Education Forum

Highlights from Forum on Education
Presented by: IDC and JOBS 2020
September 25, 2003
Sawmill Inn, Grand Rapids

Panelists: Mike Johnson, Provost of Itasca Community College, Lloyd Styrwoll, Superintendent School District 318 and Mary Kosak, Director of Children First

Keynote speaker: Art Rolnick, Senior Vice President and Director of Research for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

The topic of the September 25th forum was how education plays an integral role in economic development. The forum hosted by Itasca Development Corporation (IDC and JOBS 2020) is the 10th in a series designed to help the community create a common vision for the future of the Itasca region. A result of previous forums has been the formation of nine action teams working on projects important to the community. (Updated reports on the work of the action teams are posted on this website – to view select: “Action Meeting Minutes”).

Following the Economic Summit held October 2001, fourteen community leaders traveled to Tupelo, Mississippi. Tupelo is an example of a model community proving how citizens can pull together to make a difference in economic development. As early as the 1950s it became apparent to leaders in Tupelo that any strategy aimed at improving the chances of the area’s workers to find well-paying, meaningful work ultimately would depend on the quality of educational opportunity offered them. If they wanted to make sure the region’s workforce was the sort that could attract higher-quality employers, it had to be well-educated. Community financial investments were put in place to hire reading assistances for the first and second grades to improve reading skills. IDC and JOBS 2020 planned today’s forum to highlight the benefits of education at all levels. The first five years of life is, arguably, the richest period for learning. Today’s forum encapsulated how “investments in young children (0-5 years) offer high rates of economic return”.

Each presenter at today’s forum was asked to address the following questions:

• What are the pressing issues/challenges facing my organization?
  
• What are the current trends and what impact do they have on my organization?
  
• What are my options?
  
• What does my organization need from the community in order to succeed?
  

Pressing Issues, Challenges and trends

Higher Education (Itasca Community College)

• In Itasca County 17.6% have a bachelor’s degree, versus 27.4% in Minnesota
  70% of students are traditional, 30% non-traditional
  
• The economics of higher education are changing – more tuition-based (40%) versus appropriations-based (60%)
  
• Many see a college education as a private good, rather than a public good
  
• The transition is moving from a primarily natural resource-based economy to a technology-based economy
  
• More emphasis will have to be placed on working as a region
  
• On-line learning will continue to expand
  

K through 12 (School District 318)

• Declining enrollment – since 1994-95 District 318 has lost approximately 1,000 students primarily because of low birth rate (318 is a net winner in open enrollment)
  
• ISD 318 has 32% of students receiving free or reduced cost lunches (compared to 27% in Minnesota)
  
• ISD 318 has an 18% mobility rate (compared to 15% in Minnesota)
  
• Total contracted teachers in 1994-95 = 345; this year = 266
  

Early Childhood (0-5)

• Public awareness of the importance of the first five years of a child’s life is slow in coming
  
• Many working parents cannot afford child care (for someone making minimum wage, quality child care could conceivably be 70% of their wages)
  
• Child care workers make an average salary of $15,000 a year (turnover is obviously high and is upsetting to children needing stable attachments to their caregiver)
  
• Minnesota has the highest percentage of working mothers (77%) in the country
  
• Drastic cuts for child care assistance from child care assistance have been made by the legislature (Minnesota now ranks below Mississippi in child care eligibility standards)
  

Options:

Higher Education (Itasca Community College)

• Must anticipate and understand employer’s needs in advance – be responsible for local workforce needs
  
• Develop K-16 private/public partnership
  
• Convince community and students about the value of higher education (average college graduate will earn $1M more that average high school graduate in lifetime.)
  
• Run the education system more like a business
  
• Provide more education via the internet
  
• Eliminate unnecessary duplication
  
• ICC needs to become public entrepreneurs and not continue to rely on state funds
  

K through 12 (School District 318)

• Concentrate on educating students to become productive members of the work world, rather than on managing the decline in enrollment
  
• Form school partnerships with other area schools
  
• Find better ways to deal with poverty and fully remediate identified populations
  

Early Childhood (0-5)

• Put a system in place to help mothers find quality, affordable child care
  

How can the community help?

Higher Education (Itasca Community College)

• Make education a key piece of local and state economic development plans
  
• Pay close attention to what is happening in the education system – support education as a priority in the state legislature
  
• Use Itasca Community College first!
  
• Help build an endowment to begin new programs
  
• Invest in pre kindergarten children – the price of not doing so is extremely high!
  

K through 12 (School District 318)

• Remember that ultimately the purpose of public education is to “serve as the cornerstone of democracy”
  
• Special interest groups should not try to divert public education’s purpose to fit their special interests
  
• Support intervention for children 0-4; children receiving quality child care are more successful in school.
• Poor quality care means they never catch up in school
  

Early childhood (0-5)

• Support the Children First! Partnership with the Golden K Kiwanis scholarship fund for parents attending school
  
• Do more research and reading on how much is spent on out-of-home placements, costs for low birth weight infants, fetal alcohol syndrome and other alcohol related issues. These problems are preventable with knowledge of early childhood development
  
• Understand that it is a “pay now, or pay later” situation
  
• Realize the substantial contribution the child care sector makes to the economy (the licensed child care industry directly employs more people the public secondary schools)
  
• Offer to help families with children – volunteer at day-care programs – serve on boards and committees working for children – sponsor parenting classes and support groups
  
• As parents and grandparents, become more aware of the importance of the early years
  

Keynote Address: Art Rolnick, Senior Vice President and Director of Research for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and Associate Economist, Federal Open Market Committee, Federal Reserve System, was today’s keynote speaker. The title of Rolnick’s presentation was “Early childhood development equals economic development”.

Rolnick told the audience “Research has shown that investment in early childhood development programs brings a real (inflation-adjusted) public return of 12% and a real total return, public and private, of 16%. We are unaware of any other economic development effort that has such a public return, and yet early childhood development is rarely viewed in economic development terms.”

“Children living in poverty often enter kindergarten without fundamental reading or language skills. They begin at a disadvantage and never catch up. They are destined for low-skill, low-paying jobs, and many will experience trouble in school and with the law – costs that society bears. Research is now unequivocal that high quality early childhood experiences substantially increase school and life success and are good public investments.”

Some advocates for boosting the economy call for the government to establish venture capital funds, subsidize new industries, build new stadiums and grant special favors so businesses can move from one community to another. However, research has shown that government involvement in private business is, at best, a zero-sum game, with returns often negative. Seventy-seven percent of Minnesota mothers work. Families need childcare that is affordable and supports their children’s development. Businesses are beginning to recognize that good childcare increases stability for employees. Instead of offering subsidies to private business in the name of new jobs, Rolnick says governments should invest in early childhood development which would yield high public, as well as private, returns.

Rolnick advocates that it is time for Minnesota to put its money where the return is: Prepare our disadvantaged children for a successful education and the opportunity for personal achievement. A foundation for early childhood development should be created. Existing programs (i.e., School Readiness and Head Start) are substantially under funded; only half of eligible children receive Head Start services. Rolnick says with an endowment of $1.5 billion – gathered from government and private sources over a five-year period – a foundation could fund high-quality, targeted programs to reach 20,000 disadvantaged children annually.

Minnesota needs to invest in early childhood development programs. The economic returns of education, both for students and for society, are well documented. Minnesota has a chance, even in tough budgetary times, to invest resources where they can get the best possible public return, which is the correct way to evaluate economic development.