Capitol Ideas | 2014 | Issue 6 | State Pathways to Prosperity

T H E CO U N C I L O F S TAT E G O V E R N M E N T S | I N S I G H T S & I N N O V AT I O N S

HOT TOPIC : State Pathways to Prosperity

LIFE

HAPPENS...

‘AND SOMETIMES INTERFERES’

From Preschool

TO PROSPERITY

CHANGING THE

PERCEPTION:

Middle Skills to the Middle Class

Meet the 2014 CSG Toll Fellows

“Workforce development and relevant education present, at once, the greatest challenges, as well as opportunities, of our time.”

Tennessee Senate Majority Leader MARK NORRIS 2014 CSG National Chair

P LU S : Have an Impac t on Hunger in America

NOV | DEC 2014

CAPITOL IDEAS

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

STATE PATHWAYS TO PROSPERITY ON THE COVER Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, the 2014 CSG national chair, along with West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, the 2014 CSG president, picked “State Pathways to Prosperity” as the leaders' initiative, focusing on workforce development and education. The initiative includes four subcommittees looking at specific issues that affect the development and employment of state workforces. “I chose State Pathways because so much was already being done to analyze the skills gap, but not enough was being done to close it,” Norris said.

Photo by Rodney Margison

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10 QUESTIONS— CSG CHAIR MARK NORRIS Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, the 2014 CSG national chair, chose “State Pathways to Prosperity” as the 2014 CSG leaders’ initiative.

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High quality pre-kindergarten programs can help students get an early start on school. While such programs cost money up front, they pay off down the road, experts say.

In the middle part of the 20th century, so-called “middle jobs” helped many people move to the middle class.

While those types of jobs are largely gone, others have taken their place.

Leaders from 34 states gathered in Lexington, Ky., in September for the CSG Henry Toll Fellowship Program.

HOT TOPIC— PRESCHOOL

HOT TOPIC— MIDDLE JOBS

FEATURE— 2014 CSG TOLL FELLOWS

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

IN EVERY ISSUE // 5 THEY SAID IT // pathways to prosperity 6 REGIONAL ROUNDUP // east 7 REGIONAL ROUNDUP // south 8 REGIONAL ROUNDUP // midwest 9 REGIONAL ROUNDUP // west 10 IN THE KNOW // veterans in the workforce Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, a former U.S. Army captain, believes veterans have a lot to offer in the workplace.

24 BY THE BOOK // the hunger bill

© AP Photo/Nati Harnik

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© Corbis/Emily Rose Bennett/Staff/The Augusta Chronicle

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The subcommittees focus on issues related to children and youth, hunger and nutrition, active military and veterans’ concerns, and criminal justice concerns.

26 PRESCHOOL

High quality pre-kindergarten programs can help students get an early start on school. While such programs cost money up front, they pay off down the road, experts say.

30 MY BROTHER’S KEEPER

President Obama in February launched My Brother’s Keeper, an initiative that focuses on improving outcomes and opportunities for boys and young men of color. The National League of Cities supports this effort as it builds on existing work.

38 STRAIGHT TALK // helping businesses

Officials at American businesses offer advice on what states can do to encourage growth in their companies.

41 HOW TO // have an impact on hunger 46 STATED BRIEFLY

HOT TOPIC

15 STATE PATHWAYS TO PROSPERITY

Hunger costs the U.S. at least $167.5 billion every year, based on a combination of lost economic productivity, increased education expenses, avoidable health care costs and the cost of charity, according to a 2012 study.

32 WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

In the middle part of the 20th century, so-called “middle jobs” helped many people move to the middle class. While those types of jobs are largely gone, others have taken their place.

// affiliate & association news

48 SHOUT OUT // mic3 chair kathleen berg

Kathleen Berg is retired from the U.S. Air Force National Guard and serves as chair of the Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission, or MIC3.

36 CRIMINAL RECORDS

Around 65 million Americans of working age have criminal records. Finding a job isn’t easy for anyone, but it’s especially difficult for them. States and cities are making a concerted effort to get employers to “ban the box” and remove questions about criminal history from the initial job application.

10 QUESTIONS

Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, The Council of State Governments 2014 national chair, believes states can play a role in helping to ensure residents have the necessary skills to fill jobs.

Feature

42 CSG TOLL FELLOWS

Leaders from 34 states gathered in Lexington, Ky., in September for the CSG Henry Toll Fellowship Program.

© Rodney Margison

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CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

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// tennessee senate majority leader mark norris

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David Adkins Executive Director CEO

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from the desk of the executive director // in every issue

USA

The States Have Spoken: Pass M arketplace Fairness

The 113th Congress is on track to be the least pro ductive one in six decade bills to be signed into law s, having sent President than any president since Obama fewer public the end of World War II. With Congress currently in recess for the Novem ber midterm elections, end of the year having it looks like the 113th Con sent the president only gress will retire at the 165 bills—21 of which sim one of which names an ply rename government interstate highway. Wh or postal facilities and ile many key priorities rem should use the upcoming ain stymied by gridlock, lame duck session to pas the 113th Congress s one piece of much nee ded legislation for the sta For more than 20 years, tes. the online sales tax loopho le has given online -only over local, brick-and-mo retailers a government-s rtar businesses. It’s tim anctioned tax advantage e for this Congress to now to the president. The leg pass the Marketplace Fair islation levels the playin ness Act and send it g field and it doesn’t cre is already owed to be col ate a new tax—it simply lected. provides for a tax that The Council of State Go vernments joins with our par tner organizations of act and to act now. Wh state and local officials ile the 113th Congress ma in urging Congress to y be remembered as one has a chance to do the of the most unproduct right thing for the states ive in decades, it still —something any Congre ss should be proud to acc As I said in a recent lett omplish. er to the leaders of the House Judiciary Commit require remote sellers to tee, “As you are aware, collect the legally impose the inability of the states d taxes on transactions to for states and local govern resulted in an estimated ments in 2012; an amoun $23 billion loss of revenu t that continues to increa of the sales tax base wil e se with the growth of onl l require state and local ine sales. This erosion governments to take oth placing fur ther pressure er steps to ensure balanc on local businesses and ed budgets, potentially slowing our economic Big 7 state and local gov recovery.” The letter wa ernment organizations— s signed by leaders of the CSG, the National Gover Legislatures, National Ass nors Association, Nation ociation of Counties, Nat al Conference of State ional League of Cities, the City/Count y Managem U.S. Conference of Mayor ent Association. s and International The CSG Executive Com mit tee in May 2012 pas sed a resolution urging e-commerce transaction Congress to allow states s. to collect sales taxes on State Sens. Sharon Broom e of Louisiana and Deb Pet ers of South Dakota in rec said, “As sales taxes acc ent testimony to the Hou ount for over a third of se Judiciary Committee the revenues of most sta states, the inability to col tes, including over half lect the taxes that are leg of the tax collections for ally owed constrains sta six This includes lowering tes’ options to reform the tax rates and requiring ir tax code elsewhere. states to raise cer tain tax rate s to fund necessary gov As Govs. Tom Corbet t of ernment ser vices.”

Pennsylvania and Steve Beshear of Kentucky said viewpoint of the states in a letter to U.S. Senate , if a company is doing leaders, “From the business, selling goods should have to play by and soliciting customers that state’s rules. If a sta in their state, the compan te has a sales tax on spe should have to collect and y cific goods, then everyb remit it.” ody selling those goods On July 15, a bipartisan group of senators introdu ced the Marketplace and combines The Marketpla Internet Tax Fairness Act ce Fairness Act as passed (S. 2609). This bill by the Senate last year wit Act. This bill, which Sen h a 10-year extension of ate Majority Leader Har the Internet Tax Freedom ry Rei d already has agreed to consideration, may emerg allow to go directly to the e as the most viable veh Senate floor for icle for the passage of Ma rketplace Fairness during the lame duck session.

CSG will be monitoring the work of this Congre ss in its final days and adv Marketplace Fairness to ocating strongly for be a priority for both Rep ublicans and Democrats The states have waited in the House and Senate long enough. .

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Published in compliance with U.S. Postal Service regulations; 1) Title: Capitol Ideas. 2) Pub. No. 2152-8489. 3) Filing Date: 10/20/14. 4) Frequency: Bimonthly. 5) No. published annually: 6. 6) Annual subscription price: $42. 7/8) Mailing address of publication/publisher: 2760 Research Park Drive, P.O. Box 11910, Lexington, KY 40578-1910. 10) Owner: The Council of State Governments; Publisher, David Adkins; Managing Editor, Mary Branham, P.O. Box 11910, Lexington, KY 40578-1910. 11) None. 12) Has not changed during preceding 12 months. 13) Capitol Ideas.

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CAPITOL IDEAS, ISSN 2152-8489, NOV/DEC 2014, Vol. 57, No. 6—Published bi-monthly by The Council of State Governments, 2760 Research Park Dr., Lexington, KY 40511-8482. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Council of State Governments nor the views of the editorial staff. Readers’ comments are welcome. Subscription rates: in the U.S., $42 per year. Single issues are available at $7 per copy. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Capitol Ideas, Sales Department, P.O. Box 11910, Lexington, KY 40578-1910. Periodicals postage paid at Lexington, Ky., and additional mailing offices.

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LIAM JULIAN

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The Council of State Governments president GOV. EARL RAY TOMBLIN, West Virginia | chair SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MARK NORRIS, Tennessee | chair-elect SENATOR CARL MARCELLINO, New York vice-chair SENATOR BEAU MCCOY, Nebraska | immediate past chair SENATOR GARY STEVENS, Alaska executive director/ceo DAVID ADKINS (dadkins@csg.org) east director WENDELL M. HANNAFORD (whannaford@csg.org) | south director COLLEEN COUSINEAU (fitzgerald@csg.org) midwest director MICHAEL H. McCABE (mmccabe@csg.org) | west director EDGAR RUIZ (eruiz@csg.org)

GOV. EARL RAY TOMBLIN WEST VIRGINIA CSG National President

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SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MARK NORRIS TENNESSEE CSG National Chair

CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

SENATE PRESIDENT MIKE MILLER MARYLAND CSG East Co-Chair

HOUSE SPEAKER MICHAEL BUSCH MARYLAND CSG East Co-Chair

HOUSE SPEAKER DAVID RALSTON GEORGIA CSG South Chair

SEN. BEAU MCCOY NEBRASKA CSG Midwest Chair

REP. CRAIG JOHNSON ALASKA CSG West Chair

(N)othing is more critical to ensuring the economic strength of Pennsylvanians than the development of a well-educated and trained workforce.”

— Alan C. Walker, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development

in every issue // they said it

Prosperity Quotes from the 2014 CSG National and CSG West Annual Conference in Anchorage, Alaska

Children are learning from the day they are born.”

—Idaho Sen. Dean Mortimer, chair of CSG West’s Education Committee

The problem is that the United States can’t sustain its economic success by being average.”

—Scott Jenkins, program director of the education division at the National Governors Association

There is consistent research that high-quality early childhood education improves outcomes for at-risk children.”

—Kristin Moore, senior scholar and co-director of youth development at Child Trends, a nonpartisan research center focused on the well-being of children and youth

Hunger is all too pervasive in every state and not only is it an obvious concern, but it also adversely affects so many opportunities in life.”

—Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, 2014 CSG national chair

in the long term, I’m an optimist.

I never bet against the future of the American people.”

—David Gergen, noted author, professor and CNN senior political analyst

You’ve got to think outside the box to fix workforce development issues, to fix education issues.”

—Nick D’Andrea, director of state government affairs for UPS

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in every issue // regional roundup

The East CT • DE • MA • MD • ME • NH • NJ • NY • PA • RI • VT • NB • NL • NS • ON • PE • PR • QC • VI HEROIN EPIDEMIC

INMATE CANCER

New Jersey legislators in September announced a package of 21 bills to combat the state’s heroin epidemic, the first coordinated legislative response to the problem. The bills, some of which already have been introduced, target education, prevention and access to treatment, among other needs. According to The Record in northern New Jersey, the total cost to implement the legislative package, if passed, is estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

A recent report links the high rate of cancer and other illnesses among inmates at a southwestern Pennsylvania prison to a nearby coal ash dump, Reuters reported.

Between 2010 and 2013, 11 prisoners died and six others have been diagnosed with cancer at the State Correctional Institution Fayette. The report, released by the Abolitionist Law Center and the Human Rights Coalition, points to coal ash dumped at a nearby site from two area power plants as the likely cause.

DAIRY FARMS Vermont agriculture officials are encouraging the state’s dairy farmers to enroll in a new program that provides protection for farmers when the difference between milk and feed prices falls to a certain level, The Associated Press reported. According to some dairy farmers, the cost of producing milk has climbed higher than what farmers were paid for it. The enrollment period ends Nov. 28. Minimum coverage under the program costs a flat fee of $100.

LOBSTERING ON HOLD Commercial lobster fishermen in Connecticut’s Long Island Sound are taking a mandated break through much of November as the state has entered its second annual closure of commercial lobster season, according to The (New London) Day. The closure is designed to restore the area’s declining lobster population. In 1998, Connecticut lobstermen caught 3.7 million pounds of lobsters, but netted only 120,000 pounds in 2013.

PREGNANT WORKER RIGHTS Delaware lawmakers unanimously passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, The Washington Post reported in September. With the bill’s passage, Delaware joins an increasing number of state and municipal governments—including New York City, Philadelphia, Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey—that have passed legislation to keep expectant mothers on the job by ensuring accommodations such as lighter duty and sufficient restroom breaks, as long as they do not pose undue burdens on employers. A similar bill has been introduced in Congress.

For more on CSG East, visit: capitolideas.csg.org and www.csgeast.org.

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CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

© Bull’s Eye/ImageZoo/Corbis

School Waiting Lists Weighing Down Massachusetts Economy Thousands of jobs are going unfilled in Massachusetts due, in part, to long waiting lists for students trying to take classes at vocational and technical schools across the state, The Boston Globe reported. At least 3,500 students were not able to get into public vocational schools in the past two years, according to a survey conducted by researchers at Northeastern University School of Law. Schools with the longest waiting lists were located in communities with high rates of unemployment and large minority populations, according to survey results. In communities like New Bedford, Springfield and Fall River, where the unemployment rate is above 10 percent—nearly twice the state unemployment rate—between 200 and 500 students were on vocational and technical school wait lists.

Meanwhile, companies in the manufacturing and health care industries aren’t able to find enough skilled workers to keep up. Michael Tamasi, chief executive of a manufacturing company in Avon, Mass., said he is willing to pay as much as $30 an hour plus health and retirement benefits for skilled workers, but he has not been able to identify enough workers with the required skills to fill open positions.

“I have five job openings right now I can’t fill,” he said. “We could use more students ultimately to fill the pipeline long term.”

While funding has increased for vocational education in the state, the increase hasn’t been sufficient to cover the rising costs of running state-of-the-art vocational programs, vocational experts say.

Others suggest additional barriers, including social stigmas and misperceptions about vocational schools, training and careers, also must be overcome in order to fully meet the demands for a skilled workforce.

regional roundup // in every issue

The south AL • AR • FL • GA • KY • LA • MO • MS • NC • OK • SC • TN • TX • VA • WV © Luciano Lozano/Ikon Images/Corbis

NASA FLIGHTS

PORT DEEPENING

NASA selected SpaceX and Boeing to fly astronauts to the International Space Station in the coming years, the Austin American-Statesman reported in September. This deal will end NASA’s reliance on Russia to transport astronauts. Expeditions will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., with the first launch set for 2017.

The deepening of the Port of Savannah is expected to begin by the end of 2014. Once the project begins, workers will be required to complete massive dredging, engineering and environmental mitigation projects within five years. In South Carolina, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has recommended the Port of Charleston’s main shipping lanes be deepened to 52 feet to accommodate larger cargo ships at an estimated cost of $509 million. The public can comment on a 345-page study about the project on the website of the federal permitting agency’s local office through Nov. 24.

COAL ASH REGULATION North Carolina’s landmark coal ash regulation bill became law in September without Gov. Pat McCrory’s signature, according to Governing. The legislation establishes timelines and requirements for the removal or capping of coal ash at 33 open-air dumps operated

by Duke Energy. McCrory expressed concern about the constitutionality of an oversight commission created by the legislation.

ARKANSAS PREMIUMS

ProPoSed Pipeline Project Could Have Big Economic Impact For Three States A proposed Atlantic Coast pipeline could have tremendous economic impact for three Southern states.

An analysis released in September by Virginia’s Chmura Economics & Analytics reported the 550-mile pipeline through Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia is projected to have a cumulative economic impact of $2.7 billion and support a total of 17,240 jobs in the three-state region, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The line is designed to pump shale gas from West Virginia to electric power plants and other businesses in Virginia and North Carolina. It will run through areas not now served by such major energy infrastructure, potentially generating economic development opportunities for communities along its route.

The project has drawn criticism from environmental advocates such as the Virginia League of Conservation Voters and the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance. Environmental advocates say the pipeline could cause problems in “some of the most ecologically sensitive areas in the eastern United States.”

The pipeline is a joint venture of Dominion Resources Inc., Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas of North Carolina and AGL Resources. Dominion Resources paid for the report detailing the potential economic benefits of the project, according to the Times-Dispatch.

Insurance companies have proposed a 2 percent net reduction in premiums next year for the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace, the health insurance exchange created by the Affordable Care Act, the Arkansas Times reported in September. The marketplace includes all of the plans used for the private option, the state’s unique plan to use Medicaid funds to purchase private health insurance for low-income Arkansans.

TRAINING GRANTS Community colleges in two Southern states are among the recipients of grants to work with employers to set up training programs for in-demand jobs, such as information technology, health care, energy and advanced manufacturing.

The White House will provide $450 million in grants to 270 community colleges. Colleges in Kentucky and Texas are among those developing new training programs in information technology and cybersecurity.

For more on CSG South, visit: capitolideas.csg.org and www.slcatlanta.org.

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in every issue // regional roundup

The midwest IA • IL • IN • KS • MI • MN • ND • NE • OH • SD • WI • AB • MB • ON • SK CASINO JOBS

SALES TAXES

Ohio’s gambling industry has fallen short of the projected 17,000 jobs promised nearly five years ago when Ohioans voted to legalize casinos, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Casino properties have created more than 14,000 jobs across the state, including 9,600 temporary construction jobs and another 4,800 permanent casino jobs.

Casino officials say they have lost nearly 1,800 jobs since the state authorized video slots at the state’s seven racetracks, known as racinos, in 2011.

Increasing income inequality among South Dakotans may be slowing annual tax revenue growth for the state, according to the Rapid City Journal. While the income of the state’s wealthiest residents has tripled since 1979, the state’s median household incomes have barely increased during that time period. South Dakota projects that more than half of the estimated $1.4 billion in general fund receipts this year will come from its sales and use tax.

VOTER I.D. LAW

Illinois’ State Board of Education plans to move ahead with an initiative that would recognize students who master two or more languages other than English with a “Seal of Biliteracy” on high school diplomas and academic transcripts, the State Journal-Register reported. The board will propose rules for the program to a 12-member legislative committee this fall.

If approved, Illinois will join a handful of states, including California and New York, offering such seals.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 9 overturned a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by blocking Wisconsin’s implementation of a state law requiring all registered voters to present government-issued photo IDs at the polls. The court issued a one-page order indirectly invoking the Purcell v. Gonzalez principle by stating the troubling consequences for a jurisdiction to change election rules so close to the upcoming midterm elections.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

STATE CROWDFUNDING The Michigan Economic Development Corp., through its Public Spaces Community Places initiative, has promised to match every dollar raised through the crowdfunding campaign for a nonprofit arts education group. The Lansing State Journal reported Reach Studio Art Center, which mentors at-risk youth, hoped to raise $48,000 by Oct. 16 to finish the second phase of an expansion of its facility.

For more on CSG Midwest, visit: capitolideas.csg.org and www.csgmidwest.org.

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CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

© David Nicholls/ Corbis

Colorado’s Pot Legalization Yields Challenges for Nebraska’s Police In response to the legalization of marijuana in neighboring Colorado, Nebraska police officers have appealed to Colorado lawmakers, calling for assistance in identifying pot-­ impaired drivers and in reducing marijuana access and use by Nebraska’s youth.

Colorado opened dispensaries for medical marijuana in 2009; sales of recreational marijuana began this year. Pot remains an illegal drug under federal law, as well as in the seven states bordering Colorado.

According to the Omaha World-Herald, Nebraska law enforcement officials testified at a September hearing of the state legislature’s judiciary committee that agencies have seen a dramatic rise in the number of youth, some as young as 14, who are being ticketed for possession since the change in Colorado’s marijuana laws.

“Colorado’s legalization of marijuana has completely changed the landscape involving the marijuana we encounter,” Scotts Bluff County Sheriff Mark Overman said during the hearing.

This has resulted in a significant increase in the workload of Nebraska’s county sheriffs, state troopers, county attorneys, defense attorneys and courts, Sen. Al Davis said after the hearing.

“Obviously, this produces added costs, which create a burden for taxpayers across the state, but primarily in the affected counties close to Colorado,” he said.

A recent federal study found that marijuana purchased in Colorado and bound for 40 states had been intercepted during highway stops 288 times in 2013.

regional roundup // in every issue

The west AK • AZ • CA • CO • HI • ID • MT • NM • NV • OR • UT • WA • WY • AB • AS • BC • GU • MP © Kevin A. Short/Illustration Works/Corbis

PAID SICK LEAVE

SUICIDE PREVENTION

Beginning in July 2015, California employers will be required to provide at least three paid sick days to workers. Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature on a landmark bill makes California the second state, behind Connecticut, to require paid sick time. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, state leaders expect the bill to impact 6.5 million California workers, or 40 percent of the state’s workforce, who currently have no paid sick days.

Teens involved in the Youth Leaders program in northwest Alaska are having an impact on teen suicide prevention.

According to the Alaska Dispatch News, the Northwest Arctic Borough School District, which has had some of the highest suicide rates in the state, initiated the program in 2008 after eight students took their own lives. The program trains around 120 students to deal with problems like bullying and suicide. District officials report there hasn’t been a teen suicide in the borough for four years.

FIREFIGHTER SHORTAGE Colorado fire officials say the state’s volunteer firefighting force is significantly understaffed.

According to the Colorado State Fire Chiefs Association, the state needs an additional 3,500 volunteer firefighters, or more than 40 percent of the current force, to meet the National Fire Protection Agency standards, Rocky Mountain PBS I-News reported.

JOB MATCHMAKER

Utah Ranchers Urge State not to Sell Land for Prairie Dog Sanctuary A proposal to expand a sanctuary for prairie dogs in Utah would increase the state’s education coffers, but ranchers and local officials are urging against the move. According to the The Salt Lake Tribune, the proposed sale of 800 acres situated next to a prairie dog recovery unit by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration—or SITLA— to The Nature Conservancy is designed to create safe harbors for the animals without posing undue burdens on farmers and other residents.

Counts of prairie dogs in the area of the proposed land sale have ranged between 500 and 600 adult dogs every year since their listing as an endangered species in 1973.

Ranchers in the area, however, say the sale could further increase the influence of the federal government in Wayne County, Utah, where the scale of public lands is already a concern.

Farmers also question the need to further protect the species. More than 75 percent of the state’s 7,000 prairie dogs are on private and state trust lands, most of which do not count toward the species’ recovery goals.

“Wayne County has no faith (the) prairie dog will ever be delisted,” Wayne County Commissioner Newell Harward said at a recent SITLA board meeting. “We have less than seven square miles used for people habitat, but we will use (up to) 2,000 acres for prairie dog habitat. Folks, that doesn’t make sense for a county of 2,500 people.”

Wildlife officials insist, however, that the purchase of land to be managed as a habitat for prairie dogs, considered a “keystone” species, ultimately could lead to the animal’s delisting.

The Idaho Department of Labor has launched a new website, ChooseIdaho.gov, to help match the state’s job seekers with employment opportunities.

According to the Idaho State Journal, the Choose Idaho initiative is designed to identify skilled workers—both inside the state and beyond its borders— for available jobs in Idaho, which has an increasing number of openings. The website is free for both job seekers and companies recruiting new workers.

RECOVERED INVESTMENT Nevada has recovered a $50 million investment it made with former investment giant Lehman Brothers six years after the firm’s collapse. According to the Las Vegas Sun, the state made the investment in A-rated bonds in 2007. Lehman Brothers went into bankruptcy in 2008. Nevada sold its share of the bonds for $10 million in July, recovered $13.6 million from the Lehman estate during the bankruptcy process and recovered the remainder from interest income accrued on the investment over the past six years.

For more on CSG West, visit: capitolideas.csg.org and www.csgwest.org.

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in every issue // in the know

HIRING VETERANS IS GOOD BUSINESS As a veteran and statewide officeholder, I’m often asked to speak at events throughout our state honoring veterans and our military. Dedications, dinners, parades, marches, fundraisers, festivals—these are all worthy efforts and wonderful tributes, but what keeps me up at night is trying to figure out ways to help our veterans and those currently serving succeed here at home, with good jobs and bright futures.

For the first time in American history, the generation entering the workforce and the generation making hiring decisions have this in common: 99 percent have never served in the military. As a result, military service is undervalued like never before, despite everyone holding service in high regard.

Too often, employers skim past military service on a résumé, noting that the applicant is probably hardworking and disciplined. They might look for specific keywords, but short of perfectly matching transferrable skills, they are more likely to see it as lost time.

JASON KANDER WAS SWORN IN AS MISSOURI’S 39TH SECRETARY OF STATE IN JANUARY 2013.

AT 33, HE IS AMERICA’S YOUNGEST STATEWIDE ELECTED OFFICIAL. A FORMER U.S. ARMY CAPTAIN, KANDER IS A VETERAN OF THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN. PRIOR TO HIS ELECTION AS SECRETARY OF STATE, HE PRACTICED LAW, REPRESENTED KANSAS CITY IN THE MISSOURI GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SERVED ON THE MISSOURI VETERANS COMMISSION.

Of course, employers respect service enough to want to hire veterans. But respecting someone’s service is not the same as understanding it.

Veterans may be offered a position below the job for which they applied, essentially being treated as entry level. Many employers feel good about this, assuming they’ve done their patriotic duty. But treating military applicants as charity cases isn’t just unfair; it’s a bad business decision.

Hiring a veteran out of a sense of charity ignores the fact that the applicant is a valuable commodity.

And in a world where so few civilians have military experience, the scarcity of these skills should drive up that applicant’s value.

For the past 13 years, our nation has been fighting in conflicts that necessitated a diffusion of responsibility down the ranks to the lowest levels. In what has been dubbed “The Corporal’s War” by military scholars, success or failure in Iraq and Afghanistan has not been determined solely by generals, but by the split-second decisions of privates, sergeants and lieutenants in deserts and urban landscapes.

Employers who truly understand that this generation of veterans is equipped to handle any challenge will benefit most from the influx of veterans entering the workforce.

I know firsthand that folks serving in the military at all levels are skilled professional leaders. You combine those skill sets with a tough work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit, and there’s no telling how successful that soldier could be.

That’s why I worked to create Startups for Soldiers, a Missouri law that waives business startup fees for anyone in the military. Passed in 2014 with bipartisan support, this is a simple fix that will give our entrepreneurial men and women in uniform a little extra incentive and encouragement to start their own businesses.

These types of changes might seem small when viewed through a national lens, but to each Missourian that benefits from this small effort, it could mean the difference between pursuing a great new idea or letting an opportunity pass.

Startups for Soldiers was based on a simple idea. Sometimes that’s one of the best things you can do—just make basic tasks easier. So that’s what we did for military voters as well.

When I was in the Army, voting was often a hassle. In addition to just making it through each day, it was a pain to have to go back and forth in the mail requesting and receiving absentee ballots. It took a long time and a lot of my fellow soldiers didn’t even bother with it.

So this spring, my office launched our online Military Voting Portal, the easiest system in the country for voters to use. Members of our military—and their families—living overseas are now eligible to request and receive absentee ballots electronically.

Of course, we all must continue to thank our veterans for their service, but we must also show our gratitude and do what’s best for our economy by making sure they have opportunities for good jobs and careers that value their unique skills and experience. If we fail these fine men and women, we deny our country one of its greatest resources.

Smart and supportive employers are critical to maintaining the readiness and strength of our country’s armed forces. Managers who recruit veterans for their skills, not for charity, and company cultures that truly value and understand the benefits of military service are the cornerstones of ensuring our veterans can succeed here at home while strengthening our economy for future generations.

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hot topic

WORKING TO CLOSE THE SKILLS GAP Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, the 2014 Council of State Governments national chair, believes states can play a role in helping to ensure residents have the necessary skills to fill jobs. “State Pathways to Prosperity,” the 2014 leaders’ initative of Norris and West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, the 2014 CSG president, focuses not only on education, but also on other issues that might affect an individual’s ability to do the job. The four subcommittees—focused on children and youth, hunger and nutrition, military and veterans’ concerns, and criminal justice issues—have met and developed recommendations on how states can address the issues to improve workforce development efforts.

IN THIS SECTION 12 – 10 Questions—CSG Chair Mark Norris 15 – State Pathways to Prosperity 16 – Children and Youth 18 – Hunger and Nutrition 20 – Military and Veterans’ Concerns 22 – Criminal Justice Issues 24 – By the Book—The Hunger Bill 26 – Early Childhood Education 30 – My Brother’s Keeper 32 – Workforce Development 36 – Ban the Box 38 – Straight Talk—Helping Businesses Grow 41 – How to Have an Impact on Hunger

© Bull’s Eye/ImageZoo/Corbis

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in every issue // 10 questions

Leaders’ Initiative Addresses Issues that Affect Workforce

‘Life Happens and, Sometimes, Interferes’

by Mary Branham

Why did you choose State Pathways to Prosperity as the leaders’ initiative?

“We all want to see improvement in the quality of life in our states. State Pathways is CSG’s workforce development and education initiative designed to facilitate that objective.

Workforce development and relevant education present, at once, the greatest challenges, as well as opportunities, of our time. I wanted CSG to continue to be part of the effort already underway across the country to amass a ready workforce equipped with a relevant education to embrace the advanced manufacturing opportunities now returning to our shores. ...

I chose State Pathways because so much was already being done to analyze the skills gap, but not enough was being done to close it.”

Why is it important to include military and veterans’ issues, criminal justice, hunger and nutrition, and children and youth in this discussion?

© Rodney Margison

Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, The Council of State Governments 2014 national chair and a 2002 CSG Toll Fellow, selected “State Pathways to Prosperity” as the leaders’ initiative with West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, The Council of State Governments 2014 president. Norris believes states must play a role in helping to ensure residents have the necessary skills to fill jobs. The initiative focuses not only on education, but also on other issues that might affect an individual’s ability to do the job.

Read the full interview with Mark Norris at capitolideas.csg.org.

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“It’s important because life happens and, sometimes, interferes.

Hunger, for example, subtly but insidiously intervenes. Hungry children don’t learn as well; hungry parents don’t perform well.

Ex-felons, nonviolent ex-offenders, represent a ready workforce amounting to hundreds of thousands who could relatively quickly join the workforce but for their infraction. Veterans are often the most highly skilled and trained workforce we have.

But for the lack of a conventional certificate or degree, these individuals could readily assume responsibility for seizing the opportunities afforded by the emerging economy. Each of these issues present special challenges and, sometimes, opportunities, to educators, guidance counselors, recruiters, developers and human resource professionals. They are integral to the kind of comprehensive approach that must be taken in order to succeed.”

Do you hope this effort will shed light on the need for more interaction among agencies and departments for state policymakers?

“Absolutely. We can facilitate the type of ‘dot-connecting’ that does just that. In Tennessee, I introduced LEAP—the Labor Education Alignment Program—to align our departments of Labor and Workforce Development, Higher Education and Economic Development for that very reason. Don’t assume that your departments are interacting effectively. Incentivize them to do so. There is a lot to be said for the success that comes from leveraging existing resources.”

Why does military service provide what is often an even better preparation for civilian jobs?

“Today’s veteran is highly trained and practically experienced in so many specialized skills that are in high demand. Military service not only provides such training and experience, but it does so in an environment that instills discipline, pride and an invaluable work ethic.”

What can state leaders do to have the most impact on hunger in their states?

“First, state leaders can become informed. Understanding food insecurity, its interrelationships with nutrition, health, education and employment, is critical. Second, create a forum for disseminating what you learn and for learning more. In Tennessee, we organized a nutrition caucus. It provides a framework and a forum for food banks, professional dieticians and nutritionists, private sector participants, policymakers and others to work together in crafting solutions. Third, encourage your colleagues and others to volunteer to help local food banks, farmers markets and organizations like the YMCA, Catholic Charities and local schools, many of which are already working to alleviate or eliminate food insecurity in our communities.”

Have states not typically looked long-term in the understanding of state prosperity?

“Whether the United States rises to the Challenge and fully embraces the manufacturing renaissance now underway remains to be seen. I suspect we will, and CSG will be an important player in it.”

“States may look long-term, but, too often, they look through the wrong lens. To mix metaphors, they think they’re ‘skating to the puck,’ but they need to be skating to where the puck will be rather than where they think it is. CSG is working to harness and translate the data that drive governments’ ability to focus on the right future.”

What do you hope will come from this effort for providing answers to state policymakers?

“Generally, a stronger economy, including a skilled, national workforce, declining unemployment and increasing gross domestic product. Specifically, a sustainable CSG workforce development and education program of use and benefit to state and local governments … one that is not only content rich for teaching purposes—seminars, best practices and the like, but one that provides cost-saving services to state and local governments as well as individual policymakers.”

What is the ultimate goal for the initiative and when will you know it has had some impact?

“We know that our programming has already had some impact. Other legislative organizations are following CSG’s lead, replicating our programming to some extent, but we are attracting private funding to take this to the next level.

The ultimate impact won’t be certain for some time, but it’s hard to see history in the making when you’re in the midst of making it. Whether the United States rises to the challenge and fully embraces the manufacturing renaissance now underway remains to be seen. I suspect we will, and CSG will be an important player in it.”

Multiple stakeholders are involved in this effort.

What will be necessary to maintain that long-term interest and involvement?

“Accurate data. Useful metrics to measure success. And success itself. States compete for jobs and governments compete for scarce resources needed to drive economic opportunity. Those that understand this and are able to maximize the right opportunities will maintain it. Those that don’t will falter. In other words, it’s in everyone’s best interest to maintain a long-term commitment to building the best workforce in the world.”

When you reflect on your year as CSG chair, what would you want your legacy to be?

“As I’ve often said this year, history in the making is hard to see when you’re in the midst of making it. I would like to think that, one day, others will recognize this as a time of great transition, not only for state governments, but (also) for organizations like CSG that serve them; a time when states stepped up to the challenge our founders actually foresaw 238 years ago by overcoming the dysfunction in (Washington, D.C.) States, not Washington, will preserve the union, and CSG will have played a significant role in making it possible.”

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Thank you to CSG’s Leaders’ Fund and State Pathways to Prosperity Contributors

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Found from our FTP recreated PMS

To learn more about CSG’s Leaders’ Fund and State Pathways to Prosperity contributors, please contact Maggie Mick, Director of Development | The Council of State Governments | ph 859.244.8113 | mmick@csg.org

As part of the “State Pathways to Prosperity” initiative, The Council of State Governments created the National Task Force on Workforce Development and Education to focus on the major barriers to prosperity for a vast number of Americans. The initiative addresses the lack of opportunities to engage students in the learning process, better coordination of education pedagogy and instructional methods leading to college- and career-readiness and closing the apparent skills gap. Issues impacting children and youth, criminal justice barriers, hunger and nutrition impediments, and veterans’ concerns exacerbate these problems. Four subcommittees of the Task Force are studying these issues.

The diverse members of these subcommittees—representing state legislatures, K–12 and postsecondary education, practitioners, researchers and industry—have met this year to identify the needs and potential solutions for state economic prosperity. Their charge was to identify significant state policies and program opportunities that can support effective practices addressing the needs of children and youth, hunger and nutrition, criminal justice, and military and veterans’ concerns related to education and workforce development. The outcome will be a policy and practice framework that provides legislators and other state policymakers a menu of options for how to address the pressing issues facing states.

Understanding that corporate expectations are not aligned with K-12 and postsecondary education academic standards—and therefore the United States is not producing graduates with the necessary competencies for the labor market—the task force and subcommittee members began the work of developing policy and practice recommendations to ensure vacant jobs are filled with the most highly qualified workers to meet the demands of business and industry.

In this issue, leaders of the various subcommittees share their perspectives on the issues with which they are dealing. The next eight pages also include policy recommendations in various areas related to the overarching theme of the committee.

—Pam Goins

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hot topic

Focusing on the Future American Workforce Breaking the Intergenerational Cycle of Poverty to Help Children Succeed

by West Virginia Sen. John Unger The concept of a tree of life has been used as a common motif in biology, philosophy, theology and mythology. It serves as a metaphor to the interconnectedness of all things and a common evolutionary aspect in life.

Our workforce is like a tree where most of the workforce is visible as the branches. These are our adults who currently are working. Next is the trunk, representing our teens and young adults. This is the next generation of workers and where our educational efforts are mostly focused. Then there are the roots, representing our children from birth to 12 years old. This is the most important and most underserved part of the tree as it relates to workforce investment, but it is where we need to focus our efforts to provide services for good cognitive development.

Why should businesses be concerned with a child born today? That child is the workforce of the future. In many states, if the trends continue, then a third of the workforce will be on disability or drugs, a third will be in prison and a third will be leaving their states to work elsewhere. Therefore, there is an urgency to develop public-private partnerships in order to design policies that not only change laws and funding mechanisms, but also change an entire culture of work.

The Subcommittee on Children and Youth is focusing on issues and topics that deserve our immediate attention in ensuring that we are doing all we can to create a future workforce that is well educated and prepared for our ever-changing world. The mission of the subcommittee is to leverage rapidly growing research and knowledge driven by science- and experiential-based innovation that achieves positive outcomes providing for health, well-being, economic growth and sustainability.

Today, we are plagued with the issue that our current workforce is not as skilled as it should be and, thus, many of the job opportunities created are left with no one to fill those vacancies. We must ask ourselves as policymakers and representatives why this is. CSG’s workforce development initiative—“State Pathways to Prosperity”—is looking at various issues that are culprits in our current crisis. The Subcommittee on Children and Youth is focusing on our future workforce—our children.

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We are all too familiar in this country with child poverty, which is stunting our workforce and ability to thrive. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, more than 16 million children—22 percent of all children in the United States—live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level. The majority of these children have parents who are working hard to provide for their families, but low wages and unstable employment hinder their ability to make ends meet.

Children in these households are not immune from these adult stresses.

They are impacted both physically and emotionally. One of the biggest problems these children face is poverty’s adverse impact on their ability to learn. Research also shows the younger the child, the more heavily impacted they are by poverty.

The Subcommittee on Children and Youth has set some lofty goals, but we believe each goal will help all our children rise from poverty. Some of those goals we have set are to look at ways to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, look at ways in which everyone can earn a livable wage, and look at ways we can mitigate the effects of poverty on educational achievement.

To say that education is key would be an understatement, as research continues to show that children who experience productive years in the educational environment are more likely to lead more productive lives as they reach adulthood. For example, statistics from Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Race for Results show that children ages 3 to 5 who are enrolled in nursery school, preschool or kindergarten are more likely to be successful later in life than those students who are not.

It is of the utmost importance that children start learning in these vital years beginning at age 3. The impact of a good and continuing education for our children will help grow our workforce for years to come. That is why quality education and workforce readiness are at the top of the subcommittee’s policy list.

We want to look at early education programs and possibilities for all children, college- and career-readiness, post-high school preparedness and postsecondary education. A recent report by Educational Testing Service

Subcommittee on Children & Youth Policy Recommendations Quality Education and Workforce Readiness • Provide early childhood education for all children; • Ensure students are college- and career-ready; • Demand that high school graduates leave with employable skills; • Increase access to postsecondary education; • Increase the use of career and technical education; and • Monitor and assist young adults receiving at least an associate degree or credential.

Safe and Healthy Families FOCUS ON POVERTY WASHINGTON, D.C.—Children play in the Kenilworth-Parkside neighborhood. The DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative is using a $28 million grant from the Department of Education to tackle generational poverty with a fresh approach—if a parent’s level of education improves, so does a child’s prospects. The CSG Subcommittee on Children and Youth recognizes the impact poverty has not just on children, but also on their future prospects in the workforce. © AP Photo/Charles Dharapak found poor children completed two fewer years of school, earned less than half as much money, worked 451 fewer hours per year, received $826 per year more in food stamps and were nearly three times as likely to have poor health compared to children whose families had incomes of at least twice the poverty level during their early childhood. These data suggest just how large an impact education can have on our children.

To simply say that education is of the utmost importance is not enough. We must work together to identify what programs and policies work and don’t work. This is not only a state issue; this is also a national issue.

If we want to tackle it, we must work together, which is what this bipartisan subcommittee is seeking to do. We see the importance of tackling poverty in this nation. Everyone sees it, but seeing is not doing. We know that education at an early age will help our children develop further, but we need to know what programs and ways this early education and development can occur.

This subcommittee is seeking recommen­da­tions and policy suggestions that will strengthen, and possibly implement, new policies and programs, to help our children come out of the darkness of poverty and into the light of becoming successful adults.

Sen. John Unger is the West Virginia Senate majority leader and chair of the State Pathways to Prosperity Subcommittee on Children and Youth.

He chairs the West Virginia Select Committee on Children and Youth and Poverty and the interim committees, Children and Families, Water Resources and Workforce Investment for Economic Development. He also is a member of the Education, Finance, Judiciary and Rules committees.

• Increase access to prenatal care to ensure normal birth weight and healthy babies; • Increase access to medical and mental health care; • Provide support and sustainable assistance to families, cultivating a community of care; • Support community efforts to teach life and employment skills; and • Ensure access to nutritious food.

Economic Opportunities • Create fair and equitable tax policies; • Ensure economic self-sufficiency; • Provide affordable, accessible child care; and • Offer access to affordable housing.

Equal Opportunity and Access • Provide access to good schools; • Develop reliable broadband and infrastructure— such as transportation, water, sewer, energy— in all areas; • Create a reliable transit system; • Reduce disparities in the areas of medical care, social services, justice system, education and career opportunities; and • Cultivate a safe environment in which to work and learn.

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hot topic

Feeding the

Body

before Feeding the

Mind

Being Able to Prioritize Academics or Work Impeded when People Are Hungry By minnesota Rep. Kim Norton As the recession abates and demographic changes unfold, we are faced with this fact: Jobs are available but the skilled workforce needed is not.

Across the country, states are faced with finding successful ways to train or retrain adults looking for work to fill the jobs of today. They also are addressing the issues impeding the success of the pipeline of students in our K-16 system to assure our prosperity as a nation in the future.

The CSG “State Pathways to Prosperity” initiative looks broadly at the issues that contribute to the workforce difficulties we face, such as children living in poverty, people battling hunger and poor nutrition, veterans’ difficulties in meeting certification and degree requirements, and people who have been involved in the criminal justice system being disqualified from employment. Helping states address these issues will provide our nation with the workforce it needs and has the additional benefit of improving the health of our country’s citizens and lowering health care costs in general.

In a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we learn that more than 14 percent of American families—or 17.5 million Americans— struggle with hunger and were considered to be food insecure, with 5.6 percent suffering a “very low” food security rating. Working family incomes often cannot cover family expenses and families are reaching out to food banks and community support systems to meet basic needs. These support systems also have struggled under economically stressful times and new creative approaches are needed.

“We recognize that being able to prioritize academics or employment will be impeded by the lack of food in the home environment.”

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Our bipartisan committee consists of members representing various levels of government from around the country, as well as industry representatives. Our overall goals are to increase community and school access to healthy and nutritious foods, improve public education and awareness about nutrition and healthy eating, increase flexibility for benefit programs and encourage states to review their policies to remove barriers to addressing hunger and nutrition issues.

We recognize that being able to prioritize academics or employment will be impeded by the lack of food in the home environment. We have acknowledged that our best workforce cannot be realized if our employees are focused on their empty stomach or how to provide the next meal for themselves or their family; that our students cannot meet the highest academic standards if they arrive at school hungry, without breakfast and/or forgo lunch because of insufficient funds or food. Additionally, we understand that less healthful and nutritious foods are commonly cheaper— and often more readily available—leading to poor health outcomes, increased health care costs and missed days from work and school.

For the past several months, our group has discussed a variety of issues such as food deserts (lack of access to food), farm to school/table initiatives, food expiration date impacts, school breakfast and lunch programs, healthy choices of food and beverages in schools, food pricing and placement issues, the need for nutrition and food preparation information, federal rule impact on state policy and the need for state flexibility in SNAP and other federal programs.

Studies have demonstrated that food insecurity in early childhood is associated with impaired brain development, lower academic achievement and more hospitalizations. Contrast that with research that shows kids who eat breakfast have higher scores on standardized math tests and attend school more often, which improves the likelihood of graduation. Since one in five American kids struggle with hunger, we are safe in saying that hunger and nutrition issues negatively impact future economic prosperity due to a less competitive workforce and higher health care costs.

Subcommittee on Hunger & Nutrition Policy Recommendations

Education

HUNGER AND NUTRITION DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas—Students at Rooster Springs Elementary School find nutrition in Meatless Monday meals during lunch. One option they had was a refried bean burrito with reduced fat American cheese on an ultra-grain tortilla, with fresh fruit salad mix, baby carrots, watermelon and chocolate skim milk. © AP Photo/Austin-American Statesman/Ralph Barrera

The link between education and future success is clear—the more education a person has, the better chance they have to become employed, earn a living, support themselves and a family, pay taxes and contribute to the community in which they live. With more of the jobs of the future requiring learning beyond high school—be that a credential, certificate or two- or four-year degree—we must ensure the success of more young people in our public school system. In fact, a 2013 report from McKinsey & Company noted that improving K–12 and higher education could raise the nation’s gross domestic product by as much as $265 billion by 2020 and could add as much as $1.7 trillion to the GDP by 2030.

As CSG’s leaders believe in promoting the initiative, “young people and adults must be provided the foundational skills they need to be successful, which ultimately will lead to increased state prosperity.”

These studies show us we must address the social issues, like hunger and nutrition, for our learners in order to maximize their abilities and increase their chances for success in our schools and our workplaces for our country’s long-term success.

Our committee is seeking to produce a set of guidelines and policy recommendations for states to consider in addressing hunger and nutrition as part of their own efforts to create Pathways to Prosperity.

Rep. Kim Norton is the assistant majority leader in the Minnesota House of Representatives and a co-chair of the State Pathways to Prosperity Subcommittee on Hunger and Nutrition. She serves as vice chair of the Minnesota Health and Human Services Finance Committee, and is a member of the Capital Investment, Higher Education Finance and Policy, Jobs and Economic Development Finance and Policy, and Rules and Legislative Administration committees.

• Distribute information on healthy, thrifty meals to elementary and secondary students; • Coordinate efforts for businesses to offer nutrition education to employees through wellness programs by providing incentives and working with insurance companies; • Improve access to and education about healthy foods and encourage business cafeterias to serve healthy options; • Create a statewide healthy food campaign through departments of public health; and • Encourage school policies in healthy and nutritious food options for K–12 schools to ensure students are focused on learning the skills necessary for a strong and healthy future workforce.

Access • Review current laws to remove barriers that prevent access to local foods at both the departments of education and agriculture; and • Encourage districts to leverage federal school nutritional programs to ensure children are not hungry during the school day.

Benefits • Allow universal use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits at farmers markets; • Review congressional restrictions on free school breakfast and lunch through federal funds administered by the states; • Provide incentives and bonuses to encourage nutritious food purchases with SNAP funding; and • Encourage more research about expired perishable foods and review the need for additional restrictions.

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hot topic

Recognizing the Unique Assets of Military, Veterans Taking Steps to Identify Those Who Served to Put Them on Pathway to Prosperity

By Nevada Sen. Pat Spearman Veterans offer unique assets to the workforce and economic development of our country. Unfortunately, many challenges exist in pairing veterans with job, career and entrepreneurial opportunities. Members of the Subcommittee on Military and Veterans’ Concerns identified five categories to address this issue and ensure active service members and veterans successfully move toward their goals on the pathway to prosperity.

Identifying Veterans

Many veterans do not self-identify or do not identify themselves as veterans, especially noncombat, those who did not retire and female veterans. Consequently, they are not aware of the benefits, programs and services available to them.

Therefore, policymakers must develop policy initiatives to identify the veterans so states can communicate information regarding the programs and benefits available to them and their family members. The policies must be dynamic and fluid to allow interconnectivity between agencies and various levels of government to ensure veterans/military and their families are successful.

To that end, the subcommittee is working to create a centralized database of veterans for states to utilize to educate and inform veterans of opportunities, benefits and programs. Ideally, the database will include opportunities to collect information as an opt-in process. Once identified, entities working with veterans can leverage technology solutions (such as text messages) to reach veterans.

The subcommittee recommends developing an interagency veteran council to collect data with the state and federal veterans affairs groups, state department of motor vehicles and any points of entry to offer an opt-in option to compile veteran data.

Unemployment

Veterans are poised to be successful in jobs and careers based on their discipline and training. Entrepreneurs create jobs. Providing veterans pref-

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erences for state jobs and contracts is an important component of plans to reduce unemployment. Additionally, the policies must protect private sector companies working to provide veteran preferences from lawsuits and potential areas of adverse claims.

Supporting entrepreneurship as an employment option is another way to reduce unemployment among veterans. Opportunities for small business development and sustainment include: • Offering credit for military training, education and experience toward obtaining occupational license or certifications.

• Maintaining reserve component members’ occupational licenses during mobilization, including time to return to work.

• Creating state reciprocity to endorse member’s or spouse’s license in good standing from another state.

Academic Completion

Veterans who have military training and knowledge combined with academic degrees and/or certifications create a stronger workforce. But some existing barriers limit or prohibit access to academic success. States can take these steps to mitigate and eliminate barriers: • Direct institutions to increase transparency and protect veterans by disclosing policies on acceptance of credit for service and transfer of credit from other institutions for military members and families.

• Direct institutions to provide flexibility in enrollment and priority registration.

• Offer tax credits for public-private partnerships for veteran job and career advancement training and entrepreneurship.

Advocacy

One of the greatest barriers for veterans is the gap in military cultural awareness. Advocacy/awareness is required to level the playing field for veteran/military family workforce development. This assists in communicating programs, benefits and services to eligible veterans.

Subcommittee on Military & Veterans' Concerns Policy Recommendations Identifying Veterans • Create a centralized, opt-in database of veterans for states to educate and inform veterans of opportunities, benefits and programs; and • Create an interagency veterans’ council to collect data.

Unemployment

PUTTING VETERANS TO WORK COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa—Sandy Suver, manager of yard operations in Union Pacific’s Council Bluffs yard and former military flight controller, right, talked to Phil Schafer, a remote control locomotive operator who is a 101st Airborne veteran. As thousands of American soldiers return to the civilian workforce after service in Iraq or Afghanistan, many are finding jobs on the rail lines.

More than 25 percent of all railroad workers nationwide have served in the military. © AP Photo/Nati Harnik The committee recommends the following actions to improve the pathway to prosperity: • Develop an interagency veteran/military transition council that includes state agencies, veterans, private industry/business leaders, civic organizations, and chaplains and faithbased institutions.

• Direct state oversight councils to initiate programs to educate service providers, educators and employers on veterans’ issues.

• Direct state agencies to identify veterans as part of their contact with the public; this ties into the first problem of identifying veterans.

Housing

Housing is a significant barrier to workforce entry.

Addressing homelessness is an imperative before

veterans can seek employment or educational opportunities. Several ideas emerged to provide veterans affordable, safe and suitable housing.

The subcommittee’s recommendations include: • Turning foreclosure inventory at banks into veteran housing.

• Directing a legislative study to reduce the homeless veteran population.

• Supporting mortgages, mortgage services and assistance to veterans.

• Utilizing civic and nonprofit organizations combined with private industry to resolve housing challenges.

• Utilizing state and federal grants to revitalize neighborhoods and house homeless veterans.

• Focusing housing/shelter initiatives to support female veterans and veterans with children.

Sen. Pat Spearman is a retired soldier, serving in the U.S. Army Police Corps from 1977 to 2007, and chair of the State Pathways to Prosperity Subcommittee on Military and Veterans’ Concerns. She serves as chair of the Nevada Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee, as vice chair of the Senate Government Affairs Committee, and as a member of the Senate Transportation Committee.

• Provide veterans preferences for state jobs and contracts; • Provide credit for military training, education and experience toward obtaining occupational licenses or certifications; • Maintain reserve members’ occupational license during mobilization, including time to return to work; • Create state reciprocity to endorse members’ or spouses’ licenses from another state; and • Provide temporary licenses through state reciprocity to members and spouses for those who are qualified.

Academic Completion • Accept credit for military training, education and experience toward obtaining academic degrees; • Direct institutions to increase transparency and protect veterans by disclosing policies on acceptance of credit for service and transfer of credit from other institutions for military members and families; • Direct institutions to provide flexibility in enrollment and priority registration; • Provide tax credits for public-private partnerships for veterans’ job and career advancement training and entrepreneurship; • Ensure institutions implement federal laws for offering active, reserve, veterans and their families in-state tuition; and • Reduce or waive tuition for veterans who have exhausted their benefits.

Housing • Provide property tax credits to veterans; • Direct a legislative study to reduce the homeless veteran population by supporting mortgages, mortgage services and assistance to veterans, utilizing civic and nonprofit organizations combined with private industry to resolve housing challenges and utilize state and federal grants to revitalize neighborhoods and house homeless veterans; and • Focus housing and shelter initiatives to support female veterans.

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hot topic

Providing a

Second Chance States Help People with Criminal Records Improve Employment Prospects Business executives and policymakers found common ground during a June meeting at the White House designed to review ways in which government can help—or hinder—efforts to improve employment outcomes for people with criminal records.

Moderated by U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez, “Pathways to Prosperity: How Public and Private Sectors Can Put People with Criminal Records to Work” highlighted corporate willingness to hire those with prior convictions, the public sector’s desire to eliminate obstacles to employment and an overall eagerness to continue the discussion in states across the country.

“This is an issue of passion for me because I truly believe … that people deserve a second chance,” said Perez, who has worked on these issues at all levels of government. “I think that one of many reasons this is a bi­ partisan issue is because that’s a belief that people across any ideological spectrum share.”

More than 1,650 corrections, re-entry and labor professionals from 41 states participated virtually in the event, organized by the White House Domestic Policy Council, The Council of State Governments Justice Center and the National Reentry Resource Center.

“We have a fiscal and moral responsibility to be more strategic in how we structure the environment that (individuals with criminal records) are returning to,” said John Wetzel, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and a CSG Justice Center Board member. “Work is such an important piece to that.”

The first roundtable included state-level policymakers, leaders from the corrections and workforce development field, and business executives from companies such as Home Depot, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, and Tim Hortons Inc. Pamela Paulk, senior vice president of human resources at Johns Hopkins Health System and Johns Hopkins Medicine, said her company has been successful in hiring employees with criminal records because of its “thoughtful and very intense hiring process,” which includes individualized assessments to match people to the right job.

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“I have been doing this 14 years, and 5 percent of our staff—that’s one out of every 20 (people)—have a prior offense,” Paulk said. She emphasized there had never been a problem with any of these employees.

Others pointed to the importance of hiring and promoting based on performance and merit.

“When you get into the company, … it’s your merit that will take you into different positions,” said Derek Bottoms, vice president of associate relations at Home Depot.

The 16-member panel also discussed barriers to connecting individuals with criminal records to employment, including the need for adequate job training.

“We have to provide resources at the state level for (this) to work,” said New York Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, who serves on the CSG Justice Center board. “We have to encourage businesses to work with these individuals and we need partners at all levels of government.”

The event’s second roundtable featured leaders from leading nonprofit organizations and representatives of the U.S. departments of Justice and Labor, who shared information on current initiatives, efforts and resources that support the field in this area.

Sam Schaeffer, chief executive officer and executive director of the Center for Employment Opportunities, talked about his organization’s work with New York state in a Pay For Success project.

This initiative brings together state agencies working in corrections and community supervision, workforce development and labor, along with community-based organizations and service providers to ensure individuals returning from incarceration are matched to employment services based on their risk of reoffending and level of job readiness.

Portia Wu, assistant secretary of the Employment and Training Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor, and Denise O’Donnell, director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, discussed additional ongoing efforts at the federal level. Wu highlighted the Reintegration of Ex-Offenders grant program, which provides funding to support employment programs and services for individuals with criminal records.

Subcommittee on Criminal Justice Issues Policy Recommendations

Supervision Practices • Respond to supervision violations with swiftness and certainty; • Increase community-based treatment and programming; • Prioritize supervision resources based on the individual’s risk of recidivism; • Train probation and parole officers in evidence-based strategies to change offender behavior; and • Improve the management of victim restitution and other legal financial obligations.

PRISON CLASSROOMS CANON CITY, Colo.—Several states are working on ways to help efforts to improve employment outcomes for people with criminal records. In Colorado, inmates Anthony Johnson, left, and Jason Wheeler, worked during health class. With the focus on being able to make positive transitions back into the community, the educational programs have waiting lists. © AP Photo/The Daily Record/Jeff Shane “The evidence shows these programs help reduce recidivism and help people get (individuals) into good jobs,” Wu said, noting the department recently renewed funding for the grant program. “We are excited to keep investing in these programs.”

O’Donnell focused on the achievements of the Second Chance Act, which has provided funding for re-entry programs and services to more than 600 organizations and agencies since 2009.

She also announced a solicitation for pilot sites to test innovative employment and workforce development strategies in a project under the direction of the U.S. departments of Justice and Labor, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the CSG Justice Center. The strategies that will be tested come from the CSG Justice Center white paper, “Integrated Reentry and Employment Strategies: Reducing Recidivism and Promoting Job Readiness,” released last year.

“We have so much more science now on what works in re-entry and what also works in employ-

ment,” said O’Donnell. “We are now putting this into practice. … We are looking for good partners who are really committed to make (the strategies in) this white paper a reality.”

Following the event, Tennessee Senate Majority Leader and CSG 2014 Chairman Mark Norris called on all states to convene their respective business leaders to hold similar conversations, using June’s White House discussion as a guide.

“Today is a terrific demonstration of the kind of private-sector dialogue we need to design strategies that are good for business and that put people who are now law-abiding citizens to work,” said Norris. “We’re calling on all states to have the same kind of conversations at the state level.”

The National Reentry Resource Center, a project of the CSG Justice Center, also provided a one-page, call-to-action document, which was created to help local policymakers jumpstart these conversations in their jurisdictions.

Sanctions for Violations • Tailor confinement responses for probation and parole violations; • Provide judges with recidivism outcome data for various sentencing options; • Use risk assessment to inform the parole decisionmaking process; and • Reserve prison spaces for individuals convicted of violent offenses by regulating the percent of time above the minimum sentence that people convicted of nonviolent offenses may serve.

Recidivism-Reduction • Establish an oversight committee to measure and assess policy impacts; • Require that risk and needs assessments be routinely reviewed for quality; • Increase the capacity of state agencies to collect and analyze data in order to reduce inefficiencies and cut costs; and • Evaluate the quality of programs and use results to improve outcomes.

The Council of State Governments Justice Center is a national nonprofit organization that serves policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels from all branches of government. It provides practical, nonpartisan advice and evidencebased, consensus-driven strategies to increase public safety and strengthen communities.

NOV/DEC 2014 | CAPITOL IDEAS

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everyissue issue////bybythe thebook book ininevery

Nearly 15 percent of American households had low or very low food security in 2013, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture calculations. By state, the average rate of food insecurity from 2003 to 2011 ranged from 8.7 percent in North Dakota and Virginia to 21.1 percent in Mississippi and 21.2 percent in Arkansas, according to the USDA. Those 49.1 million Americans, including 15.8 million children, are affected by the lack of consistent access to adequate food in many ways.

Food insecure children are 1.6 times more likely to miss days of school, 1.95 times more likely to be suspended and 1.44 times more likely to have to repeat a grade, according to a Center for American Progress report, “Hunger in America.� Those missed days of school add up down the road. Chronic absenteeism is one of the strongest predictors of whether a child will drop out of school, according to a 2012 study by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools.

Households with Children Highest % of Food Insecurity

Lowest % of Food Insecurity New Hampshire - 5.1% North Dakota - 5.8% Virginia - 6.2% Delaware - 7% Massachusetts & Minnesota - 7.1% *Average rates from 2003 to 2011

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CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

Costs of Hunger A 2012 study by Johns Hopkins University showed hunger costs the U.S. at least $167.5 billion every year, based on a combination of lost economic productivity, increased education expenses, avoidable health care costs and the cost of charity. This figure does not include the more than $94 billion spent each year on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other key federal nutrition programs.

Per-capita costs of this “hunger bill” range from $341 in North Dakota to $704 in Mississippi.

< $400

$400–$499

$500–$599

Highest Per-Capita Costs

$703.69 Mississippi

$694.83 Arkansas

$643.78 NEw Mexico

$638.38 Georgia

$600–$699

> $700

lowest Per-Capita Costs

$635.16 Texas

$340.93 North Dakota

$390.08 Virginia

$402.49 $411.21 $396.61 New Jersey New Hampshire DElaware

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25

hot topic

Preschool to

PROSPERITY

Pathway to Economic Success Starts before Kindergarten

by Mary Branham

When Connecticut officials compared schools in the state’s wealthy suburbs to poorer communities, they saw a significant achievement gap.

Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams Jr. said that’s the main reason the Smart Start program is of paramount importance to children in Connecticut.

“For children who lack this kind of high quality pre-K, it’s like running the 100-yard dash starting 50 yards behind the starting line,” he said. “We know the most effective way to narrow the achievement gap and provide the best tools for opportunity and success is through a high quality early childhood education.”

That success isn’t limited to the K–12 classroom; it also matters in higher education and in the workforce.

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Preschool to Prosperity

It’s in the early years that children are learning so-called “soft skills”— the ability to interact with peers, manage emotions, problem solve and be a part of a team, according to Bruce Atchison, director of the Early Childhood Institute at the Education Commission of the States, a nonpartisan education research group based in Colorado.

“You don’t teach (children) this when they are in junior high school or 11th grade,” he said. “You teach them this early on. It carries through with them into the later years so that when they are graduating from high school or graduating from college, they have that basic skill set.”

That’s important, he and other experts say, in a time when many jobs throughout the workforce are going unfilled because of a lack of qualified applicants who have just those skills.

“It’s not so much that knowing a few more letters and numbers at kindergarten entrance somehow directly affects your adult skills,” said Timothy J. Bartik, a senior economist with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, a Michigan-based think tank. “It’s more getting off to that good start that leads you to learning more in kindergarten, which leads you to learning more in first grade. … It’s a cumulative effect that these skills appreciate over time until they get translated into a better future as an adult.”

“For children who lack this kind of high quality pre-K, it’s like running the 100-yard dash starting 50 yards behind the starting line.”

—Connecticut Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams Jr.

That’s one reason CSG’s 2014 chair, Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, included issues related to children and youth as a part of the “State Pathways to Prosperity” initiative. The initiative takes into account the many factors that can affect a state’s workforce development success.

Bartik said the global nature of our economy has made selection factors for business location “much more footloose.” No longer do businesses have to locate near natural resources or close to a targeted area to lower transportation costs.

“The factor that is least mobile and maybe the hardest to find is workers and their skills,” he said. “So businesses increasingly are looking for where they can find skilled workers.”

High quality early childhood education programs address that need in two ways, he said.

Long-term, preschool is one of the most effective ways of developing a high quality workforce down the road. Secondly, he said, such programs allow parents to work and return to school to enhance their skills and increase their earnings.

“If you really want your state to shine 20, 25 years down the road, we need to be thinking about investing in this,” said Bartik. “You’re basically investing in trees. If you want a nice landscape, someone needs to plant trees.”

In a new report for the Upjohn Institute— “From Preschool to Prosperity: The Economic Payoff to Early Childhood Education”— Bartik looked at studies on three early childhood programs and found the ratio of earnings to programs costs for enrolled children ranged from 1.5-to-1 for some higher cost programs to 5.3-to-1 for full-day pre-K at age 4. He also found early childhood programs could increase the adult earnings of child participants anywhere from 3 percent to 26 percent.

Immediate benefits from preschool programs, he said, include lower retention rates and decreased costs for placing students in special education classes. Long-term benefits include lower crime rates, lower juvenile detention costs, lower state welfare costs and increased state revenue from the higher salaries for adults who obtained a high quality preschool education, according to Bartik.

“In the short-term, it does cost money,” he said. “It doesn’t immediately pay for itself. …

I just think that people need to face up to the need to make smart investments. This is a smart investment.”

Connecticut’s Smart Start

While Williams said Connecticut has long had a commitment to increase early childhood education, legislators this year passed a bill to commit $200 million over the next 10 years to move the state closer to voluntary universal preschool for all 4-year-olds.

Connecticut is just the latest state to target early childhood education with a big funding commitment. Forty-one states have a statefunded pre-K program, according to Atchison.

Many of those states continue to increase

pre-K funding, he said, because they see the importance of quality education before students enter kindergarten.

“We know that by age 5, it’s possible to predict with depressing results who will complete high school and who will not,” Atchison said during a session at the CSG National and CSG West Annual Conference in Anchorage, Alaska, in August.

Getting students on the right path in preschool can help alter the course for many children, he said.

“Now, with the new rigor around academic performance and third grade reading and math proficiency, … if a child isn’t reading or math proficient by third grade, their likelihood of success in later grades or high school graduation decrease dramatically,” he told Capitol Ideas in September.

A Georgetown University study found kindergarten students who attended the Tulsa, Okla., pre-K program started the school year nine months ahead of their peers in reading, seven months ahead in writing and five months ahead in math. Oklahoma has funded preschool since 1998; it now reaches three-fourths of all 4-year-olds in the state, according to a May 2013 report in the Georgetown Public Policy Review.

PRESIDENT PUSHES PRESCHOOL DECATUR, Ga.—President Barack Obama discussed the importance of education for young children in 2013.

In his 2013 State of the Union address, Obama proposed a plan to ensure high quality preschool across the country. © Jason Reed/Reuters/Corbis/

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hot topic

“This is invest a nickel to earn a dollar … starting those kids out right is a huge return on investment in the state of Georgia.”

—Georgia Sen. John Albers

Georgia’s Bright Start

Georgia also has a longtime voluntary universal preschool. For Georgia Sen. John Albers, offering preschool to every 4-year-old in his state is a no-brainer.

“We know the earlier we start giving the tools and education in classrooms to students, that we start them out ahead of the game,” said Albers. “By the time they get to kindergarten, they already have the skills necessary (so) that things are coming to them a little easier.

“Young minds are like sponges—they are absorbing all that information,” he said.

Georgia has been lauded for its state-funded preschool program, which started as a pilot program targeting 750 at-risk 4-year-olds and their families in 1992. Atchison said high quality early childhood programs should have a governance structure similar to K–12 programs. They also should have established standards and a dedicated funding stream, he said. Georgia is one of a few states that has those components, he said.

Albers said the state lottery provides about $300 million a year for the preschool program.

That dedicated funding stream and the public-­ private partnership model Georgia uses helps to make it a success, said Amy Jacobs, interim commissioner for the state Department of Early Care and Learning.

The program serves about 84,000 of Georgia’s 4-year-olds. “We could not do that without partnering with our public school system, but also with our private child care centers,” Jacobs said.

“The capacity just would not be there.”

But even with the multiple partners Georgia uses for its pre-K program, all students are getting the same quality education because the Georgia Pre-K Program sets uniform standards, said Kristin Bernhard, deputy commissioner for system reform.

“All of our pre-K classrooms have a curriculum that aligns with those early learning standards,” she said. “That’s one of the ways we ensure the quality of instruction and what children are learning is high and also uniform across the state.”

Those standards, Bernhard said, are aligned with K–12 standards. Georgia also requires

lead teachers in preschool classrooms to have a bachelor’s degree because, “we know that education can increase the quality of instruction,” Jacobs said.

The effort has paid off. A recent study conducted by the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina found the 509 preschool children included in the study made positive gains from the beginning of the school year to the end. The study also said children seemed to progress at a greater rate in preschool than would be expected for normal development.

Jacobs said her department is conducting a longitudinal study of pre-K. The first phase involved classroom observation to look at classroom quality; the second compared children that attended Georgia pre-K to those who did not.

“We saw better school readiness skills across all domains of learning,” said Jacobs.

The third phase, which is ongoing, will follow a sample of Georgia pre-K students into kindergarten to see how the program helped them.

Starting Earlier and Maintaining

But Georgia isn’t just focused on those students entering pre-K. Jacobs said the Department of Early Care and Learning also established a Quality Rated program to look at child care centers that serve children from birth to 3.

“We understand that birth through 5 are really those critical years for brain development,” Jacobs said.

QUALITY EARLY AUGUSTA, Ga.—Jessica Hill spoke with 2-year-old Jonah Olson during preschool coloring time at the Georgia Regents University Child Care Center. The care center is a Quality Rated early care and early education program for children. The Quality Rated program looks at the structural quality of the program, including such things as teacher credentials and training, and instructional practices, as well as health, nutrition and physical activity, according to Kristin Bernhard, deputy commissioner for system reform in Georgia’s Department of Early Care and Learning. © Corbis/Emily Rose Bennett/Staff/The Augusta Chronicle

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“If you really want your state to shine 20, 25 years down the road, we need to be thinking about investing in (preschool). You’re basically investing in trees.

If you want a nice landscape, someone needs to plant trees.”

—Timothy J. Bartik, senior economist, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

Bernhard said the Quality Rated program looks at the structural quality of the program, including such things as teacher credentials and training, and instructional practices, as well as health, nutrition and physical activity. The program also includes a classroom observation in which a trained assessor reliable on a national rating instrument will spend up to three days observing instruction and the interaction between teachers and students.

But the interest doesn’t stop once a child leaves pre-K or even kindergarten.

“To have a pre-K program—or any kind of high quality program—that sits by itself is not effective,” said Susan Adams, assistant commissioner for Georgia’s pre-K program. “It must be part of a birth through third grade alignment and a continuum because you need for any gains that children make to be sustained.”

She said it should begin with a high quality child care program that feeds into a high quality pre-K program, then into a high quality kindergarten program and elementary school program.

“You’re really looking at a state having a systems program where your pre-K teachers understand the standards that kids are going to have in kindergarten, but also your kindergarten teachers understand what comes before,” said Adams.

That continuum is important, according to Atchison of the Education Commission of the States. In fact, he said, the majority of people focused on early childhood education have made a paradigm shift from focusing on birth

to age 5 to focus on birth to age 8. That’s because new research on brain development shows the majority of early brain development occurs from birth to age 3, but it doesn’t start to level off until about age 8.

Beyond the Classroom

That’s something policymakers and others around the country have realized.

“Folks are familiar with studies that show high quality pre-K leads to greater reader comprehension by grade three, which in turn leads to greater academic success throughout middle school and high school, with many positive benefits flowing from high school graduation to continuation onto college,” said Williams of Connecticut. “All these pieces fit together and the critical starting point of a child’s academic success is high quality pre-K.” Quality is the key, Williams and other say.

But it’s also important to focus on other factors that can affect a child’s ability to learn, said Renée Wilson-Simmons, director of the National Center for Children in Poverty.

“In talking about children, we’re talking about their healthy development, which connects to

school success, which connects to their role in the workforce,” she said.

Her center promotes a two-generation approach that looks at not only the quality of the preschool classroom, but also the ability for families to thrive and prosper.

“It’s a little more complicated than just talking about what kinds of programs a state supports for child development without looking at the other piece of it,” Wilson-Simmons said.

“If families can’t make it, how does a child make it?”

Atchison agreed. He said state policymakers should take a more comprehensive approach.

“It’s not just academics,” he said. “You have to begin to look at the whole child and family support systems and how we’re engaging parents in the education of their children.”

But high quality preschool programs are a start, even if they are costly in the beginning, experts say.

“This is invest a nickel to earn a dollar,” said Albers. “We know what education means long-term, and starting those kids out right is a huge return on investment in the state of Georgia.”

PROMOTING PRESCHOOL JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Florida Gov. Rick Scott, left, and Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown talk with Jayla Fraizer (background), 5, and Benardiya Glover, 5, at All About Kids Preschool Learning Center in March. The governor was in town to promote the state’s increases to early education funding. © AP Photo/The Florida Times-Union/Will Dickey

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hot topic

State, Local Leaders Show Needed Support for Boys and Men of Color

MY BROTHER’S

by Leon T. Andrews Jr.

KEEPER

President Obama in February launched My Brother’s Keeper, an initiative that focuses on improving outcomes and opportunities for boys and young men of color. My Brother’s Keeper is not a new government program, but an initiative that builds on the momentum in communities across the country to improve life outcomes for boys and men of color.

The National League of Cities is pleased to support this effort as it builds on our existing work—the City Leadership to Promote Black Male Achievement technical assistance initiative and the Cities United initiative.

Four years ago, the National League of Cities launched a new initiative with generous support from the Open Society Foundations’ Campaign for Black Male Achievement to gather initial insights on the interest and opportunity for city leaders to promote a black male achievement agenda. The landscape for municipal leadership offered our first perspective for how local elected officials described current efforts to improve life outcomes for black men and boys.

Very few city leaders were leading initiatives specifically on black male achievement. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter was out front championing. An emerging group of local elected officials were talking about, and investing in, a boys and men of color agenda. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was demonstrating his financial and administrative commitment by launching a citywide Young Men’s Initiative.

With the national attention on Promise Neighborhoods, more cities were taking a placebased approach that included strategies to invest in black men and boys. Orlando, Fla., Mayor Buddy Dyer was leading a neighborhood-based initiative called Parramore Kidz Zone that included strategic investments in black men and

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boys. Several more cities and local elected officials focused on specific issues like high school completion, unemployment, violence prevention and fatherhood. While the issues were broadly defined, many city leaders believed these issues targeted black men and boys.

The landscape today for city leaders to promote black male achievement looks very different.

During the past two years, the National League of Cities has provided guidance and planning support to 11 cities participating in its “City Leadership to Promote Black Male Achievement” technical assistance initiative. Participating cities are Charlottesville, Va., Chicago, Fort Wayne, Ind., Jacksonville, Fla., Louisville, Ky., Milwaukee, Oakland, Calif., Omaha, Neb., Orlando, Fla., Philadelphia and Portland, Ore. Each city committed to improve the life outcomes of black men and boys by forming strong local partnership structures; promoting a shared vision; using data more effectively; developing comprehensive strategies focused on education, employment, family strengthening and violence prevention; and engaging young black men and boys in civic life and local government.

The National League of Cities also has been providing overall project management for “Cities

United,” a national strategic partnership initiative focused on reducing violence and violent deaths among black men and boys. More than 60 mayors have joined “Cities United.”

Since the launch of My Brother’s Keeper, the president created the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force and the philanthropic and private sector partners formed a Boys and Men of Color Private Sector Table, now called the National Coordinating Council, which is chaired

by Irvin “Magic” Johnson and Joe Echevarria, president of Deloitte. Both the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force and the Boys and Men of Color Private Sector Table released reports and recommenda­tions to improve outcomes for boys and young men of color. The National League of Cities worked with a number of partners, including The Council of State Governments, to host a series of webinars for state, local and tribal leaders that provided helpful insight on how important this issue was for elected officials and how they would like to be more engaged.

Since the release of both reports, the president launched the My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge. More than 130 state, local and tribal leaders accepted the challenge to bring together

a diverse range of stakeholders to develop a plan for achieving at least two of the six goals for boys and men of color: 1. Ensuring all children enter school cognitively, physically, socially and emotionally ready; 2. Ensuring all children read at grade level by third grade; 3. Ensuring all youth graduate from high school; 4. Ensuring all youth complete postsecondary education or training; 5. Ensuring all youth out of school are employed; and 6. Ensuring all youth remain safe from violent crime.

The commitment state, local and tribal leaders are making to improve outcomes and opportunities for boys and men of color requires coordination, buy-in, system change and shared accountability. The participation of the mayors

in “Cities United” and other technical assistance initiatives and the more than 130 municipalities that have joined the My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge are incredibly encouraging signs of the leadership needed to address the complexities for advancing a common agenda that is so important for the success of our communities.

No one program got us here and no one program will get us out.

FOCUSING ON YOUNG MEN OF COLOR WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Barack Obama hugged a student during an event in the East Room of the White House to promote his “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative in February.

Joined at the White House by young men of color, Obama called on America’s businesses, philanthropists and government leaders to join forces to put more boys on a path toward successful lives. The National League of Cities supports the effort as it builds on existing work. © AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Leon Andrews is the program director at the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, and Families. Prior to joining the National League of Cities, he was a fellow at the Forum for Youth Investment, where he coordinated a multistate youth policy and engagement initiative. He also serves on the boards of the National Recreation and Parks Association, the Youth Planners Network, Healthy Kids Healthy Schools, and the Safe Routes to School National Review Group.

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hot topic

Middle Skills Middle Class What if a middle-skills job—one that requires more education than a high school diploma but less than a four-year degree—could be a ticket to the middle class?

It’s possible, experts say, but not enough state policymakers are taking the steps to help ensure the middle can grow. It’s going to take good data, innovative programs and the will to work together, experts say, but growing the middle class can be done.

Middle Jobs

So what are middle jobs?

“There was a set of middle jobs everybody was very familiar with and tend to bemoan the loss

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of—the blue collar industrial jobs that were prevalent between 1946 and 1983,” said Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

The old middle jobs that paved an entire generation’s way to the middle class—jobs like manufacturing, transportation, construction and mining—are largely gone. But middle jobs remain almost a third of the job openings across the United States, he said.

“People see those jobs having disappeared and tend to think that the middle is gone, which is really not true,” he said. “There is a new set of middle jobs now that are in offices, white collar jobs. They are in computing, they are in finance

and accounting, they’re in health care and all of those are service jobs, not manufacturing jobs.

They tend to require high school plus some level of postsecondary education or training.”

While college education used to be a guaranteed ticket to the middle class, Carnevale said that isn’t the case so much anymore.

“You can get a certificate in heating, ven­ tilation and air conditioning, in computers, in industrial technology, in a variety of technical fields,” he said. “You can get a certificate and make more than 20 to 25 percent of people with bachelor’s degrees. So you have a system in which the field of study is beginning to matter more than the level of the degree.”

I keep watching the national news, … they’re talking about how bad (the economy is), nobody can find a job. I think, ‘Oh my goodness, come to Iowa! You guys do not know what you’re talking about. We have openings.’”

—Michele Farrell, project manager, Elevate IowA

But, Carnevale said, not all universities or community colleges are producing graduates that can earn a living. States aren’t doing a good enough job linking college transcript data and employer wage records to see if universities are producing students that can get a job and how much that job pays, he said.

“You can find out what school they went to and what field of study they took,” he said.

“Any state can find this out now. … Most state legislators and officials don’t even know this exists because it’s relatively new. It’s the way you would govern the (higher education) system and it’s also the way you would inform students and the institutions that provide education and training which programs work and which ones don’t, at least from an economic point of view.

“We know that since 1980, we’ve had a huge increase in the earnings differences among Americans, growing income inequality and all that. We know 70 percent of that difference comes from differences in either going to college or in different programs people take. … It’s a system that is essentially deciding who is middle class and who isn’t. There’s an urgency to it.”

Overcoming Biases

Alabama Rep. Mac Buttram, who was one of the featured speakers at a Policy Academy on U.S. Workforce Development at the CSG National and CSG West Annual Conference in Alaska in August, said people in general are giving career and technical education short

shrift today. These are jobs that can pay well, he said, but Americans favor four-year degrees over certificates.

Buttram was appointed to Gov. Robert Bentley’s new Alabama Workforce Council.

The council, comprised primarily of state business leaders, is designed to help K–12 and higher education institutions in the state better meet the needs of businesses and industries.

Buttram relates the story of a young man who lived near Huntsville, one of America’s aerospace centers, who wanted to become an aviation mechanic. He was taking classes at the career technical center while in high school and working part time at an aeronautics company, which was poised to employ him after graduation.

“His mother was horrified,” Buttram said.

“She wanted him to go to college. … When he graduates, he’ll get a certificate, but that company will pay for him to get a four-year degree should he choose to do so. That company will also pay for him to get a master’s degree.”

It’s that kind of bias against community college and technical training that states must overcome, Buttram said. That’s exactly what Iowa is trying to do with a new program called Elevate Iowa.

According to a 2013 report from Iowa Workforce Development, 56 percent of the jobs in Iowa in 2012 were middle-skills jobs, yet just 33 percent of the workforce possessed middle-skill abilities.

Elevate Iowa is partially funded by a U.S. Department of Labor grant designed to build

training capacity in specific programs—such as welding or industrial maintenance—at community colleges across the state. That funding targets specific populations, such as the underemployed, veterans and minorities.

The Iowa Association of Business and Industry also funds Elevate Iowa. Its charge is to promote the idea of career and technical education by targeting children, parents and guidance counselors.

“Our goal at Elevate is really to change the perception of manufacturing,” said Michele Farrell, project manager for Elevate Iowa on behalf of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry. “We love the four-year degree.

All manufacturers have front offices with accountants and legal and everything else. We need both. We want people to realize that hey, if that’s not the path for you, you have this option. … It’s a good option.

“So right now we’re on the air with radio campaigns. We have print campaigns around the state. We are doing presentations to all of the area education associations. … We have talked to school boards, to superintendents.

I’m telling you, we’ve been all over the state talking about manufacturing.”

In late September, Farrell said, Iowa had more than 6,000 job openings in manufacturing with an average wage of $51,000 annually.

One company needs machinists so badly that it pays people to go through training at a local community college and, if a student earns at least 80 percent on their classwork, they are automatically hired.

“If I had 40 certified welders right now, I could place them at a company tomorrow,” Farrell said. “I keep watching the national news, … they’re talking about how bad (the economy is), nobody can find a job. I think, ‘Oh my goodness, come to Iowa! You guys do not know what you’re talking about. We have openings.’”

Overcoming Barriers

Washington state has been trying to help get its unemployed residents trained and into the workforce using a little-known program offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.

Washington will receive almost $30 million in federal funding this fiscal year to run its NOV/DEC 2014 | CAPITOL IDEAS

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hot topic

LEARNING MIDDLE SKILLS Refrigeration technician students work in a classroom as the instructor works with other students, back. Community and technical colleges can prepare students to fill “middle skill” jobs that are often a pathway to the middle class. © AP Photo/Blend Images

Basic Food Employment and Training program, which served between 12,000 and 13,000 people last year.

“It’s what’s called a third-party match model, which means the state doesn’t actually do the groundwork,” said Bob Thibodeau, lead program manager for food assistance in Washington state and former manager for the Basic Food Employment and Training program. “We contract with agencies, with community and technical colleges and community-based organizations that specialize in this type of work.”

Thibodeau said the colleges provide the training to get enrollees into the workforce, while community-based organizations help them overcome other potential barriers, such as housing, child care and transportation.

The program started in 2005 as a pilot with the Seattle Jobs Initiative, a nonprofit group that started out as part of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development. David Kaz, policy director for the initiative, said the initiative has moved to the idea of career pathways rather than short-term training to get someone into a job as soon as possible.

“Career pathways is really focused on longer-­ term training than we had historically done at the community colleges,” he said. “We’re trying to get people to at least one-year college credential. … We moved in this direction because of the labor market telling us that in order for people to get what we call middle wage jobs, we need to get them to longer-term training to be successful.”

“There is a new set of middle jobs now that are in offices, white collar jobs.”

—Anthony Carnevale, director Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

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CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

Career navigators work with each person in the program, helping them access any services they might need and helping them navigate the college system. Right now, the initiative is focusing on four different sectors where there is demand in Seattle—health care, business/ information technology, manufacturing (primarily welding), and logistics and trade (primarily mechanics).

The kind of training people receive, Kaz said, is intended to help them take the next step in their employment journey. It’s a process, he said, not a destination.

“A career pathway, by definition in the training field, is sort of linked steps in training,” he said, “so you can step in and out, which a lot of people have to do. It’s sort of chunked out in your training. You can complete a chunk and that helps you get a better job than when you started, but you’re still not done. Then … when you’re ready to come back to training, it links to that next step, with each jump helping to improve your labor market prospects, make it really seamless for people.”

The idea seems to be working. Since career pathways started in 2012, Kaz said, 900

WORKING THE LINE GEORGETOWN, Ky.—Toyota cars move along an assembly line at the company’s plant. While many “middle skill” jobs are moving away from manufacturing, many automakers— and the companies that supply them—still provide these types of high tech jobs for a pathway to the middle class. © AP Photo/Al Behrman

individuals have been trained by the Seattle initiative—about 85–90 percent of them have been participants in the Basic Food Employment and Training program. After three months on a job, 92 percent of those people were still employed. After long-term career training, the average wage of people placed in jobs is $16.62 per hour.

While interest is growing in this type of federal funding to provide education for SNAP recipients, Kaz understands why it hasn’t taken off sooner. Funding for training programs usually comes through the U.S. departments of Labor or Education, he said, and the overall pot of money states can apply for is still fairly small.

Kaz and Thibodeau said it took some time to figure out how to make this a self-sustaining program.

“We (the community-based organizations and the colleges) are investing our resources to get the match so we can expand what we’re doing,” Kaz said. “We’re putting up our own money so the state doesn’t have to put up any additional money. … Figuring out that model is key and it’s not easy to do that.”

Thibodeau said it’s important to have willing partners on both sides.

“Maybe some states think they have to do it across the whole state and not just try it out as a pilot first,” he said. “That’s what we did here in Washington. We tried it out as a pilot in a small area, made sure we worked out all the kinks first and we grew the program very strategically and very gradually to make sure we didn’t start something that we couldn’t finish or start something we couldn’t handle.”

Importance of Cooperation

Bryan Wilson, state policy director for the National Skills Coalition, said cooperation and working across silos is important for everybody when talking about workforce development—even legislators.

“Generally, policymakers are involved in just one of the program silos,” he said. “They’re involved in community colleges or they’re involved in the Workforce Investment Act or they’re involved with apprenticeships or vocational rehabilitation. There tends not to be a focus on the overall picture of how all

these programs can work together to prepare people for jobs.”

The July reauthorization of the former Workforce Investment Act—now called the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act— may help spur states in the direction of looking at education, labor and workforce development in one broad stroke. States will be required to develop and submit a four-year unified strategy that identifies skills gaps with employers and how the state is going to close those gaps.

The new act is a significant chance for states to improve how they educate their workforce, Wilson said.

“There are probably over a dozen significant reforms in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act over its predecessor program, the Workforce Investment Act,” he said. “Many of these reforms will help align programs to better serve individuals and meet employer needs. … There is now going to be a set of common metrics, six performance measures that will be consistently used across workforce programs. Being measured by the same measures will help folks align their programs with one another.”

NOV/DEC 2014 | CAPITOL IDEAS

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hot topic

by Liam Julian Around 65 million Americans of working age have criminal records. Finding a job isn’t easy for anyone, but it’s especially difficult for them.

Sometimes, formerly incarcerated individuals simply lack the knowledge and skills that would make them employable; other times, they are barred from filling certain jobs by federal or state laws. But in many instances, employers simply are reluctant to hire people with criminal records and eliminate such applicants from consideration before even reviewing their qualifications.

“The question for me,” said Nebraska state Sen. Bill Avery, “was why go to the expense and effort of preparing prisoners for jobs on the outside when we have barriers that impede their ability to even be considered for employment. ‘Ban the Box’ was an important effort to remove one of those barriers.”

“Ban the Box.” It’s a catchy phrase describing a national political movement that seeks to ensure job applicants with criminal records can show a potential employer their qualifications before revealing their criminal histories. “Box” refers to the job application checkbox that people with criminal records are asked to tick.

State Actions

Avery introduced Nebraska’s Ban the Box legislation, Legislative Bill 932, in January. The bill prohibits public employers from asking about a job applicant’s criminal past until they establish whether the applicant meets minimum job requirements. The Business & Labor Committee unanimously passed the bill, which was then attached to a larger prison reform bill. That bill passed 46-0 and Gov. Dave Heineman signed it into law in April.

The first state to pass such a law was Hawaii, which removed questions about criminal history from job applications for both public and private positions in 1998. But the phrase “Ban the Box” didn’t appear until years later, in the early 2000s, when the activist group All of Us or None used the term to describe its California-based campaign. The slogan caught on, and Ban the Box is now recognized shorthand for the movement behind an array of state and local legislation, ordinances and orders.

Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have passed Ban the Box legislation, according to Michelle Natividad Rodriguez of the National Employment Law Project, which supports Ban the Box. Some 70 cities and counties have effectively done the same.

Six states and the District of Columbia—as well as several cities, such as Baltimore, Newark, N.J., and San Francisco—have, like Hawaii, applied Ban the Box to private employers as well as public ones. In fact, some private businesses like Walmart and Target have voluntarily removed questions about criminal history from their job applications nationwide.

The belief undergirding all Ban the Box laws is much the same—that steady employment for people with criminal records is a fundamental part of those individuals’ successful reintegration into society. When individuals

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CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

with criminal records can’t find work, it doesn’t affect only them. It negatively affects entire communities. A study by the Philadelphia Economy League found that the employment of formerly incarcerated individuals has a significant positive impact on tax revenues. The Center for Economic and Policy Research, in a 2010 report, found that unemployment rates among ex-offenders costs the economy about $60 billion a year in lost productivity and lowered output of goods and services.

Addressing a Problem

Many policymakers believe Ban the Box is part of the solution to this problem.

California Assembly Member Roger Dickinson is among them. He authored his state’s Ban the Box legislation, Assembly Bill 218, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in October 2013; it took effect in July 2014.

“California’s recidivism rate is one of the highest in the nation,” Dickinson said. “And there is growing consensus that we must do all we can as government agencies to reduce reoffending in smart, coordinated and cost-effective ways.”

Much like Nebraska’s law, California’s law prohibits government agencies from asking a job applicant about his or her criminal history until those agencies have evaluated the applicant’s employment qualifications. It doesn’t apply to jobs that require a background check or to criminal justice-related positions.

The bill had many supporters, but it had its critics, too. The California State Association of Counties, for example, wrote that the bill took away “the discretion of local agencies to design an employment policy that works locally.”

According to Dickinson, some disagreement with this legislation stemmed from misconceptions. Certain critics, he said, believed the law “would require those with conviction histories to be hired.” Others believed it “would put vulnerable populations, like children, in harm’s way.”

But since Assembly Bill 218 became law and its provisions have been clarified, some critics have softened their positions.

Faith Conley, the California State Association of Counties’ legislative representative for employee relations, said now that Brown has signed the legislation, counties “are eagerly implementing the new (Ban the Box) policy.

“We believe we can both implement the new policy and also protect public safety and security,” she said.

In Georgia, Ban the Box is set to become law by executive order.

The state’s Criminal Justice Reform Council earlier this year recommended Georgia remove questions about criminal history from state agency job application forms and “instead require that the applicant disclose any criminal history during a face-to-face interview.”

Gov. Nathan Deal intends to issue an executive order reflecting that recommendation, and will do so likely before the General Assembly reconvenes in January, according to Sasha Dlugolenski, a press aide for the governor.

Local Campaigns

Ban the Box campaigns have been especially successful at the local level.

In Indianapolis, for example, the city council in January passed an ordinance mandating that city and county agencies and their contractors not ask job applicants about criminal history until later interviews.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard strongly supports Ban the Box. “Re-entry has been one of the mayor’s top priorities,” said Marc Lotter, the mayor’s communications director.

Each year, Lotter said, some 5,000 formerly incarcerated individuals come into Indianapolis, and “most of them want to turn their lives around. With Ban the Box, it eliminates the chance they’ll be instantly disqualified, and it encourages employers to first identify the potential these applicants hold.”

The question for me was why go to the expense and effort of preparing prisoners for jobs on the outside when we have barriers that impede their ability to even be considered for employment.”

—Nebraska state Sen. Bill Avery

BAN THE BOX LINCOLN, Neb.—Nebraska Sen. Bill Avery, right, reviewed a document with Sen. Ernie Chambers during debate in 2013 on an election bill. Avery sponsored legislation this year that would prohibit public employers from asking about a job applicant’s criminal past until they establish whether the applicant meets minimum job requirements. © AP Photo/Nati Harnik

66 localities in 26 states have adopted “ban the box” in the past 10 years; 20 cities and counties extend the policy to private contractors or private employers.

NOV/DEC 2014 | CAPITOL IDEAS

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in every issue // straight talk

Straight WHAT CAN STATE LEADERS DO TO ENCOURAGE GROWTH IN YOUR COMPANY?

TIMMY T. NELSON MIKE BRUNER Director, Manufacturing Training

Senior Vice President, Managing Director, State Government Affairs

International Paper

UPS

PROMOTE MANUFACTURING

state leaders, agencies “We would like to work closely with ote manufacturing as prom and educational institutions to . International Paper omy econ the best way to grow the state’s manufacturing our at is facing a 50 percent attrition rate ck in retirements, upti an to due locations over the next 10 years professions. nce tena main specifically in our operations and we need ge wled kno and s We have line of sight on the skill want we and … es loye from this next generation of emp iculums curr rk -wo ol-to scho to partner with states to develop vital, fill can that es loye emp to prepare students to be solid high-wage jobs.”

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CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

SUPPORT TRADE INITIATIVES “One area where states can help enco urage growth is by supporting initiatives that will incr ease trade between the United States and other countries , including letting federal legislators know of their supp ort for pending trade agreements now under negotiation . With 95 percent of the world’s consumers outside the U.S., state and local economies are boosted when goo ds and services flow freely between international bord ers. For example, ever y 22 packages that cross a border supp ort one job in the UPS network. So as the ability to trad e becomes easier, UPS and other companies are able to crea te domestic jobs and encourage growth in the states.”

IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

DAVID CASEY

v

Vice President of Workforce Strategies and Chief Diversity Officer CVS Health

TREY PARIS U.S. Manager, State Government Relations General Electric Company

GEORGE W. COOK III Associate Director, Government Affairs Toyota

CREATE CERTAINTY “The global landscape is unpredictable and challenging, and GE must compete in both global and domestic markets.

In order for diverse companies like ours to compete and win in that environment, we need certainty on the state level around critical issues like regulations, taxes, trade and energy prices so we can make long-term investment decisions. Because innovation drives our success, having the certainty that we will have access to a skilled workforce is critical. Developing a solid talent pipeline —through partnerships with universities and community colleges, and with curriculums that align with employer needs— sets the foundation for continued growth.”

DEVELOP ‘WORK READY’ APPLIC

ANTS

“A primary challenge Toy ota faces is finding qualifi ed, ‘work ready’ applicants who hav e the necessary skills to step into jobs and contribute at a high level. Our experienc e shows that only 5 percent of can didates are qualified for ski lled maintenance positions, for example. To address thi s cris is, states can allocate workf orce development funds for primary and secondary schools to develop STEM educa tion programs such as Project Lead the Way, or to community and technical colleges for programs like Toyota’s Advanced Manu fac turing Technician program, a pu blic-private partnership which engages students in han ds-on, project-based lea rning with real-world workplace exp eriences.”

NOV/DEC 2014 | CAPITOL IDEAS

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how to // in every issue

Have an Impact

on Hunger UNDERSTAND HUNGER EXISTS.

Davis said the biggest thing people don’t know about hunger in America is that it exists. “You can’t look at someone and know they are struggling with hunger,” she said. “It could be the cashier at your grocery store, the guy pumping your gas, the next door neighbor whose husband just lost his job. There is no one face of hunger, but it exists in the United States.

Just because we don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

MAKE GIVING EASY.

State policymakers can do many things to make it easier for people to donate to a local food bank. “Some states have enacted state food purchasing programs where there’s funding to buy commodities from local farmers for distribution to food banks,” Davis said. “That’s a great way to help make sure that food banks have food to help serve the local community and helps support local agriculture. Other states have enacted state tax deductions or credits for businesses that donate food to food banks, which is a win for the business community and the agriculture community, because many farmers donate.”

MAXIMIZE FEDERAL PROGRAMS.

DONATE YOUR TIME.

Davis said it makes a difference when policymakers donate their time at a food bank. It’s good for those in need and it’s good for the legislator, too. “When legislators come to the food bank to pack backpacks for hungry kids or to volunteer, often the press will cover that,” she said. “The result is a story that focuses on how many people in that community are in need, who they are and how the community can help. That story may not have happened if you hadn’t had the legislator there. I think it also provides legislators with an understanding of what hunger looks like in their community. … I think it gives them more a sense of what’s happening at home.”

Hunger is a major problem in the U.S., according to Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic anti-hunger organization.

The organization’s 200 food banks provide food to 46.5 million annually, which includes 12 million children and 7 million seniors. Lisa Davis, senior vice president of government relations, believes state legislators can make a difference in this fight against hunger.

DONATE YOUR EXPERTISE.

Davis said policymakers, by the nature of their positions, are uniquely placed to call attention to hunger and bring people together to try to overcome it. “Writing legislation, working behind the scenes, convening different state agencies, nonprofit businesses, community leaders to talk about the different public and private partnerships that can work in that community,” Davis said, “those are all also really important things. … We’d love to see them do it all.”

State policymakers can spread awareness and encourage schools and nonprofits to participate more fully in feeding programs offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Davis said. Encourage schools to offer breakfast in the classroom or grab-and-go breakfasts to increase participation in free breakfast programs. Remember that hunger doesn’t end when the school year does. “Only about 16 percent of kids that get school lunches during the school year are able to get free meals during the summer,” Davis said. “So there’s a lot of opportunity for state policymakers to help raise awareness about the summer food program, to help make it easier for sites to open, to support the nonprofits that are feeding kids during the summer.”

NOV/DEC NOV/DEC 2014 2014 | CAPITOL IDEAS

41

MEET THE 2014 CSG HENRY TOLL FELLOWS

Each year, the Henry Toll Fellowship Program, named in honor of CSGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s founder, Henry Wolcott Toll, brings together a group of rising state leaders in Lexington, Ky., for an intense week of leadership training.

Participants are encouraged to both evaluate and adapt the way they interact with the world around themâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;beyond titles, politics and party lines. Designed to help state officials from all three branches take an introspective look at how they view themselves as public servants, colleagues and community members, the program provides a unique experience unlike any other in the country.

Photos by Kelley Arnold and Heather Perkins

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CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

Members of the 2014 CSG Toll Fellowship Class by Region; members listed by order in photo.

Noelle MacKay, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development Erika Tindill, Judge, Stamford-Norwalk District Superior Court of Connecticut Ryan Mackenzie, Pennsylvania Representative Cindy Rosenwald, New Hampshire Representative Second Row

Nicole Majeski, Deputy Secretary, Delaware Department of Transportation

Marquita Little, Director of Policy and Planning, Arkansas Department of Human Services Roman Prezioso, West Virginia Senator Becky Massey, Tennessee Senator Jason Pizatella, Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the West Virginia Governor Second Row

Jay Edwards, Rhode Island Representative Scott MacLeod, Mitigation and Disaster Recovery Section Chief, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency Mick Devin, Maine Representative Jorge Suรกrez, Puerto Rico Senator Andrew Clark, Director, Connecticut Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy

Rhonda Wood, Judge, Arkansas Court of Appeals John Stevens, Tennessee Senator Third Row

Nathan Hatfield, Assistant Clerk, Virginia Senate William Holtzclaw, Alabama Senator Matthew Trebelhorn, Legislative Analyst, Kentucky Legislative Research Commission

Dan Newberry, Oklahoma Senator Lee Denney, Oklahoma Representative

First Row, From Left

Deborah Berry, Iowa Representative Karen Tallian, Indiana Senator Jud McMillin, Indiana Representative Second Row

Jill Billings, Wisconsin Representative Lynne Valenti, Cabinet Secretary, South Dakota Department of Social Services Elaine Bowers, Kansas Senator Lydia Brasch, Nebraska Senator

First Row, From Left

CSG WEST

Third Row

Deidre Henderson, Utah Senator Linda Ichiyama, Hawaii Representative Lois Landgraf, Colorado Representative Nancy Nathanson, Oregon Representative

David Gormley, Judge Delaware Municipal Court of Ohio Third Row

Trevor Jones, Cabinet Secretary, South Dakota Department of Public Safety David Harris, Illinois Representative Sara Buschman, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Wisconsin Department of Children and Families Bradley Cruff, District Judge, Southeast Judicial District of North Dakota

CSG MIDWEST

CSG SOUTH

First Row, From Left

Roland Lemar, Connecticut Representative Nicole Poore, Delaware Senator

CSG EAST

First Row, From Left

Third Row

Tim Keller, New Mexico Senator G. Richard Bevan, Administrative District Judge, District Court for Fifth Judicial District of Idaho George Dodge, New Mexico Representative

Second Row

Kelli Ward, Arizona Senator Donald Burkhart, Wyoming Representative Lora Reinbold, Alaska Representative

NOV/DEC 2014 | CAPITOL IDEAS

43

Nicole Majeski, right, and Nathan Hatfield, far right.

Favorite Leadership Quotes

The Key to Effective Leadership

Nicole Mejeski, Deputy Secretary, Delaware Department of Transportation

“Leading with integrity is the key …

Integrity always guides you to consider the needs of the entire community rather than a select few.”

“Leadership is not about titles, positions or flow charts. It is about one life influencing another.”

—John C. Maxwell Deidre Henderson, Utah Senator

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” —Winston Churchill Matthew Trebelhorn, Legislative Analyst, Judiciary Committee, Kentucky Legislative Research Commission

“A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along, they are being directed from behind.”

—Nelson Mandela Andrew Clark, Director, Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy, Connecticut

“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” —Mark Twain Bradley Cruff, District Judge, Southeast Judicial District of North Dakota

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists; when his work is done, his work fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” —Lao Tzu

—Marquita Little, Director of Policy and Planning, Arkansas Department of Human Services

“Understanding that people are your most important asset. Treat them as such.”

—George Dodge, New Mexico Representative

“Humble confidence.”

—Trevor Jones, Cabinet Secretary, South Dakota Department of Public Safety

“A good leader is skilled at bringing out the best in other people, an empathetic listener, willing to take on even the most unpleasant task that must be done, and a person of unquestioned integrity.”

—David Gormley, Judge, Delaware Municipal Court, Ohio

“Respect. Respect is very different than fear.

Often, ineffective leaders confuse the two.

Respect is gained by having beliefs and acting accordingly.”

—John Stevens, Tennessee Senator

“To listen closely, to be proactive and to engage others. To look at every situation or problem from multiple perspectives and to stay objective.

To remember our humanity; kindness matters.”

—Lydia Brasch, Nebraska Senator

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CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

Roman Prezioso, far left, and Deborah Berry, left.

THANK YOU A very special THANK YOU to our 2014 sponsors for generously supporting CSG’s Leadership Development efforts Exxon Mobil— Presenting Sponsor

Mylan Novo Nordisk Inc.

3M Company Amway AstraZeneca LP CVS Caremark

“Be a role model for others in how you want to lead and be led.”

—William Holtzclaw, Alabama Senator

Esri GlaxoSmithKline Hospital Corporation of America

“The ability to listen.”

Intuit

—Jud McMillin, Indiana Representative

“Effective leaders have the ability to identify a problem before it becomes an emergency.”

—Scott MacLeod, Mitigation and Disaster Recovery Section Chief, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency

“In the world of politics and sound bites, people are thirsty for leaders who are genuine in their words and actions.”

—Tim Keller, New Mexico Senator

“I think the key to effective leadership is keen self-awareness and the desire to keep learning.”

—Erika Tindill, Judge, Stamford-Norwalk District Superior Court of Connecticut

Kentucky Legislative Research Commission

PhRMA RAI Services Company The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) The Procter & Gamble Company In-Kind Contributions Gainesway Farm Hyatt Regency Lexington Keeneland Association

2015 Applications Now Open!

Applications for the 2015 Henry Toll Fellowship Program are now open online at www.csg.org/tollfellows and will remain open through midnight, April 15, 2015. The program will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Lexington, Ky., Aug. 28–Sept. 2.

Selection for the CSG Toll Fellow Program is highly competitive.

Participants are chosen from all applications received during the 2015 application period. Selection of candidates is made by a panel of nine to 13 Toll Fellowship Program alumni. Only 48 participants are selected each year, 12 from each CSG region. Participants selected for the program will be announced in early June 2015.

For complete details, visit www.csg.org/tollfellows.

Questions? Contact Kelley Arnold at (800) 800-1910 or tolls@csg.org.

Watch the Toll Fellows take on leadership at www.csg.org/tollfellows.

NOV/DEC 2014 | CAPITOL IDEAS 45

in every issue // stated briefly

d e t a st y l f e bri

//NAST Treasurers Recognized

Virginia Treasurer Manju Ganeriwala and Washington Treasurer James McIntire were recognized during the National Association of State Treasurers Annual Conference, held Sept. 6–10 on Mackinac Island, Mich.

Ganeriwala, a 2013 CSG Toll Fellow, received the Jesse M. Unruh Award, in recognition of an active treasurer’s outstanding service to the association, the profession and his or her state. McIntire received the Harlan Boyles-Edward T. Alter Distinguished Service Award, which is presented to public servants whose career in government has provided a respected voice for NAST at all levels of state government.

Ganeriwala

McIntire

//BLC Economic Meeting

CSG West’s Border Legislative Conference and the office of Congressman Beto O’Rourke convened the Texas-New MexicoChihuahua Regional Economic Competitiveness Forum in El Paso, Texas, Sept. 12. The all-day forum brought together regional stakeholders to discuss and solicit ideas on how the Texas, New Mexico and Chihuahua region can capitalize on its strengths and identify public policies that further the region’s economic competitiveness. The forum attracted nearly 500 people.

//RIVER GOVERNANCE

Annual Meeting

This year’s Legislative Council on River Governance meeting took place Sept. 29–30 in Yakima, Wash.

The annual meeting brings together legislators and staff from Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Its mission is to assert state legislative duty and authority over natural resources and river governance in the Columbia and Snake River basins, as well as uniting the states and developing a proactive agenda of legislative action and communications.

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CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

SAVE THE DATES FOR 2015 !

CSG MIDWESTERN LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE 70th Annual Meeting | July 12–15 | Bismarck, N.D. CSG SOUTHERN LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE 69th Annual Meeting | July 18–22 | Savannah, Ga. CSG WEST 68th Annual Meeting | July 28–31 | Vail, Colo.

CSG EASTERN REGIONAL CONFERENCE 55th Annual Meeting | Aug. 16–19 | Wilmington, Del.

stated briefly // in every issue

//NAST New Director Named

//NAST New Officers Elected

“John comes highly recommended for his work ethic, ability to dive in and understand new issues, and capacity to build consensus among groups,” said Utah State Treasurer Richard Ellis, the 2014 NAST president.

Those elected were Tennessee State Treasurer David H. Lillard Jr. as president; Washington State Treasurer James L. McIntire as senior vice president; Oklahoma State Treasurer Ken Miller Lillard as secretary treasurer; Maryland State Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp as Eastern region vice president; Mississippi State Treasurer Lynn Fitch as Southern region vice president; Nebraska State Treasurer Don Stenberg as Midwestern region vice president; and Wyoming State Treasurer Mark Gordon as Western region vice president.

John Provenzano, of Washington, D.C., has been named the new executive director of the National Association of State Treasurers. He formerly served as government relations director for Delta Air Lines.

Provenzano has more than 15 years experience representing corporate and trade association interests and forging diverse and effective coalitions and bipartisan relationships within Congress and the administration. His experience includes executive positions at both Delta Air Lines and Rockwell Collins, in addition to leading government affairs initiatives and fundraising strategies for trade associations. He begins his duties with NAST Oct. 20.

The National Association of State Treasurers elected new officers to serve on its 2015 NAST Executive Committee during its annual meeting Sept. 6–10.

The newly elected officers will begin their terms Jan. 1, 2015. Lillard will replace Utah State Treasurer Richard Ellis, the 2014 NAST president, who will continue to serve on the executive committee as immediate past president.

“I am honored that my colleagues have chosen me to lead this great organization,” Lillard said. “For nearly four decades, NAST has been a resource that state treasurers and other top financial officials have used to help them perform their jobs more effectively and better serve their constituents.”

//AAPCA First Executive Director Named Clinton J. Woods has joined the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies, known as AAPCA, as its first executive director.

Woods comes to AAPCA from Washington, D.C., where he served as staff to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. He specialized in energy and environmental policy and maintained responsibility on issues relating to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA Earth Science.

“Clint comes to AAPCA with the background and experience that we need in our first full-time director,” said Michael Vince, senior scientist with Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality and president of AAPCA. “His previous work experience, coupled with his energy and enthusiasm, are vital ingredients that will position AAPCA to accomplish its mission. We are all excited to have him on board at what is a critical time for the states and air pollution control policy.”

Woods received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., and a master’s degree in international commerce and policy from George Mason University. He began his role in AAPCA’s Lexington, Ky., office Aug. 4.

AAPCA was formed in late 2012 as a consensus-driven organization focused on assisting state and local air quality agencies and personnel with implementation and technical issues associated with the federal Clean Air Act. It is housed in Lexington, Ky., as a policy program with The Council of State Governments. More in­ formation on AAPCA may be found by visiting http: //www.csg.org/aapca_site/.

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in every issue // shout out

Photo Courtesy of Kathleen Berg

KATHLEEN BERG MIC3 Chair / Professor at University of Hawaii at Manoa When Kathleen Berg’s husband Stephen was transferred to Hawaii in the U.S. Air Force, she took the opportunity to finish her bachelor’s degree and obtain a teaching certificate. After Stephen Berg left the Air Force to become a math teacher, the Hawaii Air National Guard recruited him. Then he recruited his wife. She joined the Guard, first as a public affairs officer, but then moved over to the communications and electronics division. While serving in the Guard, Berg obtained her doctorate in educational psychology and now works at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She also serves as chair of the Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission—or MIC3—a CSG affiliate. With the addition of New York, which officially joined the commission in August, the MIC3 is one of only four compacts with 50-state membership. It’s an important one, Berg believes. “We owe the children of our military service members the courtesy of making their lives as easy as we can in terms of transition from school to school and state since it’s not their fault that their parents chose to serve in their country’s defense forces,” she said.

Do you know someone in state government who deserves a shout out? Email Mary Branham at mbranham@csg.org.

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CAPITOL IDEAS | NOV/DEC 2014

For more on Kathleen Berg visit: capitolideas.csg.org.

The Council of State Governments 2760 Research Park Drive P.O. Box 11910 Lexington, KY 40578-1910

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