2021 Ideas Challenge Finalists

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The NewDEAL is pleased to announce the finalists from this year’s Ideas Challenge, our biennial policy competition highlighting innovative policy solutions from NewDEAL Leaders across the nation. Their ideas would reimagine the social safety net, create good jobs, expand education opportunities, build more sustainable communities, and strengthen our democracy. This year’s Challenge came at an especially important time to identify best practices, as Leaders grapple with the work of rebuilding and recovery in the wake of the pandemic, and have a unique opportunity to act with federal funds from the American Rescue Plan. Winners in each of five categories will be announced next week during our 11th Annual Leaders Conference, on Thursday, November 18, and be featured in Governing Magazine. Join us on social media to celebrate these extraordinary ideas, and click here to read details on the finalists in all five categories!

Oakland80 – Oakland County’s Education Attainment Goal

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Problem

In 2018, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced the State’s 60 by 30 initiative – a robust goal to ensure 60% of working-age Michiganders have a professional certificate or college degree by 2030. Currently, Michigan ranks 37th nationally for education attainment with significant gaps by race, ethnicity and income. Oakland County, an economic driver for the state, boasts a 61% education attainment rate. However, significant barriers and inequities remain for residents across key communities, limiting access to post-secondary education. Personal barriers, including childcare, transportation, student debt, and a lack of career awareness, result in challenges to accessing and completing post-secondary education. Enrollment, completion, credentials/certified earned, and high school graduation rates must increase to achieve Michigan’s 60 by 30 goal and Oakland County’s local goal of 80% attainment by 2030. Increased educational attainment will lead to economic self-sufficiency, income equality and economic growth for Oakland County’s 1.3 million residents and 40,000 businesses.

 

Solution

Oakland County is the first county to set a local post-secondary education attainment goal in the state. Oakland80 is focused on creating solutions under six key pillars:

  1. K-12 Graduation Rates
  2. Net Migration
  3. Post-Secondary Enrollment
  4. Post-Secondary Completion
  5. Adults with Some College, No Degree
  6. Industry Recognized Credentials/Certificates

For each of these pillars, Oakland80 focuses on customized and personal barrier removal, accessible career and education navigation, and financial support to accessing education. Oakland80 is utilizing data to understand target populations, key communities of focus, and identifying gaps in the access to post-secondary education. Our team has a personal commitment to “meet people where they are” through the deployment of Oakland80 Career Navigators across the County, equipped with financial resources and partnerships to help individuals overcome any barriers interfering with their ability to enroll and complete post-secondary education.

Brighter Futures Early Learning Scholarships

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Problem

Early Learning is arguably more important than college, yet most new parents are not prepared for the exorbitant cost of quality child care for their young children. The cost of child care also limits parent choice as higher quality programs are out of reach for many. This means those families must choose from lower quality programs that may not be preparing their children for educational success. State and federal governments already support robust scholarships and financial aid programs for post-secondary education. What if these same options were available for quality early learning? The difference that a quality early learning experience has on a child’s overall and long-term educational, social and physical wellbeing is a proven and undisputed fact. Children who access these educational programs return this investment through higher learning achievement, higher employment levels and less economic burden as they become adults. 

 

Solution

An early learning scholarship program that sets aside quality child care slots for children who need it the most: Parents that have hit a “fiscal cliff”, making just enough money to knock them out of most existing child care subsidy programs; Foster parents who currently must pay out of pocket expenses for child care; Teen moms working to earn a high school diploma; and Parents experiencing homelessness.   These “scholarships” should be focused on making sure every child has access to a quality early learning experience so that they can be ready for kindergarten and achieve success in school.    This program would leverage existing systems and expand support for families, which will give them the ability to make the best educational choices for their children at the most critical age, regardless of their income. 

Pop Up Preschool

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Problem

Access to quality preschool is an important issue for children in Leon County, especially in our Title 1 neighborhoods where the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment scores are the lowest in the county.

Solution

The Pop-Up Preschool brings a quality child care experience directly to underserved neighborhoods during summer and spring break at no cost to parents. Parents are encouraged to attend with their children to learn how to be their child’s first teacher through engagement, education, and participation in facilitated early learning activities with their child.

Civics Education – Middle School through College

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Problem

The events that transpired on January 6th represent one of the darkest days in American history. It showed the vital importance of civics education. We need to properly educate our young people so they can become critical thinkers who are able to discern truth from fiction. They must understand the foundations of our representative democracy, and take a participatory role in it. Through civics, it is our collective hope that these students will not be indoctrinated into any one particular political ideology but rather become informed and educated citizens that will shape our nation for generations to come.

Solution

Our bill, which is now law, directs the NJ Dept of Education to require at least one course in civics in middle school starting with the 2022-2023 school year. Additionally, I have introduced legislation which would require students at public universities to complete at least one course of American government and civic engagement before graduating. 

Brave Spaces

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Problem

Our communities have become increasingly divided making it difficult to find a way to engage in civil discourse, particularly as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion. Too often, citizens have retreated to the safety of people and platforms they agree with rather than taking on tough conversations. 

Solution

The South City Foundation seeks to repair the cumulative harm of racist public policies and private actions that have trapped generations in segregated neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. Brave Spaces provides a safe space to start the important dialogue that is necessary to do this work through implicit biases, assess personal strengths and weaknesses in the realm of social justice, and foster a level of understanding that can be used in every facet of life.

Universal Child Care and Early Learning

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Problem

Accessing affordable child care has presented problems for families for a long time, and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the issue across the board. While every family in the Commonwealth has felt the impact of this crisis, those most vulnerable have felt the hardest impacts. The child care industry relies heavily on women of color. Facility closures due to this crisis have left many of them jobless and many working parents to fend for themselves. 

Solution

To create a more equitable and inclusive economy we must start by providing affordable, high-quality child care. Everyone who wants to work should be able to do so, but to make that possible, the barriers to Virginia’s child care access must be broken down. We must make historic investments in our early childhood education system, calling for child care to be recognized as a public necessity that will be affordable and accessible for all Virginia families. Every family with a child from birth through 4 years old will have access to affordable quality child care. Families that make up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Limit (“FPL”) will receive free child care. Families that make over 200% will pay no more than 7% of their income regardless of their family size. 

Thousand Kids Coding

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Problem

Middle and high school aged students are under-occupied during pandemic times, particularly in communities of color. We are also faced with a job market that is transitioning into the future faster than our educational system, particularly in schools serving communities of color.

 

Solution

We are using home based software, free devices and occasional in person meetings, to provide high quality, intensive coding classes in collaboration with our public library system. We offer much needed coding services to area businesses at affordable rates to generate income for the students and to sustain the program.

Teachers Rooted in Oakland — increasing recruitment and retention of teachers of color by addressing the cost of housing/cost of living

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Problem

In Oakland, 78% of the hard-to-staff specialized teachers, including STEM and SpEd, believe they may need to leave teaching because of the lack of affordable housing; this number is even higher for teachers of color. Our students — who are predominantly students of color — then suffer from major racial disparities in outcomes of academic performance. 

Solution

Our mission is to advance educational equity by addressing the cost of living and providing affordable housing to increase the recruitment & retention of highly skilled and committed Black, Latinx, and other teachers of color. We do this by providing affordable housing or housing stipends to incoming teacher residents (research shows teachers trained through residency models stay longer and are more effective) during their residency year and then supporting with guaranteed income stipends for the following 4 years, as long as they continue teaching in the school district.

 

Student Loan Repayment Tax Credit

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Problem

College tuition at both public and private institutions had exploded, and student loans now exceeded credit card bills or auto loans when it comes to household debt. In fact, Connecticut has the highest student debt per capita in the country, averaging over $30,000 per head. Relatedly, our state is suffering from a brain drain, with highly-skilled graduates leaving Connecticut to start their careers elsewhere. Businesses that have left this state regularly cite the challenge recruiting a talented workforce when explaining their decision to pack their bags.

My co-sponsors and I each represent moderate districts, and we knew that Connecticut couldn’t afford to abolish trillions of dollars of debt with the snap of a finger. So we decided to try something new. We believed that addressing the student loan crisis wasn’t just the right thing to do for young people—it was a necessary component of reviving our economy. 

Solution

Together, we drafted and passed SB 72, a corporate tax credit for any business that helped to pay off their employees’ student loans. In short, companies that hire recent graduates can reduce their tax liability by helping to pay back the loans of their employees. The credit is capped at $5,250 per year, to sync with a federal tax benefit available to employers. Republicans loved the bill because it cut taxes for businesses. Democrats loved it because it helped young people afford their college degrees and stay in Connecticut. Realtors helped push it over the finish line, citing evidence that student loan debt delays the purchase of a first home in Connecticut by an average of seven years. SB 72 was approved in the House and Senate on a bipartisan basis.

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