Making a Difference: Incremental Progress toward Transformational Change

[Applause] good evening everyone or is it afternoon it seems like evening to me my name is esther krofa and this is admiss kanyagya and we just wanted to welcome you to the fourth annual black policy conference we know that many of you have traveled from near and far and we're just so grateful to have all of you here with us today and we're really lucky to have the lieutenant governor of maryland uh anthony brown joining us for our keynote speech and following that we'll have a reception upstairs uh in the malkin penthouse but i just wanted to welcome you and thank you for coming and also wanted to say a special thank you to iop for putting this form event together thank you so much [Applause] and before we get off the stage i'd like to introduce dean mccarthy he's played an integral part in organizing this conference and planning it alongside the both of us and our steering committee for the entire year we could not have done this without him and he will come up here and introduce earl adams thank you those two women are fabulous they have worked long and hard to bring this uh conference uh to be this year uh like their predecessors many of whom are here with us my job as usual is functional i'm going to act as the moderator for this evening's forum event but before that i get the pleasure of welcoming back to the kennedy school very quickly you know at the kennedy at the forum we introduced the introducer introduces the next introducer but it is my pleasure to welcome back to the kennedy school my former advisee uh earl adams and earl is it's fabulous to have you back here he said he feels like he's attending his own wake so many people have heard about him from me since he's been but earl is part of the great kennedy school morehouse college connection he got an mpp masters in public policy degree here meanwhile at the same time somehow he was managing to uh to get a concurrent uh degree at america's leading catholic university boston college in case you were in doubt uh and uh he went off to practice law a big law firm in washington d.c but after a couple of years decided that public service was really what he was all about he's a great role model for our students here and so he went on to sir to become the chief of staff for lieutenant governor brown who we are very honored to have with us today without further ado i promise earl welcome back to the kennedy school he will say a few words of introduction [Applause] good evening uh thank you very much dean mccarthy uh for that kind introduction um i'm very happy to be here this evening as part of the fourth annual ksg black policy conference um first i'd like to congratulate the organizers of this event as i told them that when we were when i was a student here we tried to put on a conference like this but we're not successful i'm very happy to see that they have been successful this is the fourth year now that this conference has been happening i know they'll be happy when it is over they'll i did hear that for the second year students that the paes are done so i guess the only thing you have to look forward to now is finals but congratulations again um it is truly an honor for me to stand here this evening as any kennedy school alum and probably alum from the college will say that to present here at the forum is perhaps the one of the most significant events in their lives although i'm not giving my own piece of scholarly work tonight it is still an honor for me to be here because i have the chance to introduce to you a very distinguished individual who happens to be my boss and my friend lieutenant governor anthony g brown has had a notable public service career to both his community and the state of maryland and across the nation prior to his election as the eighth lieutenant governor of the state of maryland anthony was a member of the maryland house of delegates where he rose very rapidly and was eventually appointed the majority whip he became a respected voice of leadership on veterans affairs health care foster care and adoption higher ed and economic development he has continued this commitment to those areas serving as the lieutenant governor where he's established a full partnership with ksg favorite governor martin o'malley a 1984 graduate of harvard college anthony's commitment to public service inspired him to join the army rotc upon graduating he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the united states army serving a tour of duty in germany as a helicopter pilot with the fourth combat aviation brigade third infantry infantry division after serving five years on active duty he returned to harvard to attend the law school where he graduated in 1994. though his legal career was relatively short it was yet still very memorable working as an associate with what is now wilmer hill in washington dc in addition to his billable work he also distinguished himself through the pro bono work that he did for the needy throughout the washington region in 2005 while serving his second term as the maryland in the maryland state general assembly anthony deployed with the 353rd civil affairs command in support of operation iraqi freedom he served with distinction in baghdad fallujah kirkuk basra and currently still serves our country in the united states army reserves in december 2007 he was promoted to the rank of colonel and he commands currently the 153rd legal support organization i'm going to steal a little bit of his intro this evening and just tell you that notwithstanding his very distinguished career and background his proudest accomplishments are actually his two children rebecca and jonathan working with anthony brown and martin o'malley to make progress for marylanders has been an honor over the past 17 months thus it is my great pleasure and honor to introduce to you this evening the lieutenant governor of maryland the honorable anthony g very much brown you very much earl earl's been working we've been working together for 15 uh months and this is the first time he's had an opportunity to introduce me we had to come all the way up to uh cambridge to make that happen so uh but i really appreciate um earl's work in uh in our office and uh i remember when i was looking for a deputy chief of staff and i called uh one of the local civic activists and he mentioned earl adams i hadn't heard of earl adams and said tell me a little bit about him he said kennedy school graduate i said enough stop he's hired sight unseen i know the i know the work product uh but it's been a real pleasure and thank you earl for that kind introduction and earl is right in the in the 15 months as maryland's lieutenant governor as i've been introduced in so many different uh venues uh the three things that i'm certainly most proud of uh not necessarily that i've accomplished but i've had an opportunity to be a part of are my family my wife pat who i met 17 years ago at harvard law school we were in family law together she took all the notes i had all the jokes also my military service which started here at harvard when i was resident at quincy house and i attended the mit rotc program in my seven years uh here at harvard in total and this is a wonderful university and a source of so many talented and creative leaders in our country i want to thank esther and admirals for your work in bringing together this conference to discuss some very important issues and giving me an opportunity and the incentive to return to cambridge to harvard and this beautiful campus thank you dean mccarthy for your leadership here at the kennedy school and for to producing outstanding graduates and i want to thank each and every one of you here in attendance uh this evening and for those of you who are participating in this year's fourth uh black policy conference i must say by the way a footnote that i was very shocked to hear that it's only the fourth i think they're probably doing the 44th up at the law school but keep at it and you'll be there in no time this evening i'd like to speak to the conference team how making a difference works approaches to real solutions and i'd also like to share with you a little of the maryland experience in certain issue areas that are of importance to the african-american community somewhere embedded in that theme is the belief that there is a need for change in the world the belief that our community and our world cannot simply remain as they are the belief that tomorrow we need to be in a different place than where we are today and within that theme also lies a basic question how do you how do we make a difference how do we bring about change likewise this theme suggests an answer through practical solutions specific programs initiatives campaigns and quantifiable steps big and small all of these i would submit are what we can consider to be incremental progress towards profound lasting or transformational change in our world this weekend during your conference as you look at the work being done around the country and the world in reshaping black communities as you look at the work being done to improve the welfare and quality of life for black people you will no doubt hear from practitioners who are making a difference who are creating positive change often inch by inch mile by mile day by day and less frequently by one giant leap for mankind dr marion wright edelman once said we must not in trying to think about how we can make a big difference ignore the small daily differences that we can make which over time add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee and while your study and work here at the kennedy school is designed in large part to equip you to foresee and even shape the big differences the big goals the transformational change in the world you should be equally ready willing and able to design and promote and engage in the particularized requirements associated with incremental progress it's timely that we come together this weekend under the theme of how making a difference works during the month in which we remember the 40th anniversary of the assassination of dr king who is an american visionary who inspired the country towards transformational change and who during and at the time of his death turned hard in the direction of calling for practical solutions to address the issues of poverty not only in the black community but in all communities throughout the nation 40 years later the challenges of our times continue to call out for transformational change our times require us to articulate and pursue big goals big goals such as securing the right to health care for all big ideas such as establishing a system of public education in which all children can fulfill their potential and attain high levels of achievement big goals like ensuring broad access to affordable neighborhoods that are connected to opportunity and accessing good jobs wealth and economic prosperity and if these goals sound familiar to you it's because you've read the covenant with black america and these are all laudable lofty goals transformative in nature all achievable yet require a bit of oxymoronic ambition practical idealism ideology built around consensus and a patient urgency the enthusiasm to make big gains through small steps to solve big problems with manageable seemingly small solutions to make incremental progress the concept of incrementalism has been misinterpreted by some to mean that we are happy with the status quo or that we cannot change the world because the world has already changed us i don't believe that i believe that our constant incremental progress incremental meaningful action leaves no issue or no problem too big to tackle and i think that's what this conference is all about and that's where i'd like to begin as i share with you briefly the maryland experience i see from your schedule tomorrow that you're going to discuss a number of problems or challenges facing communities within the african diaspora wealth building health outcomes educational reform these challenges are not unique to black communities nor are they white problems they're american challenges and for that matter there are challenges that people around the world face from iraq to south africa to germany china and jamaica yet they are challenges that are manifested differently in different communities they're problems that do offer a unique challenge within the african american community their problems that represent societies continue and struggle toward equality opportunity and inclusion take health care black infants are two and a half times more likely to die before their first birthday than white infants african-americans make up more than half of the new hiv aids infection every year but we're only 13 percent of the population black americans are one and a half times more likely not to have a regular doctor than white americans consider the spatial disconnect between communities and opportunity three out of four welfare recipients live in inner cities or rural communities yet two out of three jobs created in america today are in the suburbs one out of four black families is not only oh does not own a car yet only 12 percent of the federal transportation budget is allocated to public transportation even during our current housing crisis more americans own homes today than we did 15 years ago yet fewer than half of all black americans own a home compared to three out of four white americans on education white students outscore black students by significant margins in reading nearly half of all black adults score on the bottom levels of adult literacy compared to 14 percent of white adults young black adults are twice as likely not to have a high school diploma or ged and while one out of three black students go on to college a figure that has gone up and we have much to be proud of with each generation of african-americans black men are still vastly underrepresented on college campuses across the country governor o'malley and i and governor o'malley is no stranger of the kennedy school of government we've set big goals for maryland to address the challenges that we face we set broad goals that reflect reflect the values of all marylanders not just the black community within our state goals to strengthen and grow our middle class and support small family and minority owned businesses goals to improve public safety public education and public health in every community goals to expand opportunity to more marylanders opportunities to learn opportunities to earn opportunities to enjoy the health of one another and the health of our environment in my experience i've observed that the big issues facing the african-american community are manageable through linkages or association with broader issues facing the larger community broader goals articulated for all communities within this jurisdiction of governance whether it's a state whether it's a county whether it's a city and regardless of race ethnicity or religion in maryland and i know there are a few of you that lived in maryland and after i say what i'm about to say i think a lot of you're going to want to come to maryland particularly when you move to washington dc to uh to work in government or in the nonprofit sector but we're proud of our successes we're one of if not the wealthiest state in the nation our workforce is one of the best educated in america our public school system is ranked third best in the nation and still improving we have the most diverse business community in america 16 percent of our firms in maryland are majority owned by african-americans and over half of the 400 000 small businesses in maryland are owned by women or people of color but there are still dichotomies in our state that cry out for solutions dichotomies where the divide falls disproportionately along racial lines despite being one of the best educated states in america six hundred thousand marylanders lack a high school diploma despite our strong schools one out of five marylanders in the workforce are still functionally illiterate and despite the world-renowned hospitals and medical programs in our state eight hundred thousand marylanders live each and every day without health insurance so we search for practical solutions based on our shared values to address these disparities with the understanding that the problems we face are not unique to any one community any one subset of our population or any one interest on health care i mentioned eight hundred thousand marylanders who live every day without health insurance far too many in baltimore city prince george's county the eastern shore and other rural communities where the vast majority of african americans live and within this context of uninsured and underinsured there are disparities in health outcomes so we seek universal health coverage as do many states we do it without the benefit of cooperation or help from the federal government and while that is our end goal we see the incremental progress that is possible and present along the way progress through practical solutions like expanding s-chip in maryland we're one of only four states that provides coverage for children up to three hundred percent of the federal probability level and we spend thanks to many of your states 2.5 times what the federal government allocates us because we draw from funds not used by other states we've established school-based health centers in those schools that experience a high percentage of students on free and reduced lunch and we provide primary adult care to low-income adults for preventive type office visits recognizing that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure last year we passed the health care reform initiative that will cover 100 000 uninsured marylanders by expanding medicaid services and for the first time in maryland through small business tax incentives and we take into consideration what i was saying before that we've got 16 percent of our small firms are african-american owned 400 000 of the small businesses 50 percent owned by women and african-americans when you make those investments in small businesses through tax incentives to expand health care that's going to make a big difference in communities of color there are incremental steps yet significant towards universal coverage and specifically address disparities in health outcomes we've taken several approaches we've dispatched experts from our department of health to work with health professionals and students and other stakeholders about the advantages of cultural competency and a diversified workforce in the health and allied health professions we've allocated a significant portion of maryland's cigarette restitution fund to eliminate targeted disparities in minority communities i've got a lot of figures here i won't read them to you suffice it to say that in all of the major chronic illness categories whether it's cancer heart disease stroke diabetes hiv aids we have seen in the last seven years double-digit percentage drops in the deaths in the african-american community attributable to those diseases and we have seen a double-digit digit narrowing double-digit percentage narrowing of the disparity between black communities and white communities in those chronic areas all but cancer which is only five percent we know that our strongest weapon in this battle is greater health coverage still we know that our progress is possible because of the practical initiatives programs and campaigns that enable us to make incremental progress on a daily basis connecting communities last week eugene robinson a washington post columnist wrote a piece on the 40th anniversary of dr king's death and he wrote 40 years after reverend martin luther king jr was killed we sometimes talk about race in america as if nothing has changed the truth is that everything has changed mostly for the better and then if we're going to see king's dream fulfilled first we have to acknowledge that this is not an america he would have recognized since dr king's violent murder in memphis 40 years ago the black community has seen its poverty rate cut nearly in half black americans wield 800 billion dollars of consumer spending power some would argue we spend too much but the but the dollar's amount is pretty high which would amount to making black america the 15th or 16th wealthiest nation in the world if we were a separate nation 40 years ago two out of 100 african-americans earned today's equivalent of a hundred thousand dollars a year today that number is one in ten we have made progress but there are still disconnects between communities of color and the types of opportunities that sprout wealth corporate personal community wealth in maryland is no different prince george's county where i live wealthiest majority black county in america we also have the second highest unemployment rate in maryland baltimore city sits at the focal point of our technology triangle in maryland but certain neighborhoods are still marred by boarded windows abandoned properties and street corner commerce but there are steps that we as policy makers can take to connect communities with opportunities steps that we are taking in maryland we embrace inclusionary zoning practices based on the model in montgomery county maryland that provide lower income families with the benefit of affordable housing and opportunity rich neighborhoods we support public and mass transit we're investing 100 million dollars this year on a light rail connection between workers and communities in prince george's county and jobs in montgomery county we're going to invest 1.4 billion dollars between now and 2015 to connect baltimore with job opportunities north and south of baltimore opportunities coming to maryland as a result of base realignment and closure and we've made a staunch commitment to encourage homeownership which today includes a commitment to stand with people against foreclosure and maryland reese's enacted what the washington post characterizes the most sweeping measures to protect homeowners from foreclosure while there's not specific data we've seen anecdotal evidence that connecting people and communities with opportunities is a small step toward gaining wealth stability and promise for a brighter tomorrow people are moving back to baltimore after two or three generations of population decline minority and women owned businesses are grown every day and new wealth is being shared in black and in white and in all communities as rail bus and other transit options create new urban walkable centers and otherwise suburban settings we're making strides towards lasting permanent positive change education more than connecting communities to opportunities we also need to bring we see the need to bring opportunities to these communities and that starts with public investments in the public institutions within those communities the schools the libraries and the other educational institutions that develop human potential the institutions that set at their goals the elimination of performance gaps the improvement of graduation rates and the achievement of greater all-around success in maryland we understand that success does not come cheap and it doesn't come simply from our desire to make change since 2002 in a state budget of about 13 billion dollars we're spending 1.9 billion dollars more today than we did in 2002 for k-12 education we put quality and accountability standards in place well before and far more successfully than the federal government no child left behind we instituted instituted all-day kindergarten and we boast one of the top 10 pre-k programs in the country for low-income families we embrace partnerships with teach for america you're going to hear from them tomorrow the bell foundation started by earl phelan my classmate at harvard law school with the college board and local businesses to enhance educational opportunities for all students and we've seen the fruits of our investment since that major investment that i mentioned in 2002 we've seen reading and math scores go up in every jurisdiction in maryland in every grade level maryland needs that leads the country in ap participation with a second in ap performance graduation rates are increasing there are no less than three maryland high schools that are among the top 100 public high schools in the country we've also made incredible strides in narrowing the performance gap between black and white students in the past seven years third grade math scores for african americans improved 40 percent and we've cut by a third the performance gap eighth grade reading scores up 30 percent cut the performance gap by 15 more black students are taking the sat and where we often see an increase in sat participation we often see a decline in scores not in maryland increase in participation increasing scores and the dropout rate is dropping across the state nowhere faster than in the black community in the last seven years we've reduced by 30 percent the dropout rate in the number of african-american students that drop out before graduation our work isn't done these gaps aren't closing nearly fast enough but we should be and we are proud of the incremental progress that we're making toward profound lasting transformational change in maryland change that is made possible i believe only within the context of bigger goals that are shared by all marylanders let me conclude my remarks by referencing michael hayes a professor at colgate university who has examined the role of incremental progress in our world he spent a great deal of time looking at both successful and failed efforts to develop or implement far-reaching policy and he arrived at a simple conclusion progress requires negotiation and compromise but it also requires leaders and policy makers who possess the ability to think big and big change is most likely to occur says professor hayes through a series of smaller steps practical day-to-day solutions and i think that's what this conference is about so particularly to the students it falls upon you as tomorrow's policy leaders activists and public servants whether you're in the private sector or the public sector to step onto the roads of incremental change don't be afraid of it embrace it you can make your distinct and unique contributions in your area of in interest and expertise and you've got to bring real ideas and real vision to the table that's your task you have the benefit of attending an outstanding school of government surrounded by the best and the brightest and you're undoubtedly eager to make a difference in your community the only advice that i'll give you because this is not a commencement speech is don't blow it thank you very much for allowing me to spend some time with you thank you right here with you that's great [Applause] thank you very much governor brown as is our custom you're very familiar with it having been on the student advisory committee in the institute of politics when you're an undergraduate here as is our custom in the john f kennedy junior forum we will now take some questions uh there are microphones on the floor on either side and then microphones in the middle loges up above when you approach to ask a question please do identify yourself and please also identify any affiliation you might have with the university it is a time for questions not for statements as you know and so if there are questioners or things that you want to know that were not touched upon by lieutenant governor brown this is your opportunity thank you we'll begin over here and then to the lady yes yes sir my name is uh josh drummond i'm a senior political science history major at benedict college in columbia south carolina but i will be attending the divinity school here at harvard in the fall and my question is very brief first i want to thank you lieutenant governor brown for coming to address the forum but given the incredible amount of success that you have been able to experience in maryland and your incredible attention to detail with the issues relevant to the residents of maryland what seems to be the problems in those inner cities such as baltimore that you can't really put your hands around and you know in regards to transferring opportunities to those people in those low-income communities who really need it the most sure thank you for the question uh i did have a p piece in the in the remarks which i deleted out because i travel as maryland's uh promoter uh but uh there was a section in there uh that uh you know while we are you know excited about the resources available in maryland due to the incomes and wealth we are the fourth most violent state in the country the level of violence particularly in baltimore city and prince george's county black on black violence we have not truly been able to get our hands around i was proud and pleased to see last week in the baltimore sun it did report that for the first quarter this year we're at a 23-year record low but low is not good enough so one of the one of the i think biggest impediments to attracting businesses to our local governments prince george county and baltimore city uh prince george's county i mentioned is the uh wealthiest african-american majority afro-american county in the country and just as you know what you know you use different in india of sort of like you kind of got there you've arrived we don't have a nordstrom's why doesn't nordstrom's uh come to prince george's county uh there's a perception of violence and crime uh that uh that unfortunately uh plagues some of these uh areas so and and and unfortunately the numbers um um support some of the conclusions um but we're working hard on that uh so public safety is our biggest challenge i think uh in the afternoon american community uh today in maryland it's not a popular thing to say when you're in maryland yes ma'am i'm anne manning i'm a mid-career here at the kennedy school and as i've studied poverty over the year in more depth than i had in the past i see how many of our policy proposals they're so fragmented among education health care transportation and it sounds like you're beginning to see a pattern of how to create a comprehensive plan could you talk a little bit about the political will necessary and how you create that across the state to actually address these in a more comprehensive way sure and let me start by picking up on that point about sort of organizing policy uh and strategy i mentioned these broad goals that we have in maryland and we've also developed strategies in within maryland which are sort of like interdisciplinary strategies one we call workforce creation which isn't just the economic developers and the mbe folks but it includes our secretary of health it includes our secretary of department of public safety and corrections because there's a real workforce potential workforce there uh that if we if we retrain uh provide treatment and rehabilitation they're gonna come into the workforce and they're gonna be productive um workforce creation is one of the strategies sustainability how do you manage growth and development um environmental preservation and conservation uh and then the other security integration which is everything from homeland security juvenile services and the like uh so we have developed these strategies in these interpl disciplinary strategies the the public will that we and the good will that we enjoy in maryland i believe is the result of governor o'malley's personal commitment to the principles of good government and as some of you may know a few years ago when he was mayor of baltimore and he instituted a city stat program of accountability in government which received an award from the kennedy school and we've implemented that at the state level we are a very transparent government often people measure government effectiveness by what you put into the budget but really you ought to be looking at the outcomes that you get so governor o'malley is not reluctant to show the good the bad and the ugly and when you do that there's a greater willingness by people members of the general assembly who we have to rely on to partner up in implementing policy stakeholder groups are have proven to be more willing to collaborate with us even when some of the things that we propose are seemingly inconsistent with their immediate interests we just raised about 1.2 billion worth of taxes uh in november it's not an easy thing to do uh our poll numbers did go down we expected that and that's fine uh but our our stakeholders and i'm not just talking about the traditional sort of you know we're democrats the you know labor and the teachers union but but stakeholders across the board even the chambers of commerce many of them stuck with us realizing that hey look we understand the importance of what you're doing we see what you're doing you're including us in the conversation uh so we were able to hold on to a lot of people and uh once we weather this economic downturn we might have a little bit more to show for it but we're proud of the direction that we're moving okay let's go with this lady here thank you i am avail gourdley oregon state senator and also associate professor department of black studies at portland state university i heard you say that you are experiencing success reducing the drop out rate can you talk about strategies that you are employing to uh get to that success sure uh there are several things we're doing i'll just focus on one of them and that's uh cte or career technology education you know let me tell you uh you know we talk a lot about going to college and you know we've been talking about that for decades and it's a great thing to do but you know what a lot of our young people they're not they're not going to college they're not going to college they may pursue some post-secondary school education or training but on the horizon for them is not an is neither an associate's degree a bachelor's degree a master's degree and and and certainly not a phd uh but what they are interested in and excited about and what gets gets these young people coming to school every day is this idea that i can develop a skill i can be an hvac operator i may not be the phd that maps the human genome but i can actually do something productive in that biotech firm to earn a decent salary and feel good about what i'm doing so we attribute a lot of our successes uh in the investments that we're making in career technology education thank you this gentleman who's next chris we won't forget about you up there listen like everyone else i'd like to thank you for coming out um my name is kenneth perkins and i'm a student in the divinity school here and i noticed in the handout that they gave us that you had a quote about um saying that the democratic party is failing african americans and i here and i'm guessing that you mean in maryland um what are some of the areas that you think that the democratic party is failing african-americans either within the state or um within against the nation as a whole perhaps and what do you think are some of the ways that you can uh work toward you know ameliorating some of those issues sure i think that quote i didn't know that quote was in there i think that quote actually goes back to 2002 from maryland i believe and maryland 28 of the of the residents of maryland are african-american we've got a growing latino population growing asian population and in 2002 we didn't have a single candidate of color on the statewide ticket of the you know the democratic candidates i thought i thought the democratic party was failing us while we've been represented well in the state legislature we were not particularly represented well throughout all of government that's changed under governor o'malley and quite frankly it began to improve under republican governor ehrlich so in 2002 i really thought the democratic party was failing and the context of that quote was the the question was did kathleen kennedy townsend who was running as the democratic nominee for governor did she fail the african-american community by not picking an african-american runnermate for lieutenant governor um and it was easy to sort of finger her because she had a choice in who she could pick um and and and the con that was the context and my response was no it's not kathleen kennedy towns and it's the democratic party that has since changed chris hi sir chris carter i'm a native of baltimore and a graduate of kennedy school currently a consultant at booz allen hamilton and i'm actually working on a pro bono project actually one of my colleagues christian is is here say hi christian she's right there and the the project is with a client in baltimore and it's a drug rehabilitation and life counseling center in baltimore and i'm not going to give the name out you probably know which one i'm talking about but what we're essentially trying to do is determine if they should launch a social enterprise and some type of or some type of business that could help them generate funds for the organization because they're losing funds so my question to you is can you think of an example where the public private sector has successfully formed and united with the public sector and particularly of an organization like this client and and where it's been successful and why i think our greatest success and it may not be similar to to uh the organization you're talking about but i think our greatest success and it may also go to the answer to the question of of uh reducing that dropout rate is in our business community in maryland stepping up uh and providing mentoring programs in our schools um and uh internship opportunities uh so i i think that's probably the the most successful public private uh partnership that that just immediately comes to mind i'm sure that you know with a little more thought uh and the bright lights not on um i might be able to come up with a few but what's that they're even brighter for me trust me yes good evening thank you for coming lieutenant governor brown i'm michelle wilson i'm with the environmental protection agency in washington with the intergovernmental relations program and you were talking a lot about health issues one of the major health issues among black people and among people of color in general is environmental justice one of the issues that we have i'm from baltimore also is that everybody's father grandfather uncle somebody worked at bethlehem steel sparrows point and people who live and work around these kinds of chemical toxins are exposed at a very high rate and and many of them are us so what are um the programs of maryland and what are your own ideas about environmental justice sure uh the one area in maryland where we're probably um very aggressive and i think we're achieving uh considerable success uh is in the area of lead paint uh poisoning um and we're doing it on a variety of levels in terms of investments in in abatement um exposing uh where uh necessary manufacturers and and landlords to civil litigation health programs uh targeting uh the uh the pop the population children primarily who are are being exposed and and the results have been very positive we also in our office of the attorney general he has stood up a i don't know if he's calling an environmental justice unit but a unit that looks at issues dealing with industrial uh hazards environmental hazards so the one area that i i know that we're doing a pretty good job is in lead point lead paint poisoning and um and i'm not familiar with uh with other areas where we may be making progress or where we may be falling short but uh you're in the epa you're in washington and i'm sure you'll let us know please do please do help us prioritize yes yes please hi my name is justin steele i'm a first year harvard business school and pursuing a joint mpa degree here next year at the kennedy school one analogy that i've been sort of told for when you come into public office is like coming into a switchboard room you have all of these levers in this switchboard room to sort of enact economic change and social change and so you spend your first sort of year looking at these levers and thinking about pulling them and building up the courage and you finally go to pull some of these levers and they're not connected to anything and i'm just curious in your position which levers have you found are actually connected to something and you have leverage to make change and which of those levers might you have found in your position are not actually connected to something that's very frustrating you're not able to to make change [Music] wow let me let me kind of build on that a little bit and it's it's more than just walking into the room with all of these levers and trying to figure out which ones to pull and which ones are connected and which ones aren't connected but a big part of that incremental progress uh and and and meaningful steps that that one uh can and should consider taking for long-lasting change uh is um getting the right people in the room with you to help you figure out which one of those levers are are are you know connected to something and one of the things that you often see is you see african-americans on the human relations commission you see us on the criminal justice commission these are all important uh commissions and task force and boards but you don't see enough of us on the transportation authority on the technology board on the economic development commission because while you can set these lofty goals and for example in maryland we've set a goal of 25 mb participation and in a state like maryland you think we'd be able to achieve it but we don't and that's because we don't have uh people uh in the room uh at all different levels of the operation with similar interests uh not it's not diverse enough but whether it's by race or talent or experience or or ethnicity so one of the first steps uh is to get the people the right people in the room to start pulling those uh levers um you know i think maybe the way that that we approach it is that um there's a lot of activity in state government that is duplicative that's redundant and that you know we just been doing it over and over and over again and why is it 20 years later in you know and i'm sure that your states are similar why is it that we still have a nursing shortage we we put money at it we have scholarships for it uh yet we still have a nursing shortage uh one of the things that we've done with the with with creating this strategy and the one that i was talking about workforce creation is we're trying to align our educational institutions with our workforce training agency we recently this year and it was a big political battle and we barely had the political will to make it happen we took adult education out of the maryland state department of education because they're good at educating children they weren't so good at education educating adults pulling a lot of levers there and not really getting the results there and we took it and we put it in in the department of labor and with their workforce development and workforce training so that may be one area where we see we constantly are going back and back putting in money putting in time not really getting the results so often it's a matter of just reconfiguring and so i think i think that might be close to what you're getting at in your question yes ma'am yes i my name is clarissa quintanilla i'll be a student at the kennedy school here in september and aside from the tax taxes to small the tax breaks to small businesses you mentioned before what other strategies are you utilizing to encourage small business development in what you've termed the inner city well one of the things that we're doing and and that's a big one i'll tell you because when you uh so i won't get away just that so quickly from our health care uh reform initiative because when you talk to small businesses they will tell you that you know their costs are going up and probably their number one cost is health care uh so when you hear presidential candidates talk about uh health universal health coverage and reducing the the cost of of healthcare delivery as an economic issue you talk to a small business owner and that is absolutely true so that does go a long way in in what we have done successfully it started under then mayor o'malley and now governor o'malley is we do have an aggressive minority and women business enterprise procurement program and when governor o'malley became mayor of baltimore about 15 percent of the procurements went to mbes when he le on the day he left 36 percent uh went to uh um me firms and we're looking to do the same thing giving opportunities to small businesses disadvantaged businesses to help them build capacity through government contracting with the goal to you know be able to move on and graduate from the program uh and compete um in in a in a larger um environment so that's one of the things the other things that we're doing um we have tried to you know streamline uh take a close look at through our department of labor alliance and regulation at all of the the regulations that impact small businesses uh and um and try to eliminate those where where necessary um try to use technology and government so that where businesses are interacting with government uh they can do it a little more efficiently and effectively so those are some of the things that that we're doing thank you i'll take the privilege of introducing the next question or this is flash wiley for those of you who may not know him he is a graduate of both the kennedy school and the harvard law school in the air force academy as well i won't leave them out and has been a great friend of the kennedy school and really the godfather of this uh black policy conference uh in its fourth year and we expect him to be here when we get to our 44th mr wiley you know after an introduction like that it puts a lot of pressure on you to ask an intelligent question but the real pressure uh put on me was by this young lady up here who asked a question previously because i'm a member of the business community and i'm interested in how you view not just as the lieutenant governor of of maryland but also as a a person who is a career public servant who is a climb the ladder and will continue to climb the ladder i'm very sure to even greater heights how you view the business community particularly the minority business community as an ally in helping you achieve your public policy initiatives of inner city development sure first of all i want to publicly thank flash who i reminded him earlier this evening and he didn't recall which may be an indication that it was a small amount but he gave a contribution to my first political campaign about 10 years ago when i ran for the maryland house of delegates i remember sitting at my kitchen table manually inputting every harvard graduate in the black alumni directory and you know i got about a two percent response rate and uh that's right and flash was one of them and so thank you very much um but certainly uh uh partners and uh we the governor and i meet regularly with uh various associations the minority contractors association individual businessmen and women minority bins men and women because we look to them to partner up with us in everything from improving our employment rate or reducing our unemployment rate to delivering and i know there's going to be i think a discussion sometime this weekend about the public value that private firms add the whether it's providing services in in in our correctional institutions um and looking to quite frankly often minority firms um just kind of do it better and and uh and have a better understanding um of of the issues uh closer to the uh to the pavement [Music] so those are some of the things that we're doing the lieutenant governor has been very generous we're going to make this the last question yes lieutenant governor the past democratic administration in your state supported priority funding areas as a part of a comprehensive smart growth strategy my name's daniel hutch i work on smart growth issues for epa and i've had the benefit of being advised by michelle wilson as well but you had the chesapeake bay and this unbridled growth in areas that really were not designated for the kind of public facility services and so the idea is to stop this kind of cross-substitution to areas uh in uh undeveloped areas and channel growth to existing communities what is your idea of continuing this program or uh what is your variant of smart growth sure uh smart growth uh just like al gore said that he invented the internet maryland under governor glenn denning and invented smart growth we are proud of smart growth and fully committed to it much of what i uh said in my remarks uh when i talked about connecting communities opportunities the only thing i didn't do was label it smart growth the governor and i recognize that in the last 30 years in maryland while our population has grown about 30 percent we've we've consumed 100 percent uh more in in land and at that rate um you know we're we're uh that's our biggest environmental challenge smart growth growth i think is an excellent example that illustrates the point i made earlier that the interest in the african-american community to be successful should be linked to the broader interests of the larger community smart growth was brought to us primarily by environmentalists conservationists those who had business interests in developing mass transit and while all of those interests are promoted through smart growth land conservation agricultural preservation as we as we channel development and redevelopment in those existing what we call priority funding areas that's great for the african-american community as we connect our communities to job opportunities so this year governor o'malley and i introduced we promoted and and we enacted with the general assembly transitory development program where we're giving our state agencies primarily the department of transportation more tools to dispose of property in and around mass transit centers for development and redevelopment we've created what i think is kind of a significant legislation in the area of base realignment and closure where maryland is the largest brac mission growth state in the country we created these brac zones where we provide additional state funding to local government when they make commitments to invest and reinvest in public infrastructure within a half mile of mass transit centers light rail metro rail bus depots and airports so we've embraced what governor glenn denning initiated about 10 years ago or so and we're trying to take it to the next level thank you very much thank you my pleasure yes indeed [Applause] again thank you very much thank you for being with us here today thank you for your service to our country in the army and uh thank you for what you're doing for the great state of maryland my wife is from bethesda i'm going to talk to her about our moving back down there it sounds so good so this is this is a wonderful thing i'd also like to before uh inviting you all to uh the the reception upstairs recognize our friend gary flowers an alumnus of the institute of politics who was involved in starting this conference uh those only four years ago but nonetheless i think you were talking about it for a long time before that and he runs the black leadership foundation in washington d.c now on behalf of esther and atmos i would like to ask you to join us all uh for a reception in the uh kennedy school penthouse which if you know how to get there you're on your own if you don't follow the people who do and there's an elevator around the corner here that just press p and it'll take you up to the penthouse again a round of applause for the lieutenant governor has done a fabulous [Applause] job you

Channel: Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics

Views: 289

Rating: 4.4285712 out of 5

Keywords: Business & Economics, Campaigns and Elections, Education, State & Local

Id: VPrCY8OhaZI

Length: 56min 41sec (3401 seconds)

Published: Thu May 20 2021