Education, Remedy to Income Inequality

[ESchwab]

The city of Syracuse, NY may be on the eastern edge of the rust belt. Its main economic drivers for more than a half century were Syracuse University and a large number of industrial plants. The two principal industrial plants were the Carrier Corporation (air conditioning and heat plants) and General Motors (mainly transmissions). The GM plant shut down, and Carrier sent its production to China and to other states (Indiana, for example). Other smaller plants that provided services to the big ones also shut down or reduced their operations. This sent the city into a tail spin, and many of the wealthier citizens of the city moved to the suburbs for better schools and for lower taxes and to get away from poor people.


For the last decade or longer, the city has engaged in economic redevelopment to revive the city. My son has been part of that. One of their efforts was to vastly improve the city schools so that people who had moved to the suburbs would return. Part of their effort to improve the schools is a tuition guarantee program that pays for college tuition, fees, and books to anyone who graduates from a city high school and who attended for at least the last three years of high school. The program also provides tutoring and counseling to any student who is performing poorly in the city school system (through grade school and high school).


My youngest grandchild is benefiting from this program. The city is paying her tuition, fees, and book costs to attend Syracuse University. She will begin her third year in early 2017. The program is described here:


Say Yes Tuition Guarantee Information | The Syracuse City School District | Syracuse, NY


My son is on the board of directors of this program. He tells me that it has an endowment of $25 million and that it is sustainable for the indefinite future.


It seems to me that other cities can adopt such programs for their students to insure that their young people can get a college education.

[ESchwab]

Syracuse, NY also has a literacy program. We usually think of literacy programs as being addressed to adults who never learned to read. This one is addressed to preschoolers and to the lower grades. It has two aims: 1) to make sure every child entering kindergarten knows his or her letters (the ABC's), and 3) that every third grader is reading on grade level.

The program contacts every parent as early as possible to get the child in the program. My daughter-in-law, who is a nurse, talks to women after delivery of a child and signs them up. She extracts a pledge that the mother will read to the child as soon as the child can talk. A child's book is sent to that mother a month after birth and every month until the child enters kindergarten. By that time the child has a "library" of sixty books. Once in school, children who are not advancing in their reading are given individual treatment by tutors. The result has been that most third graders are reading on grade level in the third grade.

The reasons they have done this is that studies have shown that children who enter kindergarten who know their letters and have some idea of what the written word is all about do much better than those who don't. Also, pupils who are reading on grade level at the end of the third grade do much better throughout their education than those who cannot do that.

This program was started in the City of Syracuse and has been extended to the entire Onondaga County, which includes many Syracuse suburbs and at least 300,000 additional people. My son is also on the board of directors of this program

[ESchwab]

AP courses in high school are a way to cut short the advance to a college degree. My youngest grandchild took a number of AP courses in high school. Syracuse University has given her a semester of credit for those courses. That means that after three semesters, she is entering her junior year.

Those AP courses cut her time in college from 8 semesters to 7 semesters. This is one way to reduce the cost of a college education.

[Diesel911]

Seems good to me.

[Kuan]

Can't wait until someone starts screaming WE CAN'T AFFORD IT!

[ESchwab]

Originally Posted by Kuan

Can't wait until someone starts screaming WE CAN'T AFFORD IT!

The program has been in effect for seven years now, and it is working in that the performance of students in the public schools has improved and many high school graduates are attending college who might otherwise have not had the opportunity. The City has the money to continue the program indefinitely into the future.

[Kuan]

Originally Posted by ESchwab

The program has been in effect for seven years now, and it is working in that the performance of students in the public schools has improved and many high school graduates are attending college who might otherwise have not had the opportunity. The City has the money to continue the program indefinitely into the future.

That's pretty awesome. I was just kidding, there will always be those who claim, rightly so or not, that the public is paying for it.

[sloride]

Originally Posted by ESchwab

The program has been in effect for seven years now, and it is working in that the performance of students in the public schools has improved and many high school graduates are attending college who might otherwise have not had the opportunity. The City has the money to continue the program indefinitely into the future.

I can't see how that can happen from a 25mil endowment unless Syracuse University charges drastically less for those students coming there through that program.
The tuition is around 40k if only 400 students take advantage of it that is 16mil.
That is for one year, for way less than the number of seniors graduating from the Syracuse NY public schools.

If that is the case that the University is accepting way less than the going rate (students not from syracuse H.S. system) than it is the other students that are subsidizing it. I would be pissed if I found out that i was paying 40k a year so someone else can get it for free.

[ESchwab]

Originally Posted by sloride

I can't see how that can happen from a 25mil endowment unless Syracuse University charges drastically less for those students coming there through that program.
The tuition is around 40k if only 400 students take advantage of it that is 16mil.
That is for one year, for way less than the number of seniors graduating from the Syracuse NY public schools.

If that is the case that the University is accepting way less than the going rate (students not from syracuse H.S. system) than it is the other students that are subsidizing it. I would be pissed if I found out that i was paying 40k a year so someone else can get it for free.

I don't know the intricacies of the financing of this program. I did, however, raise question similar to yours in my last telephone conversation with my son. He assured me that this is a permanent program that will not go away and said they have an endowment of $25 million. They also get money from New York state and from businesses in the Syracuse area. I know none of the details of how they do it.


I trust what my son said. He knows the politics of upstate New York. He is in his early 50s and is the vice president of the regional economic development agency for that area of the state. He previously worked several years as the chief of staff for the majority leader in the lower house of the New York legislature. When he says funding is assured, I take that as gospel as he knows what he is talking about.


Syracuse is not the only participating university. Almost (and possibly) the entire New York state university system and the New York City university system as well as more than 25 other private and state universities participate.


Additionally, the student applies to one of the participating colleges or universities and gets whatever scholarship money is available, and then the program pays the student's share of the tuition, fees, and books. It's not a full scholarship program; it pays the difference which may be small or large. Also, the student remains responsible four housing and food and incidental; student loans may be available if a student cannot otherwise pay.


The best part may not be the tuition assistance. The program follows students throughout grade and high school and provides tutors and other assistance when a student's academic performance is low. It helps students attain adequate primary and secondary educations.

[Skid Row Joe]

I'll have to learn more about this program, how the university came by this $25 Mil endowment, and the intricate history and details. I'm all about educating ppl that will abide by, and can meet certain qualifications and conditions in getting it paid gratis.

[ESchwab]

Originally Posted by Skid Row Joe

I'll have to learn more about this program, how the university came by this $25 Mil endowment, and the intricate history and details. I'm all about educating ppl that will abide by, and can meet certain qualifications and conditions in getting it paid gratis.

The program was part of a bigger plan to address the massive decline of what was a great city. Wealthy people were abandoning the city to the suburbs, because the schools were terrible and other city services were in a mess. The high school (one of four) in the poorest part of the city was graduating fewer than 20% of entering ninth graders. Anyone with money was either moving or sending kids to private schools.


The City is now in much better shape than it was 20 years ago, and this is just one of the programs that turned things around. A principal argument for this program was that it will encourage wealthier people to stay in the city and keep their children in the public schools. Keeping people with money in the city and encouraging them to return improves the tax base. That was the economic development argument.

[ESchwab]

Originally Posted by Skid Row Joe

I'll have to learn more about this program, how the university came by this $25 Mil endowment, and the intricate history and details. I'm all about educating ppl that will abide by, and can meet certain qualifications and conditions in getting it paid gratis.

This is just a further reply. The University does not have the endowment, it is this program that is endowed, which I think is administered by the school district. I think they got most of this money from businesses in the Syracuse area.


The program is well within the long tradition of providing public and private money for higher education. Our land grant public universities go back to the Lincoln administration -- well over 150 years. States have always provided large appropriations to run their university systems. This is just another program in that tradition.

[t walgamuth]

Thanks for posting this E. I am a big believer in public education and in higher education. The Rs always are attacking public education in every way possible.

Getting a professional degree has made a huge difference in my life, I believe. It has helped me be able to pursue a career which I enjoyed and was pretty good at. I cannot imagine any other life which would have been better for me.

Education gives you options in life which are just not there without it.

Not saying people cannot have a good satisfying and lucrative life without education, just saying it is a good way to go if you have the abilities given to you to do it.

[barry12345]

Education to me is the application of learning to use the mind better. Certainly there is specific knowledge but to me usually that is secondary as that can be gained by a capable mind.


Decently educated and well rounded in general compose a strong package when it comes to getting along in this world. The greatest waste of my time is to observe all the intellect in many of the young people that I work with. Yet they cannot seem to apply it. Something is defeating it in my opinion.


Paying or borrowing a fortune for an education is a good example of not applying the mind or intellect well. There are many ways to reduce the cost of post secondary education with some mental application by the individual.

[oldsinner111]

education is ok,but with outsourcing computer engineers in china? whats with that? Out sourcing should be punishable by hanging,its treason to hurt the government tax base.