School Zones: Isn’t it time we centralized them?

I’ve been looking at real estate and noticed that school zones create a host of problems, especially concerning property values. For example, the same house may be priced much higher in one school zone because the high school is deemed more desirable. 

So what’s the solution?

Completely centralizing all school zones. If we put every student in the United States into one giant high school, there is only one school zone and everyone in the United Sates is eligible for it.  There is no more class distinction. No more school rivalry. Because all high school kids in the U.S. go to the same school 

But where do we put it?
Iowa. It’s the ideal location for several reasons.

First of all, Iowa is centrally (and conveniently) located in the Midwest, thereby providing a reasonable commute for most students. Students from either coast will not need to travel the full width of the country.

Secondly, the winters are very cold. This will keep the kids indoors studying instead of playing Frisbee on the abandoned corn fields (you don’t expect the farmers to stay in Iowa once it becomes a high school instead of a state, do you?).

Finally, this will eliminate the need for curfews in the rest of the United States and save on the tax dollars currently used to enforce these curfews.

Problem solved.  Now all property values will be equal.  Except for Iowa. But we can work that out later.

Daily Dave #66

Some of you know that I used to have a mailing list called "The Daily Dave" that was very popular.  I would send out a daily email that contained a quote from Megadeth front man Dave Mustaine, usually out of context and applied to business in an irreverent manner.

The business world has a lot to learn from metal music, as I've written about in this previous post.

However, some Daily Dave posts were just for fun.  Like this one:

Waste Land

Normally documentaries are pretty much only useful for helping me to fall asleep.  Except documentaries about fine artists.  For some reason I love these.  I’ve been watching them while I run on the treadmill and it really makes the time go by for me.

Since Netflix can read my mind and knows what I like to watch, it recommended the documentary Waste Land.  I saw that it was about an artist (named Vik Muniz) working with some recyclers at a landfill and I didn’t expect it to be terribly good.  I assumed that the film was thinly disguised propaganda for recycling.  I was very wrong.  Yes, there is a message about recycling, but it is more about recycling human lives and giving people hope. This was one of the best films I've seen this year and it was beautiful.

I wasn't familiar with Vik’s work, but I was very impressed with what I saw.  His art holds a lot of interest in the interplay between the level of detail up close and in the idea or concept that can be seen from farther away.  The way these two aspects of his art interact and then also knowing the stories of the people who were involved in the making of this art is what captivated me.  The process was just as interesting as the finished product. 

Even if you don’t like art, there are two important messages in this film that we all need to hear at one time or another and the film is worth watching for these:

1.) No matter how bad your life seems, it can ALWAYS be recycled into something beautiful.

2.) There is always hope when one person reaches out to another. We all have that ability to create hope for others.

Go watch the film on Netflix or buy it on Amazon.  You won’t be sorry.