By Mayor Chris Coleman, February guest blogger
When I first ran for mayor and made education my first priority, I was often asked, “Why should a mayor worry about education?” It’s a good question. After all, Saint Paul has an independent school board, which oversees Saint Paul Public Schools. Well, the answer is more intuitive than you might expect.
Studies show that students spend more than 80% of their time outside of the classroom (before and after school, during the summer and on the weekends). When this is the case it is our responsibility as a city and community to ensure that all our young people have access to high-quality activities and program. Saint Paul's future economic stability and quality of life depends on our ability to connect young people to meaningful learning experiences.
In my first term, my administration made a number of efforts to address some of the obstacles that prevent too many of our students from being successful academically and developmentally. I’d like to give a few examples today. In my next post, I’ll talk more about our plans for the next four years.
Early Childhood: I am extremely proud of my office’s participation in the Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program. This pilot was originally proposed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and funded by the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation. Through this initiative, more than 500 low-income families were given information and resources to enroll their children in high-quality early childhood education programs. An integral part of the Scholarship Program was the use of Parent Aware, a rating tool for identifying high quality early childcare providers. These two components ensure that we are providing access to high-quality programming to at-risk families; a true triumph for our community.
East Side Circulator: Transportation has always been a challenging part of our education infrastructure, particularly when it comes to connecting children to critical out of school time/second shift learning opportunities. How do we get students from their homes, to school, to after-school programs, then home again? In Saint Paul, we’ve identified a promising answer to these questions that we call Circulators. In 2007, inspired by the efforts of parents on the West Side, we piloted a neighborhood bus on the East Side, connecting students to libraries, recreation centers and other learning hubs. That first year, more than 2,100 rides were given by the free service. In the summer of 2008, that number increased nearly 100 percent to more than 4,200 rides. Finally, two years ago, we were able to create a free year-round circulator, connecting students to learning opportunities each day.
College Access: As Kent Pekel and others have explained so well on this blog, college readiness and college access are essential to our economic future. During my first term, I called together a group of college presidents, along with leaders from our public schools, to think about how Saint Paul could play a role in preparing our students to gain admission to higher education. As a response to this conversation, Saint Paul opened two Doorway College & Career Resource Centers at the Sunray Library and at the Dayton’s Bluff Recreation Center. At either of these facilities, students can get homework help, participate in career exploration and skill assessment activities, research colleges and prepare for standardized tests.
As you read over these accomplishments, what comes to mind? What more do you think the City could be doing for its students? Please share your ideas, and I’ll respond to them in my next post.
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