Headline July 11, 2015/ ''' WITH EDUCATION AND KIDS RIGHT AT THE TOP '''

''' WITH EDUCATION AND 

KIDS RIGHT AT THE TOP '''

COMMON SENSE MEDIA  -earned $6.4 million last year through the licensing fee it charges companies-  including:

Amplify, AT&T Comcast, Cox, Discovery Education, Google and Time Warner Cable  -that distributes its reviews and ratings. It has also received support from a number of foundations set up by technology executives and telecom firms.

''We exist for one purpose: to promote the best interest of kids,'' Mr.Steyer said. ''If you help us do that, we will enhance your brand for the good work you do for kids and families. If you do bad things, we will probably criticize you and regulate you.'' 

JAMES P. STEYER  -through a combination of sophisticated strategy and high-powered networking, and his children's advocacy group:  Common Sense Media, have very quietly become a political dynamo.

Mr. Steyer traces his interest in the children's education and his gregariousness, to his mother who was a school teacher in Harlem and and the South Bronx. 

After he graduated early from Phillips Exeter Academy, he volunteered as an assistant teacher at a high school for the disadvantaged students in Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of Manhattan.

Mr. Steyer later became a civil rights lawyer, but he never stopped teaching. For the last 26 years, he has taught popular courses at Stanford University on civil rights, civil liberties and education.

His students have included Cory Booker, now a senator from New Jersey, and Chelsea Clinton. The nonprofit group, largely known for its reviews and ratings of children's videos, now plays a role in influencing billions of dollars in government spending on education-related technologies, like-

Classroom broadband access, as well as teachers' choices of learning apps. One recent Monday, the group introduced an even more ambitious national advocacy effort, called Common Sense Kids Action, to push for certain state and federal efforts to bolster education for children.

After years of providing free children's entertainment ratings, Common Sense Media now hopes to galvanize its user base, asking consumers to get behind issues like technical career training for students and technology training for teachers.

''We want to create a constituency for children, an AARP for kids,'' Mr. Steyer said, referring to the popular membership group for retirees. ''We are going to activate an army.''

Already, Mr. Steyer has teamed up with some of the biggest players in technology and education. With financing from the MacArthur Foundation, for instance, his group developed a digital citizenship curriculum, that, Mr. Steyer  says has been adopted by 90,000 schools.

With financing from Bill Gates, it developed a review site for digital education tools that effectively function as a  Yelp  for teachers. The group also recently spearheaded the passage of two data protection laws in California that how online companies can use information they collect from children and students.

''He has leveraged his power of persuasion, his connections and his personal passion to get  Common Sense Media to a pretty important place of not only being a ratings platform, but an advocate for the appropriate use of technology in the classroom,'' said Gary E. Knell, a Common Sense board member who is the chief executive of the National Geographic Society.

In 2012, the  F.C.C and the Department of Education tapped Mr. Steyer and James Coulter, a founding partner of TPG Capital, a private investment firm, along with two other experts, to develop a national plan to improve education through technology.

Called the Leading Education by Advancing Digital Commission, the privately financed group eventually recommended wiring all public schools with high-speed broadband; deploying more digital devices in schools, and promoting digital curriculums.

With respectful dedication to all the Leaders of the free world. See Ya all Your Excellencies on !WOW!   -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Education Stokes Competition '''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless