In less that 5 minutes, you are going to discover that “thing,” that unthought of big idea that we, as a nation, have all been waiting for some person, some group, to come up with, that can provide our public schools with all the resources they need in order for us to be the world leader in education again, like we used to be.
Our national educational funding system is broke, and it’s broken. All the financially hemorrhaging K-12 schools nationwide, clearly shows this to be true. If we can't find a solution in the way of an additional resource to fund our K-12 schools, other than just solely with our meager tax dollars, things will remain the same. That's just a fact. Even when our nation’s high school graduates make it through HS and head off to college, these young people will then immediately create a decades-long, anxiety-ridden college tuition debt for themselves and their young families.
So what then, could even possibly be proposed, that we have simply been missing?
What could provide the massive, and I mean massive, funds that are needed in all K-12 schools, and on a daily basis?
And what could possible pay for all future college tuitions, as well as paying off a 1.7 trillion dollar national tuition debt?
That’s trillion folks, not billion.
Let’s get to the answer quickly, so that I don’t lose you.
First, remember this. The money to help create this new entity is there. Big dollars are already being donated every year by well-meaning educational philanthropist, who, just like you and I, are searching for an answer. Philanthropists will gladly help, IF, an answer ever comes along. Last year, individuals and corporations donated $68 billion to educational causes. So, there are those then, who are sincerely trying to help. But their money, even $68B annually, is not nearly enough to touch all the needs of every K-12 school, and pay for all past and future college tuitions.
Philanthropic gifting, is like bailing water out of a leaking boat. It helps, but it doesn’t fix the problem. What we need to do is fix the leak. MY, fixes the leak.
So, where then, are these even bigger dollars that are available that will, day-in and day-out, perpetually and dependably, fund all educational costs?
That money folks, believe it or not, is in our pockets.
Yep.
“My check is spent before it is even in my hand at the end of the week!,” you say. “You have no idea how much I spend just to feed and clothe my family, much less try to put some back for my children’s college tuition.”
Wait. Listen, you are exactly right. There is never enough, and there certainly aren’t any “extra” dollars left over at the end of the week for the vast majority of American families. That’s why are kids have to take out the 1.7 trillion worth of college tuition loans.
More taxes then??
Hell to the no, to the power of no.
There is no more “available” money to be had guys, and there ain’t gonna be any more.
It’s that simple.
So what do we do?
We get resourceful. We get creative, really, really creative. Our group, who you will learn more about later, has spent the last 16 years getting very creative here, and we have been damn good at finding solutions for 40 years professionally.
In our estimation, there is one, and only one possibility that exists. That fact alone should scare us all so much, that we would want to oh so carefully examine what that one possible answer could even be.
We respectfully welcome you to now find and challenge, The MY (Mine&Your) Plan.
Here we go.
We all spend the majority of our hard-earned dollars on our family’s basic needs. Combined, every year, we spend Trillions, with a “T,” for essential goods in Wal-Mart, CostCo, and grocery stores galore, all across our country.
All right then. Here is how we maximize that massive, yet wasted resource of our personal dollars, our paychecks, that we already are spending on our families.
So, imagine if Wal-Mart and CostCo had a baby, but prettier than them both. Imagine an aesthetically stunning, welcoming environment of a store, that you actually enjoyed being in and a part of. Picture these stores as a blend of a mega grocery store and a mega home goods store. Let’s say we call these MY (Mine&Your) stores. Now imagine MY stores coast-to-coast, in each community, just like WM, CC, and grocery stores are now.
Here’s the difference.
Each MY store would be owned by each community that each store is located in. After each purchase that you as a consumer make, all of the “profit” from that purchase, (that a store owner normally puts in their pocket) 100% of it, would go right back into your personal MY education account, so that you can then fund the education concerns of your choosing.
Where does the money go from there?
It’s your money. You choose. A % of those dollars could go right back into the school your child attends within your community in order to fund that school’s financial needs not met by current tax dollar funding. If your child is in private school, you could choose a % of each purchase to fund that tuition. A % could go into the savings portion of your MY account to later be used to pay the future college tuition of your child. Each My store, each parent or person, would then be generating and co-funding (along with our current tax dollars that funds schools) the much needed $$’s lacking for all past, present, and future educational needs.
Who pays for all the MY Stores?
There are several possibilities here. The question to ponder is how quickly do we want this to happen?
It could be that part of one store’s profit builds the next store, but that would take the longest. Ideally, MY Stores would be funded by those educational mega-philanthropists, or perhaps by a single educational philanthropist, and there are several who could afford this, who are currently donating billions to education individually already. Remember, educational philanthropists are already donating 68 BILLION per year to education trying to help. They are looking for a solution. If stores were newly constructed, they could fund construction of each MY store. If a nationwide existing chain-store were to be bought out, philanthropists could fund the revitalization of turning all these stores into MY (Mine&Your) stores. Many options to explore here.
Don’t you just love the name? MY. Mine&Your. It’s mine. It’s yours. WE own it. Very self-empowering.
That single philanthropic investment creates a perpetual, never ending money-maker for those schools, those families, in that community. No more bailing water.
MY Stores would soon become our ‘self-owned,’ ‘self-mega-funding’ behemoth.
Together, we would now own the lemonade stand.
Just imagine, a % going toward paying off your or your child’s past college tuition debts, no matter how old the debt. All that 1.7 trillion we owe as a country to our government could now be deferred from being taken from our income, and instead be paid back using a % of the profit made from your MY purchases. A % could go toward teacher’s salaries, a % toward basic classroom resources, quality in-school mental health professionals, quality nutrition at lunch time, then a healthy nutritious meal before leaving school for those that go back to food-challenged homes. How about a % toward top-notch school safety measures?
In MY stores, everyone would clearly see the profit dollars from their purchases immediately at the register on their receipt. That money is then put in each customer’s personal MY Education account. Those monies would then be paid out, but never to the individual, at specified times that they are due. i.e When their child starts college, the account would then pay that college with whatever amount of tuition dollars have been saved and put towards the child’s tuition for however long they have been shopping in a MY Store.
Check this out.
I married in 1988. My daughter was born 8 years later. She graduated high school in 2014, 26 years after my wedding. So, had My Stores existed when I married in 1988, my wife and I could have been shopping in MY Stores for 26 years by the time my daughter graduated HS. 26 years! That means, for 26 years, we could have been putting all those profit dollars toward our daughter’s college education fund. Given the amount of money that we spend annually as a family at grocery stores/WM/Costco, her college education would have long been paid before her HS graduation. Once she graduated from HS and headed for college, our MY account would then pay out her tuition directly to the college. Those dollars could also be used to pay rent in the case of off campus housing and her living expenses while in college. That is money normally paid out of a parents pocket; and very hard to afford.
What if, for those 26 years, I had also put a percentage toward my daughter college fund on all purchases, and then she decided not to go to college; or what if someone shopping in a MY store has grown or no children? First, those dollars could never be cashed in, but it is still your educational dollars to decide where you would like to see it invested. An individual could choose for those dollars to go toward many other educational needs. They could be put back into whichever local schools that are deemed to need them the most, put toward proven, successful community programs, used to pay off their own past personal student loan debt, help pay off other’s past student loans, teacher salaries, etc.
Envision this if you will. If MY ever becomes our new reality, even “the least of these” in our society, would be empowered as “self-philanthropists.” What people do not often realize about the poor, is that the poor are not just sitting there anxiously waiting for us to give them something. Life, luck and good fortune has not smiled upon everyone. But even the poor, with their very limited income, want to help themselves and their own children. They don't want you to provide for their children. How would that make you feel if you couldn’t do that? It takes away one’s self-pride. But they often do not have a choice. It's easy to see then, why it's poor communities that have the least amount of hope, and who encourage their children the least toward the value of learning.
MY is designed to change that. Think about this fact. We all have that one thing in common that we do, even those with little money. We all “spend.” We all use that one single resource that we all possess. We all use “money” to provide the essentials of life for our families. Some just have much less than others. No matter the income level though, in a MY scenario, we would all be improving our own personal lives and finances while simultaneously improving other children's futures by bringing all those “essential spending dollars” full-circle, back to all schools, thus all children.
MY empowers the parent. MY empowers the child. MY empowers the community.
But all three have to come together at the exact same time, or this permanent, perpetual change that is so needed, will never happen.
Is there any action that you can think of, that any of us could take, that would possibly be more self-empowering than the ‘self-philanthropy’ (and we love that word) of seeing our hard-earned $$’s circling back around to each person again, in order to properly fund the needs that have been lacking since forever in schools?
Me personally, I am a chemicals formulating engineer. I asked if I could volunteer to help facilitate The MY (Mine&Your) Plan after reading it. Quite simply, when I read it, I knew. I just knew…
"'That’s it! That missing resource that can pay for it all has been found!”
MY, checks all the boxes, and I humbly believed that I could talk it. MY is totally non-divisive, no agenda, non-political, and all inclusive of everyone. It is, in short, the most creative, kill 20 birds with 1 stone problem solving concept that I have ever been asked to examine. My name is R.M. Johnson.
The Good Idee Group does not seek, nor will it accept, any financial contributions.
Latinos, then Blacks, are the two cultures most likely to not graduate high school. These kids, at a much higher rate than others, are then often left to simply fall by the wayside financially and emotionally in life.
Educationally, that's where we are as a country, and there's no denying it. To a group like ours, this is simply just an inept and outdated funding design, yet is quite repairable.
A great post-grad education should not put children in a lifelong tuition debt at 17 years old; and a K-12 education should be of the same quality in North Charleston S.C., as it is in the #1 ranked public schools state of Massachusetts.
You and I both live in the same world. We have passed through, and then watched our children pass through, our financially emaciated educational system. We live in too rich of a country for schools to still exist like those of Principal Henry Darby in North Charleston, S.C. in the story down below that you are about to read. It's shameful.
I have owned a chemicals company for over 40 years, but here, I am just a dad. I come to you now as a facilitator for a group called The Good Idee Group, The GIG. MY is our gift to our kid’s futures from those who have much to be thankful for. All efforts here are pro-bono.
MY, paints the picture of a realistic plan that would perpetually, perpetually, generate the massive daily dollars needed to pay for everything from free nutritious school meals to free master’s degrees in the 99,200 public schools, the 29,700 private schools, the 6,000 colleges, and the over 1,000 and rapidly growing technical colleges across all of America, from coast-to-coast.
The true genius of the MY design though, is that while paying for all the costs of school resources and tuitions, MY would simultaneously free up significant family spending dollars in each and every household in our country.
You are seeing creative problem-solving at its finest. I realize that's quite a statement, but the group that brings you The MY Plan for consideration has formulated solutions for corporations globally for 40 years, and they are damn good at it. In fact, I’d say they don't miss. I would apologize for how that may come across, but this is not the time for self-abnegation. This is the time to come forward if you know you have the answer, lay it out there, and then welcome others to challenge it. Good luck with that, as our group has challenged the MY concept up one side and down the other internally for 16 years. Our consensus?
We know MY will work. And it would not just “work.” It is surely to be so well received and demanded by everyone that, though logistically challenging, MY would quickly become our new normal across our land.
All can see that a fair opportunity is not happening for those that need it most, and nothing on the horizon is changing that if there is no huge new resource of dollars for education to be found. An equal opportunity to learn in our country is, and always has been, very much about money, as is clearly realized once you read Henry Darby’s story.
Please don't misinterpret this presentation as written in unprofessional speech. We have just realized that you can’t get people to read jack these days. So, since this is not a business proposal presentation, why put forth a boring read? This is you and I thinking together. I am talking to you here in the style as if you and I were old friends trying to figure something out.
So here we go ol’ buddy…
It’s 2025, yet many public schools in our nation still do not have even the most basic of classroom resources.
Don’t believe me?
Have you heard the story of Mr. Henry Darby, the high school principal in North Charleston, S.C.?
Meet Henry.
Mr. Henry Darby
Henry is no Spring chicken, yet after school, he also works the graveyard shift at his local Walmart from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m. for a little extra money. So, with no sleep, Henry heads straight to his school when he gets off work. Henry then rations out his meager Walmart income to his students and to his community, where 90% of his students live under the poverty line. Henry also tries to spread his little Walmart profit around to his teachers as well so that they can buy the most basic of classroom resources that they and many other teachers across the nation are paying for out of their own pockets these days because, as said, our education system is hemorrhaging on all fronts financially.
Does someone with Henry’s heart and willingness make you question your own? It does me.
Does that mean Henry cares more than I do?
That’s the question that really bothers, me and why I am here.
Kindly speaking, Henry’s situation is beyond inept in our so-called 2025 AI, technologically advanced America, that we allow such a reality to still exists for Henry and for those he lives to serve. In fact, it’s downright bullshit. You and I, no matter our culture, should be highly offended and probably ashamed if we accept Henry kids and teachers fate as fact and do nothing to act when the solution, that is The MY Plan finally comes along. What MY offers would completely transform Henry’s kid’s present and future quality of life through educational opportunities that they will never have unless and until we make MY our new reality. But guess what? MY will provide for mine and your children as well, no matter the income, race, or culture. MY touches us all.
Find good, or create it. ~ The Good Idee Group
Many people falsely believe that kids like those at Henry’s school, because they are poor and minorities, receive a free college education. Guess what? They don't. So how many of Henry's kids then, who were born so destitute, can even fathom the concept of taking out a loan for a college education?
And as Henry asked, “How many of these kids do you think have someone in their family that can mentor them on the importance of a high school education, much less a college education?
And as Henry then answered….
“Very few, I tell you. It’s as foreign to them as filet mignon!”
Exactly Henry. Exactly.
The TODAY show came and did a feature on Henry. They shook Henry’s hand, gave him a $50,000 token check from WM, then all headed back to the city. You think that $50K solved Henry’s funding problems?
Things don’t have to be this way.
“If you want to do something for me, do something for my child.” ~ Frances Naomi Vaughn
A MY Store in Mr. Henry’s community, would overrun Henry’s school with the funds his kids and their communities so desperately need; as it would all schools across America. Everyone would support it. Look at it, study it, try to envision it, then see if you can understand and envision the demand that would sensibly just be a naturally created excitement in all communities, for their own MY (Mine&Your) store.
If The MY Plan has gained your interest thus far, please keep reading to find out everything we have discovered in the 16 years that we have been developing MY, while simultaneously trying to find if one legal, political, or educational guru could give us a good reason why the MY concept will not work; and then trying to perfect MY, once we knew that it would.
