NEW IDEAS
In Reinventing Government (1993 book by David Osborne & Ted Gaebler) we find that Visalia, California made it easier for the local school district to build a new school by arranging a four-parcel land swap and sale.
Orlando, Florida got itself a free city hall by letting a developer build two office towers on the same seven-acre parcel.
Fairfax County, Virginia gave a private developer up to 146 acres of prime public land---valued at $50 million to $70 million---in return for construction of a new county government center.
In 1993 Minnesota's Department of Revenue saved Minnesota taxpayers $60,000 in printing and mailing costs by publishing 700,000 fewer tax booklets. The state sent instead a postcard and address label to the almost one million taxpayers who use professional tax-preparers and therefore didn't need the income tax forms and instruction booklets. Officials estimated an additional savings of 102,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity, 820 trees and 460 thirty-gallon cans worth of landfill space. This was reported in the March, 1993 issue of Governing magazine.
CRIME
In Florida, first-time convicted criminals are paroled into the care of the Salvation Army---25,000 at a time, according to Gaebler and Osborne.
Massachusetts has an interesting program for juvenile offenders. Instead of institutional correction facilities juveniles are housed in group homes. Studies have shown this leads to low recidivism rates and fewer violent crimes, but keeping juveniles in institutions was actually more expensive than housing them in community-based group homes.
The number of prisons doubled in ten years to 100,000 and could double again. Just five years ago, 1986, CA, TX and NY were neck and neck for prison population---it is up 90% in the rest of the country but 250% in California. California has 35,000 more prisoners than Texas and 45,000 more than New York. Forty percent of California's prisoners have no prior record for violence or were not charged for a violent crime. It costs $30,000 a year to keep someone in prison in California.
Barry Krisberg of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency says we should put low-risk prisoners in low-security facilities or even release them. The idea of Mr. Krisberg is to transfer prison dollars to education as the way children are brought up is seen as the single largest cause of delinquency. He says we can't afford to warehouse prisoners, we must treat their addictions and lack of education etc. That goes for those "potential prisoners" still in the community. He wants to see preventive programs started with emphasis put on young kids in the form of Headstart and Nutrition programs.
In West Philadelphia, Sister Falaka Fattah, has significantly reduced gang violence with her House of Umoja Boystown, where over the years she has provided shelter for about 600 gang people. Begun in her home more than 20 years ago, the program includes tutoring and training, operating small businesses and renovating more than 20 row houses. The Philadelphia Psychiatric Center found that only 3 percent of the ex- offenders sent to the House of Umoja were ever arrested again. The re- arrest rates ranged from 70 to 90 percent in the city's more expensive correctional facilities.
In Crime and Human Nature, social scientists James Q Wilson and Richard Herrnstein made a persuasive point with the following assertion: During the 1960s, one neighborhood in San Francisco had the lowest income, the highest unemployment rate, the highest proportion of families with incomes under $4,000 a year, the least educational attainment, the highest tuberculosis rate, and the highest proportion of substandard housing....That neighbor- hood was called Chinatown. Yet in 1965, there were only five persons of Chinese ancestry committed to prison in the entire state of California."
SCHOOL REFORM
In Chicago, every public school is now run by a council of six parents, elected by parents; two community members, elected by community residents; two teachers, elected by the school staff; and the principal. This council acts as the board of directors: it hires the principal (on a four-year performance-based contract), prepares a school improvement plan, and prepares the school budget, in accordance with the improvement plan. Principals are now hired and fired based on merit rather than seniority. After the first year, 81 percent of parents and 62 percent of teachers said their schools were operating 'better' than before the reform. Seventy -eight percent of parents reported improvements in safety and discipline, 61 percent saw improvements in the physical plant, and 83 percent reported progress in educational programs.
In 1968 New Haven Connecticut set up Governance Management Teams consisting of parents, teachers, staff and a principal at two poor- performance schools. In ten years their students were performing at their grade level and 6 years later they not only had the best attendance record but students were scoring third and fourth highest in the district. By 1990 this pilot program was in all 42 New Haven schools and in over 60 schools in eight states.
Arkansas encourages parents to give their preschoolers a headstart at home with a program imported from Israel which they call HIPPYÏÏHome Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters. The simple workbooks have been used by over 2,500 welfare mothers who get once a week visits from a trained helper. In 1989 only 6 percent of the children entering the HIPPY program tested at or above the national average but 74 percent fell into that category by the program's end..
PRIVATIZING EDUCATION
EAI (Education Alternatives Inc.), a commercial company, took over nine schools in the Baltimore area in 1993. The program has not been in place long enough to see the difference in test scores but the parents are more involved, the facilities are better and it is evident that the children are flourishing under the private regime. Hartford Connecticut has recently enlisted the services of EAI to turn around its faltering school system.
JOB TRAINING PROGRAMS
Massachusetts sets up government centers and hires counselors and trainers to help displaced workers find work when a plant announces a closing or major layoff. Massachusetts' Bay State Skills Corporation is one of the most effective job training and placement programs in the country. The state acts as a broker between businesses that need trained workers and companies that provide training. Massachusetts encourages retraining by offering start-up capital to corporations and educational organizations who promise to create new training programs. The state is careful, however to make certain the programs serve genuine market needs. In five years Massachusetts placed 80 percent of more than 37,000 dislocated workers, in jobs that paid more than their former wages. The program is being duplicated in another half dozen states. That helps the economy because for every one percent of unemployment (one million one hundred thousand workers) it costs the federal government $35 billion.
Minneapolis catalyzed the formation of a series of neighborhood networks involving community organizations and businesses, to get local corpor- ations to hire low-income residents. (One city employee, whose salary was paid by the business community, acted as a coordinator and trouble- shooter.)
Arkansas state government used funds to start its Total Quality Management programs to help private employers. MA and PA used seed money to encourage small manufacturers to increase their productivity.
In Connecticut, people used to stand in unemployment lines to register for compensation, then go to a second line for a job-matching service and finally make their way through a third line to sign up for job training. Computers have allowed staff to redefine their role as helper rather than administrator. The lines have given way to sit-down interviews. Before implementing the program, policy makers interviewed 500 front-line employees to get suggestions and support.
NURSING HOME CARE
By financing home health care and community health care, Florida keeps elderly residents out of nursing homes and saves $180 million a year in the bargain.
The Illinois Dept. of Public Aid reimbursed nursing homes for Medicaid patients according to the level of care required. Bedridden patients required more services and so the state thought it logical and fair to pay more for these patients. However the state discovered an unintended consequence which made it change its ways. Nursing home operators tended to keep more patients bedridden for longer periods of time.
Illinois devised a rating system similar to the star system used by travel clubs to rate resorts, hotels and restaurants. According to Gaebler and Osborne, the authors of Reinventing Government, stars were given for patient satisfaction, com- munity and family participation, and the quality of the nursing care.
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