Jim Nichols�
Speechwriting Samples
Financing the Midwest Energy Transition:
Innovation and Infrastructure
Keynote
address by Cleveland Foundation President and CEO Ronald B. Richard
To
the 3rd Annual Globalization and the Midwest Conference
Monday, October 18, 2010
The City Club of Cleveland
�
Speech objective: Underscore the
criticality of advanced energy to global and regional health and prosperity,
and inspire collaboration among Midwestern policymakers and thought leaders to
make the region a global leader.
�
Strategy: We�ve done it before and
can do it again. Good cop/bad cop � the dire consequences of inaction vs. the
tremendous opportunities of assertive action.
Thank you, Dick, and thank you to all of you
for attending.
I�m honored to be here. I�m also proud that a
grant from the Cleveland Foundation has helped underwrite this very important
discussion of the future energy economy of our globe, and the Midwest�s place
in it.
It�s appropriate for us Midwesterners to
gather here to discuss the next frontiers for energy, because the last
revolution in energy occurred right on our turf.
Barely a hundred miles east of here, some
visionaries in Titusville, Pennsylvania let a genie out of a bottle in 1859
when they drilled the world�s first oil well.
Right here in Cleveland, a guy named John D.
Rockefeller became a household name and a somewhat wealthy man by building an
empire based on finding, refining, and transporting petroleum products better
than anyone else.
Right up the road in Michigan, the
internal-combustion engine and some manufacturing and marketing geniuses
combined to create the automotive capital of the world. Detroit�s cars and
trucks changed our lives and our landscape in ways more profound than history
had ever seen. And Cleveland, while playing second fiddle to Detroit, was still
a major part of the automobile manufacturing orchestra.
The Midwest industrial manufacturing economy
rose on the back of coal from the Midwest, burned in factories and power plants
that produced the vehicles that everyone wanted to buy.
Indeed, history shows us that this great Great Lakes region was sort of the cradle of the
fossil-fuel economy � and all of the wonderful and horrible things it has
brought us.
My hope is that later in this century, historians
will look back on this particular time and see the gestation of the next great revolution in energy: the
sustainable-energy revolution.
That can happen if we in the Midwest
recognize that clean energy is the engine for the rebirth of our economy and the
key to the revitalization of the Midwest as the central force in the American
experiment.
If the so-called Rust Belt can become the
advanced-energy belt, we will see our fortunes rise as surely and as fast as
they did when the automobile gave rise to the world�s biggest, fastest-growing
middle class. And, we will see the U.S. retain � perhaps regain � world
leadership, with the Midwest as being the powerhouse for the renewed vigor of
the American destiny.
And as I welcome all of you here today, I
also welcome you to become a part of that movement.
In fact, I challenge you to become a part of it.
Several years ago, I worked for the Central
Intelligence Agency. There I read what we called a �threat book.� It was a
meticulously researched treatise on the gravest emerging threats to America�s
national security. Way up near the top of that list were
climate change and oil addiction.
Now, as we gather here today, this is clear:
Changing the way we produce and use energy over the next 50 years is without a
doubt one of the most important challenges humans have ever faced, and ever
will face. If we fail to unchain ourselves from our carbon-based economy, our
world will become increasingly polluted and our climate increasingly unstable.
We will likely face war and strife over
dwindling carbon-fuel and water resources.
We may face famine, epidemics of deadly
disease, and catastrophic changes to our physical world. It�s possible that,
with continued unabated reliance on fossil fuels, we will cross the brink into
deadly geopolitical pandemonium within the next few decades.
And yet we face something just as profound in
the other direction: opportunity.
On a global basis, we could see a world where
healing begins. Our politics, our national security, and our global security
would no longer be at the mercy of despots or potentates. Our environment would
become cleaner and our people would live longer, healthier lives because they
wouldn�t be breathing in such polluted air or ingesting poisonous mercury. Our
climate may be centuries away from recovering its natural balance, but at least
it would begin to tip back.
Here in the Midwest, we can lead that
recovery. We have the minds, the tools, and the history of innovation and
industrial capacity on our side.
I just returned from the Basque region of
Spain, where a group of us went to study a remarkable conglomerate of
worker-owned co-ops, called the Mondragon co-ops. They�ve been growing over the
last 50 or so years. Today, there are more than 100
industrial, retail, and financial firms in that co-op conglomerate
employing some 100,000 workers. The region currently has a 9-percent
unemployment rate, compared to 24 percent in the rest of Spain.
Why? Because the cities in
the Basque region worked together. They knew that if they didn�t help
each other, no one else would help them.
We need to do that. We need to push the
Midwest�s assets together, so that the East and West coasts � or China or India
� don�t wind up reaping all the rewards of this next energy revolution.
We need each other, because we have many
challenges. They are challenges of policy, technology, and capital.
You�ll hear the brilliant panelists that the
Chicago Council on Global Affairs has assembled for this conference elaborate
on those challenges. You can read about those obstacles in great detail in the
fine study the council produced in 2008 called �Embracing the Future: The
Midwest and a New National Energy Policy.�
This new energy revolution will be very
capital-intensive, and no one knows where that capital will come from yet. It�s
imperative that the private markets, the public sector, and even philanthropy
work together to innovate and create new vehicles to capitalize these emerging
industries and the research and development they need.
It will not happen here if we do not adopt
policies on a global, national, state, and local level to drive it. Those must
include incentives to reduce energy consumption, and incentives to develop new
energy-production technologies.
And although this may be unpopular for those
wedded to the past, those policies must include economic penalties for clinging
to the old ways.
We in the Midwest must find ways to make
ourselves cool and appealing again to the best and brightest young minds, and
get them to flock here the way they did when Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and
other Midwestern cities were leading the world in innovation and production.
Our great universities, including the Big Ten
schools and our many other world-class institutions, such as Case Western
Reserve here in Cleveland, must collaborate, not compete. And we need to
reinvent our education system, from preschool to post-grad, to make our region
the best producer of ingenuity.
But perhaps the greatest obstacle we must
overcome is the failure to convince enough of this nation � enough of our own
pivotal region � to take action on our two colossal imperatives: moving off of
oil, and reducing carbon emissions.
There are still far too many Americans,
including far too many of our Midwestern neighbors, who are still skeptical.
They aren�t convinced � or refuse to believe � that fossil-fuel supplies are
finite and that their combustion is causing potentially catastrophic, perhaps
even irreversible, harm.
Too many don�t understand that we�re funding
both sides of the war on terror. Too many don�t grasp that there�s much more at
risk than some self-centered version of the so-called American way of life.
We simply must get past the yawns and the
suspicions. If we cannot persuade Americans with science � and the science on
these questions is clear in its overall direction, if not completely understood
in all its nuances � then we must try inspiration. We must sell opportunity.
Shortly after I moved to Cleveland, I visited
Copenhagen and saw its massive wind turbines installed in its downtown harbor.
If you�ve ever been there, you know it�s quite a sight: magnificent, beautiful,
inspirational, and a source of civic pride.
Propelled by steady winds, it was generating
clean electricity and helping wean
It inspired me to move our
foundation to make the exploration and support of a regional wind-energy
industry one of our top priorities.
Why a priority? For
three fundamental reasons:
�
First,
and most important, there�s the opportunity to create an economic engine. A new
and lasting supply-chain manufacturing base could revitalize our region.� We want to vigorously support Cleveland being
a major part of an exploding wind energy industry with some $10 billion in
annual sales in North America and growing at about 40 percent per year.
�
Second,
to provide a source of zero-emission electricity to the region � versus today,
where we rely almost 90 percent on coal-fired power.
�
And
third � and this is more important than it might first appear � as an icon to
re-brand the city and the region as something newer and better than a Rust Belt
or the city where the river caught on fire.
Seattle has the Space
Needle. St. Louis has the Arch. Why can�t Cleveland have something cool like
that? Why can�t Cleveland have wind turbines twirling over Lake Erie as a
symbol to the nation and the world that we are a 21st-century city
competing strongly in the global economy?
�If hundreds � or maybe even thousands � of
wind turbines can be installed throughout the Great Lakes in the coming
decades, and we manufacture their components, it will mean thousands of jobs
for us.
That was the genesis of our
advanced-energy thrust here in Cleveland. Since then, my foundation hired a
visionary named Richard Stuebi, whom you�ll hear from
later today, to get us moving.
Richard has been a key
driver of a remarkable and fast-developing movement here. Under his leadership,
we have made progress on all three challenges: policy, capital, and technology.
Richard helped form a broad
coalition that persuaded the legislature to pass a bill that requires that at
least 25 percent of all electricity sold in Ohio come from alternative-energy
sources by 2025. That policy breakthrough is already driving an exciting new
market, and our foundation helped create a worker-owned solar-power company to
help major institutions, such as the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals,
and Case, and homeowners adopt solar so that we can meet the new state
standard.
Then Richard and our
foundation helped to build a broad public-private alliance to develop and finance a wind farm that�ll appear off of Cleveland�s Lake Erie shore
within the next two years. Our partnership, called the Lake Erie Energy Development
Corp., is successfully meeting the capital challenge even in this tough
economic climate. That is because the private sector has begun to see the
vision that we in the nonprofit and government sectors have been pushing.
The first five turbines will
power thousands of homes. But they�ll also power that new Cleveland brand I
spoke of � the brand of a powerfully progressive, forward-thinking community
taking on a great challenge.
That offshore wind farm will
be a proving ground that drives progress in overcoming technological
challenges. Engineers from GE, Bechtel, and other partners will, I am sure,
overcome the issues that currently make offshore wind power too expensive.
Richard and our foundation
have worked closely with a Cleveland-based industrial economic development
organization called WIRE-Net to build our region�s supply-chain capacity for
wind energy, through an effort that is now globally recognized as a leader in
supporting the needs of wind manufacturers, as reflected by its name: the Global
Wind Network.
Our foundation also invested
$3.6 million to create the Great Lakes Energy Institute at Case Western Reserve
University. There, brilliant scientists are studying new ways to generate and
store power, and ways to curb its consumption.
We still encounter barriers.
The main barrier we face today in the transition to an advanced energy economy
is as true as when we first proposed the idea. New forms of energy tend to be
more expensive � at least initially � than the incumbent forms of energy that
we depend upon.
So, why should we bother?
The answer is
simple: just because it�s more expensive today doesn�t mean it will be
more expensive tomorrow.
Conventional forms of energy
are likely to become more expensive, as a natural consequence of tightening
supplies, increasing demands, and environmental pressures. In contrast, new
forms of energy are only on a path of lower cost, with continued technical
innovation and economies of scale as adoption occurs.
The transformation of the
Midwestern economy can happen � and arguably will only happen � when its energy sector transforms. That will occur
with innovation and adoption, which in turn requires capital � lots of it.
That�s why we�re here today,
and I�m hopeful today�s discussions will help catalyze the formation of more
capital directed towards the Midwest energy transition.
I hope we can source that
capital from within our own region, and attract it here from elsewhere too, to
make the Midwest a center of advanced energy excellence and activity �
converting ourselves from the Rust Belt to something that will make those old
so-called �glory days� seem pale.
When that happens, Cleveland
and the Midwest will be able to bask in the warm economic breeze and know we�re
helping to save the world � again � just as our industry and labor did during
World War II.
Thank you.
***
Philanthropy: A City�s Saving Grace
Address to the Estate Planners Council of Cleveland
By
Ronald B. Richard
President
and CEO, the Cleveland Foundation
At
the City Club of Cleveland, Jan. 11, 2011
�
Speech objective: Inspire estate
planners to encourage their clients to give to the Cleveland Foundation; and
burnish speaker�s stature as thought leader on education reform.
�
Strategy: Portray philanthropy � and
estate planners� role in it � as a heroic undertaking that makes participants
feel good; touch lightly on the many important undertakings they can, and do,
help to underwrite.
�
Special requests: Play up the estate
planners� importance by underscoring that one of their own created this great
institution.
Good afternoon. Thank you, Jennifer and
Eleanor, and thanks very much to all of you for inviting me to speak to this
illustrious group.
My colleague and yours, Marie Monago, suggested I talk to you about the state of philanthropy
in Greater Cleveland, and the Cleveland Foundation�s role in it. And as I
considered that, I thought of an old parable. I think it�s one of Aesop�s
Fables.
In this story, as I recall it, a father came
upon his sons just as they were debating among themselves who is the strongest,
and who could get the most work done. The sons then began making their cases to
their father, with each one hoping Dad would proclaim him the strongest.
The father listened for a moment. Then he
walked a circle around the sons, stooping over to collect an armful of sticks.
He gave each son a stick and told each, in
turn, to snap it. They did so easily.
Then the father bundled the rest of those
sticks together and told his sons in turn to break the bundle. They all failed.
�You are those sticks,� the father told his
sons. �Together, you have far more strength than any of you possess alone.�
That, I am here to attest, is the secret to
Cleveland�s philanthropic greatness. Our city has many strengths, and many
strong individuals. But we achieve our greatest strength, and our greatest
accomplishments, through unity. And if there is a resounding theme to
philanthropy in Cleveland today, it is unity � unity, partnership, and
collaboration. No single individual, and no organization � public, private,
nonprofit � can truly move the needle of need alone. Yet together, we are
unbreakable, and incredibly powerful.
That idea of cohesion is one of the core
values and founding principles of the Cleveland Foundation. And the need for
unity has never clearer or greater than it is today.
I believe that together, we in Cleveland can
have a brilliant future. I�m sure most of you believe that, too, because when
you chose to focus on estate planning, you obviously assumed Clevelanders will
continue to build wealth and need your services.
You are in a position to brighten the future
of this great place we call home.
You � every one of you � can be a part of
re-imagining a new Cleveland � a Cleveland with a vigorous economy, revitalized
neighborhoods, engaged youth, an even more vibrant arts scene, and rejuvenated
schools.
You�re in that position because you know the
power of generosity. I know that many of you exercise that power already, by
encouraging your clients to give back to this great community we all call home.
I hope you feel good about that.
But if you really want to feel good, don�t
just think about what you or your clients are accomplishing individually. Think
about what your profession is accomplishing � how all of you together form an
absolutely profound force for positive change by partnering with my foundation
and other philanthropic leaders.
Let me assure you: There is
no more noble accomplishment. On behalf of the Cleveland Foundation and every
one of the thousands of Clevelanders we serve, I offer you my deepest respect
and gratitude.
(Cleveland
Foundation History)
I�d like to talk to you about the
philanthropic sector�s activity now, and how we are planning change for the
future. But before I do that, let me tell you a little about the Cleveland
Foundation�s past.
A century or so ago, Cleveland was teeming
with inventors who pioneered new technologies in electricity, chemicals,
petroleum, metals, paints, and machining.
Amid all that industrial innovation and
invention, a banker and lawyer named Frederick Harris Goff invented something
as profound as anything coming off the drafting tables or factory floors. He
called it a community foundation � the Cleveland Foundation, and he unveiled it
97 years ago this month.
Mr. Goff was an estate attorney who counted
John D. Rockefeller among his clients and close friends. Mr. Goff left his law
firm in 1909 to lead the Cleveland Trust Co. There, he continued to study, draw
up, and litigate the wills and trusts for many of Cleveland�s elites. He also
did much of the revolutionary research that led in 1913 to the creation of the
Rockefeller Foundation.
His experience with estates taught Mr. Goff
to loathe inflexible provisions of certain wills and trusts that eventually,
and unintentionally, stifled their charitable power. Too often, he saw overly
restrictive provisions setting aside money for some charitable purpose that
later became irrelevant. And too often, there was no mechanism to put the
assets to better use.
He saw wills that provided funds forever for
diseases that were passing into history, or for the orphans of Civil War
veterans, or for the care of public watering troughs for horses and other
causes that were obsolete, or headed toward irrelevance.
Mr. Goff called this choking power �the dead
hand,� saying it reached from beyond the grave to choke off good.
He was also troubled to see another
increasingly common problem of the day: Many wills and trusts assigned the
donor�s heirs to administer and distribute the proceeds, and for one reason or
another, more and more of those heirs weren�t interested.
Fixing these problems in any estate was a
difficult, if not impossible, ordeal that involved great expense and much work
in probate court. Fred Goff invented a way to avoid them � and to do great good
in the process. He created a perpetual grantmaking
machine � a way for the people of Cleveland to give back to their great city,
together � and forever.
The community foundation encouraged people of
all means to pool their philanthropic monies into one permanent trust. These
donors together would be able to do what only billionaires could do alone:
identify great social ills and attack them with great resources.
The Cleveland Foundation would be directed by
the Cleveland community � by a board of prominent local citizens appointed by
respected public officials. Those citizens would have latitude and authority to
redirect financial and leadership assets to timely causes as old intentions
became irrelevant and new needs arose.
So Mr. Goff designed a living entity,
flexible enough to respond to the needs and opportunities of any era
forevermore. And he achieved one of his prime goals in life: He buried the dead
hand.
Yet I doubt that even Mr. Goff fully
understood, by the time he died nine years later, what kind of impact his
fledgling creation would have.
(TCF and community foundations: What we are)
Today, more than 1,000 community foundations
dot the globe. In the United States, some 650 community foundations exist in
cities, suburbs, and rural areas in all 50 states. Together, we hold more than
$31 billion dollars in assets, and we give away about $2.6 billion dollars in
grants every year. We all raise our funds locally and distribute them locally.
We provide the channel through which our donors can thank, and nurture, the
place we all call home � the place we care about most.
The generosity of Clevelanders over the last
97 years has grown this community�s endowment to $1.8 billion dollars, and made
our foundation Ohio�s largest grantmaker.
We make about 3,000 grants each year,
totaling about $80 million, to nonprofits that work for the public good. Those grants total more than $1.4 billion dollars since
our founding.
(TCF:
Beyond grantmaking)
Now, 20th-century American writer and social
critic Dwight MacDonald once wryly described a foundation as �a large amount of
money completely surrounded by people who want some.�
Yet Mr. Goff foresaw more than doling out
dough. He designed the community foundation as a force for shaping public
policy and driving a progressive civic agenda.
Each time any of us enjoys the Cleveland Metroparks, we should thank him. Why? Not just for the
money to buy land for the park system, but for the very idea of an �Emerald
Necklace.�
You see, back in its earliest days, the
Cleveland Foundation produced a study that forecast the rise of American
leisure and a corresponding demand for preserved wilderness and recreational
land. It led to the creation of the Metroparks.
Another of our
earliest studies shook up a corrupt and �Dickensian� justice system. Still
another spearheaded sweeping public-school reforms, and gave support to the
radical notion that girls were worthy of equal education.
Since then, the
foundation has firmly reinforced its commitment to serve as a proactive and
visionary agenda-setter, not just a grantmaker. We
spark conversations about solving our community�s problems, and form
partnerships with government, academia, business, and the nonprofit sector. And
we help turn conversation into action.
That action and the
grants our donors make possible have touched millions of lives over 97 years. Now
I�d like to tell you about some of the ways our philanthropic partnerships are
touching lives right now, right here � together.
(University
Circle)
Some of the most innovative examples of the
power of partnership and the foundation�s role as a community catalyst have
been blossoming in University Circle and the urban neighborhoods around it. We
call this our Greater University Circle Initiative.
We began to increase our focus there about
five years ago because we saw a unique opportunity: By catalyzing rebirth in
the University Circle area, we could stimulate economic development and job
creation that would benefit all of Northeast Ohio.
We have been at the cutting edge of a
movement in philanthropy toward stimulating economic development. The reason is
simple: If our region prospers � if more people can find sustaining, fulfilling
work and build the foundation for stable lives � then more and more of our
community�s basic needs will be met. And meeting those needs is the ultimate
objective of philanthropy, isn�t it?
Also, we believe that greater prosperity will
enrich all of us culturally and fill the higher yearnings of human nature �
yearnings for art, culture, education, and spirituality.
University Circle is, of course, the cradle
of our great arts and culture heritage. But it is also a gigantic engine of
economic growth. It hosts a world-class �eds and
meds� cluster as home to Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Clinic,
and University Hospitals. Those institutions are some of our biggest employers.
They draw tens of millions of dollars in research funding to Cleveland, and
that translates into jobs.
Moreover, in today�s global, knowledge-based
economy, those institutions are crucibles of creativity and innovation. They
are our most promising powerhouses of prosperity. We believe those institutions
are the seed beds for a host of spinoff companies that someday might employ
many, many more Clevelanders and attract capital and highly educated newcomers
to our region.
We call them �anchor institutions� because
they are permanently anchored here. Our corporations come and go. But our eds-and-meds institutions are never going to relocate.
So we�ve been bringing those anchor
institutions together with the city of Cleveland, the state of Ohio, and other
civic players to rejuvenate University Circle and the neighborhoods around it.
We�ve been opening channels of communication and building trust.
In the past few years, we�ve seen
unprecedented levels of cooperation and collaboration among the anchor
institutions.
(Evergreen)
One exciting product is the collaboration to
establish new cooperative, employee-owned businesses. These Evergreen
Cooperative companies fulfill some of the institutions� procurement needs by
providing niche goods and services.
They are located in the neighborhoods around
University Circle, and they hire workers from those neighborhoods. Those
workers earn a living wage and no-cost health benefits. And they earn an
ownership stake in their companies.
It�s a way to bring wealth-building and
neighborhood-building opportunities to areas that need the most help. We hope
someday to see hundreds, or even thousands, of worker-owners at dozens of
co-ops reshaping their destinies, and renewing our city.
(Other
Greater University Circle-related efforts)
We�re also funding many specific projects
that we hope will pay off big for our community.
We�ve invested millions of dollars into new
research facilities at Case. We gave $6.5 million to help the university
establish its Center for Proteomics, where researchers are studying new ways to
manipulate proteins to treat and cure disease.
We also helped create the Great Lakes Energy
Institute, a research center of excellence studying new ways to generate,
store, transport, and conserve energy.
We�ve worked with Case and University Circle
Incorporated toward creating Uptown, an exciting hub of activity and
development at the heart of its campus. Uptown�s first phase is now under
construction. The $44.5-million development will feature more than 100 housing
units and 56,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
Next door to Uptown, the Museum of
Contemporary Art is building its dramatic new home.
Case and many other philanthropic partners
are also investing $26 million dollars toward transforming the venerable Temple
Tifereth-Israel into a performing arts center. A
unique partnership between the university and the temple will allow the
renovated facility to continue serving occasionally as a place of worship,
while serving as a cultural and academic core of students� life.
We�re proud to have catalyzed these exciting
interactions, and we will continue our support of University Circle as progress
and prosperity unfold, inevitably and beautifully.
(Arts
and culture)
We�re also proud to be part of the tremendous
legacy of philanthropic support that has elevated so many of Cleveland�s other
cultural institutions to world-class stature.
Philanthropy here is working to secure the
long-term health of some of the most prominent among those institutions. Over
the last few years, for example, the Cleveland Foundation provided millions of
dollars in special planning and development grants to the Cleveland Orchestra,
the Cleveland Play House, Apollo�s Fire, the Community Partnership for the
Arts, Cleveland Public Theatre, Opera Cleveland, Great Lakes Theatre Festival,
and Playhouse Square.
And many philanthropic partners are
cultivating and educating future generations of artists and art lovers through
outreach programs. One is Young Audiences, which brings the beauty of music to
schoolchildren through in-school programs that reach 256,000 students across
the region. Another, called Joyful Noise, provides free music lessons to needy
Cleveland kids. The Cleveland Museum of Art is embracing youth from surrounding
neighborhoods and immersing them in the beauty of the visual arts.
You and your clients are a part of growing
these remarkable strengths and opportunities in our community, together.
(Wind
turbines coming/advanced energy)
Now, let me talk about another area where the
foundation and other philanthropic-sector leaders are catalyzing opportunity
through grantmaking and leadership. That area is our
region�s emerging advanced-energy industry.
We all know how vital Lake Erie has been to
Cleveland�s proud heritage. Our lakefront location helped make us a
manufacturing mecca, a transportation hub, and a recreation capital. Today,
that windy lake is ready to bestow upon us another new industry, one that could
help change our world: freshwater wind farms.
Next year, we hope, Clevelanders and visitors
to our city will see 5 wind turbines spinning away off downtown�s shoreline.
They�ll generate megawatts. But their real
power will be in generating a large number manufacturing, R&D, and service
jobs here.
You see, we believe they will be only the
first 5 of what someday will be thousands of wind turbines rising above our
Great Lakes, and lakes and seas worldwide. We aim for Clevelanders to lead the
way toward putting them there, and profiting from it.
Listen: Whether or not you believe that
humans are responsible for climate change, the simple truth is that our
planet�s current dependence on fossil fuels is simply not sustainable.
As demand outstrips supply, the price of our
current energy systems � in both dollars and
environmental impact � is going to rise dramatically. We�re already hearing
near-term predictions of gas at $4 to $5 dollars per gallon.
So it�s inevitable that we will need new
sources of energy. People in many places are going to make fortunes by
innovating to meet that need. We want to capitalize on that opportunity right
here.
Northeast Ohio missed out on the
information-tech revolution. Our region � and our nation � simply cannot afford
to miss the energy-tech revolution.
So for six years now, we and many public,
private, academic, and nonprofit partners have collaborated to lay the
foundation for an advanced-energy future. Together, we�re working to discover,
develop, and perfect new energy technologies, and bring them to market.
What will success look like? We�re already
seeing it. Our state has had hundreds of new jobs spring up in wind and solar
energy just in the last few years. New and established manufacturers here are
feeding the supply chain. I foresee engineers and designers coming here to be
part of something new and exciting. Specialized ships and crews from Cleveland
would ply the Great Lakes to install and maintain turbines. And we would export
our expertise to customers all around the world.
(Other
economic-development efforts)
Yet we know that no single industry can revive
our region. We need a diversity of innovative new industries and employers who
can compete in a knowledge-based economy.
So the foundation is a major funder of
several regional economic-development nonprofits that work hard to grow smart,
innovative new companies from the ground up. These dynamic nonprofits each have
different but often complementary niches and roles, and I believe you�ve heard
of them.
BioEnterprise
helps young firms in the biosciences. BioE takes
advantage of a distinctly Cleveland opportunity to capitalize on the wealth of
institutional research going on within our hospitals, universities, and medical
schools.
JumpStart connects entrepreneurs across a
wide range of market segments to funding, and to an enthusiastic network of
mentors, advisors, and experts.
NorTech, in
addition to driving our wind-energy sector, is developing job-creating,
wealth-building clusters of expertise here in flexible electronic display
screens and other tech sectors our region can
dominate.
And Team NEO, another major
economic-development nonprofit, is recruiting foreign capital investments here
and opening foreign markets to Cleveland�s goods and services. Team NEO is an
arm of one of the foundation�s most valued allies, the Greater Cleveland
Partnership.
(Community/responsive)
Finally, as I mentioned earlier, we support a
wide array of community-based nonprofits across Greater Cleveland.
These agencies bring music to children and
the elderly. They provide health care to the poor. They fight foreclosure, and
support neighborhood revitalization.
They help people living with AIDS, and they
rescue families from domestic violence or economic catastrophe.
They feed the hungry, and engage city
children in healthy alternatives to street life.
(Education)
However, over the past eight years of toiling
in the trenches, I have become increasingly convinced that the issue at the
root of almost all of the problems facing Cleveland � and the factor that will
most determine our city�s and nation�s ability to succeed in the future � is
education.
There is no greater drain on our collective well being and prosperity than failing schools and dropout
factories. The failure of Cleveland�s schools touches every one of us, no
matter where we live.
Poor education correlates with chronic
unemployment, higher rates of crime and incarceration, higher dependence on
social services, and an exasperating cycle of poverty. We all pay.
And if you talk to business leaders around
Greater Cleveland � your clients undoubtedly among them � you�ll hear a
recurring theme: They need more trainable, reliable workers with decent
high-school educations. Cleveland�s schools are failing our businesses, even as
the schools fail our children.
On a global basis, our failing public schools
are the main reason our nation is losing its competitive advantage. We used to
lead the world in developing innovative, creative, contributing citizens and
leaders. Now our education system has fallen to the middle of the pack of
industrialized nations. If we continue to fail in education, we will put our
prosperity, our democratic civility, and even our national security in dire
jeopardy.
Yet on the flip side, no greater single
opportunity exists for all of us to reinvent our nation, and our city, than the
transformation of our public schools.
Education is the great liberator: It can
erode economic disparity and replace despair with hope and prosperity. So we
and other grantmakers have focused heavily on
education opportunities and reform all across Northeast Ohio.
We have devoted substantial resources to
strengthening schools, from inner-city charters to dynamic collaborations among
suburban schools. We�re fostering new ideas and helping schools test them.
We�re working with leaders all over Ohio to
build an infrastructure to support schools that specifically stress science,
technology, engineering, and math � the STEM disciplines, in which our state
underperforms.
We�re supporting after-school programs, in
Cleveland and the suburbs, that engage children in a learning culture,
stimulate their intellects, and inspire their imaginations.
(CMSD
reform)
Yet our biggest emphasis is in the area of
the greatest need, and the greatest chance for dramatic impact: Cleveland
public schools. For the Cleveland Foundation, reforming the Cleveland Municipal
School District is Priority No. 1.
More than five years ago, a coalition of
philanthropic, corporate, civic, and academic leaders joined the school
district�s leadership on a quest.
Given the unwarranted low expectations for
our city�s school children, we decided that we needed to prove this concept: If
we could provide these kids with an invigorating and excellent education, they
could achieve at a high level and go on to college, despite the other strikes against them.
We wanted to start by creating pockets of
excellence, and then take that excellence to scale across the entire system.
To date, the Cleveland Foundation has directly
invested in the development of 11 innovative �opportunity schools� that offer a
broad range of choices for children and their families.
Among them are single-gender pre-K-through-8
academies; high schools that focus on STEM; a K-through-12 International
Baccalaureate school; and the one nearest and dearest to my heart: the
Cleveland School of Science and Medicine in University Circle.
I chair the board of directors of that
school, and it is an inspiring success story I could talk about all day. We brought
together the neighboring eds-and-meds institutions,
the district, the students, the parents, and the staff. That partnership has
accomplished something truly remarkable.
In its four years, that school has earned the
highest rating from the Ohio Department of Education. U.S. News and World Report ranks it among the top 6% of the schools
it evaluated. And last June, every one of its first class of seniors � all 78
of them � graduated. But that�s not all: Every one won acceptance to a
four-year college or university � schools that include Princeton, Stanford,
Case Western Reserve, Bowdoin, Ohio State, Cleveland State, Xavier, and Miami
of Ohio.
All of the new opportunity schools are not
yet excellent, but most are on the path to excellence. As a cohort, these
schools compare to many suburban districts, and they outperform other Cleveland
schools on almost every measure.
And I think that it is fair to say that these
opportunity schools � along with other high-performing district schools and
charter schools such as E-Prep, Citizens Academy, and the Intergenerational
School � have proved the concept we set out to prove: If you put give kids a
school with a great principal, deeply engaged community partners, excellent
teachers, more flexible class times, and a rigorous and exciting curriculum,
they can succeed. That�s true even if the students come from broken,
impoverished homes in unstable neighborhoods.
We still have a lot of kids to save, though.
The transformation of this district has just begun. Sustaining the momentum and
bringing reform to every school will be a team effort demanding patience and
relentless focus.
We�ll have a lot of challenges. The most
pressing one at the moment will be finding dynamic and committed replacement
for Dr. Eugene Sanders as the district�s chief executive officer. The academic
transformation plan he put in place is a strong one. A new CEO must execute it
fully, and improve upon it as needed � but not soften it a bit.
And we must overcome the obstacle of adults
who work within the system, or who make their living off of it, and who are
more concerned with own interests than our kids�.
But the good news is that we�ve reached a
tipping point that once seemed unreachable. We can commit to taking our success
to scale. Or we can let the schools tip back the other way. It has taken a
strong coalition to get to this point. If we do not build that coalition and
demand further reform, those schools will tip back to failure. And they will
drag our whole city toward failure with them.
So when you hear about the Cleveland
Foundation, or the Gund Foundation, or KnowledgeWorks, or the national giants such as the Gates
Foundation, committing so heavily to education reform, you can now see the
value � and the power of moving forward together.
If you want to move a mountain, you do it
with a whole lot of people, a whole lot of shovels, and some well-placed blasts
of dynamite. That�s true with a lot of the challenges our foundation takes on.
They take teamwork.
(Call
to action/conclusion)
We at the foundation, and all of us in this
community, need you and your clients on our team.
Over the next few decades, at least $185 billion in wealth will transfer from one
generation to the next in the foundation�s primary service areas of Cuyahoga,
Lake, and Geauga counties.
The people who control that wealth know that
it can do tremendous good, and the vast majority of them are well inclined
toward philanthropy already.
So in closing, I ask you, and your clients
through you, to do a bit more of what you do so well already: Commit to the
power of philanthropy. Commit to growing this community and tending to its
greatest needs and aspirations.
I�d like to offer this thought: People think
of first responders � our police, firefighters, and emergency-medicine crews �
as our community�s lifesavers and heroes. And they are, to be sure.
But I would add that our city�s current and
potential philanthropists are another kind of first responders. They can, and
do, come to the rescue of some of our neediest, and their care can put people
on a long-term path to survival, health, and thriving.
The generous ones among us can truly save
lives � not just one or a few in a lifetime, but hundreds, or thousands, over generations.
And you all can be this community�s
dispatchers. You can direct those first responders to where they and their
resources are needed most. Your clients trust you more than anyone. They
entrust you with their wealth. You have the power to leverage that trust into
something truly good for this community � the power to be heroes yourselves.
I hope you will. Thank you.
***
Education: a Moral Imperative
Address
by Ronald B. Richard
President
and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation
Delivered
at the City Club of Cleveland
Friday, December 10, 2010
�
Speech objective: To
lay the justification groundwork for a concerted, collaborative statewide and
national push to improve teacher quality by changing seniority/tenure laws and
policies; and to build support for urgently needed reform by proving that
success is possible � and happening already.
�
Strategy: Raise the
alarm about America�s and Cleveland�s educational failures; show that those
failures have far-reaching socioeconomic effects; and inspire hope by showing
evidence of success to discredit cynicism about reform�s prospects.
Good afternoon. I am deeply honored to
have been invited to speak here today at this most venerable and intellectual
establishment, the City Club of Cleveland.
�
Because many of you listening today
may not be that familiar with our foundation, I would like to begin my remarks
by providing a brief overview of the Cleveland Foundation and our wide array of
philan�thropic endeavors. Then, I would like to share my views on what I
believe is the most important issue facing our city and nation, in both the
short and long term: education.
�
I have chosen to focus on education today because it is a
key factor affecting most of my organization�s work and, moreover, this entire
nation�s critical problems and future opportunities.
The Cleveland Foundation is one
of the nation�s largest foundations and the world�s oldest community
foundation. Frederick Harris Goff, the city�s leading banker of the early 20th
century, established the foundation in 1914. His
invention has had significance far beyond Cleveland, because it
represented the birth of the community-foundation field. Today, there are more
than 1,000
community foundations across the globe.
Community foundations, unlike
national foundations, raise all of their funds from a local community and make
their grants back into that local community. So while the wonderful Gates,
Rockefeller, and Ford foundations can make grants all over the globe, our foun�dation
makes its grants in the Greater Cleveland area.
We have assets of $1.8 billion, and we make grants
of about $80 million each year. Our
mission is to improve the quality of life for all Clevelanders now and for the
future. We do much more than write checks. We convene, lead, and facilitate,
and we partner with key governmental, corporate, and nonprofit entities, such
as the city and county; our chamber of commerce; local banks and industrial
compa�nies; our eds-and-meds anchor institutions,
including Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Clinic, University
Hospitals, Cleveland State University, and many others.
We support the arts, economic
development, social services, education at all levels, neighborhood
revitalization, the promotion of an advanced-energy industry here, and the
globalization of Cleveland.
During just the past several
years, we have led the charge to establish NewBridge,
a bright and shining new center for after-school arts programs aimed at keeping
at-risk kids in school, and for sophisticated adult training programs for
low-income citizens.
Working with our marvelous
Cleveland anchor-institution partners, we have begun to establish a series of
for-profit, employee-owned cooperative companies for low-income residents of
Cleveland. We call them Evergreen Cooperative companies, and they include a green
commercial laundry, a solar installation business, and, coming soon, the
largest urban greenhouse in the United States.
�
We have also played a leading
role in promoting advanced energy and creating the public-private partnership
that is working to construct a significant wind farm on Lake Erie. We hope this
wind farm will help us to generate not just megawatts, but also a large number
of R&D, manufacturing,
and service jobs in the region.
Last but not least, we make about
3,000 grants per year, both
large and small, in response to requests from a wide range of community arts,
social-service, and educational organizations.
We are proud of the impact that
our foundation and its partners are having in the community. And we believe
that in so many ways Cleveland is moving in the right direction.
However,
over the past eight years of toiling in the trenches, I have become
increasingly convinced that the issue at the root of almost all of our prob�lems,
and the factor that will most determine our city�s and nation�s ability to
succeed in the future, is education. So it is worth spending the rest of our
time today on this topic.
Allow me to begin, however, by
sharing with you my personal biases, so you will know where I am coming from
and won�t misconstrue my comments. I come from a family of teachers. I think
teaching is among the most noble and impor�tant professions on earth. And I
ardently believe that effective educators should be revered by our society, as
they are in other nations. In Japan, for example, the same honorific title
�Sensei� is used for both medical doctors and teachers. So a brain surgeon and
a kindergarten teacher are addressed in the same highly respected manner, and
their salaries don�t vary to anywhere near the degree that they do in the United
States.
I also come from a pro-union
family. In my opinion, there is no question that there was a time in our
nation�s history when unions helped to save American capitalism. Indeed, during
the dark days when communism was in fashion, this economic system was never
really a threat to the United States because our labor-union movement had
corrected most of the excesses of capitalism in other nations. Of course, there
remains a need to respect and protect labor in order to maintain our
all-too-critical middle class, which appears to be on the verge of becoming an
endangered species. And I would like to remind the audience that the vast
majority of our brave sons and daughters fighting for this nation in two wars
at present hail from our middle class.
In my current job, I witness
every day the problems that affect our city: how we are struggling to maintain
our world-class arts organizations, how we are grap�pling with gang violence,
teenage pregnancy, high crime, homelessness, unem�ployment in the face of
thousands of job openings that can�t be filled for lack of properly educated
applicants. All of these issues stem from, or are severely exacer�bated by, the
state of our city�s public education system over the past four decades.
Before
homing in on Cleveland, let�s just quickly review the state of K-12 public education
nationwide and its impact on higher education, society, and the economy.
�
The bottom line is that we are in
peril � absolute peril � as a nation. Our stan�dard of living is at risk, our
global leadership is at risk, and even our democracy itself is at risk, because
our education system is failing our children, especially in our major cities.
And this will, if not fixed, ultimately lead to America�s economic and social
collapse.
But this is not a news flash. Way
back in 1983, 27
years ago, the U.S. govern�ment�s
landmark Bell Commission report, �A Nation At Risk,� famously stated: �If an
unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educa�tional
performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.�
Nearly three decades later, we�ve
lost, rather than gained, ground.
Whereas we used to be ranked No. 1 in the world, America�s
educational perfor�mance now ranks no higher than the middle of the world�s
industrialized nations. Our 8th-graders
rank 17th in reading, 26th in math, and 20th in science. These scores
are as unacceptable as they are pitiful!
Two of every three new jobs today
� and 90 percent of the jobs
in the fastest-growing high-tech fields � require education beyond high school.
Yet we can�t even get nearly one-third of our kids through high school. Our
national gradua�tion rate is only 70 percent,
and it�s much lower in urban systems like Cleveland�s, where barely half of the
students graduate. Compare that to Denmark�s 96-percent
graduation rate and to Japan�s 93-percent
graduation rate. And in Poland, a developing economy, the high-school
graduation rate is 92 percent.
Only 34 percent of our adults
aged 18 to 34
enrolled in college. In South Korea, that rate is 53
percent. That country, which is the size of Ohio, is churning out
more college graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math than all 50 of our states combined.
So what
are the national ramifications of this American educational
performance that is so poor, in both absolute and relative terms?� In short, the rest of the world is about to
eat our economic lunch, breakfast, and dinner!
Forget the developed nations like
Germany; even the developing world is building new and better education systems
to try to catch up and surpass us � and they�re having success. From
Scandinavia to Singapore to China, nations are setting very high standards for
every student and teacher in every school. They�re adapting their education
systems to this century and the global marketplace.
It�s not just our economic health
that�s at risk. Our national security is too.
Poor education systems are the
main reason why three-fourths � that�s right, I said 75
percent � of our nation�s age-eligible young people can�t qualify
to serve in our country�s armed forces. One of every four is ineligible because
of a lack of a high-school diploma. Among high-school graduates who seek to
enlist, about 30 percent get rejected
because they can�t meet the military�s most basic reading and math
requirements, which should tell us that our educational performance is even
worse than what we think it is based on graduation rates alone.
Richard Clarke, the anti-terrorism
czar for the last Bush administration, recently published a book called �Cyber
War,� in which he demonstrates how our adver�saries are developing cyber-attack
technologies that could have a Pearl Harbor-like impact against our military
and civilian infrastructure. Our power grid, communications, banking,
transportation, and even military and intelligence systems, are utterly
vulnerable, in part because we have fallen behind in science, engineering, and
math education.
�
Finally, and most tragically, we�re
frittering away naturally talented human beings, the most precious capital of
all. How can we as a country ever fulfill our potential, or even just maintain
our democracy and standard of living, when so many of our citizens are
unfulfilled and unable to engage in meaningful and interesting work? How can we
maintain our moral compass as a nation in such circumstances?
Our schools should be lifting our
citizens out of persistent poverty and breaking down racial disparities in
education and income, and eliminating all of the other stubborn vestiges of 2 � centuries of slavery. But,
because many of our urban school systems are dysfunctional, the rich are
getting richer and the poor, espe�cially minorities, are getting poorer. And
the middle class is shrinking fast � an economic state of affairs that has led
to some very bad outcomes for a number of empires and nations over the course
of world history.
A University of California
economist quantified the explosive growth in earnings disparities in a shocking
study last year. In it, he demonstrated that from 1993
to 2007,
the top 1 percent of Americans
had come to possess half of the nation�s overall economic wealth. Now, I�m a
corporate guy and a true believer in private enterprise, but I find this fact
to be alarming.
Given
these various dismal statistics, you may wonder why the
debate over public education in America has been proceeding for decades with
little improvement. We have known for quite some time that our current system
of education is not working. It needs to be completely reinvented in our urban,
rural, and even suburban districts. But why has it been so difficult to create
change?
�
First,
unlike high-performing countries such as Singapore and Finland, we have neither
a national system of education nor a national teacher-preparation program here
in the United States. There is no single point of control.
�
Second, Americans have allowed themselves to be duped by the
pernicious myth that low-income, minority students cannot achieve academic
success at very high levels. What President Bush once described as the soft
bigotry of low expectations has crippled our ability to achieve true reform,
particularly in our urban schools.
�
Third, we have faced the tyranny of highly organized entrenched
interests. As Joel Klein reflected upon leaving his post as chancellor of New
York City�s public schools, teachers unions and other unions, bureaucrats,
vendors, and politicians, who have benefited from our deeply fractured system,
continue to aggressively resist change, while the opposition � parents,
concerned citi�zens, and companies that need skilled workers � has been, up
until now, completely unorganized.
�
Fourth, the public has developed a deep level of mistrust in the
current system due to a long track record of broken promises and marginal
progress. And many parents and students have abandoned the community altogether
by fleeing to the suburbs in hopes of better educational opportunities � a
phenomenon that has helped to hollow out our once-thriving urban cores.
�
And finally, media � meaning television, radio, movies, and video
games � have poisoned our citizens, especially our children, with
anti-intellectual and anti-education messages that predispose them to
undervalue education and learning, and to disrespect the very people � teachers
� who can provide them with the tools they need for a lifetime of success.
Hollywood may think it is liberal, progressive, and caring because a few movie
stars go to Africa to help with AIDS,
or to New Orleans in the wake of Katrina to raise funds. But the damage that
Hollywood has done to our nation by inuring our kids to violence, sexual
misconduct, and racist and misogynistic attitudes is incalcu�lable. Yes, you
folks in the media bear responsibility as well for the nation�s educational
performance!
However,
there are national signs of hope. The growing movement for change,
and the political will around education reform, are arguably at their strongest
moment in recent history. The past decade has brought with it courageous
leaders, new laws, innovative ideas, and a much deeper understanding of the
problem.
So, what are these signs of hope?
The following are the five brightest beacons of hope, from what we can see:
�
�
One: The federal government, under Presidents George W. Bush and
now Barack Obama, has begun to play a significant role. The White House and U.S. Department of Education
have framed education as a national problem that could cripple our entire
country. Education reformers aren�t alone anymore.
�
Two: The discussion around a national curriculum is moving
forward. Ohio, 40 other
states, and the District of Columbia, have come together to create common
academic standards and assessments to measure student progress.
�
Three: Whether or not accountability measures should be in place,
both in and out of the classroom, is no longer a subject for debate. There is
consensus that superintendents, principals, and teachers must be held
accountable. This marks significant progress. The real question now is: How
should account�ability be measured?
�
Four: Competition has finally gotten its foot in public
education�s door. Entrepreneurs are creating models that work outside the
typical education space. Teach for America, for example, is attracting the best
and the brightest to the field of education. New charter models, like KIPP and Green Dot, have had
unprecedented success with low-income students. And let us not forget
philanthropic giants, like Bill and Melinda Gates and Eli Broad, who are not
only contributing in a big way financially, but are also willing to take big
risks.
�
And Five: At the local level, we see a group of men and women who
are excited to lead and help turn around some of the worst-performing districts
in our country. Although they have distinctly different styles, they have all
managed to achieve some level of progress while becoming household names: Joel
Klein, former chancellor of New York City schools; Michelle Rhee, former
chancellor of District of Columbia schools; and Arne Duncan, United States
Secretary of Education.
So what
is the current state of public education in Cleveland, and what roles have the
Cleveland Foundation and its key allies � the George Gund
Foundation, the Greater Cleveland Partnership (our chamber of commerce), and
numerous other local organizations � been playing in this key sphere of public
life?
Like all urban school districts
in the United States, the current performance level of the Cleveland
Metropolitan School District can best be described as abysmal. Last year, 70 percent of our schools were
rated in academic watch or emergency, the equivalent of a D
or F grade.
Of every 100 Cleveland 9th graders, 54
will graduate from high school in four years, 25
will go on to college for a short period of time, and only seven
will graduate from college with a bachelor�s degree. Stated another way to
drive home the point: 93 percent
of our kids will not go on to earn a college degree!
Over the past 10
years, the district has
lost 31,493
students, a 40-percent
decline in enrollment. They have voted with their feet. At the same time, costs
have risen, primarily because of negotiated increases in salaries and benefits.
�
Five years ago, the Cleveland and George Gund foundations partnered with the school district, the
teachers union, and other community partners to begin to ameliorate this
situation. Our goal was to create new, innovative schools that operated
differently from typical urban public schools and got much better results.
Given the unwarranted low expectations for
our city�s school children, we decided that we needed to achieve proof of
concept that if you provided these kids with a great educational experience,
they could achieve at a high level and go on to college. We wanted to work with
the district and others to create pockets of excellence, and then take this
excellence to scale across the entire system.
To date, we have directly
invested in the development of 11
innovative schools that offer a broad range of choices for
children and their families, including single-sex pre-K - 8 academies; high schools
that focus on STEM �
science, technology, engineering and math; and a K - 12 International
Baccalaureate school. These schools are supported by a designated office within
the district �
the Office of New Schools and Innovation � and operate under separate agree�ments
with the teachers union that provide greater autonomy at the building level,
including control over hiring.
While these schools are not yet
where they need to be, most are on the path to excellence. As a cohort, these
schools are outperforming other district schools on almost every measure. All
have been rated in continuous improvement or above. These schools are drawing
in new students, helping to retain current students, and attracting new
teachers and talent. These schools are places where parents are welcome, and
teachers can collaborate, problem solve, and focus on the needs of their
students.
Of all of the schools we have
helped create, the one that is dearest to my heart is the Cleveland School of
Science and Medicine. I serve as chairman of the board of this school, which
prepares students for college and careers in medicine and health care. Through
its unique partnership with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine,
the Cleveland Clinic, and University Hospitals of Cleveland, the school exposes
its students to a rigorous, state-of-the-art science curriculum.
When the Cleveland Foundation and
its anchor-institution partners helped create this new public school four years
ago, we had a hard time finding enough students. We had no test to get in. Most
of the students told us that they had chosen this school because they thought
they would be physically safer there than at their neighborhood high school.
They were not saying, �I want to be a doctor.�
We had 100
slots and could only recruit 78
kids. But after just four years, the School of Science and
Medicine has earned the state education department�s highest possible rating:
excellent. Its test scores put us on par with the best high schools in the best
suburbs. It ranks among the top 6 percent
of all schools that U.S. News
and World Report analyzed in its �America�s Best High Schools� rating.
�
Last June, this school graduated
its first class of seniors. One hundred percent of the kids graduated,
virtually all poor minority kids, and all of them were accepted to a four-year
college! They were accepted at some schools that you might have heard of: MIT, Harvard, Princeton,
Bowdoin, Case Western Reserve, the Ohio State University, Cleveland State
University, and more.
I think that it is fair to say
that these opportunity schools, along with several high-performing local
charter schools such as E-Prep, Citizens Academy, and the Intergenerational
School, as well as a handful of other high-performing district schools, have
proved the concept that if you put low-income urban kids in a school with a
great principal, deeply engaged community partners, excellent and committed
teachers, more flexibility in terms of class time, and a rigorous and exciting
curriculum, anything is possible, and even probable.
Through this work, I have come to
realize that we have a deeply committed mayor, and one of the nation�s best and
most courageous school-district CEOs
in Dr. Eugene Sanders. We are also blessed with many superb and very
hard-working teachers, principals, union officials, and central-office staff.
But as I
mentioned earlier, our intention was to create and then work with the district to
bring these highly successful educational innovations to scale across the
entire district, so that the other 90 percent
of our kids could also receive a high-quality education and go on to a life of
success. You might ask: �How�s that going?� Well, frankly speaking, despite
important gains, not as well as we had hoped.
On the plus side, the district�s
transformation plan, adopted earlier this year, has set challenging and
critical five-year goals, including raising the high-school grad�uation rate
from 54 percent to 90 percent, and ensuring that 100 percent of district schools
receive a rating of continuous improvement or above, with half of those in the
effective or excellent categories. I also believe that the plan lays out a
rational strategy for getting us from where we currently stand to where we need
to be.
The district is moving forward
with key aspects of the plan. Central office is being reorganized from top to
bottom. The district is putting in place a performance-management system
designed to hold everyone in the system accountable for results. The district
has put in place a school-by-school improvement plan, giving more support and
oversight to the lowest-performing schools.
Despite unfounded warnings of
impending chaos and violence, the district very successfully closed 16 of the chronically
worst-performing schools. Finally, the district has moved forward with growing
its portfolio of innovative schools. It opened three new schools this year, and
just issued an RFP to
charter schools to partner with the district. CMSD
is the first Ohio district to adopt this approach, a strategy
that has been used successfully by districts in New York, Denver, and
elsewhere.
On the minus side, there are
several developments that have threatened both the scope and pace of
transformation. I would like to briefly touch on three of the most troubling.
�
First, the transformation plan called for the radical
restructuring of 22 persis�tently
low-performing schools, which included a new academic program, a new principal,
and replacement of at least half of the teachers. The teachers union objected
to this course of action, saying the CEO did
not have the right under the current contract to reassign staff. The union won.
Consequently, only eight of the original schools are being significantly
overhauled. What a tragedy. What a travesty.
�
Second, earlier this year, the district and teachers union signed
a three-year contract. While some real salary and benefit concessions were
made, the contract does not fundamentally tackle many critical barriers to
change, such as tenure and seniority, inflexible work rules and assignments,
and pay based on longevity and credentials rather than on performance.
�
Finally, as is often the case with large unsuccessful systems,
pockets of success are resented rather than revered. I am just going to tell it
like it is when I say that there is a growing and pernicious tendency to try to
discredit the success of the innovative schools in Cleveland. So instead of
becoming the shining example of transformational success, Cleveland remains an
example of how hard it can be � even with a highly supportive mayor and a
world-class superinten�dent � to put the interests of our children first and
achieve fundamental change.
We have
made progress, both nationally and here in Cleveland. But it hasn�t been nearly
enough. And the fact remains that we�re still in peril. Looking forward, what
should we be doing in Cleveland over the next two to three years to ensure
success?
�
One, we must advocate for needed changes in state law and policy,
such as abolishing seniority-based layoffs and lock-step pay systems, and
creating alternative teacher certification that would open up Ohio to Teach for
America. In addition, we need to support Ohio�s collaboration with other states
aimed at strengthening academic standards and assessments.
�
Two, we must accelerate the development of new schools and new
school designs that challenge outdated ways of delivering education. We need
project-based learning, not boring lectures. We must figure out ways to expand
the reach of our most effective teachers. We can, and must, take better
advantage of new technologies.
�
Three, we need to restructure the
district�s human-resources department, moving from an almost
exclusive focus on compliance to one that focuses on talent recruitment and
development. All managers must celebrate and support excellence, while at the
same time being able to terminate, more easily and cheaply, poor and mediocre
staff.
�
Four,
we must craft a radically different union contract with teachers, as well as
with other unions. We need to eliminate seniority and tenure, not just in state
law but also from the contract, and move to performance-based pay systems. Work
rules need to maximize flexibility in schools. I believe that the best teachers
in the system support this concept.
�
And
finally, we will need to do more with less. Our district faces a minimum $54 million deficit in the
coming year. And more than a $100 million deficit the
following year. This does not take into consideration the state cuts we expect
are coming. A balanced budget will require significant cuts as well as new
revenue, most likely through a levy, which I believe voters will support if �
and only if � they see radical systemic change. In balancing the budget, we
must make the necessary changes in cost structures. This will not be easy, but
it is essential.
I�d like
to conclude today by saying that this great nation � which I believe remains,
in the words of Abraham Lincoln, �the last, best hope of earth� � cannot endure
unless we fix our education system. It is the key to our future economic
prosperity, national security, social cohesiveness, and moral authority in the
world.
This will require great change,
and change is not easy. It involves conflict and compromise. It requires
sacrifice. It creates winners and losers.
But we will all be victorious if
we preserve our nation, society, and our American culture. It will take all of
us � superintendents, principals, teachers, parents, students, elected
officials, business leaders, nonprofit leaders, and the media � to ensure that
our education system opens the door for all our children.
And, if the task seems too
daunting, just remember that our nation triumphed over the Great Depression,
fascism, and communism. We can meet this challenge as well.
The bugle has been sounding. It
is now time � way past time � to heed its call.
Thank you very much.
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