Let Me Sum Up

The $100,000 question: Should DISD teachers make that much? Let's check thevideo

Keven Willey narrated the Dallas Morning News video of U.S. Education SecretaryArne Duncan's visit to Dallas.

Photo courtesy of Dallas Morning News
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan

Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Education

The Dallas Morning News is experimenting with more video storytelling on its site, and in general I think the effort is worthwhile. Yesterday and today provided a couple of examples of how it can be effective, as well as how it should alter the format to provide more engaging content that adds to instead of just repeats what you read on your screen.

The video posted with the editorial last night regarding U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s visit to Dallas was well worth watching. Not because of Keven Willey’s narration. (She did fine, but I do think an interview format, like the New York Times’ TimesSelect uses, would be much better.) It’s because in showing a clip of Duncan talking to the editorial board, it gave insight into a glaring weakness of the editorial.

The editorial does a good job of summarizing Duncan’s main points from the clip, in that he says DISD could lead the way in sending its best teachers to its worst-performing schools.

(Full disclosure: Last month, I was turned down in my application for a job on the editorial board. Take that for what you will. I took it that they’re terrified of awesome. Or they found a million people who are smarter and more insightful. That’s possible too.)

The editorial does a good job of summarizing Duncan’s main points from the clip, in that he says DISD could lead the way in sending its best teachers to its worst-performing schools, instead of to its highest achievers.

But the editorial glossed over that you need to dramatically alter the pay scale to better match the private sector to do so. Duncan says that it would drastically change the game in terms of attracting top talent if you told aspiring teachers they could make a $100,000 by the time they’re 30.

You know what else it would do? Get you slammed in a front-page story in the DMN! Complete with video!

The editorial tries to gloss over this by barely acknowledging the crucial point that, “Yes, the lure of high salaries can help, but …” No. No buts. That is step one. Yes, there are other factors, but they can’t be addressed until you hit step one. That’s the way the world works.

Look, I could easily quote dozens of DMN staffers who say they want the paper to do anything it can to survive in these troubled times for big city dailies, but as soon as I said that meant bringing in people who make twice as much as they do, they would shriek.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t necessary. It does mean maybe that's not an intellectually honest story. It's fishing with dynamite. That's not the paper's job; that's TV's job. The DMN is there to provide context, to show the big picture, not to be a vehicle for every caterwauling source.

But the editorial glossed over that you need to dramatically alter the pay scale to better match the private sector to do so.

The other video was less successful. It ran with business columnist Mitchell Schnurman’s contrarian piece on the Nasher vs. Museum Tower battle. The column takes on the media orthodoxy suggesting the Nasher is unquestionably right in its charges against Museum Tower. I have quibbles with it — I don’t know anyone who didn’t think MT was going to have trouble selling those spaces two years ago — but it’s a fresh perspective.

The video (which I couldn’t get to play again for me this morning … oh, dear) tries to inject TV production values like a hero shot of Schnurman standing by the tower as he dramatically reads the script.

C’mon, folks. Journos are word nerds and policy dorks, not TV people. Get someone else in the newsroom to interview these reporters, and bring out additional information and stuff that didn’t make it in the column so we can better evaluate its take.

Elsewhere

Great look by Michael Granberry at why the Dallas Museum of Art is now the (mostly) first free-admission big-city museum in the country.

This Dallas policewoman rapper story? Yawn. Don’t care. The racist comments will be fun, though.

Before I took this gig, I was talking with Robert Abtahi and others about being a consultant in the District 14 race to fill Angela Hunt’s seat. (I handled media for Hunt in her last race, which is sort of like handling ego inflation for Dale Hansen — you just show up and take credit for success.)

Now that I’m not going to do that, I can say here what I would have charged thousands of dollars to say, in various PowerPoints and memos: Praise everything Angela did. Own the “I loved her more” debate. Throw in how much you hate the Trinity River Project. Drop mic.

Retweets

Oh, Lord, let’s hope so.

Wayne Slater: Is a Perry-Bush race in the offing? shar.es/6rCee

— Bob Mong (@BobMong1) November 28, 2012

How to say “oh, bite me, HP” and not sound childish? Discuss.

About 95 homes in construction in Highland Park's 2.2 square miles. Residents sick of the mess, noise and parking. dallasnews.com/news/community…

— Christopher Wynn (@christopherwynn) November 28, 2012

unspecified

A+ for Plano

Surprising Dallas suburb makes new list of best college towns in U.S.

Southern Methodist University students at a football game

Southern Methodist University/Facebook

Dallas knows how to show out.

Dallas' spirited neighbor Plano has entered the spotlight as the No. 16 best midsize college town in the U.S., while Dallas ranks among the best largest college towns, a new study by WalletHub has proclaimed.

While Plano might not be thought of as a "college town," it is home to primary campuses of Collin College (Spring Creek Campus and the Courtyard Center); Collin College has an annual enrollment of over 60,000 students. To qualify for the study, a city must have a university or college population of at least 7,500 students.

To determine the best college towns, WalletHub analyzed 415 cities based on their "wallet-friendliness," social environment, and academic and economic opportunities for college graduates. Cities are ranked overall and are sorted into one of three population categories: large, midsize, and small cities.

Several North Texas cities were represented across the three rankings by population, but none ranked higher than Plano. This Dallas suburb ranked as the 54th best college town in the nation overall, and ranks as the third-best college town in Texas.

Out of the three key dimensions, Plano ranked highest for its academic and economic opportunities – landing 25th nationally. This category analyzed Plano's quality of higher education, the earning potential for college graduates, unemployment rates, job growth rates, the share of part-time jobs and median income of part-time workers, and more.

In the remaining two categories for its "social environment" and "wallet friendliness," Plano respectively ranked 223rd and 271st nationwide. The social environment ranking compared the number of students per capita, the share of single people, crime rates, and the number of cafés, breweries, festivals, and shopping centers per capita, among others; the wallet-friendliness category examined local housing costs, student loan debt per person, the adjusted cost of living for young people, and other financial factors.

"As student living expenses can reach over $39,000 per year, it’s important to find the most bang for your buck," the report's author wrote. "Therefore, it’s best to live in a city with a reasonable cost of living, along with good academic and work opportunities. The ideal city should also provide a fun social environment to help students deal with the stress of college."

Dallas ranked as the 35th best large college town in the U.S., and it ranked 108th overall regardless of city size.

This is how the rest of North Texas fared in the report:

Denton – No. 77 overall, No. 23 among midsize cities
Fort Worth – No. 100 overall, No. 31 among large cities
McKinney – No. 110 overall, No. 31 among midsize cities
Richardson – No. 139 overall, No. 57 among small cities
Irving – No. 141 overall, No. 39 among midsize cities
Carrollton – No. 150 overall, No. 42 among midsize cities
Arlington – No. 189 overall, No. 53 among large cities
Grand Prairie – No. 230 overall, No. 71 among midsize cities
Garland – No. 265 overall, No. 83 among midsize cities
Mesquite – No. 317 overall, No. 111 among midsize cities

Other top college towns in Texas
Austin once again topped the list as the No. 1 best college town in America, boosted by the city's wealth of local colleges and universities and the local economy. The Capital City has outshone obvious contenders like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, for five years in a row, and it also tops the large cities list.

According to the report's findings, Austin has the 15th best academic and economic opportunities for college students and graduates, and the 16th best social environment. WalletHub commends Austin for having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation and the "34th-best annual job growth rate," while also offering students ample ways to "de-stress after class."

"On top of that, Austin ranks 22nd in the nation for the quality of higher education among more than 400 cities in our study," the report said. "It also has the 112th-cheapest in-state tuition (including room and board), at $34,651 per year."

Four other cities in the Lone Star State appeared on the overall list of America's best college towns: College Station (No. 37), San Antonio (No. 72), Houston (No. 73), and Lubbock (No. 83).

In the rankings by city size, San Antonio ranked as the No. 2 best large college town in Texas and 23rd in the U.S., with Houston right behind as the third-best statewide and 24th nationwide.

San Marcos, a college town between Austin and San Antonio, ranked as the No. 2 best small college town in Texas, and 54th best among the small colleges nationally. In the overall list regardless of city size, San Marcos ranked 132nd nationally.

The top 10 best college towns in America for 2027 are:

No. 1 – Austin
No. 2 – Ann Arbor, Michigan
No. 3 – Charlottesville, Virginia
No. 4 – Raleigh, North Carolina
No. 5 – Atlanta
No. 6 – Tampa, Florida
No. 7 – San Diego
No. 8 – Scottsdale, Arizona
No. 9 – Orlando
No. 10 – Charleston, South Carolina

college towns reports wallethub dallas plano