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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Portland’s payoff


Middle school students Erick Rebollo, left, and Alex Fernandez participate in the STEP UP program at Clarendon-Portsmouth School in Portland. After-school mentoring programs provide at-risk children with adult and peer role models along with academic achievement activities. 
 (Photos by Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

PORTLAND – Parris Nabors was the type of kid teachers usually send to the principal.

He talked back in class. He received C’s and D’s. By his own admission, he was in danger of flunking out or dropping out.

Then the eighth-grader started spending two hours in an after-school program four days a week, and his attitude did an about-face. Now he’s thinking about a career in robotics, his grades have risen, and he says “there’s something special about each school.”

At his middle school that something special is Jason Floyd, a recent college graduate who serves as an advocate for Parris and 11 other 13- and 14-year-olds in danger of dropping out. Floyd is with the kids four days a week, calls their parents to deliver progress reports and accompanies them to classes on special topics through an eighth- and ninth-grade program called STEP UP. More than 80 percent of the program’s participants are on track to pass core classes, and in one high school the STEP UP freshmen earned higher grade-point averages than the rest of the class.

“Our motto is ‘Out-love ‘em and outlast ‘em,’ ” said Desiree Carter, program coordinator. “STEP UP isn’t a job; it’s a heart thing. You’re reaching into the life of a child.”

The program is in Portland, but the idea of providing extra support and guidance in middle school exists in Spokane as well, most notably through the After School Activities Program (ASAP) offered to seventh- and eighth-graders in city schools and some county districts. For four years, a federal grant has provided 90 minutes of after-school programming three days a week, said Wendy Bleecker, director of student support services for Spokane Public Schools.

The difference, perhaps, is in the funding. After this year, Spokane will be looking for renewed funding for ASAP. STEP UP, however, is mostly funded by Portland taxpayers in the form of a property tax levy called the Children’s Investment Fund. The fund pays for programs for at-risk children in three areas: early childhood education, after-school and mentoring programs like STEP UP, and child abuse prevention.

The fund, which has four employees, caps administrative fees at 5 percent, so 95 cents of every dollar raised goes directly to help kids. Several million dollars was set aside for a leverage fund to raise private donations from the likes of the Bill and Melinda Gates or Paul G. Allen foundations.

Social service providers and educators in Spokane have for years eyed the Portland investment fund and others like it in Seattle and San Francisco with thoughts of creating a similar program. Though some believe it’s too early to seek broad-based taxpayer funding, most agree that Spokane’s piecemeal funding of programs for children – through private donations, and state and federal grants – is not sustainable for the long run.

“We are underinvesting in our kids more significantly than other communities,” said Sally Pritchard, community impact manager for Spokane County United Way.

Underfunding early learning, after-school and child abuse prevention programs comes back to bite a community in increased criminal justice costs, additional need for special education programs and repeating of grades, numerous studies show. Portland’s investment fund was launched after the Citizens Crime Commission, an affiliate of Portland Business Alliance, began researching effective crime-fighting measures. To the group’s surprise, it found the best way to fight crime was to invest in early childhood programs.

Economic studies by the RAND Corp. and Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank have found that early childhood education has the highest return of any public investment – a benefit of as much as $17 for every dollar a spent. The investment is long-term and the benefit comes in part from avoided costs, such as one year of incarceration at $28,000. Benefits also result from children graduating from high school, getting jobs and paying taxes.

“We’re an individually oriented society, where you’re just expected to make it on your own – sink or swim. The problem is, that doesn’t really account for the cost that we all pay when there’s a lot of sinkers, because it doesn’t come for free,” said Lisa Pellegrino, program director for Portland’s fund. “It makes it sound as though those who sink don’t cost those who float, and I think that’s the problem – they do. They cost us in a collective way.”

Proof is in the numbers

At an elementary school just over the Hawthorne Bridge from downtown Portland, a group of 3- and 4-year-olds is learning behavior that just might prevent them from being expelled from kindergarten in a couple of years. These children are struggling with mental and emotional problems that threaten their educational careers before they even start.

In teacher Mark Andrews’ class, a 4-year-old named Julian jumps up and runs to the front of the class. Andrews doesn’t continue until all the children sit quietly, eyes on him. When Julian became upset in the classroom earlier, he went to another corner to calm down instead of hitting a peer, as he might have before, said Sajani Patel, program manager for this early intervention program. Posters on the wall say things like, “Think about your words” and “Don’t use words that hurt.”

The Kerr Early Intervention Program served 24 at-risk preschoolers last year, in part with $140,000 from the Portland Children’s Investment Fund. About 82 percent of children in the investment fund’s early childhood programs are meeting growth and development goals, reports show.

In order to prove to Portland voters that the programs work, the investment fund’s fiscal management is audited annually and all of its grantees submit quarterly reports. Those reports show that about two-thirds of students in after-school and mentoring programs met or exceeded state benchmarks in math and reading. They showed that the risk of family violence declined for 90 percent of children in nine other programs. And a child abuse hotline received no further referrals from 93 percent of families in one program within 90 days of completing services. A majority of parents assessed increased their parenting skills and interacted more positively with their children.

“My stress levels have been reduced a lot,” said Alissa Fowler, a 23-year-old single mother whose toddler attends a therapeutic preschool at the Portland Children’s Relief Nursery. While 21-month-old towheaded Sage attends class, his mother takes parenting classes or receives a needed break.

“When I have appointments, I’m able to go to my appointments. They help me get clothing and diapers. I’m able to finish school right now because of the resources I have here,” said Fowler, who is working on her bachelor’s degree at Portland State University. “I’ve learned a lot of ways to be a parent, different ways of teaching him, different ways of disciplining, learning from other parents.”

The focus on proof and accountability has helped make the fund a success, organizers said. The fund paid for half of its grantees to go through training on software to produce reports showing their results. The progress of every child in early childhood programs is monitored through an evaluation process developed by Portland State University. Funds are not disbursed up front; instead, grantees submit expense vouchers, which are reviewed for reimbursement. And the fund will not reimburse grantees for more than 10 percent of administrative costs, ensuring once again that the majority of the money raised is used for children’s programming, not overhead.

“That actually mattered to a lot of people,” said Jeff Cogen, a Multnomah County commissioner who was one of the fund’s principal architects. The campaign to pass the property tax levy was a struggle, he said, squeaking by with 53 percent of the vote. It was during the peak of the last recession and competed with two other ballot measures. But the campaign reached people with a message of fiscal responsibility.

“I spoke to dozens of groups during the campaign, and I could feel what people were responding to. We reached them with a targeted message about why this was a wise investment for them, whether they cared about kids or not,” Cogen said.

Having their funding tied to proving that their program works also has helped some grantee agencies become more effective, organizers said.

“The fact that we go through all that rigorous reporting helps with your organization,” said Elena Hein, development associate for the Children’s Relief Nursery in Portland, which receives 12 percent of its money from the fund. “It really helps having something like that to hold us accountable.”

Multifaceted effort

In the 2-year-old classroom at the Children’s Relief Nursery, teacher Gayle Horwitz leads children through art projects, a snack and hand-washing. She recalls one “little whirlwind” who came in angry and was aggressive toward the other children. By the time he left, he could communicate his needs, was gentle, and could solve problems on his own, she said.

“The change from when he came in to when he left was one of the most positive things I’ve ever seen,” Horwitz said.

As children enter and exit the classrooms, they pass plaques posted at doorways displaying the names of the individuals and organizations that have paid to make this free service possible in this low-income neighborhood. The names include the Children’s Investment Fund, Multnomah County Commission on Children, Families and Community, Providence Health Plan, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The children’s investment fund reaches thousands of children, but not all of them. Many of the agencies it serves also receive funds from dozens of other donors. Social service providers seem to agree that no taxpayer-funded initiative would cover all the needs in a given community, but it creates a steady source of funding that shows a community has made children’s needs a priority.

“I wouldn’t say people here love taxes,” Cogen said. But, he said, “if you want to thrive, you’ve gotta make investments.”

And though a property tax levy is considered a steady source of funding because it lasts several years and shows support from a majority of the electorate, it still is subject to the whim of the voters. Renewals of the investment funds in Seattle and San Francisco passed with higher percentages of the vote in subsequent years after organizers had data to prove the programs worked.

Portland’s investment fund will go back before voters as a property tax measure in November, and the renewal campaign is in full swing. City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who championed the fund, spends every Friday in a nondescript office with the campaign team, crafting strategy and raising money. He said fundraising is easier this time around, now that the fund is well-known and programs have proven to be effective.

But the ballot will likely be crowded once again, with measures for the city’s community college, school district and zoo also possible. The campaign team anticipates spending at least $500,000 on a multifaceted advertising campaign and plans to put the message before voters at community fairs, through speakers in service clubs and on bus benches.

The message the organizers will take to the community is this: Paying for children’s programs is not only the right thing to do, but a solid investment as well.

“In a community, we have to care about all of our children, not just the ones that happen to live in our household. That’s what a community is,” Cogen said. “Even if you don’t like kids, it’s just smart, because if you don’t invest in kids, 15 years from now they’re going to wind up robbing you, and if they don’t do that, you’re going to have to pay to incarcerate them or you’re going to pay because they’re going to be high school dropouts who don’t wind up contributing economically to your community.

“There’s no question that in the age of global economic integration, communities that have well-trained work forces and highly educated populations are the ones that prosper. What you’re doing here is giving the kids the tools they need to thrive.”