We dig into the plan to address the crisis with young people in Connecticut who have disconnected from school or work. Joe DeLong, Executive Director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), joins Mike Hydeck with an update on the 119k Commission’s efforts.
Mike Hydeck: Could a different kind of bonding help the crisis facing our young people in our state? More than 100,000 are opting out of school or work and just disconnecting. This was outlined in the 119k report released by the Dalio Foundation. Now there is a new 10 year plan in the works to try to address the crisis. Now to talk more about it, is the CEO of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, Joe DeLong. Good to see you, Joe.
Joe DeLong: Mike, thanks for having me.
Mike Hydeck: This is something we've talked about, you and I have talked about, the state's talked about for a long time. Remind people how addressing this is such a complex problem, and what are the areas that need to be tackled first?
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
Joe DeLong: Well, it's a complex problem because they're unique issues. You know, for every individual young person that finds themselves in this category, some just need one level of support. Some need multiple levels of support. All of their stories are different. They're all unique. But at the same time, it's a real Connecticut problem because it's costing us about $750 million a year in lost tax revenue and additional expenses, a loss of about $5.5 billion a year in GDP growth. So it's a very personal issue for these young people, but it's also a very economic issue for the state.
Mike Hydeck: So when they choose, young kids, whether it's a problem at home or they're having emotional issues or maybe a substance abuse issue, they choose, I'm not going to school. I just can't take it. I don't even want to go attend a job. One of the solutions in the 10 year plan that you guys talked about recently is adding somewhere in the neighborhood, I think, $445 million in education. Is that a yearly number, or is that over the 10 year period?
Joe DeLong: Well, that's, that's a yearly number for the 22, there's 22 aligned actions in this report. That's a yearly number that covers 21 of those 22 aligned actions. The other aligned action is education funding itself, but that's really a number to create the appropriate amount of supports that young people need, and also the supports not just to get them in school and to get them through the obstacle course that is their life, but also get them on the path to employment and the supports needed to actually get them into the workforce so they start generating that revenue back in return.
Face the Facts
Face the Facts with NBC Connecticut goes beyond the headlines, asking newsmakers the tough questions, giving an in-depth analysis of the big stories.
Mike Hydeck: So are we talking tutoring? Counseling? What are some of the services you hope you that money will get?
Joe DeLong: One of the things we're talking about is building out a network that closes the gaps. So what happens a lot of times, we have young people who, their services that are doing great things, but that network is not all encompassing across the state. So you have young people who consistently may be getting one service, but when they change towns, or they age out, they're forgotten, and they fall through the cracks, and then all that investment that was made was for naught because they're lost. So a lot of it is just about building out and closing the gaps in that network so we can track a young person really cradle to career.
Mike Hydeck: So that would talk about like a computer net, so to speak, like if you do move from Windsor to Bridgeport, you're not going to be lost on your after school program, your job training program, your whatever.
Joe DeLong: Absolutely. Your social support programs outside of school, well think of it as like a hub and spoke on a car and a young person is the hub. We make sure that all of those spokes, all those needs are met, and as that wheel moves and goes from one town to another, one system to another, one school to another, that those support systems travel with it, and they're not lost.
Mike Hydeck: So that would have to also probably connect several programs, because, say, you're 18, you age out of a certain program, now you're looking for a job and you need housing. So those are two things. Sure, you had help with your homework all the way along, but now you're into the next step. Does it cover something like that?
Joe DeLong: Absolutely. It has to cover that. And by the way, that's the most efficient way you can do it with taxpayer dollars as well. Because we spend a whole lot of taxpayer money on things that look like good programs, but we're not getting a lot of good results. Because when that young person doesn't move in a coordinated way through the system, all of the work and the money and the efforts that were put into them are all lost.
Mike Hydeck: Well, and everybody's path is different, so it's kind of hard. You can't make everybody walk down the same path to get to a job or post job. All right. So the goal also is to spend $408 million on social services. Which of those services do you think are probably the most dire that should be tackled first?
Joe DeLong: Well, again, all that, all that number that you just, it's all one on one encompassing number for 21 of those aligned actions. So that covers all of it. So that $400 million investment, we know that puts about $750 million right back into the economy, and in a very positive way. A lot of that also is increasing the accountability of how we spend money within our school systems. Right now, we do a rush to graduation, but when you graduate somebody that can't read, you haven't really done any good.
Mike Hydeck: We saw that case in Hartford recently.
Joe DeLong: There's so many. So this really puts a greater weighting, too, on making sure that we have a post K through 12 plan for young people. So we're not just getting them to graduation and saying, Good luck, but we're actually getting them to graduation with a plan of, are you going to higher ed? Are you going to trade school? Are you entering in the workforce? So there's a weighting and a measuring of that to make sure that they're set up for success beyond high school.
Mike Hydeck: So how does all this get funded? That's the big question. I mean, it's a lot of money over a long period of time, but it's obviously necessary.
Joe DeLong: Yeah, you don't have to raise taxes to do it. I think that's the most important thing you understand, is that that if you create success, you build the revenue to continue to pay for the programs. You know, there is a real return on putting a young person successfully into the workforce. So what a lot of the proposals are, are things like tax increment financing toward workforce, like social impact bonding to where the success actually pays for the funding that went in and makes those those types of bonding payments.
Mike Hydeck: How's it going to be quantifiable? You have to prove it. If you want to put all this together, it's got to be on a balance sheet that says, 'Yes, this is working, here are the numbers to prove it.'
Joe DeLong: Absolutely. That's all part of all of the accountability requirements that are built in here. And we also have a proposed kind of a higher level office that oversees all of it that makes sure that it's that we're tracking that success and we're getting that return, so we can stop and pivot if we have to.
Mike Hydeck: Gotta leave it there. Joe DeLong, Connecticut Conference, Municipalities, appreciate you.
