By Kathy Amoroso and Megan Cardiff
March 7, 2011

"In the 21st Century, America can no longer afford poverty," Newark (NJ) Mayor Cory Booker told more than 50 mayors who assembled in Washington (DC) for the Conference of Mayors Work and Opportunity Summit. The mayors and others travelled to Washington February 23 in the midst of the current budget crisis to attend this summit, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which addressed the tough issues of jobs, job training and access to quality education for low-income Americans.

"To compete in today’s global economy, America needs more of its people contributing to economic growth," Booker said. "This means that America must maximize the productive potential of all segments of its population – that all Americans, at all levels, must be able to connect with the opportunities they need to maximize their potential."

According to Booker, America’s mayors are the governmental innovation machines of the nation – finding new ways to move their cities forward every day – and public/private partnerships drive much of the positive change happening in cities.

"We all know you can’t have a great city without great schools," Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the mayors. "There are a number of opportunities coming forward to help drive change in our schools." Citing the Race to the Top and its impact at the state level, Duncan noted that the President’s FY 2012 Budget is requesting $900 million to implement a Race to the Top initiative that will focus on the district level, not the state level. "We are willing to make this investment because of the great leadership in cities across the country. Just as governors led the way in the first two rounds, we expect mayors to do so in the district-level competition. We’ll challenge your communities to create bold, comprehensive plans for reform. We all share a goal of accelerating student achievement, increasing graduation rates, narrowing achievement gaps, and college enrollment," he said.

Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis also addressed the mayors, accompanied by Labor Assistant Secretary Jane Oates. "We’ve engaged in a tremendous effort to get people back to work," she said. "Unemployment, while still relatively high, has ticked down from 9.4 to 9 percent. We’ve created more than 1.1 million private sector jobs this past year. Recovery Act money was not exclusively used to create public sector jobs, but helped create private sector jobs as well. Manufacturing is not ‘dead’ as some proclaim – there is growth in this sector as well, and brand new technologies are developing."

"There is no money in the President’s FY 2012 Budget for Summer Youth Employment," Solis said in response to a question about Summer Jobs funding. "You all have done a great job in the past 11 years by prioritizing this important program. There are, however, other mechanisms we think could be used – the TAA program, Dislocated Worker program. We need to keep vigilant on it, and we are working with our sister agency, Health and Human Services, to use TANF funding so we can continue putting young people to work."

The summit’s first panel of mayors included Conference of Mayors Second Vice President Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter, District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray, and Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra. In his remarks, Nutter focused on his efforts to increase college attainment in low-income neighborhoods, and discussed the continued progress his public school system continues to make under his leadership. "Last year, Philadelphia public schools saw an increase of 33 percent in schools reaching Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), and one in two students is now achieving at grade level – a ratio that was at one in five, eight years ago," he said.

Nutter expressed his commitment to doubling the area’s college attainment rate by ensuring students graduate from high school with an understanding of the opportunities ahead of them, and he has met repeatedly with local college and university presidents to discuss a plan to help young people navigate the higher education system and take advantage of educational opportunities. Through programs such as Graduate Philadelphia and the College and Career Advancement Program, he has also demonstrated his commitment to advancing education for adults in Philadelphia.

Gray, Washinton's newly-elected mayor, has already made it clear that job training and economic development are a major priority for his administration. Gray is putting aggressive education reform, which will ultimately contribute to a more competitive workforce, at the top of his to-do list. In order to combat the 9.6 percent unemployment rate in the District, the mayor plans to focus on educational development with a strong emphasis on pre-kindergarten services. Education reform in the District of Columbia began in 1997 with the advent of charter schools, which created a competitive environment in education. Currently, the city has 74,000 children in public education – 28,000 of whom are enrolled in the fifty-two charter schools. The city has established its first community college with the University of the District of Columbia; within eighteen-months, it will have 2,600 students enrolled. According to Gray, 70 percent of jobs in the District are filled by non-residents of the city. "Revenue that is generated in DC walks out of the city every day," he said. To keep revenue in the city, Gray plans to focus on increasing the percentage of people that work and live in the District. He intends to build a strong workforce development system and promote an incentive system for employers to hire employees from within the city limits.

Segarra discussed his city’s Healthy Neighborhoods/Swift Building Project, a collaborative approach to providing jobs and problem'solving for the surrounding community. It is one way Segarra is working to increase job development in Hartford. At one point in the city’s history, the Swift building was a place of booming industrial activity, providing the area with jobs and economic growth. Segarra’s initiative transforms the facility into a training ground that will support local partnerships among government, non-profit, and private sector businesses. The project leverages $600,000 in Brownfield redevelopment funding for environmental cleanup, and will provide green jobs training at the University of Hartford, one of the city's partners in this collaboration. "The main goal of the project is to link multi-phase development with the needs of local residents, who will be able to use the facility as workspaces and shops," said Segarra.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith, and Children’s Defense Fund Director of Foundation Relations and Special Projects Barbara Best comprised the afternoon panel. According to Rawlings-Blake, Baltimore’s Summer Jobs program, Youth Works, helps teens and young adults in developing essential skills required for today’s workforce. "Individuals enrolled in the program obtain needed skills, explore careers, and gain a better understanding of the value of education," she said. "It enhances businesses by giving them access to a talented group of motivated workers; parents know that their child(ren) are gaining invaluable work experience and understand the significance of an education; and the community is provided with students who perform important services to the city."

Say Yes to Education, Inc. (Say Yes) is a national, non-profit education foundation committed to dramatically increasing high school and college graduation rates for the nation’s inner-city youth. In 2010, this program went city-wide in Syracuse, providing support along the entire academic career of children as well as the promised free tuition. "It is not enough to tell people they can go to college – we have to make sure they have the skills necessary to go and succeed in college," Miner told the group. Syracuse high school students are not only graduating and receiving free tuition in city and state schools, but they also have the option of some private colleges that have joined Say Yes to Education. According to Miner, Syracuse has more than 1,000 high school graduates attending college for free because of the program, and there are 41,000 elementary and middle school students enrolled in the Say Yes afterschool program.

Smith closed the Summit with a discussion of his efforts to promote the Children’s Defense Fund’s Community Crusade for Children through the MEN-TOUR: Recruit, Reclaim and Restore initiative – an effort to build the capacity of men from the faith-based community in Irvington who are willing to engage in mentoring young boys. "I’ve taken youth programs and funded them through Community Development Block Grants (CDBG)," he said. Smith also stressed the importance of an academic component to after'school programming starting at the elementary school level.