I understand the state has a constitutional obligation to fund education and we should continue to hold them accountable. But in the mean time our kids needs a high quality educational experience and our community deserves a generation of critical thinkers to keep us looking up and moving forward.
In 2008 I played a roll in getting the PHC solar project up and running. The innovation wasn’t the 870 KW of clean energy it produced but the unique pass-through finance model that allows nonprofits to utilize partnerships in financing clean energy. A solution I have tried to apply to our local schools as a way to pay teacher bonuses instead of closing schools.
In 2022 I had the honor of coaching a group of middle students from Midnight Sun middle School and together we developed a viable solution to turn their waste plastic into filament for 3D printers, that could produce an annual revenue for over $125k a year while advancing Science Technology Engineering and Math futures. We took the idea into second place with the Arctic Innovation Competition Cub Division
It was this experience that has led me to become an advocate for seeing the nearly 30 year old National Solar Tour to join forces with DiscoverE and the Future City competition to evolve into the Tour of Future Cities and encompass innovation into the planning of future cities on this planet and beyond.
This is a way not only to provide a stellar experience to the students but designating each school as a STEAM campus would create additional incentives and opportunities for competition, sponsorships, and innovations that lower the cost and improve the experience for all. Carefully crafted this could be engineered to provide a stable stream of funding for each school and the district as a whole.
It was this type of hope that inspired me to tackle the challenge of the Polaris.
