This sounds ridiculous, and yet completely unsurprising for a former president of ASU. ASU is all about talking the talk while striking at the legs of those trying to walk. Their lofty goals effect policies and changes that make it harder to get any real work done.

Interestingly enough, Crow’s plan for ASU is largely focused on lowering standards even more and enrolling larger classes than ever, so more underprepared students can dilute the University experience and value even further. I wonder if this is an effect of Lattie’s initiative — it is kind of odd for a university to be talking about improving K-12 education — that’s someone else’s job — instead of taking the plank out of its own eye first.

I’d never heard of this, but as I’m reading, two things come to mind. Firstly, the whiteboard in the conference room where all the Initech employees meet with the Bobs in Office Space. It’s a gigantic flowchart titled “Planning to Plan.”

The second, and more aligned with my own perspective on this idea I’d never heard of, was the scene in Spaceballs, where they’re coming the desert. If I might quite Dark Helmet, here, “Preparing, preparing, preparing! You’re always preparing! Just go!”

How can a group so adamantly trying to position themselves as some kind of change agent be so afraid of actually changing anything. I like their principle of determining three causes and acting on them. With all the deserving causes in this area right now, it’s important to tune in to a select few and press hard for real results, but to come up with poor graduation rates at poor latino schools and then shift gears to a city motto or vision or other typically corporate bullshit is astounding.

While these poseurs are meeting with consultants and riding out the economy on their self-created economy of inaction, our elected “representatives” are taking aim at K-12 education as the first steps towards reducing the budget deficit. Now is not the time for patting ourselves on the back and sharing Power Point slides over Starbucks in fancy offices where nothing actually gets done.

It’s time to get angry. It’s time to get out there and actually DO something about it.

Just my .o2