ECONOMY
ECONOMIC OP-ED
SPEAKERS' CORNER
Throwing Money at a Problem Is No Fix
Why improving our schools has nothing to do with
increasing financial resources.
By Mark Phillips
rguing for greater spending
per pupil as a way to increase
academic performance is like
arguing for higher production costs
on a car. Why would you want to
make a process less efficient by
increasing the cost per unit?
We should be focusing on
productivity per dollar and not
net spending. The people who
benefit from higher spending
are those who receive the
money — and it's not the
students. Using the car anal-
ogy, it would be similar to
the way higher costs for making
the same car translate into more money
in the supply chain and lower margins for
the maker — with no discernable benefit
to the driver.
Children, of course, are not products
— unlike an education. In fact, an educa-
tion is one of the most valuable products
a child can consume to help determine
their future. Those who receive a "good"
education, which usually leads to earning
a college degree, will likely earn 40 per-
cent more than their non-degree-earning
counterparts.
Want to see the overall unemploy-
ment rate recede to 4.5 percent again?
Just look at the current unemployment
rate for people with a college degree; it's
about half the national average. (As of
July 2011, the U.S. unemployment rate
stands at 9.2 percent, according to the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
Education is important for our econ-
omy, as well. Reducing the nation's high
school drop-out rate by half in 2010 is es-
timated to have a medium-term impact
of creating more than 50,000 new jobs,
adding $5.6 billion in increased spend-
ing, $19 billion in more home sales and
$713 million in increased tax revenue.
A recently published study highlighted
a novel metric that education reformers
should use to gauge success: efficiency
of dollars spent. How much academic
achievement does a public school district
get for the money it spends per pupil? (It
may surprise some that this idea comes
from the left-leaning Center for American
Progress.)
The results show that academic
achievement is not directly linked to
dollars spent. Nor is it related to poverty
in the district.
The Michigan public school district
with the highest spend-per-pupil rate,
Bloomfield Hills Public Schools, gener-
ates a State Academic Achievement
Index of 90 and spends $13,300 per child.
Northville Public Schools scores one
A
The Earthworks Urban Farm on Detroit's lower east side.
point higher — and spends 30 percent
less per student. While the best perform-
ing school district in the state, East Grand
Rapids, scores three points higher than
Bloomfield Hills, it has double the per-
cent of low-income students and spends
only $8,700 per child.
In the North Huron School District, 99
percent of the students are low income,
yet the school district is one of the
most efficient in the state, producing an
achievement index number of 69 with
an expenditure of $6,800 per pupil. In
comparison, Alcona Community Schools
spent $8,400 to get the same level of
achievement.
Closer to home, Southfield spends
$9,800 to get a 60. Farmington Hills
spends a touch more and achieves
a score of 80. But Ewen Trout Creek
Consolidated, in the far west of the U.P.,
spends a bit less than Southfield, has a
higher percent of low-income students,
and generates an 84.
Amidst all these numbers is a consis-
tent theme: The importance of looking
at efficiency. And if that sounds like the
same way we run business, you're right.
Education is too important not to
dedicate the same mental discipline and
effort we spend on trying to run a busi-
ness. At the end of the day, a business
produces a thing or a service; and an
education produces a future.
The business world drives creative
minds to be innovative, seek new op-
portunities and to spend a buck wisely.
The academic world should be driven to
do the same. I know some educators who
think this way, and they are highly effec-
tive (and inspiring).
The answer, however, is not neces-
sarily to increase competition.There is
too large of an entrenched bureaucracy
fighting against it. There's nothing an
inefficient manager likes more than an
enemy on which to blame their lack of
success. Parents and taxpayers need to
lead the charge by making their expecta-
tions known. Each community's needs
are different. Drive administrators and
lawmakers to figure out how to most ef-
ficiently use the money in each district to
get the maximum educational outcome.
What makes one district more ef-
ficient, more effective at spending,
than another? How can we improve the
quality of education we're providing for
the same dollar (or, in the near future, for
even fewer dollars)? Perhaps it has to do
with infrastructure or parent expecta-
tions.
Don't let the debate on educational re-
form be dominated by those who would
receive the money or decide where it
should be spent. This reform needs to
be driven by stakeholders and sponsors
(parents and taxpayers) who demand
more for their money.
The Grass Won't Get Much Greener
Detroit's unique opportunity to save itself
naturally through urban farming.
By Jeff Klein
t seems hard to believe the era of large
industrial farms dominating our food
chain could ever be challenged. Yet, as
one dedicated urban farmer demonstrat-
ed — much to the chagrin of Oak Park city
officials — the relationship between man
(or woman) and the soil is unique, and
worth fighting for.
Urban farming isn't always pretty —
or easy — but the concept can do for
the city of Detroit what countless past
initiatives have thus far failed to deliver:
a multi-tiered benefit that is sustainable
and good for the environment while en-
riching the lives of average citizens.
But to truly understand its potential,
citizens need to be informed beyond just
contentious headlines. Detroit's elector-
ate has a rare chance to employ urban
farming as a tool for building a more
sustainable, more secure food system and
helping impart positive environmental,
social and cultural changes to its neigh-
borhoods.
This opportunity hasn't presented
solely due to the city's enormous amount
of vacant land. It has come, in large mea-
sure, thanks to the work of visionaries,
community leaders and relentless, active
and determined citizens.
The presence of urban farming, while
newly en vogue, has been a part of De-
troit's history since Mayor Hazen Pingree's
potato patch farms of the 1890s and,
more recently, Mayor Coleman Young's
Farm-A-Lot program in the 1970s.
Right now, Detroit's government and
citizens alike are perfectly positioned to
vigorously support a new urbanism where
appropriately scaled urban farms are a
critical and permanent piece of the plan
to rebuild a healthy urban core.
Currently, our national food system
encourages monoculture industrial farm-
ing and the industrial transport of food,
which degrades the quality of our food
before it even arrives on our tables and
fosters a disconnect between consumers
and the food they eat. (And the land it
was produced on.)
Whether called urban
farms, community
gardens, market
I
gardens or school and family gardens,
the concept has demonstrated there are
ancillary benefits beyond availing fresh,
healthy food to those Detroit residents.
These practices have also helped con-
nect people to the land and with each
other through shared interests and com-
mon goals around food, the environment
and social welfare. It also transcends racial
and cultural barriers, providing many with
an outlet for self-determination, self-
reliance and empowerment.
The gardens, farms and people
involved in this movement stand in
defiance of the pervasive malnutrition
plaguing many of our city's undernour-
ished communities. Urban farming and
its machinations represent networks for
change, hope, pride and solace.
Last month, the Detroit Agriculture Net-
work celebrated its 14th annual tour of
urban gardens and farms. The network —
made up of more than 17,000 gardeners,
farmers, educators, activists and entre-
preneurs living in Detroit, Hamtramck
and Highland Park— rallied behind a
common cause: making a difference in
our community.
Last year, urban gardeners improved
access to food in Detroit by producing
more than 170 tons of fresh, healthy,
local food. Urban gardeners helped unite
our community of different races and
religions by providing common ground
for people to meet and work in achieving
common goals.
The tour showcased how gardening
can provide our youth with learning
opportunities, a chance to demonstrate
leadership skills and the demand for re-
spect of both their neighborhoods as well
as their own bodies.
Local restaurants prepared dishes
using food from our city gardens, and
farms revealed insight into how a healthy
local economy is created. The tour also
celebrated the work and people who
have helped put Detroit on the map for
its innovative, grass-roots urban farming
initiatives and practices.
Detroit is at a crossroad, and its elected
officials have a rare window to employ
urban farming as a tool for positive
change. Let's hope they
act before the window
closes.
JEFF KLEIN earned his degree
in landscape architecture from
Michigan State University's
School of Planning, Design and
Construction. He is founder
of the Detroit-based
MARK PHILLIPS is an economist and former Wall
concern Classic Land-
Street analyst. He holds an M.S. in applied econom-
scape Ltd. and is a board
ics from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in
16 September 2011 I
RED TilltrAD
economics and philosophy from the London School
member of the Detroit
of Economics.
Agriculture Network.
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