John O. Harney: Marketing abortion ruling; armed youth; ‘don’t say gay’ in Greenwich; not the ‘Flutie Effect’
Map by Tpwissaa
Greenwich, Conn., High School
From The New England Journal of Higher Education, a service of The New England Board of Higher Education (nebhe.org)
BOSTON
Could the anti-choice, forced-birth culture of the U.S. Supreme Court and many U.S. states present an advantage for New England economic boosters?
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told reporters that he had heard from a lot of companies that the recent Supreme Court decision removing the federal protection of the right to abortion may offer a big opportunity for Massachusetts to attract some employers whose employees would want access to reproductive-health services. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont called on businesses in states that limit abortion access to consider relocating to Connecticut.
In the context of choosing where to start or expand a business, big employers have occasionally written off New England as “old and cold” compared with economically and meteorologically sunnier spots. However, a 1999 poll by the University of Connecticut’s Center for Survey Research and Analysis, while admittedly dated, found an interesting niche for New England. International site-selection consultants, accustomed to Europe’s pricey, regulated environments, were less concerned with New England’s notoriously high costs than domestic site-selection pros. Key issues for the international consultants were access to higher education, an educated workforce and good infrastructure.
Peter Denious, chief executive of Advance CT, a business-development organization, recently told the Connecticut Mirror that such issues as diversity, equity and inclusion—and the state’s commitment to clean energy—could all help Connecticut align with the corporate goals of certain companies.
Our culture of active government, unionization and especially our human- resource development, could bode well once again in relatively enlightened New England.
Anti-semitism rising: The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported 2,717 anti-semitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in 2021 in the U.S., the highest number since the ADL began tracking anti-semitic incidents in 1979, according to the group’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents. These included more than 180 anti-semitic incidents in New England. And nationally, 155 anti-semitic incidents were reported at more than 100 college campuses. Meanwhile, tension between anti-semitism and anti-zionism, including the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, is challenging on campuses and beyond
Packing heat. More than 1 million U.S. adolescents (ages 12 to 17) said they had carried a handgun in 2019-20, up 41% from about 865,000 in 2002-03, according to a study by researchers at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development, using data from the National Survey on Drug Use & Health. The socio-demographic profile of the gun carriers also changed. Carrying rates grew from 3.1% to 5.3% among white adolescents, from 2.6% to 5.1% among higher-income adolescents, and from 4.3% to 6.9% among rural adolescents between, while rates among Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native and lower-income adolescents decreased.
“Don’t Say Gay” here? In April, Mount Holyoke College President Sonya Stephens wrote here that Florida legislation dubbed by opponents the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, was part of a nationwide wave of proposal laws linking divisive issues of race, sexual orientation and gender identity to parents’ concerns about what their children are being taught in public schools. These bills not only undermine the real progress that LGBTQ+ people have made in society over the past 50 years, Stephens wrote, but they also further erode trust in some of our most under-compensated public servants: school teachers and administrators.
On July 1, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona noted that the Florida parents and families he’d spoken with said the legislation doesn’t represent them and that it put students in danger of bullying and worse mental health outcomes.
In Cardona’s home state of Connecticut, meanwhile, the Greenwich School Board adopted a new Title IX policy unanimously, but not without controversy. Edson Rivas and Colin Hosten of the Fairfield County-based Triangle Community Center Board of Directors wrote in Connecticut Viewpoints that the policy adopted by the Greenwich School Board “conspicuously removes any language referring to gender identity and sexual orientation” which was part of the original version of the policy introduced last fall. The board replied that “this policy covers all students, whether or not certain language is included.” But Rivas and Hosten aren’t buying it. “If the substance of the policy remains the same, as they say, then the only effect of removing the language about gender identity and sexual orientation is the linguistic pseudo-erasure of the LGBTQ+ community in Greenwich Public Schools.”
Truth to tell: Recently, the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) named 75 higher-education institutions to participate in the 2022 Institute on Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers as part of an effort to dismantle racial hierarchies.
As we at NEBHE and others have wrestled with a “reckoning” on race, gender and so many other wrongs, the “truth and reconciliation” concept has always made sense to me. Check out, for example, the thoughtful book Honest Patriots exploring how true patriots in post-World War II Germany, post-apartheid South Africa and the U.S. in the the aftermath of slavery and the genocide of Native Americans loved their country enough to acknowledge and repent for its misdeeds.
Under the AAC&U initiative, campus teams develop action plans to advance the parts of the TRHT framework: narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law and economy. The institute helps campus teams to prepare to facilitate racial-healing activities on their campus and in their communities; examine current realities of race relations in their communities and the local history that has led to them; identify evidence-based strategies that support their vision of what their communities will look, feel and be like when the belief in the hierarchy of human value no longer exists, and learn to pinpoint critical levers for change and to engage key stakeholders.
Among participating New England institutions: Landmark College, Middlesex Community College, Mount Holyoke College, Suffolk University, the University of Connecticut and Westfield State University.
Another problem with over-incarceration. NEBHE has published a policy brief about the effects of higher education on incarcerated people in New England prisons and jails—and increasingly broached conversations about the dilemmas created by the world’s biggest incarcerator — America. Now, another byproduct surfaces: Children with an incarcerated parent have exceedingly low levels of education. The most common education level for respondents from a low-income family who had an incarcerated parent was elementary school, according to research by a group of Wake Forest University students who put together an article for the Nation Fund for Independent Journalism. The students set out to understand how the academic achievement, mental health and future income of children of incarcerated parents compare to those with deceased parents. Just under 60% as many respondents with an incarcerated parent completed a university education compared to the baseline of respondents with neither an incarcerated nor deceased parent.
Acquisition of Maguire: I first heard the term “Flutie Effect” in the context of former Boston College Admissions Director Jack Maguire. The term refers to the admissions deluge after the BC quarterback Doug Flutie threw the famed Hail Mary pass (caught by the less-famous Gerald Phelan) in 1984. Flutie won the Heisman Trophy, then pursued a pro career, first with Donald Trump’s New Jersey Generals in the USFL and then in the Canadian Football League, with a few bumpy stops in the NFL.
But Maguire attributed BC’s good fortune not to the diminutive quarterback but to the college’s “investments in residence halls, academic facilities, and financial aid.” In 1983, Maguire, a theoretical physicist by training, founded Maguire Associates and introduced the concept of “enrollment management,” combining sophisticated analytical techniques, customized research and deep experience in education leadership with a genuine enthusiasm for client partnerships. Maguire became a sort of admissions guru whose insights we have been pleased to feature.
Now, higher-education marketing and enrollment strategy firm Carnegie has announced it is buying Maguire Associates. Not to be confused with the foundation that administered the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which recently moved to the American Council on Education, nor the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which has encouraged disarmament, this Carnegie, also founded in the 1980s and based in Westford, Mass., is formally known as Carnegie Dartlet LLC. Its pitch: “We are right definers. We are your intelligence. We are truth revealers. We are your clarity. We are obstacle breakers. We are your partners. We are audience shapers. We are your connection. We are brand illuminators. We are your insight. We are story forgers. We are your voice. We are connection creators. …”
John O. Harney is executive editor of The New England Journal of Higher Education.
Sheridan Miller: N.E. economic recovery amid COVID-19 uncertainty
BOSTON
From The New England Journal of Higher Education, a service of The New England Board of Higher Education (nebhe.org)
Takeaways from NEBHE’s Legislative Advisory Committee …
The economic fallout of the layoffs and business closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc for many New England workers—especially those who were already facing a structurally vulnerable workforce and employment system before the pandemic. What can state governments do to stimulate job creation and make New England’s economy more resilient in the future?
This was among the questions explored at NEBHE’s virtual Legislative Advisory Committee (LAC) meeting held via Zoom on Sept. 22. LAC members representing all six New England states met with a panel of experts to explore strategies for economic recovery in the region: Osborne Jackson, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Livia Lam, director of workforce development at the Center for American Progress, and Garrett Moran, chair of Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont’s Governor’s Workforce Council. Here are four takeaways from the discussion.
1. Economic recovery will depend on states’ ability to identify and support the region’s most vulnerable workers.
Jackson’s latest research suggests that the overall unemployment rate in New England is expected to grow through the end of 2020 and into the beginning of 2021, albeit more slowly than the overall U.S. rate . The region’s “non-essential” workers who are unable to work from home (like home repair technicians) who represent 36 percent of all U.S. workers, as well as those “essential” workers who have likewise been unable to work from home (home healthcare aids and childcare workers for example), who represent 38 percent of all U.S. workers, have been the most vulnerable to losing their jobs during the health crisis. This group disproportionately comprises marginalized or oppressed populations, with higher rates of termination among women and workers of color. Policymakers and employers must solicit feedback regarding the needs of non-essential employees, and those who are unable to work from home, in order to help mitigate and try to slow the projected rises in unemployment.
2. New England’s most vulnerable employees can be best supported through business-led partnerships that focus on job quality.
A new Center for American Progress framework for protecting employees at high risk of unemployment calls for:
Increasing employer responsibility for training and employment
Rewarding partnerships that have a track record of increasing job quality
Incentivizing the use of data analytics to measure job quality
Rebalancing decision-making between workers, businesses and communities.
Policymakers may consider ways to incentivize measures to help support both employees and employers during these trying times. Connecticut, for instance, has started taking steps to encourage the state’s businesses to better support employees by creating business-led community partnerships. New England states might follow Connecticut’s lead, and help support their current and future employees by providing job training programs for incumbent workers, as well as recruiting new and unemployed members of the community through free education courses or virtual job fairs.
3. Increased state support for the child-care sector will be critical for the future of New England’s economy.
Members of the LAC agreed that a priority for the region as it emerges from the pandemic will be providing affordable, high-quality childcare, delivered by professionals earnings a living wage. Childcare workers are some of the least valued, lowest-paid professionals in New England. However, after preschool and daycare centers were shut down in March due to the pandemic, many parents realized how important early childhood caretakers and teachers are. In addition to the positive long-term impacts that high-quality preschool and childcare have on children’s socio-emotional and cognitive development, these programs provide important benefits to working parents, especially working mothers. To provide more affordable childcare for New Englanders while better compensating the region’s childcare providers, policymakers should consider launching programs that incentivize work-sponsored child care as well as refundable tax credits for preschool centers or for parents and employees to use.
4. Broader recognition of prior learning could help accelerate the region’s economic recovery.
Most jobs that provide financial stability require a credential beyond a high school diploma. Preliminary findings from a survey conducted by NEBHE and Maguire Associates for NEBHE’s All Learning Counts initiative highlights the importance of increasing access to completion of credentials.
In New England, 39 percent of residents have a bachelor’s degree. While that’s generally higher than in other regions, it is still important to increase this number especially as states strive to meet postsecondary attainment goals. It is therefore imperative that New England states recognize all forms of prior learning (such as through work experience or military service) in order for residents to advance professionally, therefore improving the greater economy.
Just as there are equity gaps in employment, there are racial and ethnic gaps in the level of postsecondary attainment in New England. We can increase equity in higher education and work by granting credit to adult learners for their validated life and work experiences. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, New Englanders with a household income of less than $100,000 annually have changed their opinion to reflect the importance of higher education in job success, according to a survey by Maguire Associates and NEBHE. Yet many of the same survey respondents say they can’t afford to further their education without financial assistance. Broader recognition of learning can accelerate the completion of postsecondary credentials and make it more affordable to do so.
With all of this considered, policymakers should ask themselves the following questions in order to best support their constituents:
What barriers exist to developing and implementing recognition of learning (ROL) and credit for prior learning policies in your state?
How can states support institutions in developing low- or no-cost ROL programs?
How can states ensure that ROL is used to bridge equity gaps and help economic recovery?
Sheridan Miller is NEBHE’s state policy engagement coordinator.