Smart Communities

Keeping Kids in School – What One Dropout Can (and is) Doing

The Los Angeles Times has done a stellar job of reporting on the dropout crisis in American schools, earlier in the year they had a weeklong series that examined the root issues behind the dropout rate and some of what’s being done.  There’s a lot to be said about the dropout problem in Los Angeles, according to one recent estimate it is the second largest school system in America and only graduates slightly more than 44% of its students.

All the more reason, then, for the Times to report some positive news on what’s being done to stem the tide.  The paper recently reported on Debra Duardo, a high school dropout as a freshman who, after dropping out, spent the next decade finishing her education at a local community college and UCLA.  Now, at age 43, she is director of dropout prevention and recovery in her former high school’s district and is looking to hire and assign coordinators for the school district that will attempt to coax students not to leave school or get those who have to return.

The stakes are high for these students, dropping-out can be the difference between someone who provides for themselves versus relying on the state or community.  According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, “Individuals who fail to graduate from high school face a life of lower wages and increased dependence on support programs. Some even turn to crime. For the state, large numbers of high school dropouts mean it becomes harder to attract new business; tax revenue decreases, and additional spending on social programs and incarceration is required. For the nation, dropouts translate into lost human potential and a weakened ability to compete on a global scale.” There clearly are implications for one’s self-esteem as well as for one’s community and the outlays it will have to make in order to support that individual.

Debra Duardo is a rare success story of someone who dropped-out but clawed her way back to an education and a good job, not everyone will be so lucky.  We need to help students work toward their diplomas so they won’t have to undertake the long route to success that Debra did.

The Dropout Data Dispute

The great dropout debate raged on last month even as American students were celebrating their graduation from high school.

A number of different groups including nonprofits like the Manhattan Institute and publications like Education Week and Time Magazine have been reporting shocking overall dropout levels of 30%.  This number can increase to almost 50% for some African-American and Hispanic populations.  While states give much rosier numbers with regard to their dropout rates, the best forecast for dropouts outside of the states themselves might be the Economic Policy Institute that pegs the dropout rate between 80-83%.  To get an in-depth look at the numbers problem you might want to consult this article published by the author of the Manhattan Institute’s report on dropouts, Jay Greene.

According to Education Week data the places in most need of help with dropouts are big cities.  Some of the nation’s fifty largest school districts are apparently producing fewer graduates than dropouts, according to USA Today, “Among the nation's 50 largest districts, the study finds, three graduate fewer than 40%: Detroit (21.7%), Baltimore (38.5%) and New York City (38.9%).”  This should not give anyone who lives in a small city or rural area any confidence that they are in any way immune from the dropout problem.  We strongly urge anyone with an interest in this issue to register for free on the Education Week website and take a look at their section labeled “Diplomas Count”.  In addition to the extensive data available now there will soon be a mapping tool for users.  Registration is relatively quick (approximately a minute), does not require validation, and the number of questions is limited and unobtrusive.

Where the Good Jobs Are

Most communities ask themselves the question – how can we attract more economic growth?  Do we recruit the businesses first?  Do we build infrastructure?  Is human capital development the answer?

Obviously this is a complex issue but there are some signs that higher education plays a role in attracting jobs – and not just any jobs but good, high-paying jobs.   An article from the Winter 2004-’05 issue of Bridges (a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, MO) asks the question, “What determines where good jobs are created?”  The answer, in part, is that an increase in higher education by an area’s workforce is directly related to long-term economic improvement for that area.  According to the article, “A 1 percentage point increase in the share of a city’s adult population (i.e., at least 25 years of age) with a bachelor’s degree is associated with a 1.2 percentage point increase in the rate at which good jobs are created over the next 10 years.” For the purposes of this article what is described as a “good job” here is one that pays almost $22/hr.  Bad jobs, or those paying roughly $12/hr, also grew with the appearance of a better-educated labor force but at less of a rate of increase.

This is one of the best articles in recent years that I’ve seen describe the cumulative effects of a skilled labor force in communities.  Bridges notes that the effects of high-paying jobs are multiple and one of the most compelling effects is that an increase in high-paying jobs tends to account for an increase in wages for all employment levels.  Bad jobs have the opposite effect by reducing wage levels.  Higher-paying jobs also translate into increased property values and reduced crime rates.

All these benefits start with attaining a college education, no small feat but a trend that has certainly increased in the past 20-30 years.  Some of this country’s best commentators and authors, Tom Friedman and David Brooks to name two, have pointed to a well-educated workforce as the backbone of any healthy, stable American economy.  This is pointing to the best possible future for America’s economy, though, and doesn’t look at the potential for a significant drag at the other end of the spectrum – high school dropouts.  I’m all for initiatives that increase the level of college graduates in the United States, who wouldn’t be since data seem to suggest their entry into the workforce helps us all!  Equally, though, we should be concerned about high school dropouts who are easily ignored by being undercounted but who often make up a significant percentage of the statistics that we don’t like to see – like those unemployed, on the dole, or in prison.  Over the next few days I will be mentioning some stories and resources on dropouts to underscore the urgency of the issue for the dropouts themselves and the communities in which they are embedded.

Still Awaiting Roxbury's Revival

The Roxbury neighborhood of Boston has had a checkered past, as journalist Tim Porter writes, "Using the phrase "urban hell" to describe Roxbury's past is not hyperbole."  Among other problems suffered by this blue collar neighborhood were, less recently, race riots and, since then, illegal dumping of trash, drug dealing, arson incidents with unsold homes, and many of the social issues attendant to communities where the average income in below the poverty line.

There were some indications, though, that the neighborhood was beginning to change.  The Christian Science Monitor reported in 2004 that the housing shortage and high apartment prices in Boston were beginning to push wealthier residents into the neighborhood.  Unfortunately, this influx of people whose income might help revive the neighborhood is serving to drive up property values and apartment prices – and thereby work to remove the current residents of the community.  As one individual mentioned in this story noted, when does community investment become displacement or relocation?

Since that article there looks to have been precious little positive news out of Roxbury. A quick scan of crime news related to the Roxbury community indicates there are still issues with criminal mischief and resident safety.  This is really a shame since the Roxbury neighborhood has received a lot of attention from local government and nonprofits interested in helping the area turn the corner. Boston is known for its ingenuity, we have documented their use of the Main Streets program and they have a wealth of talent from all their storied universities.  It’s amazing that with all that talent and some significant attention Boston still can’t seem to turn this area around.

Rural America - A Closer Look

We’ve written before about how some states in the north central region of the United States have experienced some hard times.  Not only are they not gaining in population but some are actively being depopulated as farms become more productive and people move to larger communities.  These events have given to some characterizations of states like Nebraska as a dying state.

So how are Nebraskans getting by in their dying state?  For one, there is no shortage of jobs.  The 2006 Rural Nebraska Poll recently found that there are actually more jobs than residents in the state; before counting this as a blessing it should also be noted that a large percentage of rural Nebraskan households need more than one job in order to make ends meet.  The type of work available is also largely unskilled and, in fact, people who identified themselves as skilled labor were more likely than others to indicate holding multiple jobs in order to compensate.

This economic news does not seem to translate over to the political spectrum, at least from our perspective.  We’ve repeatedly heard stories out of the Midwest that demonstrate the strength of rural leadership in those states.  Most recently we got word of this story out of South Dakota in which area residents banded together to create an area development group and have already raised $81,000 for their next three years of operation; they hope to have more than three times that amount by September 1st.  The group already has a website that has their strategic plan and goals for the next 5-10 years.  Kudos to these entrepreneurs for stepping-up for their area and showing that rural leadership and development can be done.

Working Families, Ghetto Taxes, and Predatory Lending

A new report from the Bookings Institution calls attention to a perennial problem – people in lower income brackets often pay more for products and services than others in higher income brackets.  Examples abound but the New York Times recently provided some that are typical: higher rates for car insurance, higher interest rates for home loans, not to mention the fact that blue collar workers are most often the target audience for “rent to own” stores where merchandise can be purchased at a low down payment but with high interest rates over a long period of time.  With these sorts of strains on their already low income, these folks are most at risk for predatory lending practices.

The Brookings report gives a sense of the extent of these practices, and the impact they have on working families, by noting, “Reducing the costs of living for lower income families by just one percent would add up to over $6.5 billion in new spending power for these families. This would enable lower and modest-income families to save for, and invest in, incoming-growing assets, like homes and retirement savings, or to pay for critical expenses for their children, like education and health care.”

How do we help people who are not savvy consumers due to a lack of proper information?  One traditional approach has been consumer education, these efforts are being matched by other institutional attempts to create more competitive marketplaces of goods and services in low-income areas.  The Brookings report provides a clear structure in which such efforts can be understood:

•    Promoting market opportunities in lower income neighborhoods (e.g. form public-private partnerships to bank the unbanked, develop low-cost insurance pools)
•    Curb unscrupulous business practices in the lower income marketplace (e.g. limit development of high-price businesses, accelerate the release of federal tax refunds)
•    Promote consumer responsibility and the power of low-income shoppers (e.g. promoting access to online price-lowering tools and financial education, as noted above)

Many of these practices are not new but the Brookings report does a great job of organizing what’s out there, describing some new efforts, and pointing to resources on the web for specific examples and more information.  There are also one-page PDFs from particular states with key findings from each.  One additional resource of note, our own Solutions for America website has detailed information the predatory lending aspect of this problem.

One Third of America Volunteered in 2005

The latest news on volunteerism in America sounds a lot like old news – once again the volunteerism rate in the United States has been pegged at 1/3 of the population.  The Corporation for National Service indicates this number is about 6 million more volunteers than 2002 but the rate as a percentage of population seems to have held steady.  Women are still volunteering at a higher rate than men and, interestingly enough, it is women with children and women with jobs who volunteer the most.

In related news, a new report titled "The Rewards of Giving" is out detailing the experiences of older American volunteers in schools.  The report examines seniors who participated in the Experience Corps program over a three-year period of time.  Experience Corps was a vision of John Gardner, the first winner of our Civic Change Award, and is now a program of Civic Ventures.

Corporations and Charitable Giving

Usually the articles about charitable giving by corporations get trotted-out around the holiday season as charitable appeals increase.  We decided to beat the seasonal rush by looking at two articles on charitable giving by companies that know their business.

Business Week published an interesting article back in November 2005 that noted the increasing salience of charitable giving by corporations.  The article cites "branding expert Carol Cone" as stating that in 1993 only 26% of those surveyed could name a company that "stood out as a strong corporate citizen."  By 2004 that number had risen to 80%.  Among those standouts are places like Home Depot that contributes substantial amounts of materials to rebuilding and refurbishing projects nationwide.  Others, like Altria Group Inc., are big philanthropic contributors earning kudos from philanthropy groups but generally remaining out of the public eye.  Business Week notes that in the case of Altria, the parent company to Marlboro cigarettes, "contributions will never be enough to overcome the issues inherent in making a lethal product."

Interestingly enough it is not corporations who give the most to charity – it's individuals.  According to Forbes, "while Americans gave an estimated $240.72 billion to charitable causes in 2003--up 2.8% over 2002, the largest increase in three years--corporate philanthropy accounted for only $13.46 billion, or 5.6% of the total."  It seems more corporations may be giving than ever before, though, as Business Week reported that, "52% of the world's 250 largest corporations filed separate reports on corporate responsibility in 2005. That's up from 45% in 2002."

It is always nice to see corporations give of themselves, especially since charity is something that does not naturally arise from competitive enterprise in a profit-driven environment.  Hopefully the increased exposure of charitable efforts and the goodwill that results from them will push American corporations to give even more in the coming year.

Infrastructure Improvements as Gravy Trains

Here's an interesting story out of New Mexico – a new commuter train began running earlier this month and speculation has already started on how this train will change the face of New Mexico’s landscape.  More specifically, officials in the New Mexico government are working to make the land suitable for development in anticipation of a flood of new investment.  According to the article, "St. Louis saw around $1 billion in investment around its MetroLink light rail stations since opening in 1993; Portland, Ore., had more than $3 billion in development around its MAX light rail system since opening in the late 1970s; and commercial properties rose in value by more than 50 percent around Dallas light rail stations."

The Rail Runner, as this commuter train is known, is definitely a smart investment for New Mexico.  Albuquerque, NM is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country and this commuter train now provides North-South access on either side of the city.  Not only is this a smart decision for a growing city in the face of rising gas prices but commuter trains are, according to one Harris poll, the form of transportation that Americans are most interested in seeing bear a share of growing commuter population.  Cities like New York made the decision in the early 20th century to choose the automobile, rather than public transportation, as the main form of transport in their city and are now suffering the consequences of increased air pollution and traffic congestion.  Kudos to New Mexico on their investment in a new commuter rail line, it will no doubt be key to even greater growth in the coming years.

A Comprehensive Approach to Civic Education

Cynthia Gibson has written extensively on the topic of civic education and has worked to partner the Carnegie Corporation with CIRCLE and the Knight Foundation to map out the future of civic education in this country.  Her approach, as outlined in her article "The New Civics", is broad-based and covers classroom-based instruction on the fundamentals of democracy supported by analytical and reflective activities as well as service-learning and similar types of hands-on experience with democracy.  Gibson advocates that this approach be applied across a child's years in school.

To learn more about Gibson’s approach to civic education check out "The New Civics" (direct link to PDF) and "From Inspiration to Participation" (direct link to PDF).  The website for the Civic Mission of Schools, a group tasked with the mission of helping schools implement a broad education in civics, is another good resource.