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.)

 

 

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

"More Bang for Your Buck" should be required reading for Minnesota policy types

Peter Heegaard is a former executive for a financial firm, and he's well-known in Minnesota public policy circles as a leader with a strong social conscience, a great combination of heart and  passion for progressive change and hard-headed analytical sense on dollars and cents.  His new book, "More Bang for Your Buck,'' should be required reading for policy wonks in Minnesota who want to be on the cutting edge of what works in human services, and more important, how to tell.  Two subtitles on the cover summarize the contents: "Good News for Taxpayers, Public Officials, Philanthropists & Non-profit Managers,'' and "How Cost/Benefit Analysis Can More Effectively Promote the Public Good."

The book brings state-of-the-art thinking and many actual case-by-case calculations to the emerging efforts to show the return from public and nonprofit invesments in human capital, primarily education, workforce preparation and other human services.  Heegaard's book explains with lively detail how leading Minnesota nonprofit groups, such as Admission Possible and Twin Cities Rise, and others, many of which benefit from taxpayer support, have been able to document with cost-benefit analysis that their work with human capital is in fact returning an investment to the economy and to society.

I like this passage in the introduction: "Enough examples of high payoff civic investments now exist to make a very strong case that the art of giving or philanthropic investing, including government budget decision-making, can create new solutions to age-old problems, while at the same time improving the returns on our taxable income.''  The book is available at Nodin Press.

--Dane Smith 

Report card is in on the Tax Cut Decade: Not good for most of us

The U.S. Census Bureau's report on "Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010," is out and it's worth digging in to the spreadsheets showing year-by-year change over the last 25 years for each state.

More than 500,000 Minnesotans currently are without health care, even more (560,000) are living below the official poverty level (a ridiculously paltry $22,113 for a family of four) and median income in Minnesota ($52,554 in current dollars) has dropped to its lowest level since 1999.  As usual, our rankings relative to the rest of the nation are a little better, but this should be small comfort.

It's important to remember that 1999 gave us some of the largest state income tax cuts in Minnesota's history, sold then as the surefire medicine for long-term economic growth.  Many states followed suit with their own tax cuts, and two years later we were treated to some of the largest federal income tax and capital gains tax cuts in history, also billed as a tonic for long-term job and income growth.   Instead, the next decade was marked by a dot-com bust and a bad recession, a rather weak recovery for all but high-income families, another recession capped by a banking and housing collapse, the worst economic and private-sector failure since 1929, and severe budget shortfalls and ballooning debt at the state and federal level.

Of course, the last decade, increasingly known as the "Lost Decade'' for most Americans and Minnesotans, also was the decade of 9/11, an expensive and dubious "Global War on Terror," rapid technological progress and disruption, accelerating economic globalization, and manufacturing job loss to cheap-labor competitors.  All of these factors surely are related to economic dislocation and travail, and poor and middle-income folks usually can't cope as well with rapid change as the people who are on top, highly educated, and in position to take advantage of economic changes.

But let's not forget that it was anti-government conservatives who made the cause-and-effect case, and still do, that tax cuts are not only a good thing for the economy and general prosperity, but the best and main thing to do, period.  As Ricky Ricardo would say, they have some "splainin' to do.''

Some of the best analysis and interpretation of the Census numbers can be found at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, which offers an interesting take on the growth of "deep poverty,'' and the Minnesota Budget Project, which notes that only Michigan had a bigger drop in median income than Minnesota since 1999.

--Dane Smith 

Another Minnesota voice for post-secondary completion, and an even-handed critique of for-profit higher education

Back to School for Grown-Ups is a relatively new enterprise in Minnesota that shares our zeal for dramatically increasing post-secondary attainment, with special emphasis on grown-ups of all ages who need to re-think, re-educate and re-train in a fast-changing economic world.

The key principal in the firm is Laura Gilbert, who produces books, blogs, research papers, presentations and counseling, all providing sound advice to young and older adults who are trying to navigate the ever trickier and more expensive path to four-year "sheepskins" or other higher-ed credentials.  Her book, "How to Save $50,000 on College" is a pocket-sized guide that cuts through a lot of the confusing fog and expensive obstacles to higher-ed completion.

Gilbert is a life-long learner whose biography fits her philosophy.  She picked up her credentials in stages, starting with a triple major in music from Metropolitan State in the Twin Cities, a master's in industrial relations in mid-career, and a PhD in educational psychology much later in life.

Among her more important contributions recently are a thoughtful white paper, "For-Profit Education Under Scrutiny: Issues and Challenges," issued earlier this summer.  Gilbert succinctly summarizes some of the more appalling abuses of the "bad actors" in the fast-growing field, providing a lesson in how privatizing the classic public and nonprofit functions of education, health and welfare comes fraught with risks.  Her charts showing comparative cost and value for public, private nonprofit, and for-profit rather strongly make the case for the former two rather than the latter.  But Gilbert also acknowledges the strengths of responsible for-profit models, especially through online learning, and concludes that expensive and prone to abuse as they can be, for-profits are a legitimate route and have become a "mainstay" of our sytem.

Gilbert's work features a sharp cut-to-the-chase style and she has a good sense of humor, as her blogs on the Larry Crowne movie attest.  Like many higher-ed enthusiasts who loved the premise of a laid-off "UMart" retail worker going back to school for a degree, Laura and I were disappointed in the "nice" but rather boring and implausible movie.  How can you fall so flat, with such an uplifting concept, and Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts?  And I agree with Gilbert that it would have been a lot more fun to send Buzz and Woody (those souls of aging obsolescence, from the Toy Story trilogy) back to school.

--Dane Smith 

 

Total community, birth-to-career: Studying the Cincinnati/Strive Experience

For a lesson in how effective we all can be when business, nonprofits and public education work together, check out this ABC News success story on Cincinnati's Taft Information Technology High School and its effort to boost success and achievement for disadvantaged kids.

Over the next three days I'll be blogging on education issues directly from Cincinnati, where I'm joining a contingent from Grand Rapids and the Blandin Foundation to learn about some encouraging progress in Greater Cincinnati, including northern Kentucky and the rural Appalachian area. A key catalyst in this regional approach is the Strive Partnership, which is being studied also as a possible template for a broader community initiative in the Twin Cities.

Blandin is mounting what I'd describe as a "total community" effort at improving student success, focusing on the north-central rural area it serves in Itasca County, and enlisting business owners, school district officials and a wide swath of other public, private and nonprofit leadership. An important explicit principle in this Blandin initiative is "unprecedented community support."

If the philosophy behind the Strive and Blandin thinking had to be summed up in 10 words or less, I'd choose "total community and total pipeline, cradle-to-career." In other words, involvement and commitment by every significant player in the community, not just the schools and teachers, and simultaneous attention to all potential leaks in the pipeline, not just one or two magic patches or reforms to this or that segment of the education continuum.

At Growth & Justice, we've already done some preliminary work with a policy brief about Cincinnati School District success and we've summarized the gist of these lessons in a Capitol Report op-ed in April. For several years now our primary policy advocacy focus has been on driving Minnesota to much higher post-secondary attainment levels with a comprehensive Smart Investment in Minnesota's Students agenda, beginning in early childhood and continuing to career preparation and job readiness.

We Minnesotans, owing to our mostly deserved reputation as above-average in almost everything, can be complacent, and provincial, even smug. As my mother always said, "pride goeth before the fall" and we are falling behind on some important measurements of school success, especially for kids of color and in low-income households. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of Americans in other states and billions of people around the world are trying to do better by their children and their schools, and we most certainly can learn from them.

Stay tuned!!

--Dane Smith

 

Check out "Soul of the Community,'' to see how Minnesotans love their amenities and aesthetics and public stuff

It's sometimes hard to get top business executives to locate to Minnesota -- what with the cold weather and progressive income taxes -- but once they've lived here awhile, it's even harder to get them to leave.  I've heard some version of that story many times in business quarters, most recently at a BioBusiness event in Rochester.

Those of us who have lived elsewhere have theories about this.  And my own conviction is that our attractiveness and our affection for this place is built on a stronger sense of community, inclusiveness and economic fairness than exists in other places.  We simply have had better public stuff, better schools, better parks and trails, better infrastructure overall, more publicly supported arts and cultural amenities, which all adds up to a state and cities that are classier and cooler than other places, not just colder (but I like that bracing climate too).  And in the end, it makes for a better business climate too, owing to a more productive and creative workforce.  More clues as to how this is true can be found in the Knight Foundation's lastest study, The Soul of the Community, which measures 26 U.S. cities from this refreshingtly distinct perspective:  how attached citizens are to their place, and why.  News articles on the study were published in the Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the two papers offer interesting variations on the essential findings of the study.  Here's the bottom line of the report summary itself, as to why people become attached to their community:

While the economy is obviously the subject of much attention, the study has found that perceptions of the local economy do not have a very strong relationship to resident attachment.  Instead, attachment is most closely related to how accepting a community is of diversity, its wealth of social offerings, and its aesthetics.

And this excerpt from Chris Havens' STrib story adds a little texture to the analysis. 

St. Paul is a city that has welcomed poetry stamped into its sidewalks, a photography exhibit along bustling University Avenue and various music and ethnic festivals.  "It's a cool place to live," (Mayor Chris) Coleman said. "It's a unique place to live."  Sue Buchholz walked her Yorkie, Pandy, in downtown St. Paul's Rice Park on Monday. She moved into a downtown condo within the last year. "I knew this is where I wanted to be," she said. "There's always something to do."  She made a sweeping motion with her arm, pointing to the Central Library, Ordway Center for Performing Arts and Landmark Center.  A few blocks away runs the Mississippi River, which attracts joggers, bicyclists and others interested in the nature along the banks. There are more bike lanes and trails than ever before in the Twin Cities and suburbs.

We've known about this comparative advantage from our better public stuff  for some time.  We hope our new leaders in the governor's office and the Legislature do not lose sight of this bedrock economic asset when they begin to balance the budget shortfall next year.  (And by the way, the Knight report suggests that we are not that high in our regard for our leaders).

Dane Smith

 

 

 

 

Labor Day, economic justice, and progressive capitalists

For a second consecutive year on Labor Day Sunday, I had the privilege of delivering the sermon at my Unity Church in St. Paul (Unitarian Universalist).   I focused on the the great tradition of progressive capitalism in Minnesota,  embodied by people like William Drew Washburn, the founder of the forerunner of General Mills and the founder of the First Universalist Society of Minneapolis, and the subject of a new biography, "Prairie Ligthtning.''    Reviewing Washburn's enormous contributions and his serious shortcomings, I made this point: 

 There are a couple of key points in all this on Labor Day weekend, when we celebrate the vast majority of Americans and Minnesotans who labor for a living, and who mostly don’t OWN OR INVEST for a living, and with whose perspiration our  civilizations have been built.     The first point is a reminder, that some of our direct (Unitarian Universalist) intellectual and spiritual ancestors valued the “me’’ every bit as much or more than the “we.’’   They were intensely self-interested people, empire builders and capitalists, who also tried to balance that side with a conscience and recognition that public stuff, the things we do together for our common good with our  democratic governments, were every bit as valuable as the things we do for ourselves for own profit and enrichment.    Elites like the Washburns and Pillsburys and the Daytons passionately and personally invested in public interest,  and as the decades wore on Minnesota’s capitalists earned a reputation as among the world’s most generous and enlightened, unafraid of social experimentation and democracy, generally supportive of the idea of public-sector growth and  intelligent and humane distribution of an often unfair redistribution imposed by capitalism and the marketplace, on the sound theory that more sharing would be good for private-sector growth in the long run.

 Among the most eloquent and authentic Labor Day op-eds during  the last week was Janice Thurn's excellent commentary ("America Can't Rise Without Its Workers")in the Star Tribune Op-Ed section, and this very clear and compelling  answer to the question "What Does Organized Labor Want?", by AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Eliot Seide.

It will take a few days to process my latest Unity Church  sermon so that it's available online,  but here is a link to "She Works Hard for the Money (So You'd Better Treat her Right)", the Labor Day sermon I gave last year, focused in particular on the struggle for justice by women workers.

Solidarity Forever!

Dane Smith