It is just hours after the polls have closed, with Barack Obama having given his rousing yet sober victory speech, and John McCain his conciliatory remarks.  Both leaders evoked a spirit of unity that is both encouraging and necessary; it must be made real.  With the full scope of results state-by-state not yet clear, here are brief observations before I try to get a few hours of sleep.

How eight years have changed the nation's circumstances.  Eight years ago this fall, some 537 votes in Florida and a contested Supreme Court decision settled an election.  Illinois State Senator Barack Obama lost an uphill primary challenge to Congressman Bobby Rush.   Tonight, Barack Obama is not only a U.S. Senator but President-elect of the United States.  And rather than leave its electoral votes for the courts to decide, Florida has given President-elect Obama a margin of about 200,000 votes, out of a national margin of at least 5 million votes (and counting).  Time and elections, and the minds of free people, provide a marvelous corrective mechanism.  And as Abraham Lincoln rebounded from his defeat by Stephen Douglas, Barack Obama has shown extraordinary talents and growth, synchronized with the needs of his times.

What would Langston Hughes think tonight?  His poem "Let America Be America Again" has new meaning:  "America will be!"

Arriving this morning at New Haven's Ward 10 polling place -- Wilbur Cross High School -- just before 5:40 a.m., I found a growing line.  By the time the doors opened at 6:00, several dozen of us were waiting.  I was voter 14. 

Now back home, as my three-year-old daughter eats breakfast before preschool, I will try to convey to her a measure of my excitement.  Maybe this Election Day will become one of her earliest memories, a favorable one to counter my own early memories of the Watergate hearings and Nixon's resignation!  She'll be wearing an Obama sticker -- not just any sticker -- to school today.  She'll have time enough to think for herself when she's a teenager, if not well before that!

On the eve of tomorrow's historic Presidential election, it's worth reflecting on previous elections.  For many of the millions of voters and volunteers, tomorrow promises to help redress not only electoral disappointments but profound misdirections of politics and policy that have affected people's lives.

For me personally, this is a moment to remember past elections, successful and not, in which I volunteered.  Some high and low points:

• 1987-88 Dukakis in New Hampshire primary (won)
• 1988 Dukakis in Connecticut primary (won)
• 1988 Dukakis in general election (alas .  .  . )
• 1990 Bruce Morrison for governor of CT (lost to Weicker, with Rowland also in three-way race)
• 1990 Rosa DeLauro for Congress in CT (elected vs. Tom Scott of Milford), from office at the corner of Trumbull and State Streets
• 1992 Rosa re-election (again over Tom Scott), as part of Clinton/Dodd/DeLauro coordinated campaign out of New Haven
• 1994 Bill Curry for governor of CT (won primary, lost to Rowland in four-way race that also included Eunice Groark and Tom Scott)
• 1998 Chuck Schumer for Senate in NY (elected against incumbent D'Amato)
• 1999-2000 Al Gore in Presidential primary in New Hampshire (won against Bill Bradley)
• 2000 Gore's general election campaign (of course lost Bush v. Gore decision and Florida's notorious "butterfly ballot") 
• 2004 John Kerry's general election campaign, and America Coming Together canvassing in Pennsylvania (at least he won that state)
• 2006 John DeStefano for governor of CT (won primary before loss to incumbent Gov. Rell)
• 2007-08 Barack Obama in the New Hampshire, CT, and PA primaries (one first-place finish and two seconds), and in New Hampshire as well as CT for the general election this fall . . .
  

Before this year, the peaks of exhilaration came in 1992: at the Democratic Convention in New York's Madison Square Garden, where I volunteered with the broadcast liaison group and had an advance copy of Bill Clinton's acceptance speech, embargoed before delivery, and then reveled with thousands of delegates on the convention floor as he gave that speech, punctuated with the dropping of balloons to the tunes of "Don't Stop Thinking about Tomorrow"; and that November, when he was elected and Rosa resoundingly re-elected.

Will tomorrow night rival those moments of youthful optimism, when I was months out of college?  Let's hope so -- even more now seems at stake.  Though the Cold War is now more distant, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, weapons proliferation, increased terrorism, economic turmoil, appalling inequalities, myopic energy policies, and global warming are heightened risks.  We need inspiration, resolve, and (to the extent possible) bipartisan imagination to address the many challenges facing our country and our planet.  New leadership is coming, not a moment too soon.

A decade and a half ago, this opinion article expressed my own sense of possibility and contingency, which in their own ways many others in my generation felt.  For me at least, that sense of possibility has been stirred anew.  And the younger generation -- those now in their teens and twenties -- have contributed in fundamental ways to the new electoral reality, as they must do to helping to solve the myriad of problems this election is about. 

I'll be up well before 6 a.m. tomorrow to vote, as surely many neighbors will be, too.  Until then . . . 

This October 22 opinion article connected a story from the sports pages to a serious public policy issue: domestic violence, and men's role in preventing the problem.  

 October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

This is a brief update to a July 19 post below.  See that, including a link to Algernon Austin’s May 18 post on his Thora Institute blog, as well as the following recent articles – which together speak to the benefits, costs, and place of school facilities, in relation to other factors:

*New Haven Independent,  September 17, 2008 article by Allan Appel on new Co-op High School and September 5, 2008 article by Allan Appel on new Columbus school building

*New Haven Register,  September 18, 2008 article by Elizabeth Benton
“With school construction costs escalating in the face of rising commodity prices, labor costs and new energy standards, the city is preparing to ask the state for $35 million in additional funding. The city needs the money for Sheridan Communications & Technology, Metropolitan Business Academy and Davis Street 21st Century Magnet schools, and may scale back future school construction projects to offset the burden on local taxpayers.”

*Hartford Courant, “Teachers, Students Appreciate Avon's Renovated High School,”
September 11, 2008 article by Daniela Altimari

*From the Washington Post, this September 1, 2008 column by Jay Mathews

On September 11, 2001, I was on Manhattan's West 26th Street when the planes struck the World Trade Center just a few miles downtown.  Astonished concern soon turned to horror upon news of the second, third, and eventually fourth planes.  As we left our offices by mid-morning, the smell of explosive chemical fire and spread of dust were becoming evident.  By nature a fast walker, I sped with particular vigor uptown to meet my girlfriend at the landmark location we'd hastily arranged by phone: Zabar's on Broadway, just north of H & H.  (She was evacuating the Citigroup Tower in midtown, which seemed a plausible terrorist target.)  It wasn't the comfort of bagels and lox but merely a familiar rendezvous we were seeking.  We didn't have cell phones, and land lines were rapidly failing, too.  So Zabar's it was.

The experiences of those initial hours were surreal, as the magnitude of the attacks and their impact emerged, the human losses strained imagination, and we worried about what might come next.  Some memories remain vivid.  The next day's newspaper included photographs of people leaping to certain death to flee the flaming towers.  Posters with pictures of missing people were everywhere.  Shrines grew to honor fallen firefighters.  We explicitly thanked the police officers patrolling the streets.  The stir of helicopter surveillance overhead could be heard for nights to come. Images of the American flag roused a sentimental patriotism, immune to efforts by politicians -- then and since -- to exploit the attacks to divert attention from our national insecurities.

In some measure I will forever be a New Yorker, even years after returning to my home state of Connecticut.  Peace to those families who lost loved ones seven years ago.  Those of us who walked away from the shock of September 11 will always remember it and them.  In living there is greater purpose, to savor our days and try to help make the sober brutalities of the world a little less brutal.   

Wasilla, Alaska -- where Sarah Palin was mayor before recently becoming governor of that state -- has a population smaller than that of Woodbridge, Connecticut.  According to the 2000 Census, Woodbridge had a population of 8983, compared with 5470 for Wasilla. . .  

A recent New York Times article offers an update on the integration of technology and education:
August 17, 2008 Essay:  At School, Technology Starts to Turn a Corner
By STEVE LOHR
"As a new school year begins, the time may have come to reconsider how large a role technology can play in changing education."

Lohr writes, "Worries about the nation’s future competitiveness led to the creation in 2002 of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a coalition whose members include the Department of Education and technology companies like Apple, Cisco Systems, Dell and Microsoft. The government-industry partnership identifies a set of skills that mirror those that the New Technology Foundation model is meant to nurture. Those skills include collaboration, systems thinking, self-direction and communication, both online and in person."

Relevant resources range from Google Teacher, nationally, to Concepts for Adaptive Learning in New Haven and now other Connecticut cities.  Concepts solicits and refits donated computers and then provides them to families for free, along with training to support the education and job preparation of parents and public school students.  See:
http://www.eachchildlearns.org

Also of possible interest, the following book chapter:
"Harlem Snapshot: Schooling in New Technologies"  pp. 143-149 in Children and the Media, Everette E. Dennis and Edward C. Pease, editors -- available through Google Books. 

Related to the May 27 post below on regionalism, here is a recent story about the possibility -- so far unfulfilled -- that two suburban towns might merge their police departments:

New Haven Register, August 22, 2008  “Madison, Clinton Police Not Merging,” by Amanda Pinto

The search for a preschool and now my daughter’s imminent enrollment prompt these reflections on early childhood resources, policy, and research – in the New Haven region, across Connecticut and beyond. 

About 70 percent of 4-year-olds in the U.S. attend center-based programs, while fewer than half of 3-year-olds do.  Studies in Oklahoma and elsewhere suggest the academic among other benefits of preschool, though those benefits depend on program quality. (See, for example, National Institute for Early Education Research, as well as other sources cited below.)

We should seek not only safe, playful, learning-rich early experiences for our own children, but also a system in which such opportunities are available to all.  In that spirit and inspired by reports like this one – which called for “more constructive cross-fertilization among the domains of science, policy, and practice” – this post aims to connect the personal and the public.  Readers may find practical information about local early childhood resources, along with context for those different “domains.”

My daughter starts preschool in September at Creating Kids, associated with the  Connecticut Children's Museum.  Because the program also offers care for younger children, there is a possibility that my son – not yet a year old – will eventually join her.  (It’s unclear whether there will be a spot there for him or exactly when and on what basis my wife will return to working outside the home.)

We were encouraged to discover that, in contrast to the particular scarcity of slots in accredited centers for children under age three, there are more options once a child turns three.  Still, decisions are difficult, especially due to the pressures of timing and partial information about lotteries, waiting lists, and of course costs.

Considerations include safety, overall quality, social development elements, pure play versus academic/cognitive orientation, indoor versus outdoor and physical components, location/convenience, schedule, facilities, experience and turnover of educators, and therefore salaries and costs.

The rewards of high-quality programs are evident, as are the emergence of achievement gaps by the time many children enter kindergarten or first grade.

Economists increasingly are making an explicit cost-vs.-benefits case, emphasizing return on investment:

*James J. Heckman, at the University of Chicago, has written of  "Schools, Skills, and Synapses."  He and Dimitry V. Masterov articulate "The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children." 

*Arthur Rolnick, with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, is known for work on "the economics of early childhood development." 

Testimony comes also from expert medical doctors such as Harvard’s Jack P. Shonkoff, who chairs the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, which combines scholars in neuroscience, developmental psychology, pediatrics, and economics, and who visited Connecticut for a presentation in January 2008.  Shonkoff’s collaborator Deborah A. Phillips, a psychologist at Georgetown, co-edited with him “From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development.”

Counterparts are at institutions including Yale and its Child Study Center, whose recent work on infancy and early childhood is summarized here, with disabilities such as autism among the concerns addressed.  Yale's Edward Zigler Center (formerly Bush Center) in Child Development and Social Policy has extensive links here. 

Selected research centers beyond Yale include the Harvard Family Research Project, the National Center for Early Development and Learning , and the National Institute for Early Education Research.

Foundational research includes the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study and Carolina Abecedarian Project.  A study of Chicago preschools, described in a May 9, 2001 New York Times article “Gains Found for the Poor in Rigorous Preschool,”  provides another example.  In the Chicago case documented in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the preschool program, operated by the public school system, required parents to participate in children's homework assignments and helped families arrange health care and social services. According to the Times account by Jacques Steinberg, ''It's more than just providing basic literacy skills,'' said Arthur J. Reynolds at the University of Wisconsin, who led the study. ''You've got to put parents in classrooms, as well as kids.'' Diane Ravitch agreed the Chicago study was encouraging, demonstrating “if you have a clear focus, you can improve language and literacy, and have other good effects.''  Further evidence for the importance of involving families comes from the Parent-Child Home Program.  A recent ETS summary report, by Paul Barton and Richard Coley, examined “The Family: America's Smallest School.”

In our state, policy, advocacy, and child literacy organizations include:

Connecticut Commission on Children

Connecticut Voices for Children, which regularly produces related reports, including “Investing in the Early Years: A Great Return for Kids and for Connecticut,” by Cyd Oppenheimer.  This brief argues for increased “funding for Care4Kids child care subsidies; adequately funding initiatives like State-Funded Child Development Centers, Head Start and School Readiness; enacting paid family leave; and investing in professional development opportunities and other quality enhancement initiatives.”

Discovery initiative of the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund  

Early Childhood Education bureau of the State Department of Education

Early Childhood Research and Policy Council  and Early Childhood Education Cabinet, which prepared "Ready by 5 and Fine by 9: Connecticut's Early Childhood Investment Framework"

First Years First, a Community Foundation for Greater New Haven effort

Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition

New Haven Reads and its Book Bank, which offers free books to families and tutoring for kids

Read to Grow

Success by Six, a United Way effort

In exploring waiting lists and various child-care centers’ areas of focus, philosophies, facilities, policies, and schedules, my wife and I learned about a range of programs, some of which accommodate only children three and up, some of which also have offerings for children under age three.  (We were seeking a program that might serve both of our kids, three and younger, throughout the year.)

Local resources include the New Haven Public Schools Magnet Office (for lottery and school tour information) and Early Childhood Office.  Preschools are at Barnard, Daniels, Davis, Jepson, King/Robinson, Mauro, and MicroSociety magnet schools, with information available in January for enrollment the following fall.  See: http://www.nhps.net/magnet/

In addition to the magnet preschools, New Haven offers “Early Head Start, Head Start, School Readiness, and DSS daycare programs. . . . Daycare and Early Head Start programs serve children 6 weeks to 3 years, while preschool programs serve 3-5 year olds.”  For more information: http://www.nhps.net/earlychildhood/index.asp

Other local organizations that my wife and I have encountered -- far from a comprehensive list -- include:

All Our Kin

The Connecticut Children's Museum and its Creating Kids program

Bethesda Nursery School

Calvin Hill Daycare Center 

Children’s Preschool

Creative Arts Workshop

Edith B. Jackson Child Care Program

Leila Day Nursery

Neighborhood Music School

Phyllis Bodel Childcare Center

Yale-New Haven Hospital Day Care Center

Recent news stories are evocative, including the following from the New York Times:

August 6, 2008 Where the Race Now Begins at Kindergarten By WINNIE HU
“With the recent boom in the city’s under-5 set, the competition for kindergarten places can rival that of Ivy League admission.”

July 15, 2008 New Vision for Schools Proposes Broad Role By SAM DILLON
“Randi Weingarten, the new president of the American Federation of Teachers, says she wants to replace a focus on standardized testing with a vision of public schools as community centers.”

An earlier opinion piece  addressed related topics.

. . . . .

According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, more than half of the young children in the U.S. receive care of only poor or fair quality, with care for infants and toddlers notably substandard.  (Judith Warner cites the figure of 61 percent in the December 7, 2006 edition of “Domestic Disturbances.”)

Confronting this problem, the “Knowledge into Action” section of “From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development” asserts that

"Resources . . . should be devoted to translating the knowledge base on young children's emotional, regulatory, and social development into effective strategies for fostering: (1) the development of curiosity, self-direction, and persistence in learning situations; (2) the ability to cooperate, demonstrate caring, and resolve conflict with peers; and (3) the capacity to experience the enhanced motivation associated with feeling competent and loved. . . . The time is long overdue for society to recognize the significance of out-of-home relationships for young children, to esteem those who care for them when their parents are not available, and to compensate them adequately as a means of supporting stability and quality in those relationships for all children, regardless of their family's income and irrespective of their developmental needs. . . . It does appear, however, that development of the neural systems supporting cognitive, social, and emotional competencies remains open to experience at least through adolescence. In fact, the brain's ongoing plasticity enables it to continually resculpt and reshape itself in response to new environmental demands well into adulthood. It is important to emphasize that these findings do not in any way diminish the importance of the early years. They simply remind us of the continuing importance of the years that follow."

Such a balanced, reasoned approach can animate efforts to ensure as positive as possible an early learning experience for every child, without abandoning those young people whose first years fall short.

The New Haven Early Childhood Council has an urgent mission: “All children will enter Kindergarten with the skills, knowledge, love of learning and support necessary to succeed.” (For additional background, see here.)

Together, educators, parents, and the broader community are pursuing this mission.  Yet much remains to be done, locally as well as nationally not to mention globally, to counter inequities that often constrain children’s prospects to learn and thrive.  Opportunity, prevention and early intervention are needed from the prenatal stage forward. But it’s never too late to expect more from, and to bolster, a young learner.

I picked up a copy of  Toward Excellence with Equity: An Emerging Vision for Closing the Achievement Gap, by Ronald F. Ferguson, a mentor in graduate school. Though several of the book's chapters are already familiar from his earlier work, this appears to be an important, timely compendium. So far, I've read only the introduction, in which he justly suggests:

“. . . a social and cultural movement for excellence with equity—a movement that goes beyond the boundaries of the schoolyard to include families, communities, out-of-school supports, youth culture, and civic engagement. The key conception of equity is that group-level identities should be worthless as predictors of achievement. While all groups should rise toward excellence, those farthest behind should rise most rapidly. . . . I call on all Americans to provide high-quality developmental supports and experiences to children from all racial, ethnic, and social-class origins until excellence is a normal outcome and membership in a particular group no longer predicts anything of consequence in our society. American rhetoric will then have become our American reality.”

Amen.

New Haven has benefited from an extensive State-supported school construction and renovation program, totaling some $1.5 billion, over a decade.  With building materials and other costs rising, and with associated debt service a growing concern here and across Connecticut, the pace of the program has slowed.  Some school projects have been delayed, and efforts at "value engineering" have tried to save money without meaningful effects on building quality.

The Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, concerned about school building costs there, is suggesting a series of model high school (and perhaps eventually elementary/middle school) designs to limit costs of state-subsidized school construction.  Slopes, wetlands, and other issues could affect the feasibility of such modular designs. 

The merits and applicability of such a program--given practical, architectural as well as aesthetic considerations--are unclear.  Still, the idea deserves study.  While pursuing high-quality learning environments, it should be possible--whether through model designs or simply architectural imagination--to harness facilities savings for core educational purposes and budget relief.

According to "Treasurer wants limit to designs for schools," this July 18 Boston Globe article by James Vaznis and Rachana Rathi:

"State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, trying to head off what he calls 'Taj Mahal' high schools . . . wants cities and towns to begin using off-the-shelf building designs that could cut school-project costs by 30 percent."

According to the report Growth and Disparity: A Decade of U.S. Public School Construction by Building Educational Success Together (BEST), Connecticut ranks second nationally in school construction spending—and Massachusetts third—understandable given both states' relative wealth.  (BEST is a partnership that includes The 21st Century School Fund.) 

The study looked at the period 1995-2004, during which the states that spent the most money per student on school construction were Alaska ($12,842), Connecticut ($11,345), and Massachusetts ($10,735), compared with a national average of $6519. 

New Haven's school construction/renovation program has helped make its magnet and other schools more appealing and to create more conducive learning environments for students and teachers.  Increased pre-kindergarten capacity, and use of the facilities for broader after-school and neighborhood purposes, have also resulted.

A new building is far from a guarantor of academic progress.  There are certainly cases of schools, locally as nationally, that have achieved encouraging successes without new buildings—New Haven Academy (housed in swing space), for example, and some charter schools come to mind.  Historically in the U.S. as in other countries (e.g., India, where even now electrical service is erratic and air-conditioning a luxury, let alone state-of-the art computing labs, swimming pools, and so on) serious academic work has occurred despite the absence of the most advanced technologies.

Yet school spaces can be either a boon or a detriment to learning.  Surely the academic improvements at New Haven's King/Robinson School, for instance, have been eased by a building that is a radical change from the previous, gloomy Robinson structure.  Few affluent suburban public or private schools skimp on facilities.  Stasis can bring stagnation, especially in science and technology.  Cities need to keep pace, to the extent possible with facilities as with teacher quality and other fundamental priorities.  The Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, in contrast to Plessy v. Ferguson, concluded that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."  Vastly inferior facilities in segregated schools were part of the problem, something modern educators and cities are rightly seeking to address to the extent resources allow. 

(The report cited above, Growth and Disparity: A Decade of U.S. Public School Construction, demonstrates this point vividly.) 

See (former New Haven resident) Algernon's Austin's May 18 post, "Class and Racial Disparities in School Construction Spending" on his Thora Institute blog: http://www.thorainstitute.com

Also of possible interest: the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities.

An update on posts below from May 19 and May 27. . .

The State Council on Environmental Quality recently issued its 2007 report, concluding that "results were mixed" and that "progress is hard to find in most leading environmental indicators":
http://www.ct.gov/ceq/cwp/view.asp?a=3524&q=417428

The State Department of Environmental Protection has this plan on open space acquisition and preservation:
http://www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/open_space/green_plan.pdf

Also see:

1000 Friends of Connecticut
Environment Connecticut  and ConnPIRG

A June 23 New York Times article raised a question which any generation confronts:

Big Paycheck or Service? Students Are Put to Test
By SARA RIMER
"Many college officials are asking whether more should be done to encourage students to consider public service."

The Partnership for Public Service works to advance careers and professionals in the federal government.   Curiously, no mention  of this organization appeared in the  June 23 Times article. 

Nor did it treat the sacrifices of those individuals who, whether they attend college or not, enter military service. 

Nor was there discussion of differences in the market for lucrative private-sector positions versus more modestly rewarded public- or nonprofit sector jobs depending on broader conditions of the economy, unemployment rates, regional variations in living costs, etc.  The work of  economist Robert H. Frank on "winner-take-all" markets resonates, too.

Other Times articles over the last two decades that examined career decisions in medicine, among other fields, include the following: 

The Falling-Down Professions

January 6, 2008 - By ALEX WILLIAMS

Very Rich Are Leaving the Merely Rich Behind

 November 27, 2006 - By LOUIS UCHITELLE

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDENT; Forgive Us Our Student Debts

June 11, 2006 - By Jon Gertner

Specialty or General Practice: Young Doctors Change Paths

October 16, 1995 - By ESTHER B. FEIN

Students Find Internal Medicine Less Alluring

April 19, 1988 - By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

Opinion articles from 2000 , 1997, and 1996 addressed related issues.

The troubled economy, including an overall unemployment rate of 5.5% for May, is intensifying the challenge young people encounter in finding a summer job. 

This May 2008 table from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that the teen (here ages 16-19) unemployment rate generally (18.7% overall, the highest rate in five years and up from 15.4% in April) is reason enough for concern. The racial disparity (16.4% unemployment for white teens versus 32.3% for African American teens) is especially stark.

New Haven's Youth@Work program hopes to fund and to place some 1400 teens, ages 14-19, this year in summer jobs.  Funding for this partnership comes from a combination of state, city, and private sources.  While the benefits of such a short-term program should not be exaggerated (in relation, say, to the significance of completing high school successfully and proceeding to post-graduate employment and higher education), they can be meaningful.  Those benefits  include career development activities, work readiness training, paid internships and greater financial literacy, while offering young people constructive ways to spend their summer and gain responsibility.  See: http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Mayor/youth@work.asp

The NHI covered a March event about this New Haven summer jobs program.  The 2007 edition was treated here.  (As another NHI article discussed, a new Connecticut law makes permanent a provision that allows 15-year-olds to work  in certain capacities such as cashier.)

Until the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998 took effect and eventually eliminated the Summer Youth Employment Program, that program had provided some 600,000 summer jobs nationally for youth. 

Simon's article also cited Ron Fairchild, executive director of the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University, who said: "Summer is a time when the rich get richer and the poor get poorer."   Summer extracurricular learning, travel and SAT prep, in addition to paid jobs, are examples.

The following May 25 New York Times article, too, was evocative--contrasting experiences (in Tulsa, Oklahoma) of teens from privileged families who either may not much need a summer job or who benefit from personal connections in landing one, with the travails of peers whose financial circumstances demand a job even as they find fewer work opportunities:

Toughest Summer Job This Year Is Finding One
By PETER S. GOODMAN
"The job market of 2008 is shaping up as the weakest in 50 years for teenagers seeking summer work."

These 2008 accounts led me to reflect on the variety of summer and other vacation jobs I had between the ages of 12 and 21 in the 1980s and early '90s--from mowing lawns, cleaning engines, stacking wood, throwing hay, and checking a hardware store's inventory, to door-to-door canvassing for environmental causes, working at a group home for adults with severe disabilities, and counseling and tutoring high school students in an Upward Bound program.  Not only the money earned but also the range of experiences (from mistakes and frustrations to inspiring rewards) were important to my own development personally and professionally.  Surely many other adults would cite similar influences and lessons learned from their adolescent years.

Every teen willing to work hard (beyond the classroom as well as in it) should have the opportunity to do so, if possible on a paid basis.  Programs such as Youth@Work are an investment in individuals' futures and in our common future.

This Wednesday, June 11 is a special session that the Connecticut legislature has scheduled to consider extension of an increase in the real estate conveyance tax (which home-sellers pay) first elevated in 2003.  Despite legitimate concerns of the real estate industry, and more fundamentally of home-sellers in this slow market, I favor extension of the higher tax, which yields an additional estimated $40 million annually that municipalities and the state need.  Having myself paid the higher tax in January 2008 when selling my home, I believe it's a reasonable cost given the unappealing alternatives in raising public revenues.  (*More on this appears below, at the bottom of today's post.)

Speaking of unappealing, gas prices continue to soar.  My wife and I paid $54 this weekend for a fill-up, at well over $4 per gallon.  It was the first time we've paid more than $50.   (Our 2005 Ford Escape, though a hybrid, is a four-wheel drive with only so-so mileage, and we were unable further to defer a gas purchase.)  

Yet cutting gas taxes by a few cents, as some have proposed, is a mirage rather than a solution.  It would be too easy for sellers of gas quietly to increase their profit rather than to pass a few cents of savings to consumers.  And a few cents per gallon, multiplied across a state or the nation, delivers more in much-needed revenue and other policy objectives than any such modest price cut would yield in immediate benefits to drivers.  We need to think bigger.

A progressive measure--ideally at the federal level, so states don't compete over their own gas taxes, which at present are crucial to funding transportation infrastructure--would lower payroll tax rates, increase the ceiling at which the payroll tax is applied, and then impose a national security and energy security tax.  Such a forward-looking federal policy  was considered but rejected in the early 1990s.  It would reduce dependence on imported oil, advance alternative energy industries and efficiency, and discourage driving (with favorable effects on both carbon dioxide emissions and traffic congestion) while funding better train and bus services.  Again, the more such policy emerges in Washington, the less states will have to rely on gas taxes to raise revenue.  A more substantial federal gas tax, lower but broader payroll taxes, and low state gas taxes should be our goal. 

In the meantime, we should endure the gas taxes we have (including the planned increase in the gross receipts tax), given Connecticut's looming budget deficits for FY 2008 and 2009.  Gas taxes can support both transportation investment needs (which should be the focus) and the general fund; the small planned increment in the gross receipts tax is projected to generate enough revenue to cover, say, the promising Early Reading Success program whose continuation costs $20 million, some $2 million of which would come to New Haven.

Ultimately an earned income tax credit (EITC) in our state would help better to reward work and to cushion inflation and other costs.  Home-heating costs do require a progressive cushion, too, combined with more energy efficiency incentives for commercial, governmental, and residential users alike.  Allowing discounts for cash purchases  of gas makes sense.  We should do all we can in Connecticut to promote business, job, and revenue growth in the area of energy efficiency and clean energy technologies.

On a third potential issue for the legislature: Pension reform for corrupt officials has to happen.  Anyone convicted of exploiting his or her public position--elected or appointed, unionized or not--should face commensurate consequences, at the discretion of a judge.  At least in egregious cases, the public shouldn't be paying retirees who ripped them off.  The great majority of public employees are honest; the penalties for those who violate the trust placed in them should provide justice and an appropriate deterrent.

Number four: Increasing the minimum wage, currently $7.65 per hour in Connecticut, is one useful way to target dollars to hard-working people most in need of a boost.  The legislation to elevate the minimum to $8 and then $8.25 over two years deserves to be law, overriding the governor's veto if necessary.

A couple of Sunday New York Times articles, including one by former longtime New Haven Register state capital reporter and columnist Gregory Hladky and another that briefly describes New Haven's dilemmas along with those of other municipalities, treat Connecticut's legislative session and state and local fiscal problems: 

June 8, 2008
Budgets:  Towns Scrambling to Make Ends Meet
By JAN ELLEN SPIEGEL
"With their costs escalating, many Connecticut cities and towns are considering measures such as raising taxes and fees, installing timers of streetlights or ending loose leaf pickups." 

On Politics:  To the G.O.P., a Democratic Achilles' Heel
By GREGORY B. HLADKY
"Connecticut Republicans see a special legislative session as a perfect election-year opportunity to renew their attack on the Democrats’ approach to managing a budget crisis."

*To conclude this post where it began, here are more of my own musings--adapted from a message sent weeks ago to my legislators--on the real estate conveyance tax: 

"Communities need the $40 million per year increment the real estate conveyance tax yields.

Having recently sold our home in a move, my wife and I have no complaints about the conveyance tax imposed.  It played no role in the timing or price of the sale.

The current housing market problems are serious. Job loss and insecurity are concerns.
The stimulus and services that public spending provides have to be weighed against the
hardship of a tax.  Fiscal prudence is important.

Yet our state and communities have real needs related to our economic present and future.  These priorities we have to pay for include education, transportation, public safety, health and environmental protection.

As taxes go, the conveyance tax is among the more sensible and progressive options. 
It's a tolerable source of revenue for municipalities as well as the state.

Let's extend the provision, first enacted in 2003, that generates this revenue. It's
better to have home-sellers like me absorb a reasonable cost than to have taxpayers at
large face an additional burden."

We in New Haven are understandably concerned about how a level mill rate, 42.21, in the 2008-09 fiscal year will mean, in effect, approximately a 10 percent increase on average in municipal property taxes due to a revaluation phased-in over five years.  A budget of $455.7 million, up some $10 million from 2007-08 but below an earlier projected budget of $466 million, has passed.  There are no easy choices amid the combination of revenue limitations and spending pressures, particularly with rapidly rising energy and health care costs requiring longer-term fixes.  [Earlier postings below addressed matters including payments in lieu of taxes, PILOT, and the potential for more regional solutions.]  A NHI article here has information, including about conflicts over relatively small fractions of the budget:

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2008/06/budget_passed_c.php

We should always aim to be the best, most competitive city we can be, and New Haven has considerable strengths.  If it isn't much comfort to compare our City's financial situation with that of our state capital, the comparison does reveal how much worse New Haven's plight could be--fiscally, as with crime, which in both cases are serious enough already.  Hartford's mill rate is going over 68, with the new fiscal year budget approved at $547 million--despite Hartford's having a population of some 121,000 residents versus some 123,000 in New Haven, according to 2000 Census figures.  Of course, Hartford also has a higher rate of poverty.  The following Hartford Courant article may be of interest to New Haveners. . . .

"Hartford City Council Adopts Budget With 7.8% Tax Increase," By DANIEL E. GOREN    Hartford Courant,  May 28, 2008
 
"The Hartford city council Tuesday adopted a $547 million budget for fiscal 2008-09, an increase of about 4 percent, or more than $21 million, from current spending."
http://www.courant.com/community/news/hfd/hc-hfdbudget0528.artmay28,0,3892175.story  

Finally, agitation for reform of property taxes and aid to municipalities continues to grow, with the variability in local mill rates (with inevitably some correlation to incentives for home- and business owners' decision-making) a stark illustration of why.  Mill rates across Connecticut are available below, indicating that Hartford and Waterbury rank one and two by a considerable margin, with the highest rates as of 2007-08 fiscal year based on 2006 grand lists.  (Because of the phase-in of revaluation in some cases, comparisons are imprecise but offer some context.)  New Britain has the third highest rates, with New Haven and Bridgeport next.  See: http://www.ct.gov/opm/cwp/view.asp?A=2987&Q=385976

An April 23  panel on New Haven municipal finances touched briefly on the Fire Department and possible regional solutions to fiscal and other problems.  Cost control, property taxes, state payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT), education and job training, transportation, housing, and economic development as a route to new jobs and tax revenues are all part of this conversation.  Regionalism – where it makes sense and where it does not – deserves more thoughtful attention. 

For example, New Haveners would be curious to know which/whether other municipalities in the region might be interested in gradually contracting over time to have our Fire Department – with its fixed equipment costs, highly trained personnel and potential economies of scale – handle certain services.  Given the nature of contracts, perhaps such regionalization could be phased in through attrition of fire positions and facilities in other municipalities.  (West Haven’s alone having three fire departments is recognized as a prime opportunity for efficiency gains.)  Other services, too, could be explored through mechanisms such as the Regional Council of Governments.  What is the balance of trade-offs?  It would be useful to look at what we might do, or not, based on evidence elsewhere.  

The following article (with passages excerpted below and certain of the authors’ illustrative parenthetic endnote references fully listed) explores "lessons learned from regionalization for police and fire services, drawing comparisons to public health":

Annual Review of Public Health
Vol. 29: 205-218 (Volume publication date April 2008)
"Regionalization of Local Public Health Systems in the Era of Preparedness," by Howard K. Koh, ­ Loris J. Elqura, ­Christine M. Judge, and ­Michael A. Stoto­
http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.29.020907.090907

While the article by Koh, et al. primarily treats public health and emergency preparedness, it includes broader discussion of regionalization, defined as “the addition of a regional structure to supplement local government agencies, which in some instances might lead to consolidation of services or agencies.” International examples are cited from countries such as Canada, which has had “intraprovince regionalization of police services for at least 30 years” and New Zealand, where the Local Government Amalgamation Act of 1989 “decreased the number of local governments by 67%, increased accountability for local government boards, and thus was expected to reduce spending.”

In the U.S, the article notes, “regionalization of services has been proposed to remedy some of the socioeconomic and fiscal disparities between metropolitan areas and outlying areas (26. Mitchell-Weaver C, Miller D, Deal R Jr. 2000. Multilevel governance and metropolitan regionalism in the USA. Urban Stud. 37: 851–76). These proposals first began decades ago when rapid economic and societal change led to metropolitan fragmentation and accompanying suburban autonomy complicated the provision of government services (26). Many scholars voiced concern that ‘proliferation of local governments in metropolitan areas has reinforced segregation by income and race, resulting in unequal provision of local public goods and services’(37. Swanstrom T. 2001. What we argue about when we argue about regionalism. J. Urban Aff. 23: 479–96). By 1970, the United States witnessed growing numbers of regional government systems, as evidenced by 30 U.S. cities merging with their county governments. Factors such as leadership needs, economics, and fiscal inequalities and challenges drove these trends.”

According to the article’s authors, “At least two major factors prompted change toward regionalization: efficient use of resources (e.g., police and fire) and building economies of scale, e.g., wastewater treatment,” which New Haven and three of its neighbors have sought with the Water Pollution Control Authority.

The article continues: “In many states, regionalization of fire department resources across local towns, institutionalized since the 1950s, exemplifies efficient use of staff during major emergencies. This successful regionalization of local fire services is in part attributable to the culture of strong neighborly bonds fostered by a long-standing volunteer firefighter system (S. Coan, personal communication). States such as Florida, Illinois, and California currently have formalized, comprehensive mutual aid agreements that delineate individual and joint responsibilities and address key issues such as liability (10. Int. Assoc. Fire Chiefs. 2007. Intrastate mutual aid plans: intrastate mutual aid system anchor states.). In Massachusetts, in the event of firefighter injury, each fire agency assumes responsibility for its own staff regardless of the exact city or town where harm occurred (S. Coan, personal communication). In recent years, accelerated by the events of 9/11, fire service responsibilities have broadened. A proposed National Fire Service Intrastate Mutual Aid System is poised to formalize intrastate coordination. This effort is supported by the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) (10). Furthermore, recent emergencies, such as Hurricane Katrina, spurred at least 14 additional states to pass intrastate mutual aid legislation (8. Emerg. Manag. Assist. Compact (EMAC). 2007. Intrastate mutual aid. http://www.emacweb.org/?150).”

Regarding police services, the authors note “the reality that crime and disease regularly spill over into other cities or towns. Individual police departments that ignore coordination of services with neighboring cities and towns may only exacerbate problems regionally. For example, issues related to drug trafficking can easily overwhelm the resources of a small police department in an individual municipality, requiring support from others (38. Tully EJ. 2002. Regionalization or Consolidation of Law Enforcement Services in the United States. Natl. Exec. Inst. Assoc., Major Cities Chiefs Assoc. and Major County Sheriff's Assoc.).”

Citing the Tully study, the authors find documentation that in the U.S., “more than 17,000 individual police agencies have in fact consolidated into 1000 regional departments (38). Researchers point to resulting benefits that include more efficient delivery of police services, the ability to share specialized resources (such as crime laboratories and centralized records systems), better-trained personnel with the capacity for more specialized skills (e.g., arson investigation or juvenile units), a lower turnover rate, and higher levels of 24-hour coverage (12. Kenney JP, Adams GB, Vito GF. 1982. Consolidation of police services: an opportunity for innovation. J. Police Sci. Adm. 10: 466–72; 17. Krimmel JT. 1997. The Northern York County police consolidation. Policing: An Int. J. Police Strateg. Manag. 20: 497–507). In particular, the more regionalized structure affords increased levels of training and opportunities for advancement and promotion, which in turn produce better-trained personnel (17). Moreover, consolidation is cost-effective owing to resource sharing and elimination of duplication of efforts. Krimmel compared the operational costs of a consolidated police department for 8 rural towns in Pennsylvania with 8 similar municipal police departments in a neighboring county and found that the former provided equal service at 28% less cost (17). Another study comparing regional and municipal police forces in Ontario, Canada, found that the former was more cost-efficient, had wider police coverage, lower crime rates, and improved police organization and services (20. Lithopoulous S, Rigakos GS. 2005. Neo-liberalism, community and police regionalization in Canada. Policing: An Int. J. Police Strateg. Manag. 28: 337–52).”

Still, the authors concede, “other studies have shown contrary results. In England and Wales, because crime remained local, small police services proved to be more efficient and effective (20). In a study of 1159 police services in the United States, smaller departments could assign fewer staff to administrative roles compared with larger police departments (20), thereby demonstrating a more efficient use of staff. Despite further shifts toward regionalization of police services after 9/11, when the federal government created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and discontinued subsidies for local police, consolidation encountered barriers (20). Resistance naturally stems from fear of loss of local autonomy because change and consolidation can represent a threat to a community's identity (17). In rural areas, there is a perception that personally knowing the police officers in a town will facilitate assistance in times of need (38. Tully EJ. 2002. Regionalization or Consolidation of Law Enforcement Services in the United States. Natl. Exec. Inst. Assoc., Major Cities Chiefs Assoc. and Major County Sheriff's Assoc.). Thorny legal and fiscal issues include determining appropriate monetary contributions of each municipality to a regional operation, which in turn necessitates strict guidelines to determine fair allocation of funding (17).”

In public health and other realms, the authors conclude, “Adopting a regional approach could improve efficiency, offering opportunities to avoid duplication, share resources, coordinate efforts with state authorities, and achieve consistency at local, regional, and state levels (2, 22).”

Connecticut’s system of local control – our 169 cities and towns seem exorbitant except next to New Jersey’s some 560 jurisdictions ­– of course complicates regional approaches.  Yet costs and service demands increasingly dictate more serious pursuit of regionalism, both within states and among them (see, for example, the Regional Plan Association, Citistates and New England Futures).

On regionalization and smart growth in Connecticut, Tom Condon's April 27 Hartford Courant column, "We're Still Not Close to Green," merits attention:
“The magazine Popular Science recently rated America's top 50 greenest cities. How many cities from Connecticut made the list? The correct answer is none, as in zero, nada, bubkes, zilch. . . .”
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/columnists/hc-plccondon0427.artapr27,0,4605117.column

Also see:

1000 Friends of Connecticut

Environment Connecticut  and ConnPIRG

Finally, on regionalism, under "Opinion Articles" on this website appear 1996 and 1995 Hartford Courant pieces that may be of interest.

In light of Connecticut's falling far short of its recycling goals (e.g., statewide we’re about halfway toward reduction/recycling goal of 58% by the year 2024), here is a New York Times article on San Francisco: 

May 7, 2008
A City Committed to Recycling Is Ready for More
By FELICITY BARRINGER
"The mayor of San Francisco wants to make the recycling of cans, bottles, paper, yard waste and food scraps mandatory instead of voluntary, on the pain of having garbage pickups suspended." 

Connecticut's Council on Environmental Quality has documented this state's recycling shortfall, which is said to be so severe in New Haven that just 10 percent of its waste is recycled, one third of the rate in New York City and one seventh that of San Francisco, and trailing too Boston’s 16 percent rate, according to a Waste News survey cited in the May 7 Times article. Efforts to strengthen the bottle bill and use “single-stream” recycling may boost rates, at least capturing more low-hanging fruit.

A related Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute curriculum unit appears here.

As Connecticut and New Haven debate criminal justice and the re-entry to society of former prisoners (who sometimes become homeless)-- amid tightening budget constraints -- below are links to several recent articles.

The New York Times, April 23, 2008
American Exception:  Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations'
By Adam Liptak
"The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but almost a quarter of its prisoners."

The week before, on April 18, Laurence Cohen, a Hartford Courant columnist, wrote about "Jobs For Ex-Offenders." http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/columnists/hc-jobsforcons.artapr18,0,3438290.column

 The New York Times soon afterward, on April 27, ran this article on Newark:

Seeking the Key to Employment for Ex-Cons
By Andrew Jacobs
"Newark’s two leading problems, crime and unemployment, are intertwined with the plight of the 2,300 men and women who come home from prison each year."

Tom Condon, another Hartford Courant columnist, wrote this May 4 account, "Recovery Homes Offer A Smarter Path Back":

"Connecticut's prison population hit an all-time high this year, but that wasn't the worst news. The real problem is who is in jail. Nearly 4,000 inmates have a diagnosis of mental illness. Nearly 3,000 are in prison for sale of possession of illegal drugs, and most of them struggle with addiction." http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/columnists/hc-plccondon.artmay04,0,926032.column

 The reading levels of prisoners and ex-prisoners
                  also was one topic at a recent Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition event described here: 

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2008/04/post_357.php