Our country must make a direct investment in the very people who have the future of our society in their hands — K-12 public school teachers. Bo Roberts is a Nashville-based marketing consultant. He may be reached at bo@roberts strategies.com. Thanks to recent Belmont University graduate Emily Vo for her research on this project.Dear madam first lady: I am writing

By Bo Roberts As the sand runs out on the Bill Haslam gubernatorial time clock, there were two major accomplishments during his eight years that few recognize, but which will change the culture of state government and higher education. Gov. Haslam’s major achievements, particularly in education, have rightly been praised in these pages and nationally, as well. A prime example

To most of us, $19 million is a whole lot of money; it’s certainly much more than the oft-referenced cost of a cup of coffee. But, that’s the specific amount sliced from Tennessee’s allocation to public higher education institutions for the fiscal year beginning on July 1. While the governor was forced to reduce his entire budget after a lackluster

Google now uses page load times as a key metric in site result placement. Make your site load faster and you’ll be ranked higher, guaranteed. – Andy Roberts, Managing Partner, Roberts Strategies Andy Roberts, managing partner, recently spoke to the Topanga, CA Technology Group on improving web performance. He showed how a few changes in configuration on the right platform

Where does public higher education stand in the pecking order of priorities in the Volunteer State? Not very high, I’m afraid. In the past decade we have seen major shifts, some good and some bad, in efforts to provide a quality post-secondary education for Tennessee’s students. I had the privilege of being involved in one of the good things in

When does enough finally become too much? Tennessee may be reaching that point in one significantly critical area as the state budget belt tightens in response to an economic downturn.  That area: Higher education. As one who has been privileged to work in higher education (University of Tennessee) and to consult with the nation’s sixth largest system of higher education

A couple of years ago, Rip Van Winkle awakened after 100 years of sleep to see what the world had become. As he rubbed his eyes, so the story goes, Van Winkle was amazed by the wondrous changes that had occurred during his century of somnolence.  Automobiles, airplanes, space ships, telephones, radio, television and the internet left him gasping with

It’s easy to get “furiouser and furiouser” watching educated people kicking, not just looking, a gift horse in the mouth. I don’t know who volunteered to anonymously donate $400,000 for incentives to help in producing better results in some of Metro’s most troubled schools, I know that they must be a generous and dedicated citizen.  However the “who” is not