Another National Champion, Another Asterisk
Jeffrey Weiss, in, of all places, The Dallas Morning News Religion blog, rants (his own word) that college football doesn't need a playoff. He says it doesn't even need the so-called BCS National Championship game. He recommends that the NCAA "kill the BCS and go back to the wonderful free-for-all among the various bowls as they jockeyed for the best possible game." His justification? Entertainment. He offers the Fiesta Bowl contest between Texas and Ohio State as his exhibit A.
I think all college football fans would agree that the Texas touchdown in the final seconds to win the Fiesta Bowl was entertaining. But if Jeffrey Weiss wants to know what could have possibly made the game more entertaining, the answer is obvious: a game where the outcome actually meant something. Because Texas won, they finished the season ranked 4th and Ohio State ranked 9th. If Texas' final drive had fallen short, perhaps the final rankings would have been reversed. Big deal. But imagine if winning meant that Texas advanced to play USC, with the winner of that game playing the winner of a Florida/Utah matchup. Imagine the entertainment of that! Well, your imagination is the only place such entertainment is going to be staged. And that's not nearly as entertaining as the real thing.
Education a Beneficiary of Economic Stimulus
Rodger Jones, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, is panicking over President-Elect Obama's economic stimulus package. Take education. Jones is disturbed by what Obama said about it:
"To give our children the chance to live out their dreams in a world that's never been more competitive, we will equip tens of thousands of schools, community colleges, and public universities with 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries. We'll provide new computers, new technology, and new training for teachers so that students in Chicago and Boston can compete with kids in Beijing for the high-tech, high-wage jobs of the future."Jones equates this with throwing money at a problem. He calls it sloganeering. He also objects to the federal government taking the initiative instead of local government. He says, "It's irresponsible to add to the federal debt for a core state or local obligation."
Jones fails to appreciate both the seriousness and urgency of the risk facing the nation. The speech that panicked Jones was not a speech on education. It was a speech on economic "recovery and reinvestment" plans. Obama is focused on jump starting our economy and doing it with spending that invests in our future. Spending on education does that. So does spending on buildings and bridges and energy and health care.
Obama does not pretend that money alone will solve our education problems. Much else is needed. The main purpose of the economic stimulus is to create jobs and get our economy growing again and to do it with spending that invests in our future. As a side benefit of getting our economy going again, we'll find ourselves with lots new schools, classrooms, labs and technology.
That the federal economic stimulus plan includes education in the spending plan will not hurt education in Texas. Fighting the federal stimulus plan does not help education in Texas. Rodger Jones could serve education in Texas better if he worked at reshaping the education system we have now in Texas, improving teacher training, recruiting more math and science teachers, fixing the broken system of funding education in Texas, etc. That way, when the economy recovers, Texas will be ready to take full advantage of all that spending.
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