TWO ROADS DIVERGING: ECONOMIC INCLUSION AND OPPORTUNITY

TWO ROADS DIVERGING:

ECONOMIC INCLUSION &

By Robert McLaughlin and Susan D. Ballard By Robert McLaughlin and Susan D. Ballard

If we are not chastened by our failure as a society to make better choices, we should be. This is how empires die.

IN HIS POEM, HARLEM, LANGSTON HUGHES WROTE: What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— Like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags Like a heavy load. Or does it explode? IN HIS POEM, HARLEM, LANGSTON HUGHES WROTE: What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— Like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags Like a heavy load. Or does it explode? As long ago as 1990, when Mark Tucker and the National Center on Education and the Economy published their landmark report, America’s C h o i c e : High Skills or Low Wages!, we were warned. American policy makers needed to undertake a sustained initiative to foster a high-skill, high-wage economy. Without concerted, proactive efforts at the national, state and local levels, the authors made clear that ours would become a second- or third-rate economy, where most job opportunities would be of the low-skill, low-wage variety. We should know by now that America has made a decision, by default, to accept prolonged movement toward a low-skill, low-wage economy in which income inequality has grown, wealth has become increasingly concentrated, the middle class is being steadily eviscerated, and the political polarization that comes from intensifying income inequality has become the new normal. IN HIS POEM, HARLEM, This is how empires die. American policy makers needed to undertake a sustained initiative to foster a high-skill, high-wage economy. Without As long ago as 1990, when Mark Tucker and the National Center on Education and the Economy published their landmark report, America’s C h o i c e : High Skills or Low Wages!, we were warned. chastened by our failure as a society to make better choices, we should be. If we are not C h o i c e : High Skills or Low Wages!, we were warned. EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY

Fortunately, we have a second chance to make much better choices, fueled now by a deeper, more visceral understanding of just what a low-skill, low-wage economy actually looks like. Buried deep in the bowels of federal policy is a statute – the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) – that since 1977 has required federally insured banks to make investments for economic opportunity and inclusion in the nation’s low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities they serve. If you are not a bank compliance executive or affordable housing advocate, you might never have heard of this policy, but if you care about economic vitality and the crucial role that educational and economic opportunity play in healthy communities, you would do well to become familiar with what CRA has done but, more importantly, what it can much more effectively do.

Precise figures are not available on how much banks spend each year on economic opportunity and inclusion in LMI communities. Estimates range from $100 billion to $200 billion each year. Banks currently receive credit toward meeting their CRA requirement by making loans, equity investments, and grants and by providing volunteer services in LMI areas, relating to affordable housing, financial literacy, financial inclusion (access to banking services such as loans, credit and checking accounts), and economic inclusion.

Because of our policy advocacy and pilot efforts at the National Collaborative for Digital Equity, the Federal Reserve (one of three federal agencies that monitor banks’ CRA compliance) issued a report in 2016 adding digital equity as a fifth broad purpose eligible for CRA credit. Our premise has been simple: in an increasingly digital economy and society, it has become nearly impossible to learn about, apply, prepare and qualify for living wage jobs without digital access and skill. Therefore, we contended, it made no sense for federal CRA policy to support $100 billion in economic inclusion investments each year without allowing banks to earn any CRA credit for removing increasingly crucial digital divide obstacles to economic opportunity.

We’re now busy mobilizing banking leaders and their partners in educational systems, workforce development and philanthropy, to make digital equity investments that are systemic. By “systemic digital equity” we mean that CRA and other investments in tackling the digital divide, if they’re to merit sustaining and scaling, should address affordable access for LMI learners of all ages not only to broadband and computers but also to tech support, quality digital learning resources for economic and educational opportunity, apps/software for learning and productivity and, not least, librarian support for digital literacy and cybersafety skill development and to anticipate and minimize the risks of device addiction.

But, simply adding digital equity-related purposes into the array of CRA creditworthy purposes will likely achieve very little to move us toward the high-skill, high-wage economy we need for economic opportunity and vitality and healthy communities. We know from over $3 trillion invested in economic opportunity in LMI communities under CRA over the past four decades that these well-meaning investments have not appreciably lessened income inequality, the numbers and percentages of children growing up in poverty, and related indices of economic well-being. We know that it is increasingly difficult to fill living wage jobs, because our educational systems appear not to be equipping youths and adults with the skills they need to fill these jobs.

While banks have been investing vast sums under CRA for economic opportunity in LMI communities, taxpayers, state and federal

policy makers and foundations have similarly made enormous investments for educational opportunity in LMI school systems.

We believe that it is the siloing of such investments in, respectively, economic and educational opportunity that dooms them both to continued failure to move the needle. Schools need the promise of imminent economic opportunity to persuade children living in unrelieved poverty that it is worth their while to persist, stay in school, and master the skills and dispositions needed to take advantage of pathways into living wage employment and self-employment. Equally, those who invest in and offer living wage jobs need school systems to reliably prepare their students to fill the living wage jobs that are necessary to move toward a high-skill, high-wage economy. CRA policy does not require that banks collaborate in sustained ways in LMI areas with educational system leaders and community leaders who provide voice and agency for those living in poverty. Federal regulators examine how banks spend their CRA resources and assess whether they have complied, but compliance is no longer enough. We must move beyond compliance to designing sustained local collaborations for impact on economic inclusion and educational opportunity.

Equally, education foundations, school system leaders, and postsecondary leaders need to move beyond providing educational services “despite” poverty to designing educational efforts that dovetail with economic inclusion investments intended to build pathways out of poverty. This is the work the National Collaborative for Digital Equity has undertaken. In collaboration with a growing array of partners, NCDE has launched state summits that mobilize diverse state and LMI community leaders in education, banking, workforce development and philanthropy to work together, using collective impact approaches that address both economic and educational opportunity in the same LMI community.

CRA funding can provide crucial catalytic fuel for locally appropriate efforts to move toward a high-skills, high-wage economy, through highly intentional partnerships that build educational pathways for children, youths and adults out of poverty and into living wage employment. We invite you to join us. There is much to be done.

Bob McLaughlin conceived the effort to persuade federal policy makers to give banks credit toward meeting CRA requirements in LMI communities, by providing grant and in-kind support for digital equity. He co-founded and is the Executive Director of NCDE. He has experience in teacher preparation – including chairing the Association of Teacher Educators' National Commission for Technology and the Future of Teacher Education (and) as administrator of NH’s educator preparation program approval. He has also been active in STEM education reform, policy analysis and innovation, and designing and leading large-scale technical assistance initiatives at the federal level.

Susan Ballard is Vice-President of NCDE. A Past-President of the American Association of School Librarians and a Director of Library, Media and Technology in NH, she guided her district to National Program of the Year Award recognition. She has served as an adjunct professor and lecturer in a variety of school librarian preparation programs and has recently been involved in development of AASL’s National School Library Standards for Learners, Librarians and School Libraries (2018) as well as Standards for the Preparation of School Librarians (2019).

THE COLLECTIVE IMPACT OF AN EDUCATIONAL SERVICE AGENCY By Joan Wade

Joan Wade, Ed.D. Executive Director for the Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA), is a life-long educator with more than 30 years of service in public education. In addition to teaching, she has worked as a library media specialist, Technology Coordinator, and Distance Learning Director.

Educational Service Agencies (ESAs) go by many different names, but what they do is relatively simple. They provide outstanding educational services for the communities and school districts in their region. ESAs are regionally based throughout the United States, providing a diverse portfolio of services.

ESAs have different names in different states. For example, in some states such as New York and Colorado, there are Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES); Iowa has Area Education Agencies (AEAs); Pennsylvania, you will find Intermediate Units (IUs); and Wisconsin has Cooperative Educational Service Agencies (CESAs).

All in all, there are about twenty different names for these regional organizations. When we talk about the work of these organizations at a national level, we refer to them as Educational Service Agencies (ESAs). You can find a list of states on the Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA) website to see if your state is one of the 45 states that have ESAs.

The services that ESAs provide are customized to meet the various needs of school districts in their region. ESAs dedicate themselves to providing school districts with professional development for teachers, support staff, principals, superintendents and boards of education; they offer technology support and planning; administrative services to improve student learning, enhance the quality of instruction, expand equitable access to resources and maximize operating and financial efficiencies. You will often find them providing special education leadership and support, grant writing services, communication, and public relations support, Career and Technology Education (CTE) support, and program evaluation services to the school districts they serve.

In most states, the ESAs receive little to no state

funding. They are entrepreneurial in offering cost-effective instructional and operational services that have an impact on the school districts and communities they serve. Often the support they offer goes well beyond the walls of the local school district.

ESAs sometimes find themselves in the role of being the conveners of local stakeholders to bring a collective impact on a common agenda. An example of the type of impact an ESA has is at Region 12 in Waco, Texas. Over the past five years, Region 12 worked diligently with a variety of local stakeholders to develop an organization that is now known as Prosper Waco. They helped develop more than 30 cross-sector collaborations. Each project focuses on measurably improving education, health, and financial security. This work culminated in a first-of-its-kind in-district charter partnership, providing additional resources for students while maintaining local control over the community’s public schools. Prosper Waco’s big concept is that the entire community shares responsibility for educating every citizen.

In the state of Michigan, Genesee Intermediate School District (Michigan’s name for an ESA), located in Flint, managed a countywide emergency during the Flint Water Crisis. Over 20,000 children, birth to grade 12, have been potentially impacted by the Flint, Michigan Water Crisis. Through schools of choice, nearly 16,500 of these children are spread across Genesee County, attending a school outside of Flint Community Schools. As a result, the Genesee ISD played an integral role in coordinating the response efforts, from meeting immediate needs such as water distribution, to leading the large-scale implementation of expanded early childhood services. Their experience highlights the importance of an ESAs capacity, and the strong collaborative partnerships among all agencies from the county to the national level. The ESAs understand the value of developing strong county and regional partnerships before an emergency occurs, as well as how to coordinate and leverage federal, state, county, and local resource agencies when a crisis occurs.

ESAs provide high-quality services directly to the school districts in their regions, but these examples demonstrate that they often have a collective impact in their region and their state. ESAs are nimble organizations that exist to serve the communities and the school districts to make education the very best it can be!

Odds are your district is spending a good deal of its critical funding on EdTech.

In fact, it’s estimated that U.S. school districts now spend over 13 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR on educational technology.

Conducting an internal EdTech audit enables administrative leaders to attain a bird’s-eye view of their district’s technology usage and identify successes, challenges, vulnerabilities, and cost savings opportunities.

Download the EdTech Audit Checklist now and ensure your EdTech’s ROI is meeting your expectations.

Download the EdTech Audit Checklist

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