We Can and Must Do a Better Job For Our Most Vulnerable Population--Urban and Rural Poor Kids

Donald Trump appears to want to break that dynamic nationally. Will any Ohio elected official take the lead here?

Back in 2014, Opportunity Ohio tried to launch a new project aimed at what we labeled the “4pm-to-8am” problem plaguing low-income kids. When I lived in Colorado, I sat on a nonprofit board of directors for a residential treatment home for at-risk kids. The kids at the facility largely came from broken and violent homes saddled with alcohol and drug issues. Society had failed these kids, which eventually led me to revisit the issue after watching the conservative movement spend virtually all of its time and resources solely on much-needed educational reforms (i.e., the 8am-to-4pm problem). Our movement was awash in funding for fixing what happens during the school day. There appeared to be no money for fixing what happens thereafter. Below is the proposal we came up with to seek funding. We sent the proposal to fifty-two center-right foundations all across America seeking support to help us tackle this vexing issue. Unfortunately, not one foundation even offered to explore the project with us, let alone provide us funding. As a result, the project went nowhere.

When I was crafting my proposed agenda for Ohio as part of my gubernatorial run in 2023, I decided to include the 4pm-to-8am issue in my platform. I simply felt that strongly about the need to help Ohio’s least fortunate escape the systemic dysfunctional environments in which they existed. In conjunction with that 4pm-to-8am problem, I included the need to rebalance the state funding that went to higher education versus tech, trade, and blue collar professional programs. For too long, 85% of state funding has gone to higher education to help the 15% of Ohio’s K-12 graduates who frankly don’t need the help, as 15% of state funding went to tech, trade, and blue collar professional programs where the other 85% of Ohio’s K-12 gradates/dropouts go. If an Ohio kid managed to survive the 4pm-to-8am obstacle with whatever mediocre education Ohio’s underperforming K-12 public schools provided him, he got very little help from Ohio to pursue a livelihood that would place him squarely on the ladder of upward mobility.

Middle-to-upper class suburban kids=well-funded higher education kingdoms to spend six years getting a degree (only 15% of Ohio’s K-12 graduates obtain a degree in six years).

Lower class urban and rural kids=under-funded crumbs if they even manage to find a post-K-12 trade program (85% of Ohio’s K-12 graduates/dropouts end up here).

So, you can imagine my excitement when Donald Trump last week adopted our policy proposal to defund higher education in order to fund tech, trade, and blue collar professional programs. He is spot-on that Harvard University doesn’t need federal funds, but America’s trade programs do. The same obviously goes for state funds that get sent to Ohio State and Ohio’s other four-year public colleges and universities. Wouldn’t it be great if Ohio for once led the way on rebalancing funding between higher education and blue collar programs? We should put the majority of money where the majority of K-12 graduates go. Wouldn’t it be even more incredible if Ohio blazed a bright trail on solving the 4pm-to-8am problem hurting so many kids? No amount of funding inside the classroom can reverse the damage done to kids during the longer hours they spend outside of the classroom.

As DOGE revealed, America spends a lot of money on ineffective, wasteful programs here and abroad. America also spends untold amounts educating our middle- and upper-class kids with palatial higher education facilities. As we are pouring buckets of cash into help the world’s poor and on our kids who don’t need it, America's urban and rural poor kids are left holding an empty bag and dead-end dreams. Under no scenario does that dynamic make any sense. Trump appears to want to break that dynamic nationally. Will any Ohio elected official take the lead here?

____

Unringing the Bell: Solving the Challenges Facing Ohio’s Low-Income Kids Outside the Classroom

“Reading Red Alert: 58% of Columbus Third-Graders Haven’t Passed State Exam, Risk Being Held Back,” Columbus Dispatch (December 8, 2013)

That headline is shocking, but not surprising. It is also a travesty that the greatest country in history can’t figure out how to help its most vulnerable population. We must and can do better.

Over the last thirty years in the conservative movement, a great deal of time, resources, and ingenuity focused on what occurs within the classroom of America’s low-income kids. The proliferation of charter schools and voucher programs injected competition into the K-12 environment and, more importantly, provided a lifeline to many kids trapped in failing schools. While these successes should be celebrated, too many kids remain trapped in failing public schools or charter schools that haven’t delivered on the promises they made to improve the educational performances of students.

One of the main obstacles to success inside the classroom – no matter who runs that classroom – is what happens outside the classroom. All too often conservatives correctly cite the problem of bad parenting, but fail to proffer any solutions to solve the problem. Unfortunately, we don’t have the answer to this parenting problem, but we believe firmly that we must solve it if America’s children are ultimately to succeed in the classroom and in life.

We know some of the key problems:

· Too many low-income kids get too little sleep;

· Too many low-income kids get too little protein, vitamins, and minerals;

· Too many low-income kids spend too little time being read to or reading books;

· Too many low-income kids spend too much time watching television or playing video games; and

· Too many low-income kids spend too much time in chaotic environments.

How can we expect a low-income child today to climb the ladder of opportunity, let alone compete with her peer growing up just fifteen minutes away in suburbia?

Given the facts above, is it any surprise that Madeleine will experience America as a land of opportunity, as Susan will struggle to get by her entire life? As Richard Reeves and Kimberly Howard noted in “The Parenting Gap,” “Public policy to address the parenting gap falls into one of two broad camps: building the skills of parents, or providing services to supplement their efforts.” Unlike many people, we see this challenge as a fiscal issue because every one of the eight “parenting gap” problems above is currently dealt with by spending money on government programs—food stamps, Head Start, subsidized housing, more educational testing, and, ultimately, the criminal justice system.

Unfortunately, government programs and the spending that accompanies them have been relatively unsuccessful in breaking the cycle of poverty for our low-income children. The American Dream Scorecard from 1970 to 2003 reveals a stark picture.

With the recent recession, the scorecard has only gotten worse in the last decade. It is time the conservative movement uses its energy, resources, and ideas to solve this monumental problem, and we need your help. We would be grateful for your foundation’s partnership in this critical effort. We can start in Ohio and, if successful, export that success to the other states.

Execution Plan

We must be realistic in how we approach this vital mission. To ensure our best chance of success, we will focus on the Columbus area and first conduct pilot programs of our proposed solutions. This geographic and limited approach will conserve resources and allow us to closely monitor progress and outcomes.

Here is how we plan to execute this project:

· Step One (by March 31, 2014): Appoint a “workhorse” commission comprised of leaders from the educational community, the faith-based community, the resource provider community, the private sector, and policymakers. We say “workhorse” because we aren’t interested in people who want to serve on the commission, but not really roll-up their sleeves and work. Ohio has enough show horses; we need workhorses. The commission will have two co-chairs, with one being Opportunity Ohio Board Chairman and the other being a high-level individual recognized as a leader in Ohio. The commission will meet once per month to identify possible solutions, with staff using time in between meetings to research and to refine the commission’s work.

· Step Two (by June 30, 2014): Conduct a comprehensive review of existing efforts across the United States to identify ideas that are working, including potential site visits to successful programs. We see no reason why our effort shouldn’t advance our learning curve by leveraging ideas that are getting results.

· Step Three (by September 30, 2014): Release a report on the commission’s work that includes the recommended solutions for pilot initiatives in Columbus. Each recommended pilot will include details on the solutions and a robust set of metrics to gauge effectiveness.

· Step Four (by December 31, 2014): Identify groups interested in piloting the solutions and work collaboratively to raise resources to conduct the pilots.

· Step Five (by June 30, 2015): Pilot proposed solutions.

· Step Six (by December 31, 2015): Evaluate the pilot programs, issue recommendations on full implementation across Ohio, and find partners in other Ohio cities to spearhead to successful initiatives.

· Continuous: Throughout the project, we will work with a videography team to capture stories about the individuals we seek to help. Too often, the conservative movement focuses on mind messaging (e.g., data and legal arguments) instead of heart messaging (e.g., inspirational stories about the human condition). While data is important in the foundational policy work, stories inspire and move people to act. We will make sure that our work captures real stories so we can increase the penetration of our policy work.

As a core requirement of the commission’s work, we believe any solution identified in this process should adhere to these five principles:

· It must be sustainable;

· It must be scalable;

· It must adhere to a “give a man a fish, he eats for the day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime” philosophy;

· It must address three different groups: today’s kids, the nearly independent kids, and the parents of today’s kids; and

· It must be led by a community entity, not government.

Proposed Budget

“One of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity.” Andrew Carnegie (1899)

Opportunity Ohio has always prided itself on being an efficient steward of investments made in our work. As you can see on the Ohio Attorney General’s Charitable website (http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/CharitableRegistration), 91% of investments in Opportunity Ohio are spent on programs, not administration or overhead. The proposed budget for this project covers all programmatic elements of this project, but does not cover the cost to conduct the pilots. In order to serve as a neutral third party evaluator, Opportunity Ohio will not run a pilot, but will work to raise funds for other groups to run the pilots.

Conclusion

“’Governments’ are things. Governments don’t care. People care, and no people care like parents do—well, except maybe grandparents and other caregivers, and thank God for them.”

Anonymous (2007)

It simply is not enough for the conservative movement to acknowledge the impact bad parenting has on the lives of America’s low-income children and hope we can rectify that impact between 8:00am and 4:00pm Monday through Friday and on weekends. We must bring to bear the amazing talents and resources available within our movement to identify solutions that work and to improve the lives of America’s most vulnerable population. It won’t be easy, but as the saying goes, nothing worth doing is ever easy.

We hope your foundation will join us in this noble endeavor. Your investment will make a difference in the lives of low-income children, young adults, and parents and will help us develop best practices for breaking the cycle of poverty. Together we can restore the great promises of this country and once again make America a land of opportunity for all.