Family, education key to Chester’s rebirth

I’d like to comment on an editorial which appeared last Friday in the Delco Times entitled “Family, education key to Chester’s rebirth”.
Having spent a number of years directing the United Way in the City of Chester, I had the opportunity to meet and work with a number of hard-working dedicated people focused on Chester’s future. Two people with whom I had the pleasure of working and who I consider as friends were mentioned in the article.

Wendell Butler is a lifelong Chester resident, the Republican Mayor of Chester and its former police chief. Being a police officer in a poor neighborhood gives you a very unique view of the impact of poverty and the importance of the family structure. Something I learned as a cop in West Philly in the 70’s.

Portia West, another life-long resident was elected last year to Chester’s City Council as a Democrat, only the 2nd time a group of Democrats held citywide office in Chester since 1906.

Wendell Butler and Portia West are committed professionals focused on Chester’s future. Both see the importance of the family structure, and both agree that if change is going to happen, the home is where it must start. They know that education does not start in first grade, but begins at home when the child is born and continues in the local community as the child matures.

The Mayor and the Councilwoman are part of the bi-partisan political leadership in Chester, but they cannot be expected to have all the answers. They can, however, be instrumental in pulling the city’s power structure together to find the needed help for Chester’s children. With the assistance of community leadership organizations like United Way, they can help the residents of Chester focus on how to surround its children with a community of support, empowering students to stay in school. Chester should be about connecting students and their families to critical community resources that are tailored to their needs, and all designed to prepare its students to succeed.

Friday’s editorial ended with a suggestion that Chester’s recovery will be accomplished one family at a time. With folks like Wendell Butler and Portia West in leadership positions,and with the help of parents like Darlene, Deneen, Karen and Portia; wonderful young men and women like Donald, Darrell and Juani, Tyrone, Portia and Zaakiyah who have graduated Chester High and are doing very well in college, I’m convinced Chester’s resurgence is coming much sooner than most people think.

Waiting for Superman II

“Waiting for Superman” the new film directed by Davis Guggenheim is certainly generating discussions about educational success, although I think the film would have been more impactful by taking a more realistic look at what is needed for true educational reform. The documentary follows five kids in their efforts to secure a good education outside of traditional public school systems, and while charter schools might be a solution for some, widespread educational reform will require hard work and sustained collaboration of a variety of committed stakeholders.

School systems are only part of the educational process. Successful education is dependent on three systems: School, Family and Community. A child needs at least one of the systems to be working well if he or she is to have any chance to succeed. If a school system does its job well, educators could overcome family strife, and could overcome a poor community, and get their students prepared. Family and community have equally important roles in education, a fact that seems to get left out of many discussions on education reform.

The unfortunate reality is that many students come to school with needs that hinder their ability to do well in school. An idea that has gained traction in some communities is the concept of community schools which bring together, under one roof, the services and activities our children and their families need to reach their potential. School buildings are open all day and evening for tutoring, homework assistance and recreational activities. Medical, dental, English language instruction, employment counseling, citizenship programs and GED programs and child care services could also be available to meet the community’s needs. Having these programs and social services in schools could encourage parents to get more involved in their children’s education, and help to stabilize families so they can better support their children’s learning. It’s one idea of many.

Local educational reform must start with a collaborative effort between school districts, parents, businesses, labor, religious, civic and neighborhood groups and their leaders. Every aspect of the community must be involved for reform efforts to be successful, because educational success doesn’t take place only at school. It starts at home and continues in the community.

If you get a chance, go to see the movie, then add your voice to the discussion. We owe it to our children to provide them with the best education possible.

Waiting For Superman

Have you heard the buzz on Davis Guggenheim’s new movie “Waiting for Superman", which premiered last week? You might remember Guggenheim’s best known work, “An Inconvenient Truth” the documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the global warming a worldwide issue. “Waiting for Superman" is an exploration of public education in the U.S. and how today’s educational opportunities affect our children.

The film follows five unforgettable kids whose futures depend on charter school lotteries in their search for a better education, and through the film Guggenheim aims to spark a national conversation about public education, and how communities might transform their local school systems. Public education is one of those issues with the potential to bring people together on its own, and the hope is that community leadership organizations like United Way will convene diverse stakeholders to discuss common-ground efforts to provide every child with a quality education.

By engaging diverse stakeholders, including residents, non-profits, businesses and others to develop sustained collaborative efforts to strengthen education, community leadership organizations could be in a better position to link unique local resources together with its educational resources to provide a more effective, nurturing learning environment. As I‘ve written before, it isn’t rocket science, but getting a community’s assets all working together to support education, could be a very empowering tool.

If you get a chance, go to see the movie, then add your voice to the discussion. We owe it to our children to provide them with the best education possible.

Transparency

As I stated in my last post, we should be demanding that our political and community leaders demonstrate what they have accomplished, not what they can’t be blamed for. Our political leaders will again go through their regular evaluation on Election Day. Since most employees go through a job evaluation annually, it’s only fitting that elected officials do, although a dramatic Yes or No final decision is not for the feint of heart.

Since we support government programs through our tax dollars and non-profit programs through our contributions, shouldn’t we know if the funded program was worth the money spent on it? I wonder how much the public sector might change if we had a similar evaluation for publicly supported programs. Not a general election, but a realistic evaluation to determine if a program is not performing as advertised. I’d like to think that in order to secure funding, funded programs have not only identified goals, but have established some sort measurement tools to gauge their effectiveness in meeting those goals. I’d also like to think that these programs were funded because each created a collaboration of committed partners to re-define how they work together in order to accomplish those goals, and that political connections were not a consideration. No, I don’t believe in the tooth fairy.

Most of us could appreciate a report on funded programs. Nothing too elaborate, but something that shows what the program goals were, who were the partners, what was accomplished, what did it cost and what do we do now. Wouldn’t you like to see how your tax dollars have worked for you? Kudos to the programs that show success; “Sorry Charlie” for those that don’t.

I think an increase in transparency could go a long way to building additional support for effective programs, and reducing the continuation of weak programs. The current economic and social conditions in our local communities require us to maximize use of our tax and charitable dollars, and we should demand more from our elected or non-profit leadership. The strength of our local communities depends on these leaders and the decisions they make!

Listen before you call him an idiot!

The Saturday of Labor Day weekend in 1970 had two big events in the Philadelphia area. An anti-war rally was held at Valley Forge featuring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, and a young speaker named John Kerry. Most of my focus, however, was on north Philly, because that same day on Temple’s campus the Black Panther Party was hosting their national convention. Tensions were extraordinarily high in Philadelphia late that summer. On August 29th, Fairmount Park Police Sgt. Frank von Colln was murdered by 5 members of the Black Panthers while sitting at his desk at 63rd and Catherine, 2 other cops were shot by the Panthers that same day in West Philly, and these shootings came a few days after 2 other cops were shot. 5 cops shot in one week!

I graduated from the Philadelphia Police Academy on Friday September 4th and was assigned to the 18th District. 6 days before my 20th birthday. You may remember that I wrote back in March that my self-described duties as an “armed social worker” eventually gave me a very unique insight into poverty, crime, education and the importance of a community support structure. 40 years ago today I found myself sitting on a police bus as part of a tactical response effort put together by Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo. With riot helmet and baton in hand, I sat and wondered to myself how I might possibly make a difference when whole communities seemed at odds. Black – White, Young – Old, Anti-war – Pro-war.

As in the Buffalo Springfield song…
“There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong …
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say hooray for our side”

Today’s animosity in social and political discourse is getting in the way of the kind of collaborations our communities need. These tough economical times will not allow bottom-less pockets of money. Times require that we establish wide-spread community engagement to determine what communities can be and what they might accomplish. We need to have our best ideas identified, discussed and evaluated without politics getting in the way. We should be demanding that our elected leaders demonstrate what they have accomplished, not what they can’t be blamed for. A lot has changed in the past 40 years, but unfortunately a lot has stayed the same. If we spent as much time trying to understand the other guy and his or her ideas as we spend figuring out how to label him, we’d be better off. Finding common-ground with your opponent could be a powerful tool, but you have to give a little to gain a little. You have to be ready to give up your held-fast beliefs to gain a better understanding of other ideas and possibly a stronger more-diverse collaborative. Stand up and be heard, but listen to what the other guy is saying before you call him an idiot.

Community Empowerment

There will be a lot of discussion of funding for education over the coming weeks and possibly through to the election. Federal funding isn’t coming in at the amount Governor Rendell had planned, so he now has to adjust for a $282 Million shortfall. Leaders in Harrisburg will be debating which departments get cut, and how much. Education advocates are calling for an increased expenditure for education, while many are just hoping for a flat budget. Given the state of the national and local economies, I think maintaining last year’s education budget would be an accomplishment.

Like many private sector enterprises, local school districts will be expected to do more with less. Underperforming District’s can strengthen their chances of an educational turnaround, by increasing engagement with parents and community leaders. As I wrote back in March, “Education = Family + Community + School”. The Districts’ challenge is getting them to participate in an inclusive process to assess the district’s strengths, challenges and needs, to develop a vision, and a plan to meet those needs. It’s not rocket science to consider getting people together to discuss an issue, but a few general rules for effectively engaging stakeholders should be considered:
• Establish ownership among participants,
• Build on the strengths of local individuals and organizations,
• Promote participation by community-wide stakeholders,
• Get everyone working together and focused on the same issues,
• Develop specific actions with measurable results.

By engaging diverse stakeholders, including residents, non-profits, businesses and others to develop sustained collaborative efforts to strengthen education, the District could be in a better position to link unique community resources together with its educational resources to provide a more effective, nurturing learning environment. As I said, it isn’t rocket science, but getting a community’s assets all working together to support education, or safety, or any community-wide issues could be a very empowering tool.

A tool that is needed now!

Education Partnerships Needed

As the summer starts to wind down, I thought I’d end my summer blogging hiatus with a discussion on education, specifically what communities can do to turnaround underperforming school districts. Here in Pennsylvania, there will be a lot of discussion on education funding over the next few weeks, but additional funding in and of itself is not the answer. Local communities must realize that any plans to turnaround underperforming districts can only happen with the community and parents working in partnership with the schools.

Education should be about empowering our children to achieve in life. We all know that education does not start in first grade, but begins at home when the child is born and continues in the local community as the child matures. In order to improve education, parents and community leaders should be part of an inclusive process to assess a district’s strengths, challenges and needs, to develop a vision, and a plan to meet those needs. Local community leadership should be connecting with residents looking for ways to combine their ongoing engagement with the structure of No Child Left Behind in its school district

Each community should be focused on how to surround its children with a community of support, empowering students to stay in school. Each community should be about connecting students and their families to critical community resources that are tailored to their needs, and all designed to prepare those students to succeed. Resources could include “wrap-around” supports for students who cannot learn to their full potential when they are hungry, feel unsafe in school or whose parents cannot support their education at home. Each community should be about identifying how best to link its unique community resources together with its educational resources in order to provide an effective, nurturing learning environment.

It’s not just the money spent on education; it’s about building active and ongoing partnerships between parents, communities and school districts.