As you know, urban flight to Cleveland’s suburbs has been a problem for decades. Not being a parent, I never understood the impact that school districts have on this issue. Now that many of my friends have children, I am beginning to see the connection between a city’s overall health and its schools. Parents want to send their kids to good schools that will give them a great education. This education is vital to building a future for one’s offspring and making them employable and in today’s competitive economy. Most of the parents that I know choose private schools or home schooling over public education, or relocate to a suburb that has a better school district. This urban flight leaves us with lower housing prices, lowering the tax base, which in turn is the primary source of funding for the school district. The issue is a complex one, but I applaud anyone who tries anything to tackle it. Enter Put Cleveland’s Children First and the transformation plan to make Cleveland’s schools more competitive:
The Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s proposed Academic Transformation Plan is a potentially game-changing step forward for the district and the community—and a lifesaving change for the youngsters of Cleveland.
The Transformation Plan’s goals are ambitious, clearly-defined, and achievable.
• To graduate all students ready to
compete in the 21st century global
economy• To provide high quality schools that
promote student achievement so
that all families have choices• To hold everyone responsible for
student success, using performance
data—teachers and principals, central
office staff, parents, students, and
the communityThe Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s Transformation Plan is a bold plan to transform the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. It is a plan driven by research and best practices in student achievement and in school reform initiatives calling for fundamental, system-wide changes in our schools.
The Plan is based on three foundation-funded assessments of CMDS’s specialty programs, turn-around strategies and facilities. Community forums held at schools throughout the city were useful in gathering input for school-by-school recommendations. The final transformation plan is based not only on that collaborative effort, but also on objective, data-based research undertaken by the District’s Strategic Development Initiative, funded by the Cleveland Foundation and the George Gund Foundation.
That integrated process involved three highly-respected consulting firms that took an objective, fact-based look at where our schools are today and identified “pockets of success” on which we can build for the future of all of our schools.
Input from a 17-member Community Advisory Committee that included parents, educators, community leaders and public officials was extremely helpful to consultants who created the foundation for the plan.
Go to their website and sign the petition to support this action plan. Whether you are a parent or not, are a Clevelander or a suburbanite, you should know that building up our schools is good for Cleveland, which is good for the regional economy, and ultimately good for everyone. Won’t you join me in showing your support?
The final day, we created prototypes for our ideas. Some were thought out, and ready to go. Our team developed a prototype for a year-round facility where materials could be diverted from landfill and turned into resources for the community. The plan includes job creation, promoting the arts and the local economy, and job and art training. When I sat down on day 3, we seemed to know what to do. We built a prototype. It came together. We thought, this is a great idea. It needs to be done. Let’s do it. I have heard of things like this happening. Great minds come together and a deal is struck, or an idea formulated, or a company formed…all over coffee or a lunch. 
The idea for this summit was to get the juices flowing, to help form public policy, to help figure out how to help fuel this economic engine with renewable resources. How can we get the advanced energy center going? How can we attract the people who assemble wind turbines into the city? Where can we find the capital to get these ideas rolling? Cheer leading and appreciation is not to be discounted, but words mean little without the action. I challenged everyone in the room to figure out how to continue this work, to take their ideas to the next step. Since moving here in 2000, there has always been a lot of talk, but a lot less action. If we want to make big changes, we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We need to stop asking the government to bail us out and create our own future. This city is behind us, but the city can’t do it all. Without the true efforts of the business community, then how can we recreate a vibrant economy? It is business that creates jobs, careers, opportunities. This event was about Cleveland’s Green Economy. Don’t get me wrong, the environmental crisis is real. But this summit was not about the feel-good, save the planet. It was about rethinking Cleveland and making a change that can have economic impact as well as an environmental one.
