I’m definitely an average Facebook user, not an excessive amount of friends, and as Facebook predicts, I probably get about eight friend requests a month.  Of those, I’d guess that five people legitimately want to be my friend. The other three were likely suggested by Facebook’s super smart computer predictor program (called a feed algorithm), suggested by a well meaning mutual friend, or is someone looking to boost their numbers or stir up some business.

If you are one of the people in those last three categories, here are four reasons you don’t have to be my Facebook friend.

1. You have no idea who I am.

I know where you’re coming from. Your cousin Barry suggested me as a friend, you clicked on my profile and saw that we both love NCIS, and you are worried about what you’ll tell Barry if he asks about it at Thanksgiving, so you send me a friend request even though you don’t have a clue who I am.  Let me put your mind at ease; Barry doesn’t actually care if we’re friends. He suggested me as a friend because Facebook prompted him to. And although it’s true that I’m delightful and mildly witty on occasion, our mutual love of Agent Gibbs will likely not be enough to carry our relationship to fruition and you will probably end up hiding me from your wall when you get tired of hearing me talk about potty training some little kid you will never meet in a state you will never visit.

2. I stole your boyfriend

. . . Or stuffed you in a locker, ignored you at lunch every day, laughed at you in front of the girl you were in love with,  etc. I officially plead “Not Guilty” to all of the above, but the truth is most of us did things in high school and college that we aren’t particularly proud of. I mean, who knew that 20 years after graduation we would all be connected via the Internet? Who knew there would be an Internet?

Nevertheless, I am also a believer that most of us are not the people we were in high school or college and sometimes we want to make amends and connect with people from our past. Surprisingly, we may want to connect with the very people we weren’t so nice to. If this is the case, instead of sending a blank friend request (the Facebook default) how about adding a little personal note. Nothing earth shattering, just something like, “Hey Kristen, I know we haven’t talked since seventh grade – and during that class we didn’t so much talk as I put gum in your hair and cheated off your algebra test, but I’m married and have a family and see that you do too. What do you say we put the past and the parachute pants behind us and be Facebook friends?”

3. I am trying to sell you something

Social media is all about relationships and if I haven’t developed a relationship with you then you have every right to delete my friend request if the only thing I’m after is the sale. (Unless you are offering me a free bag of Oreos. Then I’m in).  I joke about the Oreos, but it brings up a good point. If someone is offering you something of value, whether it is delicious cream filled cookie sandwiches, information, reward points, or the best seats at the little league tee ball game, then you have to decide if the benefits are worth your loyalty. I know it seems just as easy to hit “become a fan” to every request that comes along, but you have the right to be a fan only when you are a fan.

4. I dated you or you dated my husband.

This is a tricky and some what controversial topic.  Earlier this week my husband asked me how many ex-boyfriends I was friends with on Facebook. There are three, which means I can’t in good conscience tell you that you should absolutely never friend an ex. However, I will tell you that before I friend anyone whom I believe could cause a riff in my marriage (those three included), I tell my husband who they are, the nature and seriousness of our relationship, and ask if he is comfortable with me accepting their request. And while he was comfortable with these particular friends, there are other people from my past (some whom I dated, and others with whom I was simply associated) that he would not be comfortable with me friending.

As with anything in marriage (or a committed relationship), communication is the key. Realize that accepting a friend request from an ex gives that person a great deal of access into your life, which makes it a valid topic of discussion for you and your significant other before accepting (or making) a request.

In social media, as in life,  bigger is not always better and the quality of our friends is much more important than the quantity.

Photo Credit: Mr. Topf – http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrtopf/3086953409/sizes/o/