Growth & Justice Blog

Top priority for transitway development should be employers and jobs

You are a policy-maker and you have a tough choice between  two major development proposals for the same site on a major light-rail line or transitway.   All things being equal, which do you choose:  a major employer or a large housing complex?

If overall accessibility improvement and employer access to labor is the goal, take the employer, says new research presented this week at the 23rd Annual Transportation Research Conference in St. Paul this week.   

The research by University of Minnesota Humphrey School Assistant Professor Yingling Fan was complex and aimed at planning professionals.   But the bottom-line key finding was straightforward:  "Locating new jobs near transitways produces larger increases in accessibility than locating new housing near transitways.''   Getting these fundamentals right are important because by 2030 we likely will have an integrated network of 14 transitways up and running in the Twin Cities, ranging from light-rail to commuter rail to express bus lines.   Few public investments are more important for business growth than transporation infractructure.   Equally important is better access for a workforce that is increasingly comprised of low- and middle-income communities of color, and who need much better connectivity to jobs in the new economy. 

Fan's research was sponsored by the McKnight Foundation, the Jay & Rose Phillips Foundation and the Surdna Foundation.   Abstracts from the conference provide rich state-of-the-art thinking on a wide array of transportation investment issues.

 

Dane Smith

 

St. Paul resident and son inspecting Central Corridor construction in downtown St. Paul (Metropolitan Council photo)

All of our kids will be in the minority, and very soon

Plain facts: By 2015, in just three years, white youth in the United States will  no longer comprise a majority, and then all of our kids will  be members of a minority group. The Star Tribune and other Minnesota media was abuzz last week confirming this transition.   In 2011, for the first time in our nation's history, more than 50 percent of our newborns were non-white or Hispanic and in Minnesota more than 30 percent of our kids under 5 are kids of color.

This will be good, for Minnesota must become a world community to compete in an age of globalization.  But the more important corresponding reality is that our white population and our education systems must adapt faster to changing demographic realities for this state and nation to thrive.   That was the key message delivered by Georgetown University Law Professor Sheryll Cashin  during a recent forum in Minneapolis.

Sheryll Cashin, Georgetown University Law Professor

“The Latino population grew at a rate 40 times that of the white population during the last decade, and these are people born here; not immigrants. Growth in the Asian population is high as well,” Cashin said during the 15^th Annual Julian Parker Lecture held earlier this month at the Minneapolis campus of the University of St. Thomas.

 Cashin, who writes extensively about issues of race and inequality, said that social psychology holds that most people harbor biases, and people who are the most isolated tend to believe the worst stereotypes.  This can be dangerous because separation perpetuates stereotypes of people perceived as “the other.''  

“It is no secret that American public schools are rapidly resegregating,” Cashin said. “Blacks and Latinos have become more segregated than ever in the last 30 years.”  Economic segregation is rising as well, she noted, noting that in 1970, 65 percent of the people in this country were middle class while today, 44 percent are middle class.

The better news is that some areas of the nation have been able to counter this segregation and the widening gap in various measures of  school success rates, to the benefit of all, Cashin said.  She cited Montgomery County, Maryland, where longtime zoning laws required 10- to 15-percent affordable units in wealthier communities.  Now, Montgomery County has emerged as a leader in closing the achievement gap between low income and affluent children, she said.   (See Growth & Justice policy brief on Montgomery County.)

Referring to different perceptions about race and inequality, Cashin said whites frequently view racism through its more blatant and outrageous history, in the context of laws and policies of the previous century that more brutally and intentionally held certain groups back.  So, whites are more likely to see progress around the issue. People of color, however, seek a future of true equality, which they see as quite distant, Cashin said.  

Although whites and people of color typically disagree about the subject of race and addressing disparities, Cashin urged unity and called for establishing multicultural coalitions that “narrow rather than widen gaps” between people.

 Louis Porter II

(Note from Growth and Justice President Dane Smith:  Louis  Porter II is a new Policy Fellow for Growth & Justice.   He's a communications teacher at the University of Minnesota, a former journalist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and he holds a doctorate in education.)

 

 

Recommended Reading: Ember Reichgott Junge on charter schools, and John Watson Milton on Senate Majority Leader Nick Coleman Sr.

For lovers of Minnesota, for history buffs and for students and practitioners of public policy, I highly recommend two outstanding books released this week.

One is "Zero Chance of Passage: The Pioneering Charter School Story,'' by former state Sen. Ember Reichgott Junge, a key state leader in education, human services, and governmental redesign and a primary champion of the school-choice and charter school movement of the 1980s and 1990s.  Reichgott Junge skillfully weaves the story of emerging education innovation in Minnesota, from the influence of union leader Albert Shanker, through Gov. Rudy Perpich's bold effort to push through public-school choice, to her own championing of the fights for post-secondary options and finally, Minnesota's emergence as the leading model state in the charter school movement.   Controversy still surrounds charter schools, but they are here to stay, and I'm personally glad that this option was available when my own daughter sought an alternative to her big public high school a few years ago.  (If you buy the book online between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.on May 9, Ember tells me, there's a chance amazon.com will help with promotion.) 

The other is "For the Good of the Order: Nick Coleman and the High Tide of Liberal Politics in Minnesota, 1971-81,''  by former state Sen.  John Watson Milton, and who served with Majority Leader Coleman in a heyday of progressive reform.   This golden decade, in which Coleman arguably had more influence than any other leader, stretched from the Minnesota Miracle and greater state responsibility for education funding and quality,  to putting teeth in civil rights legislation and expanding the rights of women and minorities and gays and lesbians, to campaign finance reform, to environmental cleanups, to progressive tax overhauls.   As former vice-president Walter F. Mondale writes in the foreword:   "In many ways, (Coleman) and Roger Moe, his successor as Senate majority leader, were more important than many governors we've had _ lasting longer, creating a revolution, and elevating the legislative branch to an equal footing with the executive...Nick Coleman was one of the brightest and most effective people in public office I've ever known.''

Both books will serve as reference works for years to come.   And they are a reminder of what's possible in our political process, and an inspiration for future stewards of our state government.

 

Dane Smith

 

Top 10 Facts About our LOW Taxes

The week when federal taxes are due predictably generates fist-shaking by the various forces for individualism and small government and, increasingly, counter-demonstrations by the "99 percent" who favor a stronger public sector and fairer economic outcomes.

But the basic fact that taxes actually are lower in the United States and in Minnesota--lower overall than in other wealthy nations and lower for the wealthy in our country than at any time in recent decades--is often missed by news media coverage of the sign-waving by both sides.

The most crisp presentation of these realities I've seen recently comes from the national group Demos, along with The American Prospect, which produced the following "Top 10 Tax Facts." Growth & Justice was a partner last year with Demos in a report on the declining security of Minnesota's middle class.

1. The government has collected less in taxes as a proportion of the economy in the past three years than it has in any three-year period since World War II, and tax rates are at historic lows.

2. One out of three multi-millionaires pays a lower percentage of their income in taxes than the vast majority of people making $60,000 a year.

3. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s tax-cut proposal, which has been praised by presidential candidate Mitt Romney, would deliver benefits to people with incomes over $1 million that are 10 times greater than the benefits to those earning $40,000 or less.

4. Corporate income taxes for the past three years have hovered at just over 1 percent of GDP, lower than for any three-year period since World War II. The average for OECD countries is 3.5 percent.

5. The Bush tax cuts added $1.7 trillion to the nation’s debt between 2001 and 2008, which is more than it would cost to send 25 million kids to four-year public universities.

6. America has a revenue problem, not a spending problem. It is only because of the Bush tax cuts that our national debt is rising. If not for those cuts, our debt would be stabilized at under 60 percent of GDP.  

7. General Electric, which reported over $4 billion in US profits in 2010, paid ZERO taxes. 

8. A financial speculation tax of only 0.50 percent on financial trades could raise up to $170 billion annually.

9. Upper income households save an average of $5,500 thanks to the mortgage interest tax deduction whereas families earning between $40,000 and $75,000 save only $500.

10. Only two OECD nations collect less revenue as a percentage of GDP than the United States—Chile and Mexico.

For my money, that last fact is the most compelling. Do we want our nation and state to be more like Canada, or more like Mexico? Immigration patterns in both hemispheres suggest that people are voting with their feet for the safer and more prosperous destinations with higher taxes, more equitable communities, higher education levels, and better jobs.

And finally, making a strong case for more revenue and pubic investment, from a retired Minnesota businessmans's perspective, check out Myles Spicer's latest op-ed, calling for reasonable higher taxes to pay our debts and invest further in our community. 

 

Dane Smith

 

 

 

Rothschild book offers business sense for all social justice enterprises

There are limitations to the truism that "government ought to run more like a business," or that everything ought to be run like a business, but there's a new book out with a lot of wisdom and practical tips on how every enterprise focused on social justice can learn from business principles. The book is "The Non Nonprofit" and the author is Steve Rothschild, a prominent Twin Citian who was a successful vice president at General Mills and the even more celebrated founder of Twin Cities RISE!, a program that's shown real results in reducing poverty. Steve's a clear and convincing writer and the book is full of real world examples that will resonate with Minnesotans. He offers seven principles on which nonprofits and those of us interested in expanding prosperity should focus, focus, focus:

1. Have a Clear and Appropriate Purpose, 2. Measure What Counts, 3. Be Market Driven, 4. Create Mutual Accountability, 5. Support Personal Empowerment, 6. Create Economic Value from Social Benefit, and 7. Be Learning Driven. And there's a great section at the back of the book with advice on what policymakers and government officials can do to instill these principles. Social justice has its own righteous purpose but linkage to business growth and business principles makes it all the more compelling.

Dane Smith   

Jason Lewis' gaping omission in attack on nonprofits

Jason Lewis’ latest attack in his Star Tribune column on Minnesota’s nonprofit community--opening with disdain for the very concept of “shared responsibility"--is wrong in tone and content, and far removed from Minnesota sense and sensibility.

The smart-alecky dismissal of nonpartisan groups ranging from public radio to anti-smoking campaigns was mostly just unfair and cynical and predictable. But the biggest shortcoming was a glaring omission. Lewis did not say a word about the billions of tax-deductible dollars contributed nationally to fundamentalist churches, right-wing causes and conservative think tanks, including, in Minnesota, the Center of the American Experiment. All of those groups must adhere to the rules that forbid political endorsements while allowing religious expression, nonpartisan citizen engagement and communication around public policy.

It would have been fair enough for Lewis to propose reducing tax breaks for contributions to nonprofits, which actually would have the effect of raising federal and state taxes on the affluent. Some progressive tax reformers propose just that. But Lewis didn’t travel very far down that road at all. His obvious aim was to stir up anger on the far right against only those nonprofit, nonpartisan causes and foundations that don't line up with his extremely individualistic world view.

Finally, we at Growth & Justice were pleased to be associated with the other constructive Minnesota organizations listed in Lewis’ “rogues’ gallery." It was instructive to see that Lewis’ idea of roguish causes actually includes “reproductive rights, saving the planet, and world peace." (Horrors!!) But he got it half-wrong in dismissing us as “a merry band of collectivists." Growth & Justice is no more “collectivist" than the moderate Republican former office-holders, business managers and former CEOs who have supported us from our founding. We seek ways to broaden prosperity and business growth, with evidence-tested and cost-effective policies and interventions. And we have been allies with business leadership in this state on a host of policy fronts, including early childhood education, increasing transportation investment and gas tax revenue, and reducing some business taxes. But we are also almost entirely positive in our tone and content and therefore, I suppose, “merry."

Dane Smith

 

Lessons from Blackwell and Finland: Equity is the superior growth model

Angela Glover Blackwell is one of the nation's leading voices on poverty and inequality, and her national think tank, PolicyLink, provides a wealth of data and best practices for moving people out of poverty, and improving lives for middle- and lower-income households, and communities of color.

Blackwell was in Minnesota recently, promoting PolicyLink's America's Tomorrow report on equity, and she was featured on MPR talking about poverty in America. She made the points, among others, that the vast majority of Americans have no idea how hard it is to get out of poverty, and that more equitable nations are outperforming us economically.

The MPR segment included an inspiring call-in from a Lakeville woman who described how the more generous safety net benefits of the 1970s saved her family and helped her to go to college, and she decried the shredding of those benefits and their reduced purchasing power in recent years.

Blackwell's equity-driven economic model is not just a pipe dream, or a sentimental wish list. It exists as a real life example in places like Finland, which has one of the world's stronger economies, high incomes and standard of living, an innovative workforce, and leading socio-economic indicators.

In the 70's, Finland wasn't so much beset by poverty as it was concerned about how to redesign its education system to move into the knowledge-based economy. Finland chose equity as its educational policy goal, not competition.

Finland's results on the PISA, an international reading, math and science survey conducted by the OECD, rank among the very best in the world. And this is from a system that promoted cooperation among schools, high teacher pay, and equality over high-stakes test scores, competition and "choice." A fascinating recent article in The Atlantic magazine explains Finland's success and concludes that "the problem facing education in America isn't the ethnic diversity of the population but the economic inequality of society, and this is precisely the problem that Finnish education reform addressed."

While comparisons between Finland and the United States as a whole may be like comparing lingonberries to fruit salad, a comparison of Finland to Minnesota is particularly useful to our policy conversations. Finland's population is 5.4 million; Minnesota's is 5.3 million. Finland is becoming more diverse than most people realize and its foreign-born population is 4.6% of the country. Minnesota's foreign-born population is 6.7% of the state.

FInland created an equitable system based on the idea that every child, in any city, from any family and any income should have the same educational experience, from birth on. Minnesota can match the rhetoric on equal opportunity. And we actually stood out as a model of equity among the states until a couple decades ago. But we can't match the results lately and disparities by race and income on educational attainment and achievement are among the worst in the nation.

The lesson from Finland and from leaders like Blackwell on the payoff from elevating equity in order to achieve growth is becoming part of a larger conversation. And PolicyLink's mantra, that equity is the superior growth model, is catching on as a defining principle for economic and education policy.

Maureen Ramirez
 

P.S. I'm the new policy and research director at Growth & Justice and I'm thrilled to be working for an organization that is focused so clearly on advancing equity (also known as economic justice) as the superior growth model. I bring to this job my experience as a current member of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents; as a former executive director of the CaptiolRiver Council in St. Paul (a downtown council that advises the city on planning issues); as a former director of the Minnesota Civic Engagement Table; and as a former coordinator of the Minnesota Participation Project at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.

 

Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive Speech on Lincoln's Birthday

On Abraham Lincoln's birthday (Feb. 12, 1809) in 1913, beloved former President Teddy Roosevelt delivered one of the great speeches in American history, a ringing declaration for a more expansive democracy and government, one that helped its own people succeed and did much more than protect the property of its wealthiest citizens.

As the party that once was Roosevelt's searches for its soul – and increasingly is wrenched toward de-legitimizing government and democracy itself – this is a time to reflect on the equality and humanism advanced by those two great Republican presidents on Mt. Rushmore. (Voters in Minnesota, distinctively progressive from statehood on, voted overwhelmingly for Abe and Tedddy, and Minnesota was one of only six states Roosevelt carried under his new banner in the 1912 election.)

At this point in history, Roosevelt was no longer president and had broken with conservatives in his own party who were opposed to his many progressive reforms, ranging from the progressive income tax to worker protections to food-and-safety regulation. In this speech at the Hotel Astor in New York City, Roosevelt reminded his audience that Lincoln was not a conservative but a radical equalizer who fought a war for human rights over property rights, and who once said that "labor is the superior of capital" and that "we are for the man before the dollar." 

In his opening words, Roosevelt explained that the new Progressive Party was "a manifestation of the eternal forces of human growth, a manifestation of the God-given impulse implanted in mankind to make a better race and a better earth." And then he uttered these words, which I highly recommend for moderates and progressives today who search for inspiration in the fight against those who seek to return our nation to 19th Century rugged individualism.

We recognize that property has its rights; but they are only incident to, they come second to, the rights of humanity. We hold that the resources of the earth were placed here for the use of man in the mass, that they are to be developed for the common welfare of all, that they are not to be seized by a few for the purpose of oppression of the many, or even with disregard for the rights of the many. Yet we earnestly believe and insist that our policy, so far from being detrimental to property or to business, will be for the good of property and business, because our policy is to put both property and business in their proper relations with humanity.

At the close of the speech, Roosevelt called on Americans to "make this nation a real democracy; an economic as well as political democracy free from every taint of either sectional or sectarian hatred… a democracy of true brotherhood... a democracy which stands for each individual's performance of his own duty toward others even more than for his insistence upon his rights as against others.''

The two Roosevelt presidents, Republican Theodore and his even more influential Democratic fifth cousin, Franklin D., helped transform the United States over the last century in to a fairer and more civilized nation, and one that grew ever more powerful and rich as a result of that fairness and greater equality of opportunity and result.

Lincoln and the Roosevelts believed what most Americans actually still believe, that their own governments have a proper and fundamental role in improving their lives and providing fairness and greater equality of opportunity, and that this is good for business and profits in the long run. Or in the words of many of today's leading economists, equity is the superior growth model.

Dane Smith

 

Channel that "99 percenter" energy by linking to the SKILLS@WORK movement

Protesting the increasingly unfair advantage of the top 1 percent underlies much of the new energy around politics and policy these days.  And that can be healthy, because the economic decline of the middle class and the working class is a major challenge of our times.

But it's important to stay active and informed on a more constructive front as mainstream Minnesotans try to channel that anger and enthusiasm in 2012.

And one of the best new positive things going in Minnesota, coinciding with the Governor's Job Summit this fall, is a campaign called SKILLS@WORK, a joint project led by the United Way of the Greater Twin Cities, and the Governor's Workforce Development Council.

Key facts from the SKILLS@WORK website that many have already heard, but must be kept top-of-mind:

• In 2018, 70 percent of Minnesota jobs will require education beyond high school, yet only 40 percent of working-age adults in Minnesota hold a postsecondary degree.  (We at Growth & Justice have been urging state leaders to start by setting a goal of 75 percent post-secondary attainment by 2020.  See our op-ed urging an attainment crusade earlier this month.)
• Nearly two million working-age Minnesotans lack a credential beyond a high school diploma. 
• Educational attainment levels are expected to decline in coming years – an unprecedented trend.

The alarming facts surrounding an educational equity gap for kids of color, which is grossly unfair to our fastest growing demographic groups, is a major factor for that last bullet.  One of the better comprehensive formulas for improving that picture is contained in the document "All Hands on Deck," which was produced by the Governor's Workforce Development Council under the previous administration and has strong input from the corporate and business world.  The GWDC is one of the most farsighted state agencies you've maybe never heard of.  Plug in to it.

--Dane Smith

 

Minneapolis Promise makes progress in getting kids on early college track

Research shows that getting kids and their parents in a post-secondary mindset as early as possible -- creating not just hope but an expectation for college attainment -- makes a big difference in whether they get credentials.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and his top economic development official, Mike Christenson, without a lot of fanfare, have been working this angle for years.  Every year in the fall Mayor Rybak addresses every 9th grader in the city with a message and specific programmatic inducements that encourage them to compete for summer jobs and scholarships for college, or that put them on the post-secondary track.

Christenson, director of the Minneapolis Department of Community Planning & Economic Development, and a Growth & Justice Policy Fellow, summarizes the success of those efforts in a recent MinnPost Community Voice column, key parts of which we reprint here: 

 

 

"Let's begin with the story of Alex Glaze. Alex and his twin sister grew up in poverty and were removed from their mother's home early in life. Alex quickly learned that if he needed a ride to school or school supplies, he was on his own. He began working in junior high to take care of household needs. At 18, Alex and his sister were told to leave their father's home for good.

After graduating from Southwest High School, Alex worked in the Minneapolis mayor's office as a STEP-UP intern. This summer, he joined nearly 2,000 other STEP-UP interns and dozens of employers to celebrate their summer accomplishments. For many interns, it was their first work experience. Like so many of us, they described their summer jobs as their first big break...

....The summer job is one of three parts of the Minneapolis Promise offered through Achieve Minneapolis. Mayor Rybak visits assemblies of ninth-graders in each Minneapolis public high school every fall. There, he lays out a compelling alternative to street life. Every Minneapolis youth may compete for one of 2,000 summer jobs, must complete a college and career map called "My Life Plan," and can apply for thousands of scholarships through Minneapolis Community & Technical College, Augsburg College, the University of Minnesota, Admission Possible, the Children's Defense Fund, the McGuire and Wallin and Page Foundations and many more programs.

State and city leaders from all sectors worry about the overwhelming challenges of the achievement gap in Minnesota. Populations of color trail others in measures of educational success at a nation-leading rate. We're a proud state, and national leader in so many categories, but this is a leadership position we need to vacate. After eight years, the Minneapolis Promise offers hope. A combination of summer jobs, career and college plans, and scholarships adds up to more than the sum of its parts...[and]...if the Minneapolis Promise continues to grow, the achievement gap will shrink. Here are the facts:

•    Over 82 percent of the STEP-UP and city summer interns are persons of color.
•    More than 900 students have attended MCTC under the Power of You program, and the number of Minneapolis high-school graduates has more than doubled at MCTC in five years.
•    The University of Minnesota has admitted 166 STEP-UP interns since 2006. 
•    ACT testing and college participation rates from the Minneapolis high schools continue to grow.

...Minnesota's future work-force challenge will be to inspire populations not likely to attend college to hear this promise. In Minneapolis, we have found that summer jobs join with college supports to boost college participation. Let's hope that miracle can go to work, first through a summer job, for all Minnesota youth like Alex. And let's hope that the business community, which has kept this promise in Minneapolis, will inspire others as well. One last thing: Alex Glaze is in the freshman class at Stanford this fall." (Bold italics added).

The punchline, about an impoverished Minneapolis child, benefiting from broad community support, smart taxpayer investments combined with private-sector partnerships, entering prestigious Stanford University, tells it all.

--Dane Smith