Investing in Parents

/ The Old Crank

A couple of weeks ago, in a post about a meeting between a group of adult learners and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, I mentioned being struck by how often the discussion turned to the non-academic barriers that can make adult education a challenge for many people.

Yesterday the National Journal published a story about the Jeremiah Program in Minneapolis, which provides low-income single mothers enrolled in college with subsidized housing in residential communities with on-site child care, in the belief that a lack of secure housing and child care are the biggest barriers preventing these young women from finishing college. (A pilot program in Austin, Texas is also underway, and there are plans to open a new campus in Fargo, North Dakota, next year)

To qualify for the program, these women have to be enrolled in college, but it’s not difficult to envision how this model could be adapted for adult learners seeking to improve their literacy and/or earn a high-school credential.

Jeremiah’s return on investment numbers also demonstrate, once again, the wisdom of investing in parents (especially mothers) in order to improve school readiness and reduce child poverty:

An independent study from Wilder Research of St. Paul found that every dollar invested in Jeremiah Program families can return up to $7 to society at large, both by reducing the family’s dependence on public assistance and by increasing the economic prospects of both mother and child. Sixty percent of the program’s 2011 graduates were unemployed when they entered the program, and the rest were earning an average of $9.46 per hour. Upon graduation, the women started earning an average wage of $19.35 per hour. Graduates leave with better parenting skills, and their children get the benefit of high-quality early-childhood care. 

Gloria Perez, Jeremiah’s president and CEO, told the National Journal that “everybody seems to acknowledge, across all political lines, that the mother tends to be the primary educator of the child and role model for the child,” but unlike the calls to invest in pre-K education, you don’t hear as much about scaling up programs that invest in parents. And yet the return on investment numbers here are just as powerful as those used to support the case for investing in pre-K.

Here’s an Idea for D.C.’s New One City Fund – Use It to Address the Lack of Diversity on Nonprofit Boards

/ The Old Crank

From a May 5th article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on how racial bias impedes diversity at nonprofits:

A 2010 Urban Institute report found that people of color are underrepresented on nonprofit boards in the Baltimore-Washington area, given their share in the region’s population. The report found that 77 percent of nonprofit board members in the area are white, and some boards—24 percent of them—are completely made up of white people. (my emphasis)

Mayor Gray’s proposed One City Fund (which includes, as one if its goals, “growing and diversifying our economy”) could be a great opportunity to do something about this, by awarding grants to nonprofits in D.C. that either have diverse leadership in place, or at least can demonstrate that they have a clear commitment to do so. Here’s a group that has done some good work on this issue.

Helpful Pointer to Charitable Deduction Proposals

/ The Old Crank

In case you missed it, the House Ways and Means Committee released a 558-page (!) report earlier this month detailing a range of options for overhauling the tax code. For those of us who work in the nonprofit sector, the report is of some significance because it  summarizes all of the proposals for limiting or changing the charitable tax deduction that have been bandied about over the last several years. A recent article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy  helpfully pointed out that the section on charitable giving begins on page 491.

Senate Workforce Investment Act Reauthorization Proposal May Tie Funding to GDP

/ The Old Crank

Interesting post from Neil Bomberg of the National League of Cities:

Earlier this week and in a meeting with NLC, Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Johnny Isakson’s (R-GA) offices announced the framework for the Senate WIA reauthorization bill. NLC welcomed the good news that the bipartisan measure will likely retain the current state and local governance structures, including a strong role for local elected officials and business leaders with local workforce development areas based on local labor markets or economic regions rather than political boundaries. The Senators’ offices also indicated there will be an effort to move forward with “smart consolidation,” which means taking a measured and evidence-based approach to program elimination and consolidation, and to avoid consolidating programs simply for the sake of consolidation. Finally, the offices indicated an interest in basing workforce development funding on a percentage of the overall gross domestic product (GDP) with expenditures increasing during economic downturns expenditures so that unemployed workers are able to receive the assistance they need. (my emphasis)

That last idea (that I bolded) is new to me. Interesting.