During last month’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama declared an end to the nation’s economic downturn. “The shadow of crisis has passed, and the state of the union is strong,” he said. But for many, the president’s announcement felt premature.
Currently, 45 million Americans live below the poverty line. Income inequality, stagnating wages and job market volatility make the prospects of upward mobility bleak. According to research by The Pew Charitable Trusts, Americans raised at the bottom of the income ladder are likely to remain there as adults. Two-thirds will never make it to the middle class, and 96 percent will be barred from the top bracket, where household income exceeds $81,700.
Erin Currier, director of Pew’s projects on financial security and mobility, studies the factors that limit economic opportunity. Recently named one of the most influential women in Washington under 35, she has utilized the research to establish nonpartisan agreement on the facts that guide policy decisions. (It’s already helped establish a bipartisan caucus.) “We hold this up to be the national ethos of being able to pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” she says, “but it doesn’t happen that often.”
During a conversation with NationSwell, she identified three areas lawmakers from both sides of the aisle need to address if they hope to restore every American’s chance at success.
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Tag: Economic Mobility
Why Tracking Students Post-Grad Can Help Improve Education and the Economy
We’re constantly hearing stories about college graduates drowning in student debt. But just as unsettling is the news that American students are falling behind in global rankings when it comes to finishing college and education mobility, according to a report from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD).
While it signals a need to focus on education policy, a new initiative is paving the way for better planning. States have long had a problem amassing accurate data on students as they move away with families, to pursue higher education or take a new job. But a multi-state pilot project from the the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), a regional organization comprised of 15 states and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, has revealed a way for more states to collaborate on student outcomes.
Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Hawaii participated in the WICHE project, which analyzed 192,689 students — including public high school graduates of 2005 and public college students from 2005 to 2011 across the four states.
“We’re all looking to educate and retain people in our states so that they can help the economy thrive,” says Peace Bransberger, a senior research analyst at WICHE. “You can only speculate until you have some information about students who have gone beyond your borders after you’ve educated them.”
Sharing cross-state data is no easy feat, especially when it comes to logistical, technical and political challenges such as student privacy. But the project enabled each of the four states to compare student outcomes while also taking note of how many students moved to one of the participating states for higher education or for a job. It also helped officials determine which local labor markets attract out-of-state candidates.
“There isn’t a lot of knowledge about what happens after a student competes (their education) in terms of labor market or employment because most states are relying on their own data only,” says Brian T. Prescott, director of policy research at WICHE.
While each state could have only accounted for around 62 percent using their own data, the multi-state approach allowed them to report on an additional 7 percent, according to Government Technology.
The $1.5 million project was backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and received an additional $5 million grant to expand the program to include at least six other states.
But aside from keeping track of student outcomes, the pilot project could provide educators with the tools for planning future policy. With additional data from other states, more lawmakers could learn about where residents are obtaining degrees or migrating for jobs, according to Paige Kowalski, director of state policy and advocacy for the Data Quality Campaign.
“This kind of data allows you to show them what actually happens or what policy is driving students in a certain direction,” says Andy Mehl, head of Idaho’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System. “It helps them be better informed about the decisions and the repercussions of what they’re doing.”
As parents and lawmakers recognize the urgency to design better education policy, perhaps more cross-state collaboration like the WICHE project could serve as a model in other regions.
MORE: Why Families Are Key to Transforming Education in America
Teaching How to Push Past Economic Despair
Can you even imagine what it’s like to have a gun held to your head as a fourth grader?
That’s the scary reality that some of the teens at Chicago’s South’s Side Harper High School (which boasts a strikingly high drop-out rate) have faced. Being a student there tests the wills of young men, so Tim Jackson, a counselor for the Becoming a Man program, is trying to get these boys to break out of the cycle that is so ingrained in them and to help them succeed in life.
According to the New York Times, the program “requires providing these teenagers with an objective in life — a visionary goal — worth saving themselves for.” Providing the boys with goals gives them a chance to move up the ladder of opportunity, which otherwise, thanks to the income gap, may seem entirely impossible to achieve.
The bigger the income gap of a state, the harder economic mobility is for future generations, according to the phenomenon “The Great Gatsby Curve,” dubbed so by economist Alan B. Krueger. More research by economics professors Melissa S. Kearny and Phillip B. Levine has shown that inequality continues generation to generation, and the bigger the income gap, the more likely young men are to drop out of high school.
There are many other possible reasons for these results, but all are challenged in their report and none can explain away the effect of inequality. Their discoveries are similar to an earlier study of the likelihood of teenage girls becoming single mothers where the income gap is large.
“Economic despair” is the term given when children believe the middle class is unattainable — and thus, have no desire to invest in their own future to get there. This falls in line with research, like a study of juvenile offenders from Philadelphia and Arizona that found those who didn’t think they had a long future ahead committed more crime than people expecting to live long lives.
The model of economic despair helps researchers to realize just how tough it is for young people to feel they can succeed. On top of that, Laurence Stainberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia explains, “the decisions you make in your teens are going to determine in some sense how the rest of your life is going to be.”
With new programs like the one Mr. Jackson is running, there is a hope that perceptions can be altered.
Ms. Kearney explained, “the kinds of interventions we need are those that shape the opportunity sets and the perception of opportunity of these kids.” Becoming a Man aims to do just that by helping young boys develop dreams for the future — thus, planting the seeds of success.