Growth & Justice Blog

A week for reflection and commitment to justice and broader prosperity (and yes, taxes and public investments help do that)

We have this week a confluence of events that ought to lift our hopes and sharpen our resolve to reduce racial and economic inequality in our state and nation,  and to build a more inclusive prosperity.

The hope comes from the momentous coincidence today of Martin Luther King's official birthday observance and a re-inauguration, after a convincing re-election,  of the first African-American president of the United States.    Michelle Obama, a descendant of slaves, is the First Lady of a White House that once was occupied by white slave-holders, and actually built by slaves.   This is a remarkable country, capable of extraordinary self-correction, powerful and wealthy because it is governed by its own people, and stronger yet when ALL its people are empowered.  We can  expect President Obama will build on the theme in his inauguration speech that we all do better when we ALL do better.    While the Obamas have succeeded spectacularly, far too many people of color are still left behind, and economic disparities continue to grow between top incomes and families of all races in the middle-income brackets.

In Minnesota, attention swivels on Tuesday to the release of both a two-year state budget proposal and a major tax system overhual from Gov. Mark Dayton.    Minnesota's prosperity rests on an innovative business leadership, to be sure, but also on a  foundation of public investment, in the form of high-quality public education,  physical public works infrastructure, public health and natural resource protection.   We need to invest more and more effectively in those things, including early childhood education and post-secondary training,  and Gov. Dayton can be expected to emphasize that this broader prosperity and better government is the end we seek, while taxes merely are one of the  means.   Minnesotans understand these fundamentals and have long been distinguished by a commitment to public good, as well as private gain.   Let's try to keep this in our heads as we all get ready to argue over the details.

Dane Smith

 

 

An innovative "two-fer" in health care and higher-ed: Community paramedic program at Inver Hills

The St. Paul Pioneer Press last week highlighted on both its news and editorial pages a splendid innovation in postsecondary training and health care, now being offered by Inver Hills Community College. The new wrinkle is training and certification of "community paramedics," who will provide at-home care for less severe medical needs, filling a gap between regularly scheduled in-home nursing and those expensive trips to emergency rooms by conventional paramedics and emergency responders. Community paramedics would serve only those who don't qualify for home health care and the service could be adapted to regional and local needs. "In rural Minnesota, [community paramedics] may provide vaccinations when the demand for ambulance service is slow. In cities like St. Paul, they could check on patients who recently had surgery or provide routine health screenings in low-income communities," the Pioneer Press reported. An editorial endorsement of this creative response described it as "a homegrown example of the search for productivity gains and efficiencies that will be essential as governments confront growing health care costs," and as a promising effort to "rethink and redesign" both health care and postsecondary education.

--Dane Smith

 

How we can help the poor help themselves, and our economy, Selvaggio-style

Joe Selvaggio is a celebrated former priest who has spent nearly half a century helping poor folks become more productive and less poor,  lately through the MicroGrants program and before that, Project for Pride in Living. 

He also recently authored one of the most inspiring and articulate cases I've ever seen for investing in the human potential of our large and growing underclass.   His powerful essay appeared in the Star Tribune on Sunday Nov. 18, and was headlined "Think of the poor as part of the solution: They're a source of economic growth. That's why we can afford to help them.''

Selvaggio is the soul of charity but he's not a naive do-gooder who sees poor folks as purely victims.  And he argues that they ultimately are responsible for grabbing on and pulling up on the hands that are  offered from public and non-profit workforce training providers.  And he also concludes that governments need to invest more in broad-based self-sufficiency and productivity efforts instead of just focusing on direct aid and entitlements.    Citing the success of the Harlem Children's Zone and other non-profits such as Twin Cities Rise! and Summit Academy OIC, Selvaggio notes:  

"Entitlements seem to be anathema to the right, left and center.  But job-training programs are politically acceptable to left, right and center.   The private nonprofit sector has proven that they work, but philanthropy can't do it alone.  Now it's time for government to put muscle behind them...Change the paradigm and think of the poor as locked in a cocoon, ready to develop into a productive creator of wealth.''

Our policy-makers in Minnesota need to find what's working best in in preparing and moving chronically unemployed or under-employed folks in to the decent jobs that are being created in our new economy and right in their communities,  whether it's health-care, transportation, financial industries, or construction.   Growth & Justice is beginning a project that will illuminate those models.   And our legislators and other elected officials must be ready and willing to invest in them.   Because this really is an investment that pays off for everybody.

 

Dane Smith   

 

 

"Minnesota's Miracle" can inform a new generation

Policy enthusiasts and history buffs will enjoy "Minnesota's Miracle: Learning from the Government That Worked." It's a gem of a book on 1970s legislative policy-making, and Minnesota's golden age of bipartisan problem-solving, progressive reform, public investment and innovation. The writing, by Tom Berg, a former legislator and a strong Minnesota community leader on many fronts since then, is both careful and lively, sprinkled with delightful anecdotes such as the triumph of pioneering women legislators in gaining entry and membership in the once all-male St. Paul Athletic Club. For my money, the heart of the book is the chapter "Breakout Session," between pages 79 and 112, which contains an inspiring summary of lasting reform legislation that protected the environment, expanded access to education, and improved housing and metropolitan governance. Younger citizens in particular need to know this history, to know what is possible and to keep hope alive for constructive resolution of the demographic and economic challenges we face 40 years later. The book launch and celebration is set for 4 p.m. Tuesday evening at the Cowles Auditorium and the Hubert H. Humphrey Center.

--Dane Smith 

 

 

Erasing boundaries between K-12 and higher education

Last week South St. Paul Public Schools superintendent Dave Webb announced a partnership with Inver Hills Community College (IHCC) that will allow high school seniors to graduate with an associate degree at no cost and without ever leaving the high school grounds.

Growth & Justice has long been advocating for more seamless transitions all along the education pathway, with high-quality early childhood education aligning with early grades, for instance. And this kind of innovation at the other end of the pipeline is the kind of effort needed to achieve the goal of a significantly higher postsecondary completion rate by the end of this decade.

At least three distinct advantages stand out.

• Cost: Saves students and families more than $10,000 in college tuition and fees.
• Convenience: Allows students to remain on the high school campus.
• Curriculum: Strengthens curriculum offerings and retains high-achieving students.

Doug Binsfeld, Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at IHCC, attributed the success of the alignment to South St. Paul’s challenging International Baccalaureate (IB) program, noting that initially almost all of the IB courses met the “higher-order" thinking that is expected from college students. The IB Diploma Program is an internationally recognized, comprehensive, two-year pre-college curriculum, requiring students to study six subjects and take exams at the end of each course.

Offering students the chance to earn an associate degree while still in high school can help Minnesota increase the percentage of students who complete a postsecondary degree. Cliff Adelman’s study for the U.S. Department of Education shows that if a high school student completes 12 college credits while in high school, they are 80% more likely to persist in college and complete a degree. This is especially important in Minnesota because we need a highly trained workforce. According to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, by 2018, 70% of jobs in Minnesota will require a postsecondary education, yet only about 50% of the current population meets this demand.

In our Smart Investment Agenda for Education in Minnesota, Growth & Justice recommends academic offerings that allow students to earn college credits while in high school like Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses, Post Secondary Enrollment Options, and College in the Schools, as a strategy to increase the higher education attainment rate to 75% by 2020.

We know other promising efforts are underway that will get all of us thinking beyond high school as the optimum destination, and toward a mindset around grades "11 through 14." Gov. Dayton's administration is working on just such a framework. And at least two local efforts are noteworthy:

• Central Lakes College in Brainerd partnered with Long Prairie-Grey Eagle High School to create the 4 for 2 program.
• Anoka-Ramsey Community College is teaming with Irondale High School in New Brighton to launch the Early College program for 9th and 10th graders this fall.

We support MnSCU’s continued work in this area. There is great opportunity here to expand partnerships and get and keep more Minnesota students on the pathway to college.

--Colin O'Keefe (Growth & Justice Education Policy Intern)

 

Inequality, education and innovation: U.S. higher on the first, slipping on the other two

Sometimes the anti-tax, anti-government zealots will actually concede that the United States is an outlier in economic inequality and becoming more unequal all the time. But they hasten to insist that this is a function of a meritocracy, and that our weak economic security system and low taxes foster creativity, initiative and innovation, from which all boats will rise.

But during a period marked by historic tax cuts and federal-state disinvestment in education, the U.S. has slipped in average education attainment (largely provided by taxes and government) and there are signs it may be slipping in innovation too.

The U.S. has dropped to 10th on the Global Innovaton Index, behind nations such as Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the U.K. and the Netherlands, all with much superior economic security entitlement. The index is an annual analysis published by Insead, an international business school, and the World Intellectual Property Organization, a United Nations Agency. The index is comprehensive and takes into account dozens of factors, including business sophistication, human capital and research, and creative output.

I like the analysis on these rankings by Education Week blogger Jason Tomassini, who says this:

"So, if we didn't know already, in order to create innovators through education we need to increase rigor in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math instruction; teach students business acumen and entrepreneurship; and lower class sizes. Get to it!

Oh, and there's another factor we should watch out for: We are No. 2 in the world in video uploads to YouTube. According to the Global Innovation Index, this is a good thing, but I can't see the harm in dropping a few spots before next year." 

Let's allow that there might be a trade-off for public-sector size and private-sector growth rates, and in the extreme too much government and prohibitive tax rates might well stifle creativity and incentive.   I personally think people tend to be more creative and productive when they are relatively secure, and know they will have health care and enough to eat, even if they take a risk and fail. That's how a retired Swedish businessman explained it to me when I visited there three years ago, as I wrote in an op-ed column inspired by his creative analogy of economic efficiency to humane handling of hunting dogs.

--Dane Smith

 

Itasca Project elevates higher ed as key to growth

Every serious student of public policy In Minnesota needs to see at least the executive summary of an important new study out this week by the highly respected Itasca Project. The IP is a group of corporate and community leaders that has led the way in the past with consensus-seeking studies on transportation investment, early childhood education needs, and the education achievement gap. The Itasca Project's latest report elevates higher education improvement and attainment as the key to sustained economic growth in Minnesota. Among the findings and recommendations in Higher Education Partnerships for Prosperity:

• Future growth will require "deeper and more relevant skills from the workforce and increased innovation from researchers, entrepreneurs and businesses." By 2018, 70 percent of Minnesota jobs will require postsecondary education.
• Pressure on state budgets during the decade from 2000 to 2010 drove a 35% reduction in public funding per student in Minnesota, which drove up tuition and raised barriers to completion. (My editorial comment: these cuts were driven by an anti-government, anti-tax pledge that was unconscionable, and cutting higher education was dumber than eating seed corn).
• Minnesota strategically needs to: align academic offerings with workforce needs, foster an "ecosystem of research and innovation," form "new collaborations" to "optimize system-wide intellectual assets and efficiency," and (duh, editorial comment again) "graduate more students."

At Growth & Justice, we've been urging for several years now that policymakers set a clear goal for the state for postsecondary completion of 75 percent for all young adults by 2020. Put another way, the best route to sustained prosperity in Minnesota is to ensure that at least three out of four young adults have some sort of post high-school certificate or credential that enables them to enjoy a more productive career and realize their fuller human potential. And this imperative is particularly important for our kids of color, who currently are lagging far behind in academic achievement and attainment. Developing their potential is our best opportunity for business growth and productivity.

--Dane Smith

Another strong voice for cradle-to-career and total community in gap closing

Metropolitan communities need to launch nothing less than a movement to reduce the educational achievement disparities that exist for minority and low-income students, and the good news is that comprehensive networks are coming together across the nation to get it done. 

Those themes of urgency and possibility were emphasized by Ronald Ferguson, a Harvard professor in education and policy studies, who spoke in Minnesota recently at a meeting sponsored by the Minnesota P-20 Education Partnership and the Minnesota Minority Education partnership (MMEP).  

Ferguson outlined for an audience of key Twin Cities education leaders a systematic all-community approach combining under "strong intermediary organizations" to narrow the opportunity and achievement gap, while simultaneously challenging our highest achieving students. As envisioned by Ferguson, the key partners in the intermediary organizations are:

• Parents
• Teachers
• Peers
• Employers
• Community

As director of Harvard’s Achievement Gap Initiative, Ferguson advances the principles of "excellence with equity." He observed that in addition to our nation's growing achievement gap, and along with recent demographic shifts, international data has suggested that even our brightest students lag behind fourteen other nations in math and reading scores. And he noted that the U.S. has dramatically narrowed racial learning gaps in the past. Acccording to the National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP), between 1971-1988 62 percent of the reading score gap between black and white 17-year-olds disappeared.

Education advocates tend to pick one specific goal they perceive is the most important factor in a child’s education, and focus only on that. Instead, Ferguson argues that early childhood education advocates should work in much closer concert with those involved in transitions to career, and so on, all along the pathway. In this way, experts in one area can complement experts in another area, spanning the cradle-to-career continuum. Minnnesota already is beginning to pursue this approach, with efforts such as the Itasca Area Initiative for Student Success. Twin Cities business and community leaders are studying a similarly aggressive strategic initiative, akin to the effort mounted in the Cincinnati area, called the Strive Partnership.

Colin O'Keefe

(Note: Colin O'Keefe is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, a resident of Rochester, and an intern researching education policy for Growth & Justice.) 

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 said, 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 the July 2011 Growth & Justice policy brief on this topic.)

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 & 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 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 postsecondary 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, 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