According to recent national and state reports, middle- and low-income households have benefited from some of the largest one-year economic gains in almost 50 years. This new data supports our basic premise that real and shared prosperity depends on steady business growth and full employment, along with public investments in human capital and economic security that reduce income and racial disparity. Analyses by the Center for Budget and Policy P... Read More
MINNPOST When assessing whether public initiatives and other community interventions are having a measurable effect on social and economic indicators, tough-minded policy analysts often ask: “Are we moving the needle?” As Minnesota legislators and Governor Mark Dayton negotiate in the final weeks of the 2016 session on investment strategies to reduce disparities in our communities and improve workforce quality for Minnesota employ... Read More
ST. PAUL LEGAL LEDGER CAPITOL REPORT In Red Wing these days, a community-wide effort has helped expand distribution points for free breakfasts, so that more low-income kids are getting enough to eat at the start of the school day. Meanwhile, the same group is helping bring strong new focus on higher education planning and career pathways, starting as early as the fourth grade. Also underway are networks that help the whole town find ways to h... Read More
ST. PAUL LEGAL LEDGER CAPITOL REPORT Here’s an audacious idea: If we know that more and better post-high school credentials are crucial to economic vitality — and even more important for success in life for our increasingly diverse younger generation — why don’t we increase the minimum education level to which all Minnesotans are entitled? In other words, perhaps the free community college proposal advanced by the Stat... Read More
ST. PAUL LEGAL LEDGER CAPITOL REPORT The Timberlake Lodge ballroom in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, was filled to capacity recently with a rare assemblage of adults and teenagers, all engaged in candid conversations about whether the local community was delivering what kids really need to succeed. This was a truly unusual and ambitious undertaking and a big step forward for a very promising new rural community collaboration aimed at improvin... Read More