Education and Workforce Development

The United States has one of the highest high-school dropout rates of any industrialized nation, with approximately 3 out of 10 students in public schools not graduating with a diploma.  Similar issues with graduation rates exist on the college level.  On average, across the nation, less than 60 percent of first-year students who enter a four-year college receive a degree from that institution within six years.

In this Dispatch, we emphasize that any stimulus spending has to be tied to increased accountability and transparency in spending decisions, especially by government contractors who often operate like a shadow government with little oversight.  One key reality is that those most in need often don't receive help from government spending without transparency and accountability measures built into the rules.  While the recent federal recovery plan made real strides in expanding such accountability, additional measures are still needed if the recovery plan is going to deliver real equity in our economic recovery.

The proliferation of the Internet and emerging technologies has transformed the quantity, array of content, and speed at which information is communicated in our lives.  According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, 8-18 year olds spend an average of six and a half hours per day with some form of media.  This evidence of media saturation underscores how important it is for young people to be able to think critically and create media in order to communicate effectively with society. 

This Dispatch will discuss how funding from the federal recovery plan can help offset the costs of maintaining and even expanding early education programs. This Dispatch will also highlight the economic and educational benefits of supporting early education programs, as well as the different methods that state governments are employing to help reduce the cost of and promote the expansion of quality early child care and state pre-k programs.

In contrast to the drumbeat of anti-immigrant attacks in past legislative sessions, this year has seen states across the country proposing in-state college tuition rates for undocumented students, a move mirrored by Congress' proposed DREAM Act, which was re-introduced at the federal level on March 25th.  

Increased retirement among experienced teachers over the next few years coupled with high attrition rates for beginner educators, places our education system in a precarious position.

This Dispatch will outline how funds allocated in the ARRA aim to support broadband initiatives and how states can leverage broadband to create efficiencies, increase opportunities and begin to bridge a major resource divide in our country by implementing progressive broadband initiatives.

Public schools will have more success if they pay attention not only to students' lives in the classroom, but also to the multiple elements of their development: social, emotional, physical, cognitive, civic, and moral. Working alone, schools or families may not be able to provide students with the support needed for academic success, but community schools are an approach to public schools that provide diverse activities and programs for students, families, and community members in order to focus on nurturing all the aspects of students' well-being.

Today, the Progressive States Network is releasing a new report: The Anti-Immigrant Movement that Failed: Positive Integration Policies by States Still Far Outweigh Punitive Policies Aimed at New Immigrants.   The Executive Summary is available online, as well as the full report in PDF and HTML format.

The benefits of a post-secondary degree are plentiful.  For example, an employee with a four year college degree earns 60 percent more than a worker with only a high school diploma.  Paying for college, however, has become increasingly difficult for most American students and families.  The cost of higher education across the country is rapidly increasing, at almost double the rate of inflation, outstripping increases in financial aid and outpacing many families’ ability to pay.  The combination of these factors result in too many students being unable to earn or complete their degrees due to financial constraints.