"Strong Schools = Strong Communities" emphasized a workshop held at the Enterprise Foundation Annual Network Conference in October. Lessons learned from the Baltimore Education Project are relevant to education issues faced in Cleveland. "Intervene with the youngest ages possible," urge the practitioners of this initiative. "Because standardized testing usually begins in the very early years of formal public education..., it is important to equip students with the skills, tools, attitudes, and behaviors that will make them successful at learning before they arrive in First Grade." The list of lessons also speaks to a long-term approach and establishing formal partnerships among community stakeholders.  To learn more about the Baltimore Education Initiative process, click here.

For over a year, the Committee for Economic Development, a Washington-based business group has been promoting the connection between early childhood education and economic development. Today, they released the latest in a series of reports.

I had the chance yesterday to meet with the Hanna Perkins Center director, Tom Barrett, and several staff members of the Shaker Heights facility. This is one of several institutions strengthening the fabric of our community. The Center includes four integrated branches: a therapeutic preschool with programming for children from toddlerhood through kindergarten, a psychotherapy clinic, a research center, and a training program for early childhood educators and care givers. It’s exciting to talk with these professionals who seek to utilize their knowledge to reach a broad base of our region’s children with programs that show such a depth of understanding for how children develop.

I find it absurd when people criticize the Plain Dealer for their "Quiet Crisis" series and challenge area residents to look on the sunny side of life. While REALNEO certainly features plenty of progressive developments and people in the region to celebrate, it is essential we all redouble efforts to correct our failings and support solutions, rather than hibernate in denial - things won't be any better in the Spring.

For one roadmap to a better future, in the 11/28/04 Plain Dealer Forum Section the insightful Joe Frolik offers a blueprint for significant improvement for NEO, taken from lessons learned in our regional diamond Chicago, which not inconsequentially was able to lure away one of our leaders of our sustainability movement because our community leaders were not as supportive and promising as those of the Windy City. For another roadmap, look to Boston, and just down the road to NEO's most progressive suburb, Shaker Heights.

In another new economy domain, the OneCleveland initiative has been nationally recognized at the top of the community bandwidth spectrum but, for lack of concerted comprehension of the connection between connectivity and economic development, we are lagging Philadelphia in visioning on becoming the wired city of the future. Worse, the City of Cleveland has failed to leverage information technology as a foundation for economic development and we're now recognized as the worst of 70 large city virtual communities in the Country. Worse, those who allowed us to become the worst are slamming the barn door and pledging away $30,000,000+ to out-of-state contractors to put us right.

As a more sane strategy, I suggest leaders for the future of Cleveland speak up about this crisis and take ownership to find solutions. I started speaking up on this issues in 2001, writing a "Quiet Crisis" op/ed on our failing virtual community and the digital divide, and I am working with a group of Case and Cleveland State leaders to solve those problems in East Cleveland, where city government is receptive to outside support. I reprint below my op/ed from 2001, which remains true today, and I encourage others to post their thoughts on these issues as comments here, or email me on these matters at norm [at] icearth [dot] com.

How can Northeast Ohio attract and retain educated and skilled employees?  How can businesses in Northeast Ohio gain an increased pool of qualified workers?  A survey conducted by Starting Point, northeast Ohio's child care resource and referral agency, examines family friendly policies in northeast Ohio businesses and institutions.  Read the 2002 Northeast Ohio Work and Family Survey to learn about the results of their work.  Here are some highlights from the executive summary:

One way NEO community leaders are revolutionizing life in East Cleveland is helping bridge the digital divide. With the coordination of Case, Cleveland State and REALNEO, NEO businesses are donating used computers and volunteering assistance to insure each houshold in the area has at least one personal computer, a variety of software, and access to the Internet. Some regional businesses have already pledged hardware and the first computers will be distributed before the end of 2004.

The National Child Care Information Center website contains a wealth of information for NEO about the economic impact of child care. In recent years, researchers and policy-makers have begun to recognize the important contributions the child care sector makes to the regional economy in both the short and long term. Across the country, states and localities are using regional economic analysis to measure the economic contributions of the child care sector. Click here to find a sample of publications and organizations that have information about the economic impact of child care on state, local, regional, and national economies.

Facing the embarrassment of being rated the most impoverished large city in America, Cleveland community leaders became vocal looking for solutions. The following NYTimes editorial indicates we stand out in thinking about this issue at all, as 12 million American families are largely ignored in their struggles for enough to eat. Being ranked worst in poverty drove us to some higher consciousness, offering us the opportunity to address serious problems, if we expand the dialogue and act on good words. Have you thought about our chronic poverty lately? Thanksgiving is an excellent day to talk about that, so we may do more for those who are suffering before the new year.

Highlighting the need for a fresh perspective on childcare, Elizabeth Aldred states, "The availability and affordability of high-quality childcare is an economic development issue, an educational issue, and a human services issue. It has both immediate and long-term impacts on schools and employers, as well as on families and the communities in which they live. And if we continue to ignore its importance, we will pay the economic and educational price." Read this article, Childcare solutions require collaboration, by Elizabeth Aldred.

About NAEYC

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
is dedicated to improving the well-being of all young children, with
particular focus on the quality of educational and developmental
services for all children from birth through age 8. NAEYC is committed
to becoming an increasingly high performing and inclusive organization.

In considering child development opportunities in NEO, the NYTimes offered this insight:

Life Way After Head Start - By DAVID L. KIRP - Published: November 21, 2004

The power of education to level the playing field has long been an American article of faith. Education is the ''balance wheel of the social machinery,'' argued Horace Mann, the first great advocate of public schooling. ''It prevents being poor.'' But that belief has been undermined by research findings -- seized on ever since by skeptics -- that federal programs like Head Start, designed to benefit poor children, actually have little long-term impact.

Last week, The National Economic Development and Law Center (NEDLC) and Build Ohio produced a report outlining that the early childhood development industry in the state is about $2 billion. Read more about the report.

Over the past six years, early childhood development has been gradually moving to the center of the economic development agenda. Investments in early childhood make a lot of sense in a global economy that runs on brainpower.  In Northeast Ohio, we could move to a national leadership position by placing early childhood development in the center of our Brainpower strategy. Here are some good links to learn more:

REI Director Ed Morrison describes Economic Development as beginning with the unborn child, which recognizes important issues like reducing unplanned pregnancies, delivering world-class prenatal care, providing excellent early child-care and education, insuring great nutrician for children and protecting them from health hazards like lead exposure, and becoming outspoken to educate our community on the importance of breast-feeding, as mentioned today on Brewed Fresh Daily in a posting from Sandy Kristin Piderit, explained in detail on her LiveJournal blog - contact Sandy for more info

While not obviously ED related, it is worth considering the following
study linking high fat diets - especially those high in trans-fats - to
learning problems. My conclusion - stay far away from trans-fats, and
keep NEO kids trans-fat free, for the sake of a better learning
workforce for the future... and there is clearly opportunity for any
region and foods related business to lead and prosper from excelling in the healthy food sectors...