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Posts from the ‘Education’ Category

May 8

Social Policy Action is in the Cities and the States

For all the attention that is going to the turbulence in Washington, it is easy to overlook some exciting and reasonably large-scale social policy innovations happening in cities and states. These initiatives involve significant scale and commitments of resources, and if fully implemented could produce a statistical bump in life opportunities for low-income and vulnerable populations.

Los Angeles has elevated homelessness to the Mayor’s top priority and has begun implementing a series of significant policy and program steps to respond to an estimated 21,000 people on the street. The Comprehensive Homelessness Strategy Report, released in January, has provided the framework for the City’s approach. This has been followed up by a series of public hearings, the passage of Proposition HHH, and budget commitments.  In all of these efforts, Los Angeles has conveyed real seriousness-of-purpose about addressing housing, social service, and health needs of the homeless population. Highlights of the proposal include a “housing first” approach, a coordinated social service (“no wrong door”) system, and targeted services for veterans. The plan estimates a commitment of $1.8 billion over ten years. Proposition HHH itself supports $1.2 billion in bonds for housing options for the homeless.

Mayor Garcetti has proclaimed homelessness “the moral issue of our time” and argues it is eminently solvable in the foreseeable future.

In New York City, Mayor Bill De Blasio is moving to provide free universal preschool for 3-year olds. This initiative follows on the success of De Blasio’s program to provide universal pre-kindergarten for all 4-year olds in the City. De Blasio has invoked the research of James Heckman and others in making this case. The additional budget commitment for the program is about $36 million; fully implemented it is estimated that the program would cost an additional $177 million over what the City already spends on preschool.

At the other end of the School pipeline, Governor Andrew Cuomo has implemented a program to provide free college tuition in New York state, city, and community colleges for students with family incomes less than $125,000.

The federal government is in retreat, and the leadership of HHS, HUD, Justice, and Education is backpedaling federal initiatives as fast as possible. For so many areas of social policy – aging, child welfare, community development, education, housing, mental health, poverty, public health, and substance abuse treatment – the action will be local, regional, and state.

A number of organizations, sites, and blogs keep track of these social policy innovations in cities and states. To follow this work, monitor the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fixes at the New York Times, Next City,  the Center for the Study of Social Policy, Policy and Practice, and Governing for States and Localities.

Look at what is happening in cities and states if you want to feel some optimism at the moment.

 

 

 

 

Nov 4

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Where is the outrage?

We know and acknowledge that our Presidential campaign has been nationally embarrassing, distracting, and virtually policy-silent. The tenor and substance of the campaign, especially post-Bernie, have conveyed virtually no empathy or awareness of the realities of our most vulnerable individuals, groups, and communities. The growing disparities in our economy and the extreme hardship faced by many in our society have fallen out of public eye and certainly out of the public policy discussion. There is quite another reality on the streets and in the front lines of call centers and social service organizations.

Read more

Sep 30

Planes versus Preschool

With the collapse of any meaningful federal budget process in the 2000s, we have given up all semblance of a rational approach to considering the opportunity cost of significant federal expenditures.

Opportunity cost is one of those quaint economist’s concepts which refers to what is given up or foregone by devoting resources to one activity versus the next best alternative use. In other words, if we spend resources on one thing, whether it be defense, research, Medicare, incarceration, or other purpose, we forego the opportunity to spend it on the next best alternative, be that education, housing, mental health, or other social purpose.

For example, the estimated cost of universal preschool ranges from $2-4 billion a year (a Brookings estimate) to $10 billion a year (the administration’s estimate).[1] What makes this preschool opportunity so compelling is that there is actual evidence that universal preschool is a bona fide social investment with a long term rate of return. James Heckman argues that preschool is an extraordinarily efficient (in cost benefit terms) social investment, bringing a return on investment of 7 to 10 percent per year.

To put this potential investment in universal preschool in context, it is comparable to the annual spending for acquiring just one very problematic weapon system, the F-35 Joint Strike fighter, estimated at over $10 billion in 2016. According to the GAO, acquisition costs for this aircraft will run roughly $12 billion every year through 2038, when the full complement of 2500 jets will finally be purchased. Other big systems, such as the Navy’s proposed turnover of aircraft carriers (estimated at $12 billion each), are so expensive that they too represent legitimate opportunity costs in other domains of federal policy, including social policy. Read more

Sep 17

Robin Hood School Finance

 

Judge Thomas Moukawsher of the Connecticut Superior Court issued a sweeping ruling this week calling for the comprehensive reform of public education, from governance to funding.

In the background of the Judge’s decision were troubling allocations of education funding going to School districts during the State’s budget crisis. Despite their extreme challenges, many poor districts suffered reductions in support, while relatively affluent districts enjoyed increases in support.

Financing of public education often follows this pattern of reverse Robin Hood. Because we primarily rely on property taxes and state formulas, wealthy communities ride the escalator up, while low-income communities who experience population or economic declines fall into a downward cycle.  Read more

Apr 24

Social Policy

Social Policy is the home for progressive and provocative ideas, analysis, and commentary on social policy issues.

This blog is written by Edward F. Lawlor, the William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Eddie Lawlor is the former dean of the Brown School at Washington University, former dean at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, and the founding editor of the Public Policy and Aging Report. He is the author of Redesigning the Medicare Contract: Politics, Agency, and Markets, as well as numerous articles in health policy, social services, and aging.

This year Professor Lawlor is on sabbatical from Washington University and serving as an Executive in Residence at the United Way of Greater St. Louis. He is working on a book on human service reform.

He has a long record of policy analysis, commentary, and public service.

Washington University Faculty Bio

This blog is devoted to the reform of human services, public health, education, and community development.