 So Basically where this started was an internship with the city of San Antonio this summer in human services Social work grad students all do internships somewhere and a piece of what we do is something called macro which is look at the super big picture of stuff and The city does some reporting for the federal government about their block grant the community services block grant Funds a lot of programs in San Antonio and not to get into politics But just be aware that it's a goal of the current administration to wipe out all community services block grants across the entire country So the question was really to figure out Whether poverty is distributed across the city or whether it really exists in pockets and because I'm not really from here More close to the Boston area I've lived in some other big cities Seattle the Bay area places overseas I kind of had a concept in my mind of how that works, but not necessarily how San Antonio does So what I did is I went out to the census Bureau And I started pulling data for the different zip codes in San Antonio and then suck up an Excel like a lot of us do And then started sorting them and thought well, okay We're looking at current data for the zip codes Let's see if there's any sort of overlap at the top of things that are performing really well or at the bottom of ones That really are challenged and so the first three things I looked at in this was still an Excel or percent below the poverty level Educational attainment which they consider high school graduation or a GED and median household income And I quickly saw that when you sorted them It was the same tip codes out of more than 60 in each of those categories and the high-performing ones often had a relationship with the military here in military city USA So everyone graduated from high school before they joined the military and they're drawing a salary So those were doing well and it quickly became apparent that the more interesting story Was in the lower performing more challenged areas And so after fiddling with this in Excel for what seemed like weeks pushed it to Tableau Which is kind of fortune 500 software for mapping things using Excel or other Databases and while there are several other ways to do this zip code mapping is kind of cool because it's pretty intuitive everyone has a Relationship with their zip code and they can visualize it more easily than some of the more specific things that are also out there so anyway, this was The eventual map series it was created and it ended up winning an award from Tableau and Trying to think Along the side on the right are these things called sliders which allow you to dig down into The maps and see like okay I want to see this for education But I also want to see where the highest percentage is below the poverty level are so it allows you to Fiddle with stuff and in a blurb in real time how things are going and not to be a plot spoiler But the thing that you find is that there's one single area of the city that does well in every metric We're trying to come up with a name for it. We came up with the crescent of comfort You know for the zone of well-being. Let's just say that is not spread equally across the city, so Took a look at wonder how This worked a minute. Do I need to be a lot closer to it or did it stall up? Okay, so Being a total plus. I know I'm Tied up with this thing not too soon From now so this is what San Antonio looks like by population density not super interesting, but it's important to know and Then we get to the zip codes below the poverty level and these are basically heat maps So wherever you see things more concentrated, it's a higher percentage of people going through that and There's apparently a joke in public health that no matter how many maps you see After a while, you're still looking at the same map and if you keep that in mind You're about to see that with San Antonio, so That's below poverty level That's where educational attainment is meaning if you graduated from high school or gotten the GED You're up in the top crescent But not but choose of codes there in the center completely drop out that seven eight two oh seven and seven eight two three seven There's where median household income is best in the city For capita income not just how your household's doing, but how you're doing personally and Let me tell you this is almost an identical map to a different one It's about education distribution in the city highs and lows So now it starts getting scary because we know those two things are connected, but here's something else Remember what this looks like and the comfort of crescent That's who passes the third grade reading standard Ironically, it's the same distribution now. It gets really difficult Digging into this and this whole project no joke took about 800 hours So I consider it my gift to the city of San Antonio It concerned me that so many people appeared not to even have graduated from ninth grade So I pulled the census figures and pushed that to a map. That's the map of where people lack More than a ninth grade education in the city, which is actually illegal. I Wanted to bend When you go out to Tableau and there's this whole interactive aspect of this on the website that you can reach through the The website connected to this. I wanted to map this against all the Averages for the entire country so we could see where these four that are were most concerning lie as you can see Well, there might be pockets within other cities that are bad They are worse than the worst performing major US cities of any size When we talk about the equity budget the equity lens that's the new thing this last budget passed based on an equity lens The only other major American city that's tried that is Seattle And Seattle is not exactly our sister city when it comes to this Because they're very very different across so many metrics and when it comes to education For less than a ninth grade. I think they're about six from the bottom meaning best in the country And we're among the worst So these are things that we need to start thinking about as a city and not in silos There's another map that you can reach the tucks about how actually mapped against The rest of the country the average for the US at every single level We are less educated in San Antonio and then there's another map That's below that but was hard to include in this which shows that we also under earn at every single level So once again education connected to earnings. We're in a very bad situation if we don't address this so By happenstance I found out there was something in the 1970s that the Brookings Institution developed to look at US cities and compare them It left San Antonio out of the comparison even though it looked at about 50 of them But anyway, it's called a hardship index and it basically is a Mathematical formula that uses census data for six different metrics that it thinks are important And you would agree if you do what they were and basically it's possible to also apply that to neighborhoods or zip codes So we were already getting the impression that these four zip codes were talking about tonight Have very serious challenges and by running the hardship index against them They're literally the top four in the city, so This is what it's based on and I'll put this out on the website so you can see it It's pretty standard stuff that makes a lot of sense And what this leaves us with is something called concentrated disadvantage So while people in nonprofits generally tend to be very up on what services they deliver The reality is in certain parts of the city there are overlapping layers of disadvantage that make it really hard To rise up from under that now they're mitigating things too and social workers think in terms of that people's resilience But we also have to be real. This is not distributed equally across San Antonio and San Antonio really has no Ideal match across the country. It's the seventh largest city in America But it has very little in common with the other in the 10 largest cities It has a different immigration pattern all kinds of things are different So for it to chart its path forward It has to figure itself out and Develop its own model because they can't just say we're just like LA. So let's imitate what LA does The public health department here not metropon health commission really has a lock on a lot of this Understanding they know that the social determinants of health matter more than even the type of health care people are Receiving so growing up impoverished with additional layers of disadvantage. Just make your life tougher across so many so many ways and What you end up doing in the end is there's a 20-year life expectancy difference in San Antonio Between the highest performing zip codes and the lowest performing. That's where you really see this come to life This is the spread of median home values in San Antonio You hear people sometimes say why don't people just move out of these areas as if it were that doable? There's a thousand percent spread Between the median meaning just the average home value up in the north and in the center of the city and The middle class often uses their home value as a way to bootstrap kids education Not possible when you're at the bottom of that heat Now another reason why this matters is because Services that could help people survive and excel and succeed are also concentrated Where there is less demand inexplicably and not where they're needed So you've seen before Where people aren't graduating from high school? This is the availability of licensed child care in the city very much oversupplied in the north and Undersupplied in the center west and east and the south Same thing when you look at special needs child care, which is even more hard to find so difference in life expectancy 20 years and Income inequality then becomes a huge deal San Antonio is one of the most economically segregated and residentially segregated cities in the nation and Here's a map of where single moms are leading households This guy who studied it Richard Florida says it's actually getting worse not better and He took a look at Salt Lake City where people have more ability to rise above their origins and tried to figure out What makes it different and he thought well one big deal is there's no wrong door You go to any social service agency and they assess you for all your needs not just one No turf warfare He seemed to think that that would be a big deal because they're not any more pro-government than any other part of the country was Income mobility people in San Antonio have very little chance of moving up very much a service economy And then when you get into types of households Households led by single mothers across the country are always in the most difficult situation Mary families in the best you can kind of look at at this stuff at your leisure One thing people don't necessarily realize there are almost as many poor whites in San Antonio as poor Hispanics Part of what I learned through this whole project is there are no super simple answers Like let's blame it on immigrants or let's blame it on people not speaking English or whatever And you know how popular those are today. It's really important to be able to find out that that isn't the case so This is kind of a cool side the guy who is the head of our College of Public Policy Dr. Rojaleo Sains that is where Mexicans are moving in San Antonio And it's not that Mexicans would means because the net migration is going the opposite of How America thinks it's going so it was just important to take a look at a lot of these things we have terrible literacy rates This is food insecurity Family violence rates juvenile probation over and over we just keep seeing the same same patterns and Just thought it was really important to a Bring this information out there and then assemble a really awesome panel of experts Who all have a lived experience and a lot of wisdom and knowledge to talk about how we got here? We where we are right now, which we can kind of tell from that so we can maybe skip that and what the way forward looks like So I wanted their panelists to take just a minute to introduce themselves and say who they are And why this topic interests them because I think you're really going to enjoy hearing from them and Their bios are on the website. Thank you. I'm Martinez. I am a researcher at Rice University I have grown up raised in San Antonio Got my PhD from UTSA Dr. Sainz was actually on my research committee dissertation committee Some very familiar with his work as well. I have spent years. I spent a couple years working with communities and schools On the east side San Antonio work at John F. Kennedy High School as an American VISTA So I'm familiar enough with San Antonio. I research the city part of my research interests will Center on looking at the historic patterns of unequal education educational attainment and I look at this thing that I am Coining called dropout legacy. It's this idea of places of neighborhoods that have had historically high dropout rates from 1970 And the reason I look at 1970 is because that's where the data are available I'm actually working with a professor at Brown to push that back to 1930 1940 in San Antonio and so with that you know my interests are What really spurred that project was when I was working at Kennedy I'd always hear well things have always been this way things have always been this way Okay, I don't know if that's true. Let me find out if it's true And so I did this research project and found out that it is true and and so why Right, and that's why that's why I'm here to help have that discussion. Why Why these neighborhoods why these zip codes? Good evening. My name is Keta Rodriguez. I'm interested in this topic because I've lived it I'm born and raised here in San Antonio. I grew up. I grew up in 7 8 207 my family has been here for generations and Quite frankly, I'm not an expert. I'm not an academia But I have a life experience. I Like I said, I grew up here I was born I was born and raised in the area that is now known as Vista Verde It's right all over the overpass. I'm all the loop at the Waterloo Street bridge That area was completely different at one time. I remember walking those streets where there were no sidewalks our neighbors across the street had no indoor plumbing and Was if it wasn't for the community members that you know really fought for change in that Neighborhood it wouldn't be what it is today. And now it's a it's a nice little neighborhood with affordable homes In fact, I was telling Lily one day that there used to be a tree where the UTSA downtown campus parking lot was and that tree was right in front of my house and Every time I drive the loop, I'd see that tree and it always remind me of you know What that neighborhood was like and what that community was like? Unfortunately right on the other side of the bridge Or because we're all my where's we're all my friends lived most of them lived in the alas on a bunch of courts I spent a lot of time there as a child I Left here in 1991 and again, you know having been born and raised at that time I was already 21 years old Having seen that much of this area exactly the same and when I saw the maps, you know I said, you know, I've known this my entire life But it's really quite striking to see it right in your face the same maps over and over the same types of data the same zip codes coming up over and over and over and 1991 I left I went to I joined the Marine Corps. I served for 20 years and I returned About five years ago and unfortunately I see much of exactly the same I told this really quick story of five girls that went to JT Rockridge elementary school Eleanor Iris Gina Shirley and me all of us were the girl scouts together We did a lot of you know field trips and stuff like that together by the time we graduated well by the time I graduated from high school in 1988 only one of us had graduated Three of them three had become moms between middle school and 10th grade One of them became a drug addict and one of them is no longer with the students of victim of domestic violence That's why this topic really interests me it quite frankly I get really upset and pretty emotional when I think about it that I come back and I see the exact same situation Be in face we have made some progress, but a lot more needs to be done. And that's why I'm here tonight. Thank you Thank you. My name is Diego Bernal. I'm the state representative for House District 123 Also a social worker. So I'm excited that this school is advocates and I'm happy to see that you're doing that Same name from this area Nothing about is shocked by what we're hearing. We're sort of seeing it in detail But it's not a truth that we don't already know I'm sort of at the point now We're more interested in solutions And I also think that what happens to people who mean well We're trying to fix something as we start to fight among ourselves about what the solution is by doing that We kind of get nowhere Because we can't decide if it's transportation if it's jobs if it's education if it's testing if it's higher education We're pre-k and I'm at the point where why don't we just sort of trying it off? Why don't we just get on with it start trying to do things instead of sort of being in a holding pattern Waiting for that magic moment where something happens and we've figured it out. There's no easy answer There's no right answer, but the one thing that we have continued to do is a lot of nothing And so I find it easy to critique Efforts that maybe aren't perfect, but I give people credit for trying so for example This is the first time we've used the equity lens in the city budget We've never done it before Let's give it a shot. Is it going to solve everything? No But at the end of this budget cycle where some things in some places be better than they were the year prior Yeah, they will So I think if we all just sort of lean in Push hard to try to fix these things as opposed to holding each other back because we don't always agree with what the right solution is We can get somewhere. You're never going to get perfection right away, but you will get progress Right now after all the things that we've seen and things that you guys study the things that you've lived You certainly live in you live. I'll take a little progress right now. So thanks for having me Good evening. My name is Patty Bradel and I have been living in Zip Code 78207 for the past 48 years Have always lived within a Block or two of the Aledana patching courts the oldest housing project in the country actually I Moved into the community out of a commitment to simple living. I'm not a social worker I am a neighbor who has become very active in her neighborhood and active with other neighbors To address the issues that are in our community and work together to hopefully make things better My husband is in the back up. We're Volunteer directors of an agency called inner city development. We deal a lot with the emergency services That are needed for many families We deal with education and recreation for children and We've done that the entire time I've been living in the community and again. We see ourselves as neighbors Who are active? I've also served on the city council from 03 to 07 and I'm presently serving on the SAISD school board as president of the board I was elected in 2011 And and you know, what's my interest in being here tonight? Well You know, it's a It's within the system of education. I'm in the system of education I certainly want to support people being educated about The situation and I think I have something to offer for the decades that I've been in the community dealing with issues of poverty however Like Diego, I am very anxious to see more people doing a whole hell of a lot Because we have been studied to death and I mean that literally We get studied and we get ideas proposed as to what should be done and the money is never there It never happens but another another study comes another study comes and Like Diego said, let's let's support this equity lens. It's important and this year in the budget It did make a difference. We just have to make a whole heck of a lot difference and more people Need to take ownership of the responsibility Okay that magic moment We are the magic moment Is it gonna come alive? so those kind of questions and those kind of issues that I've seen for decades. That's why I'm here tonight Good evening everyone. How are you? My name is Richard Montes. I My background has primarily been in workforce and business development business service coordinator At workforce solutions Alamo through an organization called said jobs for progress Also did some time at Google Recruiting software engineers throughout North America and helping prepare recent college grads for being successful in stem stem roles throughout North America for Google Most recently I'm also working as a director at the Hispanic Association of colleges and universities doing legislative and advocacy work for Hispanic serving institutions in North America and some International institutions as well. I also serve it as president of the board of directors at inner city development where Patty is Guess we have a few west-siders on this panel Patty and get that Diego And so how many of you lived or have lived in or currently live in the zip codes that we're going to be talking tonight All right So many of you have experienced firsthand What some of the challenges are and probably can find a whole lot in common with some of the things that the folks Up here are going to be saying I think Patty's absolutely right that we're we're in a stage right now in San Antonio That's extremely critical right there. I think there's a small window of opportunity to really not not just discuss the issues That you and I have been noticing for a very long time But to provide real-world solutions and I'm glad that we're going to be discussing the past here a little bit because it really contextualizes the conversation that we're going to be having We're really live in the moment of the present and think about what each of us can do to address some of the issues that we're Facing day in day out as members of this community I myself have been very encouraged by the conversations that we're seeing start up At the municipal level about equity in a few months ago. I think it was Maria Verio Sabal Those of you who are familiar with her. She was the first Mexican-American elected to the San Antonio City Council Start that she mentioned something that really stuck with me She said I'm glad that the city of San Antonio and our leaders are finally catching up With the conversation that those of us who've been living in this neighborhood have been having for a very long time And so is the solution and the outcome going to be perfect? I don't know but it really does take your engagement and your voice to weed out all the bad ideas that we can possibly get that Continue to marginalize people and I know that we'll be talking a little bit again about the history and the racism and the Marginalization and the segregation that really is rooted in our history That's brought us to where we are today, and that's why I'm interested in participating in this conversation And I hope you will be too because you bring it interesting and important perspective and experience that really is valuable to the conversation That we're going to be having here tonight. Thank you for having represented by now If you could get us up to speed a little bit on the history of education and litigation in San Antonio If you need to call anyone or want to call anyone from the audience about that Just want to cover it and then I want to move to Matthew Martin is on the end to talk about dropout legacy because this is a really shocking and cool Concept to know about I can let me try to summarize it because there are college classes on the subject one There was a Supreme Court case out of the city that we call Rodriguez essentially says that history of school finance Cases in Texas all coming from San Antonio many of them were championed by an attorney named Alcoffman the Ladder decade the last decade of that work was championed by David. He knows that was in the audience today And who I trained under as a civil rights litigator. He's much better than I am But in those cases essentially the the argument is That the way that the state of Texas funds its public schools is Inequitable in that because it's based on property taxes at a certain point. There are built-in inequities. In other words children are paying for The the areas that they're born into and that creates a difference in funding And because the state sets standards and all kids have to meet you're gonna meet the kids where they're at So some kids need more help than others and if you're not providing with the resources to get there, they're not going to perform There's a debate over Let's call it Giving every kid the same amount of money or giving every kid enough money to get to a certain point Most recently the last version of this lawsuit the Supreme Court said look Texas the way that you fund your public schools It's a mess You really should be ashamed of yourself. It's very hard to understand. You really should fix this But we're not going to make you so I could go on forever But that's basically it the way that Texas funds its public schools one is based on property taxes and The amount of money per kid and achievement tracks poverty perfectly. There's no heartbeat There's no Ridge. There's no plateau. It is a straight line And so to some people who say that money doesn't matter It does is it the only answer is it in my opinion the middle 60 or 70 percent of the answer It's just a close-up point of I think the basic those behind all of these lawsuits is this Whether you're on the West side Those kids are any smarter They're not more curious. They're not more capable Than anywhere else. It's just our job to make sure that we unpack promote all of that talent Right now there are obstacles in the way to remember they all have to compete with one another So I believe that the public school system in Texas is the last one of the last the vestiges Civil rights litigation and experience that you can see with your own eyes. We've done nothing about You go to one side of town. You see a school that's one way you go another side town Another way inside the school you find teachers resources and Technology that pales in comparison now people are trying to try to fix that they're doing what they can with what they've got But the the genesis of the purpose of those lawsuits is to try to write that wrong And the answer to the question is it has not happened talk today backwards So you can do a seminar on this but that's that's the short and dr. Martin is would you like to talk about what you The process of figuring out about dropout legacy for sure like I touched on a little bit ago It's this idea of neighborhoods, and I did it throughout the country that have Where the top portals so they're in the top Distribution of dropout rates they had the highest dropout rates in 1970 1980 1990 2010 so Essentially what I'm deeming as a legacy right like there's this legacy that has been there And one I do a study looking at San Antonio and of course let it would map perfectly with your maps Right like we you know I could go up there and give the same presentation And you would think you'd be looking at the same map the same thing the dropout legacy neighborhoods are the ones that you already saw But what the other thing that I do is I tie Individual students who live in these neighborhoods and find that if a student lives in these neighborhoods regardless of the parents income Education regardless of if it's a private school public school charter school, whatever That that student will have a 15% greater likelihood of dropping out themselves Right, and so what does this say this says to me? That it I think oftentimes in education nice study education It's a profession that the the solutions are always looked at well teachers or well principals world school I'm looking at the neighborhood right and why does that matter it's it's about The history of divestment in this country and especially in Texas right that has existed in these neighborhoods That's the story right and then we start to look at well why okay? Well a lot of people will go back to when you talk about legacy to go back to red lining Well, I want to push that story further back what I find is that the Neighborhood racial compositions in San Antonio 1930 1940 are the same that they are today, right? So this is a longer history, and then I have another study where I'm looking at segregation in 1880 in the US and Finding that segregation is a direct tie to slavery right and so we can go all the way back as far as we want But what we're gonna find is that segregation racial segregation economic segregation our pattern and they are reified they are Became they become more solid through policy right and so at the end of the day when we're talking about Dropout legacy neighborhoods. We're talking about well. There's only so far that a school can get to right and until There's only so much that the school is responsible for an educating child right there's also How neighborhoods are treated how they're not funded how? Businesses aren't You know drawn to them or they're not you know given Instead of to go right like and then we can I can talk about all these you know different studies that have done this but I think It's some of the panel already said that the When I think about legacy and I think about well, you have to have policies that will Not only bring up that neighborhood, but help them excel right so there might need to be inequality and funding But that inequality is go the other way right because these neighborhoods that have this history of Inequality and this history of divestment that they're gonna need a lot more to be brought up and then then you can talk about Equalizing right like then you can get to the point when they're both But if I send somebody out and say all right you can go ahead and start the race and you just hold back All right, but now you guys you know we're gonna go at the same pace after we you already had the advantage That's not you're never gonna catch up right and so But yeah, that's kind of We're all leaving go into that a little bit further How are you seeing that with individual students as you track them over time and also the racial Disparities because it seems like when you read about education the ninth grade year is super super critical But minority students have a tougher time with it Across the country which doesn't necessarily mean throw more money at it so much as be smarter about what's going on What have you been fine finding the lived experiences for dropout legacy? Yeah, and that's the I think that's the piece that's missing right like the qualitative piece right like I haven't interviewed individual students I look at it more from an aggregate and so I mean but the touch on the racial component right like the the racial component exists only because of poverty right because Certain racial groups have been segregated and then the divestment occurs in those neighborhoods, right? So when you start to see well Hispanics have a lower dropout or higher dropout rating to have a higher poverty rate It's not about being Hispanic. There's nothing in your genetic makeup that makes you more prone to poverty No, it's the policies in which usually white legislation right pushed through and I think like part of this conversation Is a racial conversation as well, right? And that's the point of why I brought it back to slavery right because in this country That's our original sin for a lot of ways and and so now we can see how it plays out today People jump in and talk about what they see that relates We're talking about how we got here. I'm just immediately reacting to the ninth grade dropout thing. I mean I think As far as stories are concerned of witness a lot of stories where it seems to be in the age where many high schools in our community 207 That they get to an age where they they witness the poverty of their own family and they think that they can get a job And then they drop out and they try that and they find out how difficult it is to do anything substantial to make a difference in the household And then by the time they tried that long enough, it's embarrassing to go back or it's difficult to go back Um, and I think that there's an element within that that may be missed in some of the statistics given here And that's the cultural one the the the sense of Responsibility to help the family that I think I don't I don't want to make a judgment But I sense it as very strong. I should say within the Hispanic culture that sense of responsibility to help out your family and and I think that's a big piece of what happens as You know, the children get older and see the suffering in the family and the challenges and the house falling down and not having enough food That motivates them to do something And if I could real quick, I think there's a there's a part of the question that I want to Take a little issue with and as there's this notion that if you throw money at the problem, it doesn't Work and I don't know if we can point to an example where we've tried that and decided that it didn't work out I don't know if we can point. Oh, we overfunded education. That didn't work out We haven't really done it yet. Yes, we need to be more strategic But I also think that that's a that's a that's an easy thing to say But it's not like we have a lot of we have a lot of data to show that it doesn't work Now in this city, they like to do for people funding and compare districts But they're spending the money on different things. So in Alamo Heights, for example, they're not spending the same amount of money on food In transportation As they are in s eisd. So if you if you control for that then the data shows that money Does matter. It's not everything but to say it doesn't matter I think is is dangerous and I'll tell you why the state of texas has divested it has Reduced funding and education by about 30 percent over the past 10 years If money doesn't matter then we would be able to say safely that that didn't work devastating for us So I just want to I don't want to move away too far from the school finance part of the conversation It is not everything but it is a very big I want to throw in some some personal experience because I think that's kind of what I bring to the table speaking from a A household with two parents who were high school dropouts and my mom Went to up to the eighth grade at Rhodes middle school just down the 10th grade because I was born and there's a certain degree of Pool a child gets on their dignity right working so very hard every day spending a little time with them To help build the love that's necessary in a home But also help them with their own educational needs And it becomes very discouraging as a child to see That vicious cycle playing out right when even their parents before theirs My grandmother went up to just you know elementary school And so what we I think what we need to do is start to really embrace These kids who are even just first generation high school students and high school graduates And start to really help them understand the value that they bring and help them recoup some of the dignity that That seems to be lost when you're living in those vicious cycles of poverty The other the other thing I want to say because Education I think sometimes in itself gets siloed a lot And we we tend to talk about education with respect to you know 3k through 12th And then at the college level but in our communities I think it's also really important to talk about job training education Because we have had such a history of dropout High rates in our community if all we're focusing on is school districts, which is important We're not going to be the person up here doesn't want to talk about school districts If all we're focusing on school districts and college graduation and not focusing on on reengaging and reeducating those folks who Have dropped out of the system Then all we are doing is perpetuating a cycle for the next 30 years Right of people who didn't finish high school And so I think it's important to really start to reinvest back into our job training programs There is a rising need for example for blue collar STEM workers that people don't know about You know your electrician your cable holders Folks like that that are going to be able to Get a benefit from not only the growing construction in san antonio right all the development that we're seeing But the growing tech scene as well And so if if we're going to really focus on Not just casting a net that that cares for children currently in the system We also need to focus on casting a net that that reengages those folks that have not been that we have failed Because it is our system ultimately that has failed these folks I I I I have heard over and over and over and again the stigma that perpetuates our communities when people say People who live in in the body of their lazy. They don't want it bad enough. They don't work hard enough they they they have They've learned these behaviors and I don't think that that's necessarily true Right, there's nobody in this community that you will find if you ask them. Do you want to be poor? We'll say yes I love being it's so great I spend it takes so much it takes so much time to be poor guys. It's hard work to be poor believe it or not um And so I think if when we're talking about not just you know preaching to the choir because there's so many of you here Who live in these lip codes and trajectory toward achieving those things? So I hope that when we're talking about equity that we keep in mind that job training and jobs and employment Are necessary so that we can help uplift these folks of dignity and get them to become productive members of society because they can Make contributions But they need those of us who have managed to break some of those cycles to help pull them To help pull them into really understanding what it's like to be a contributing member. I just kind of want to put a To give you kind of a sense of the magnitude of the problem, you know, I again Without uh saying how old I am I did graduate in 1988 And my freshman class started at almost a thousand students. We were one of the largest classes incoming freshman classes at linear high school We graduated at three less than 350 students Obviously a lot of dropouts lots of teen pregnancy You know a lot of them due to teen pregnancy a lot of them due to cultural issues a lot of them due to the you know the kind of the You know people that move around a lot because there's housing instability. There's all kinds of issues that contribute to that But that was when I think about that that is just you know, it's right in your face And I think that to kind of go back to the point that matt was making a little while ago It of course it's education of course We know that if you you know, if you don't get a quality education your chances of being successful And getting yourself out of poverty are severely diminished But what is it? You know before you get to that educational piece it all comes back this again my personal opinion I haven't done any studies on it, but it all comes back to poverty And it comes back to the environment You know the the the girls that I talked about earlier None of them had like really bad parents You know they all had parents that had dreams and hopes for them just like all of us as parents do right that your kids will do better than you did um But the neighborhoods the lack of infrastructure the kind of the things that It there is a little bit of that kind of this is the norm, right? All all four of those girls that all had their that had their babies before they could finish high school were all children of teenage moms And those moms were children of Teenage moms their grandmother the same thing and many of them growing up kind of in this exact same environment So that we had those cycles continuing over and over and over And again, you know, we have made some some strides there I think here in texas. I was just listening to fbr on the way over here and we've our Teen pregnancy rate has dropped significantly, but we're still extremely high as compared to the rest of the nation But we go back to The environment and we go back to poverty Before we can even address, you know the housing and education and all of those things we have to look at it from Multiple levels. It's not just, you know, again throwing money at the problem education Trust me. I'm not one to think to say that, you know, that doesn't work. Absolutely. We need more funding But it takes people at all levels from the community From our elected officials across different levels levels of government You know across the community across the city and you know, the equity lens I'm really really happy to hear the the mayor talking about this And I really think that a better term for that would have been needs-based Right because equity when we talk about equity to some people in in the not on my map areas What do they think? And not everybody I'm not going to stereotype what some people look like it doesn't impact me Right, it does not impact me. So why should I be concerned about what's happening in 78207? Well, guess what it is impacting you is impacting all of us Why do you think that we have such a hard job with our workforce development because we have an uneducated population You know, why do we have a drain on our taxpayer dollars for social services that we could have prevented way back when We have a high one of the highest rates of diabetes and health care, you know health conditions why You know, we're spending tons of money on on diabetes clinics and dialysis centers and all of these things right Everything is tied together, but it all goes back To poverty and it all goes back to our investment in our neighborhoods and getting our youngest children To see that there is something else beyond that and that that quite frankly that we all care That the city cares that the state cares that we all that we actually care about what happens to them And you know people that think that it doesn't impact them severely must take it You know, so um those were just my two cents on that. Thank you I think that brings up a really good point because as richard was saying there's a joke out there about the trouble with being Poor as it takes up all your time That's actually really true the part of the complexity issue of that all this overlap is how easy is it to get a job That will create income for your family when you live in a place that doesn't have any kind of transportation And it's a service economy and you're having to work two and three jobs I mean if you're a parent in that situation, you can't be home helping your kids with their school work You don't even have any energy After running all around town To get to your job or jobs to earn the money. So I think part of what's frustrating about this is feeling like A people don't stop to think of how time consuming it is to be poor and what the impacts on your life really are It's not easy to fix with just one thing You sometimes have to pick The thing that could make make the most difference or you have to work on multiple things at once And not everyone can do that, especially without help And then as a as a city Are we really acknowledging that if we are based on a service industry model And somewhat low wage jobs and lack of health insurance What really is the future going to be like unless we switch that up a little bit Create some opportunities for people who don't necessarily want to go to college And do a better job of educating people that education is a crucial way to improve not only your Economic performance, but that of your families as well And I think when it comes to social services, I'm not sure that over time enough thought has really gone into How this all works together beyond just individual agencies and how to really make economic arguments about it in order to be heard It was shocking to me to see how much We not only are undereducated, but under earn at every level and that one data visualization has had thousands and thousands of views Because I think people see that and they go right This is a way to explain that I think we've all got to especially on the social service delivery side Got to get better at being able to explain How much it costs to leave the situation the way it is and how much of a difference it could make if we change things so In terms of that, what are some things you feel excited about that you see going on right now One of the problems that we have with being so unique as a city Is that we don't have an easy model an easy Analog anywhere and when you talk to urban planning types they sometimes say The coolest municipalities out there have moved away from silos because they realize that it is everyone's problem To improve the playing field So what kinds of work are you doing or seeing that you're excited about? Because if we stay the same we know what the future is going to look like It will pass us by Silo like on a farm where they keep the grain Because people who do one type of work don't communicate outside that they they talk to each other about what it's like with Whatever their topic is And eventually everyone pushes their own agenda, but they don't see it as a shared agenda So transportation people are in the transportation silo the housing people I went to a housing meeting and they basically said every good thing in the world comes through housing and it's like Well a lot of good things too, but not all of them. You can be too stuck on a single agenda um, you you ask um What we're excited about and I have to say i'm not excited about anything in a positive manner. I'm excited nervous um because What could happen for lack of sensitivity those of you? Who uh grew up and live and live on the west side would you raise your hands again? Could you leave your hand up if you are interested in moving into a big house outside out at 1604? Okay, well, I I felt I felt secure in asking that question because for um Knowing our neighbors. I mean yes, we have um all the the ills of poverty And uh, sometimes I tease and say yes, we are a social workers paradise Um, which is a terrible thing to think of but we have all those things of poverty but at the same time We love our neighborhood We do and when a house becomes available You know people are anxious for but housing is a really really big problem in our community So we have to think about what is it that we love? That we don't want to see disappear Are we going to feel the same about our neighborhood if somebody decides In one of these many committees that are happening about developing in our city Oh, you don't have enough high rises over there. You know Are we happy with that? You know, there's depravity on the north side when I say those four people out there They can't walk to their neighborhood taco place. They don't have a neighborhood taco place They can't walk to their church. They can't walk to their school usually. I mean Many can depending on the location of the school But in my neighborhood, I can walk to the church. I can walk to the elementary middle school high school I can walk to multiple taco houses. I can walk to the plaza There are beautiful things about our neighborhood that we have to ask ourselves Oh, what are we willing to preserve because when we talk about leveling the playing field The field doesn't look the same all over the city And I don't know if people want it to look the same all over the city So what is pressure to us and what is precious to us and what are we going to fight to maintain? You know when somebody says that they want You know 20 story building on the corner of zazamora and while the loop may Is that going to be us? Is that going to is that going to feel like who we are the all the cultural history? What are we going to protect? That's why I'm nervous I'm not excited What does density bring? Well, I think you have to ask What is density without dignity? Because when you take a look around loop 410 There's lots of density all those apartments, but they have the dignity of good streets. They've got curbs. They've got drainage But you know go down El Vida street go down Torreón No drainage and the houses are falling apart Yes, I've been at those meetings and in a little committee You know they were asking us about the maps and we were fighting for nothing over three stories And there was pushback from the people who were the planners saying how five feet there's other things I mean five stories is more you can do the question again What will we protect one of the report one of the really important things that you're seeing here and you see here is that All these issues are interconnected Right and my experience has been It's an education. Is it workforce? Is it transportation and the answer is all the above? Right the answer is all of the above it. We all if we all just put all of our energy into one thing We'll still lose Because we're not minding all and so what I would say to people Is to figure out where you think you would be most effective And apply yourself there and then hope that and assure that other people feel like they're more effective in other places Are doing their part when I was younger on 41 when I was younger All of the the activists were too busy criticizing each other for being too corporate or too street or we should be We should be protesting we should be running for office and the truth is it takes all sorts It takes all kinds. You can't succeed without the other Right you need the people in office. You need the people on the streets You need the academics pulling you further to make sure you're not missing anything You need all of it. You need to stay in the city. You need to county. You need all of it So let's not waste our time Criticizing each other wagging our finger at one another about where we should best apply ourselves And make sure that people find the place where they can best apply their talents and just push as hard as they can I think that one of the assets that we have not used in the city that we're actually using Today is our school of social work These are people whose job it is to be professional advocates In the past when you meet someone who can argue you say oh you think and you meet someone who likes to help people Or when you meet someone who's nice You think You might be a good social worker a social worker By definition is a fierce advocate for other folks And so the school of social work. I think now this school and others in the city Are seizing the moment recognizing that they have a place in this community to lead So that that one thing I am excited about there's a lot to be depressed about one thing one thing I am excited about is tonight because I think that we see We see an institution stepping into the fray and deciding to own its place in that conversation So I I do really you hit the nail on the head as more as social workers Because in our school we have almost 1800 students And one social worker You have because I have sat on the other side of the table in edgewood. I work in SAISD I get to see what's happening on a daily basis with our students I also get to see the denial From administration and I'm talking administration overall. I'm not targeting one person If you ask them What is the job of a social worker or what is a social worker? These are educated people and they cannot tell you When you have social workers doing haul duty doing lunch duty and then a crisis happens Oh, you can't leave your post That's not right. We have a lot of students that come to our school with many problems before they even arrive in the classroom And we expect them to learn really Have you walked in their shoes? No We have wonderful we have had wonderful social workers both in edgewood and in SAISD But I went into office at one point for the simple reason that after having served 10 years I went back in 2008 From 1986 and I went back got off in 98 went back In 2008 why because the administrator at that point wanted to get rid of the social worker position And no negativity towards CIS They wanted to bring in that program In edgewood you work there, you know what our students are like They're wonderful, but nobody really listens to them We have talked about this issue forever and ever and ever and still in 2017 We have one social worker with over a thousand students How can that be? Are we really interested in the children? No, we're not Where do we start? We start there. That's one weekend because our kids come in with multiple multiple problems That probably some of you didn't have to face in your childhood And you said your age is 41 minus 75. So I have seen a lot I had a wonderful childhood with poor parents But you the dignity is always hurt You go and ask one of our students what they want to be they can't tell Because it's hopelessness They're very well educated. We have smart students. Richard has been one of them They can succeed but you have to build them up Who am I worried about? I'm worried about the C student that nobody notices Everybody wants a high achiever or they help the lower ones because we're helping our neighbor. Really? No, you're not. Look at all the issues. Thank you One of the things that I think that uh, you know We can be excited about Obviously is what we're just talking about is you know looking at this this from a from an equity lens One is having the conversation. I mean for decades that map has been exactly the same And some people were talking about it some people within the zip codes You know, we have a lot of really great nonprofits that are doing some phenomenal work working with with students working with families And we've had a lot of these nonprofits around for a while, you know providing the service But the service is really reactionary It's not preventative We need to have the conversation You know, I was I was talking to someone recently about this, you know same topic And I'm like when you go into a business and that business is not reducing right? They're not having a profit What do they do they go back and look at the root cause of the problem? Why are you know, why are we not having this profit? They devote a lot of time they invest a lot of time and really focus on attacking the root cause of the problem And then move along adjust as they go to become a successful company It's the same thing if we're not talking about this kind of you know having this conversation if we're not Bringing this, you know map into front of people who have the ability to create policy To advocate because quite frankly we should all be advocates Every single one of us if we live in this community, we should be advocating in one one's you know shape form or fashion In you know and uh representative uh, but not as right, you know find that area where that you're the strongest at But we also have to hope we also have to force that conversation to happen In order for us to actually come in and and really concentrate on the root causes of these problems and stop being reactionary You know, we've seen it here in our city, you know the the reactionary Approach to things right well, we have a high High teenage pregnancy right then we start we throw money at that which yeah, of course you have to address that When the problem is already presented itself, but how about prevent it? Root got with the the causes of of diabetes again a really huge Epidemic oh, well let's build these clinics and let's throw money at the at treatment not prevention you know and so Again, it's I think really going back to the whole point of this and having not working in silos That's across nonprofits It's definitely in my opinion something that needs to be forced upon our government officials the city the county the state And our and our congressional representatives that represent these areas should all be working together to try to find solutions to these problems If you have some questions, it's probably good to come up here because otherwise no one can hear you But I think we will take a few questions And then we will move on to what the future is going to look like so if you want to come up here and speak Ask your question We can just try to keep them fairly short and succinct because there are a lot of people trying to Be able to ask you for doing this alumni um, I'm with head start and I just came back from a meeting or monthly meetings. I'm part of the now we have early head start and It's been around for three years about progressives. I think that's the root and we're talking about the children Of course, they're number one, but also their families August the wait list was over 200 and as of october It's over 400 and these are family. I was a stay-at-home mom I mean, I did get my degree, but I chose to be I volunteered and then I became Gave me a head start and getting my master's degree. So I have my master's degree. It brings hope start. I feel It's the way and the thing is the lack of fun. I feel bad for these families And these are our families. I just wanted to make this stay there for our family I just wanted to make a quick comments as well, but um Since we're on the topic of kids is that more often than not when we're having conversations in our city and in the nation and even throughout the world We have this conversation about state. Who are the people who make decisions? And so I know that everybody here is wondering, okay Well, you guys have been telling us what we already know and offering some solutions But what can I do to take with me so that I can continue to be so that I can help being Be an equity builder And I think that one of the first things that you can do is change your mindset And we should change our the culture of the conversations we have about who stakeholders are Because we talk about homeowners. We talk about renters. We talk about business owners But we never mentioned kids And they are they the greatest Stakeholder in our community because they've lived they've yet to live much of their lives And so they have everything at stake Their futures are at stake. And so, you know, I'm not saying you need a five-year-old at a Taskforce meeting on housing that's going to give you, you know, some perspective but really think of a systematic way of taking a child's perspective And implementing that in the policies that we see in our city And build the equity there, right? I think that you're right that Head Start has been a crucial tool In helping break some of those cycles in San Antonio And and I also want to say that I think that pre-k4sa Has been a major component of some of the changes that we've started to see already in our city about building equity A solution where we have said what can we do? Fundamentally to change the trajectory of our youth in this city And as a parent of a student at pre-k4sa I can tell you that the school is exemplary that the children are learning A different dynamic of education and in different ways And I think for four years straight now, they have surpassed All the expectations even nationally that have been put set forward for early childhood education So it's it's those kinds of things it's that policy making That really is important and bringing those into a real tangible thing That that can change people's lives, right? Because that's what we're talking about here tonight is how do we move the mark? in people's lives The equity lens in our budget is important. Sure. It puts in more sidewalks and more streets and it does some of those But what can we do to change people's lives? And it starts with our kids Without siloing the entire conversation And by the way, thank you for asking that question because I'm sure other people were wondering as well You have to start there because it is a foundation, right? It's a strong foundation. You don't build a house on dirt Right and and and you need a strong foundation to be able For that that building that that component to last for generations So thank you for bringing up kids miss morales. We don't do it enough And thank you for bringing up the early childhood education component as well Well, look, I think I think it's safe to say that there's not one there was a silver bullet answer Then I would just say we know what to do So from my from my position right now from this purge The question I would ask is If you noticed a lot of the things that that you mentioned ended with and then the funding was cut Right. And so my question is has there been any accountability for the and I would argue that the answer is no I'd argue that there are human beings at the end of those decisions making them with zero Precussions for them zero records. So there are lots of answers to your question Some of them are better answered by the other people here, but for me at least I would say We have to hold the people who are responsible for those cuts Accountable and I'm not saying it has to be politics. I'm not saying keep electing me or anyone else but my point is That what's happening is that people are making decisions For this community of any input without any accountability We're also in a world now where When I was growing up kids were off limits We talked about this the other day and we're in a world now where kids suffering is totally on the menu And there's nothing to hold them accountable. So again, there's lots of answers But I think at a minimum we need to trace those decisions back to the human beings that made them And hold them accountable one is to expose them make sure the people who are suffering the consequences understand That they made the decision and then hold them accountable There's nothing that motivates a good decision as soon as you make someone afraid they act I think one of the other things that we can do so in my day job I currently serve as the the county veteran service officer So I help veterans and their dependents access their benefits We find that in my line of work there are never enough resources to meet the demand But one of the things that through that experience. I've learned is that we Going back to not working in silo is what I call stove pipes not being stove pipes We have lots of different agencies. We have different Agencies and you know both government and nonprofits that do somewhat similar work One of the things that I found most helpful to address the issues that we were having with meeting the demand Was to breaking down the walls between us and some of the other veteran service organizations between us and the state agency and the federal government What if we all work together and we stretch those dollars that we have and what if we all work together? Leverage each other's resources some of us may be and I'll give you as just an example Our office helps every single veteran from the one that's transitioning off of active duty today all the way to the World War two Veteran that's an end of life Well, we have an organization called wounded warrior project Their specialty is post 9 11 veterans those that served in Iraq and Afghanistan Well, if we have people who are living in an area stay out by 1604 in bidders And they're post 9 11 veteran in the past what has happened is well These are my clients. These are my clients and everybody's holding on to their clients because we have our numbers to meet My my thought of that my thought is Well, why don't we put the client in mind? Why don't we keep the client in mind? If that person lives in that area and they're they're of that era and this is that organization's specialty Doesn't it make more sense to refer them there? Say? Hey, there's something closer to you It's more accessible to you and oh by the way It helps us to be able to do our job better because we're the only government agency that does home visits for people Who can't come to us So if we all work together breaking down those walls of you know You know and not working in in stovepipes both against government agencies nonprofits community organizations Faith-based organizations if we all work together a little bit more closely we can make our our dollars go much further I guess just to throw this into the mix again. It comes back to each of us asking What we can do is sort of like If someone's leading and you don't have boss pads, what do you do? You know you Grab a towel you you grab a shirt you whatever you need to do to stop the bleeding And are we all asking ourselves, you know, what can we do to stop the bleeding of some of the crises that we that we face and I think holding elected officials accountable Is very very important I think raising the consciousness of what they did or they didn't do is very important I think presenting to them the issues so they see the grave consequences of their decisions is very important But I also think that being creative as a community and looking together to say well, how can we Solve this problem even if it's only in our little corner You know, we haven't found a way to engage enough parents for instance in our schools. We've expanded um the Engagement programs. We're real glad for that and Tina's being effective over at linear But there's so much that our parents who are not working Could be doing in our schools. But we we as a system have to help create the opportunities, you know For taking care of some of these issues And we've had even at our community center some of our volunteers saying well, we need to have a You know a child care program as part of what we do and we're all volunteers, right? So I have to say to them. Okay Who's going to volunteer to do this, you know, we need more regular daycare centers in our community, right? But for lack of a boy can we do what can we do as a community? So I'm just throwing that into the mix of all things that need to be considered as we face challenges We're going to take a couple more questions But I just wanted to interject that I think part of what's going on here is we need to make this everybody's problem Not just the problem that When you live it you understand it acutely, but everyone else gets to afford to ignore it We need to have this conversation in a much more focused and widespread and advocacy oriented way so that people can't afford to ignore The reality of their neighbors and sadly we're in the most difficult time politically in recent history This is so much about Getting your own and keeping your own and the hell with everybody else But what we're talking about here needs broad based solutions and Even those who are at ease in the crescent of comfort Caring about this on a humanitarian level so that everyone can succeed in the city And I'm a community health worker with a program called healthy neighborhoods through san Antonio metro health And I just wanted to ask things that I see a lot I guess I should start with this my program is a little bit different as a community health worker I'm not like a generic health worker, but more so a community organizer in the sense that We work with communities assets So our goal is to work on asset-based community from the bottom up instead of the top down things that I see a lot Going to the I say tomorrow planning meetings That's voiced from the community members is the gentrification is something that keeps coming up and so I'm wondering um If y'all feel like this data will assist us as the people living here or Will it do a harm in the sense that once we start fixing some of these errors within our schools within our Our environmental safety our food sovereignty, etc Will that just bring a different class then A library is that okay this data is it's pretty much pointing out a lot of What we know already living like for a lot of us that live in the city or have worked within the city We have this text we I think that we worked on this data So hopefully we could do something about it And so what I'm saying is if we do something about it about it Will it end up fighting? You know, will it end up coming back to haunt us in the sense that Community members will say oh now things are great and see the price of Housing we're going to living in our neighborhoods now your question just um Again for me reinforces the My question about you know, what do you want? What do you want to maintain? What do you want to keep? What's important to us? And um And what can we do to protect that? and you know if If we're we fear certain things happening in the community We just have to be very very vocal and very demonstrative about that at the same time I think we have to ask ourselves in the context of what is it that we want for instance Do we really want to keep that? Ugly building because it's been here for 75 years Or is it that we just don't want you to bring the Starbucks in or we don't want you to bring it Or yes Right, so you know some some people are gonna differ on that like You know and uh, so you know so it's um You know it makes for important community conversation And um, so what is it? Do you want to actually maintain that building? Or do you want to maintain and bring back a vitality to the community? um, you know where's where's the emphasis and and in the Place of what's important to us as a community. What are the possibilities? you know, so What is it that we really want to preserve when we worry about gentrification? Yeah, and you know to add to that I feel like I do feel like gentrification has this very negative connotation behind it Um, but gentrification is development without justice, right? And so how do you have development with justice? I think that's kind of what you're talking about and um Because for me, I think about you know, there's going to be a lot of personal mechanisms, right? So say their development is starting to happen in the west side and somebody comes up to a family and says We're going to give you double what you paid for that house Are they going to sell and and who? Who am I to say don't Right, I that's a tricky conversation Um, because I'm like no no don't don't sell because we want to keep the neighborhoods like well, I have a chance to Do well for my family. I'm not who am I to stop them, right? And so in that regard we have to be mindful of that, right? And so Um, and we also have to be mindful about things like rent control We have to be right like because you think about cities Like so I study a little bit of the gentrification aspect of it And so what's happening in the u.s. Is we're not getting gentrified neighborhoods anymore getting gentrified cities, right? San Francisco you got to have a hundred thousand live there new york, austin, right? Boston, seattle, right? You can start thinking about cities as these gentrified areas and because it's gentrification run a month right development run a month but um Oakland was actually doing something very interesting Some churches bought out lands before gentrification happened and then rented out to those families at cost Of what they were to maintain taxes or whatever, right? So like it takes very Takes a lot of hindsight, right? And it isn't just the oh well bad development. Good development. It's it is a lot about The community actually thinking 10 20 years down the road and saying what are the patterns that we see coming And how can we either save those off? How can we benefit from that as a community, right? Because not all development is bad development the east side of town in 202 with the former wheelie courts now east meadows and so one thing mainly about schools First, county has a very fragmented school district system I believe we have pregnant from wrong 27 districts. Um, and it's been that way for a while and interesting But um, and if you overlay that over these maps, um, you'll see that Those lines those school districts is almost directly over this low income and all these different factors So i'm kind of curious if there are any opinions on policy changes with regards to school districts Unifying keeping them the same or making them or even something. I don't know your thoughts on it I'll take that because that's what I was going to close with anyway So no, you're right. And so the same thing if you look at all the dropout legacy neighborhoods Edgewood parts of south sand Parts of sisd none in alamo heights none in the north side, right? So we do have a disparity of districts Um, houston's the same way houston's very fragmented city and so from my perspective and and, uh, shon reardon's another leading scholar He's out stanford and he has the same perspective as well uh fragmentation is a problem, right and so Uh, the policy solution my thing is you have to untie The quality of school and education from the neighborhood someone chooses to live in, right? No one out here is choosing which neighborhood to live in based off of the water quality Why because they assume there's going to be good water wherever they live Why is not the same thing for education, right? We have all these websites and out great schools and and truly and all these things that will give you The grade of the school and what's happening? And as we see this nationally as well is that, um Upper middle class individuals are choosing into better neighborhood schools And they are causing rapid In uh inequality economic inequality, right? And I can't blame them for making that decision I have a close friend of mine who's making that exact decision knowing better He knows what but he's doing but it's his kid, right? So in my uh mind say we have to untie Where you live determines the quality of the education that you receive And one of the ways that that happens I think is a centralized school district, right? Because no longer Are we having Uh one school district building multi-million dollar stadium while the other is struggling to get counselors, right? And I've seen it and I know the reasons why edward made those decisions because of funding They just don't have enough money So if a nonprofit is going to come in and provide similar services then why not, right? But in in my mind said it's well, why do we have to have this disparity in in uh In the school districts, right? Even with recapture even with the robin hood act that texas has passed, right? There is still this huge disparity and not just in the amount per pupil as diego was saying but instructional Costs you can look at elema heights and it's on the web say elma heights and edward and the differences in what they pay In instructional cost per pupil. It's about three to four thousand dollar difference, right where edwards is lower And so even if we take out the multi-million dollar stadium, how is it still even with their eighty four million dollars that we captured In the last school year, they are still have a lot more money And so and that's not to like, you know make uh people who live in alamohites feel bad about themselves It's to say, you know, you are part of the county you benefit from the city's development infrastructure You benefit from san Antonio being on the map. It is about time that you realize that right and and that you help in regard to the city as a whole the area as a whole and And so with that I feel like then you can start to provide teachers and teaching aids in classrooms So there's not 30 students per kid because we know that you know amount of students per teacher matters in educational attainment and you can start resourcing schools of counselors, right? I mean that's a big part of what happened after harvey is I helped to develop maps for the Houston ISD to show Exactly which students were affected and so that they can then provide Counseling services for them, right? But houston endowment stepped in and helped provide monies to provide counselors because they see the need for that, right? and so And I think that still keeps the dignity of people who live in neighborhood You want to live in the west side great? We want you to live here as you're saying there's many things that are awesome about living in the west side, right? But we also want to provide a quality educate. You deserve that as well. Your kids deserve that You're right. And so it's not about necessarily making the west side look like alamo heights. No, it is about equality of quality, right in in school. And so I think there's a Direct pause in correlation, but I'm speaking that as a researcher not as a policymaker. So It's it's the it's the third rail for us, but if you guys are bored I asked this question on social media two days ago on facebook and twitter I asked it in the universe. I said tell me why it's a good idea There's about 450 it makes no sense for a city our size to have 17 school districts Even if we dropped it down to seven that would be just to reiterate your points The lines that were drawn to create these school districts very much follow Economic purposeful and those lines sense those times that we still send our kids to the school in a system that bears such an obvious over resemblance to that history for that reason It's hard. I know the people who are going to lose some of their seats Okay, and then what it just does not make sense anymore For us to live in a city That is then Corral and the results is exactly what you're talking about when you're talking about and I think honestly what the whole damn panel's about, right? So, yeah, let's get rid of it. I'm not saying it should be one. I don't know if the answer is one or four or five It's not 17 Wasn't racially motivated And most people worked at Kelly had great jobs What happened to Kelly? Okay, and we have some people waiting. So I'm going to call you up to talk about I'm going to talk about dyslexia and education What's all gain and I'm from the cutting dyslexia barrier county And what I noticed and I was like where are the oriental students where the Indians do just not do it So it's one point dyslexia takes your numbers and makes it relevant because 85 to 90 percent of your your night great dropout Your juvenile populations your prison records All are dyslexic students. I believe that we have a more concentrated body of non-readers And poor neighborhoods and while san Antonio is actually this year doing a pretty good job I'd like you to look at San Antonio ISD has 3.78 identification rate and they let go all their dyslexia teachers What's dyslexia if you're not a Spanish speaker and if your IQ is not low And you're not reading on grade level by third grade The likelihood is you have dyslexia is a language issue or an IQ issue Okay, the kids who aren't reading by third grade. So readers aren't reading on grade level Okay, your ninth grade dropout Your poor neighborhoods. Let's look at literacy rates beautiful programs in san Antonio They all want to hand a kid a book and somebody who's going to read with them But san Antonio ISD got rid of all of their specialists In teaching kids who struggle to read they got rid of them I'll tell you north side picked a month the rich neighborhoods picked up the best reading specialist in san Antonio They took them while san Antonio ISD made the policy decision to get rid of them If you will look at the peams data for san Antonio Which you're going to see is low reading level, which equal low success rates It looks it drives your population Into Poverty and it drives your populations into lack of success So if you look at all your data and overlay it with dyslexia, you're going to see a strong need to do Thank you. I'm glad you mentioned that it's getting better in SAISD from a standpoint that we are putting More attention to it and there are you know other factors of course that contribute to the issue of 60 percent of fourth graders not being able to read If you see the the research about the lack of vocabulary that many of our students enter Pre K and K with it to explain some of that But the point is taken that there needs to be very serious attention given to the issues of dyslexia. It is a A big need for attention and I think also on the part of parents that need to be educated about the whole issue of dyslexia for the sake of the Self-esteem of the student and In the understanding of even their classmates I see the suffering of students in the in the in the self-esteem department Because of their home not being able to understand why they're struggling so and Many times that the burden Is on the teacher trying to discover how to get in To that child's area of being able to learn to read And and too often we just pin it all on the child All right, so thank you for bringing up the issue And I am still very much in a learning status in my life in my career This semester about this in an event or have a discussion in class About it and or does anyone ever consider For lack of a better term you preserve as what you said, you know What do you preserve about the beauty of this population about the beauty of these people? That we can benefit from we don't always have to you know sit and say well You know, we need to get money from from the government for this second or third There's such a beautiful thing about this culture That that the world is almost being snuffed out because the people who have the power and the money To make things better They come in and they build these big High rises and it looks like something that's not representative Or is there how about we build places where can Preserve is how to make an area or how to live in a city that's so big that has so many to go to these The crests of comfort because that's better. Why is there anywhere who live there? Who can grow up if you just make it better For them where they are That's a tough question This whole discussion about equity is digest To your point as someone who's learning about The challenges that we face in san antonio, but I will say that one of the reasons that is the way it is is because It has been there have been generations upon generations of neglect in our community There has been this stigma About our communities piled on over and over and even if you look at you know as far back is Jim crow the narrative that the government the federal government was passing down Risky places to live Those are dangerous places to live Implementing policies that that that segregated communities and then defining those communities in a really vicious way And so I think even today we're we're we're struggling with how we regain how we depict ourselves to the history and the culture and all the good things That that come from from our neighborhoods Because there is a lot of good there And you also touched and we've touched a little bit on the topic of gentrification I feel like communities like ours sometimes are very easily gentrified in a bad way Because of those stigmas and The institutionalized Racism that exists in our neighborhoods that have silence to people, right? So I think in a way patty was trying to say earlier that when you have For instance a council district like ours and district five where there are 110 115,000 people And during a municipal election only three to five thousand people come out and vote Right politicians as policy makers they listen to that that's called power And we lack the power here and when you have a lack of power and you pair that With the stigma of our community Then our voice is perpetually lost And it's so hard to find it again But that's why as we close I think it's important to make sure that we are including as many voices as possible Because when we talk about equity and we talk about these different Ways of achieving progress there there seems to arise this culture of exclusion Right where we don't listen to certain people because maybe they don't have as much money Or they don't have as many degrees or they don't have they don't hold a particular title But I'll tell you what and I hope that people who create panels like this will keep in mind That there is a single mother in the gaseano projects Who earns minimum wage? Who is a single mom? Who has faced abuse in her life who could be sitting up here with us? And give just as good a perspective as the rest of us up here Right and so That that is the culture we have to rebuild And the only way that we get people to listen about who we are and who we want to be and what we want to represent Is by having a voice and engaging them. It's no longer. Okay To have so low in such low engagement in our city From the very people for whom we are trying to achieve equity for think about that Right, we're we're trying to achieve equity, but the very people for whom we are proposing that Are not part of the conversation, right? We grew up on the west side get that and I and Diego, but It's like a professor told me at st. Mary's when you got your degree. You are now part of the elite Right as much as you want to connect yourself to that community and you you'll try like hell to do it You now have a responsibility to listen to people And so we we have to as much as possible Attempt to raise those voices It seems like common sense, but commonly sense isn't all that the common sense is in all that common sometimes So we we have to be able to do that in a really targeted way Thank you We're going to have one last question and then i'm going to Summarize the questions that didn't get to be asked and we're going to thank you for attending and hope that we do more of this in the future just needs to be a much wider Conversation with a lot more teeth to it Okay, so I am currently a senior at Keystone school I went to Edgewood for elementary school and I left Edgewood in fourth grade and then two years later The school that I attended Coronado Escobar was shut down due to lack of funding needed for repairs for the school fortunately, I've had the opportunity to Have access to a quality education, but sadly that was outside of west side san Antonio every day I have to make the journey to monobisa in san Antonio to Have a great education that makes me feel great about what i'm doing it makes me feel like I can Bring some change to my community but one thing that I wanted to I'm just sad by the way the fact that I have to leave the west side san Antonio to do that but one thing I wanted to bring awareness to is Really the design aspect to where we are receiving our education um, you know right now I wasn't until this meeting that I realized that The elementary school that I went to school in that I was labeled as a gt student this is like my entire like elementary career, um You know it it was run down and you know, I often found myself bored a lot I was quite the misbehavior behavior I didn't have anything to do and that was because whatever was around me in my classroom was falling apart I didn't have any motivation motivation to to go really To reach my potential. I think I had to work hard to get to keystone school But I think I would have had much more support if my environment my school the playground that I was in or The park that I was you know that I wanted to go to a safe um, I just wanted to To really point out that It's it's more than just putting great teachers in a classroom or implementing great programs within a structure Um, it's it's also the structure that you're you're having these activities And because the structure that you you are currently in such as the gym that we're in It limits us in very many ways and that is what architecture does for a city And you know, I I listened a lot and I really do want to uplift the west side of san Antonio But how can we do that if you know our houses are falling apart if we don't even have a c because it's too expensive You know like how do we do that if Literally the walls that we're looking at are crap, you know, like it's hard to have dignity It's hard to have pride if that's all we see um, so yeah, that's what I wanted to do Raise awareness So it's hard to close a panel like this that has been so interesting I just really appreciate so much all of you coming and spending some of your precious time Talking with us about it. I think the panelists so much for giving their hearts and their minds to this topic It just really feels like a conversation We need to be having in multiple other ways with the people who aren't here And in more assertive ways so that people understand this is our shared Reality, it's not a reality you get to avoid because you personally were lucky enough to have a different Set of circumstances. It's really sometimes only about that So I feel like we've heard an awful lot about dignity tonight and making decisions based on preserving people's dignity I feel like that's a great word to take away from this night That's not often part of a conversation like this But i'm just very appreciative that you came out that you participated that you put up with social work grad students trying to pull this evening off And I think my classmates just did a wonderful job making this as welcoming and cool as possible Thank you for now cast essay Filming what we were up to And I just wanted to close with the last question Which anyone can pick up if they'd like which one of the ladies had to add wanted to ask who wasn't able to But what does an average person do to to give more to do more to make a difference more When poverty is a reality when working as a reality What does that really look like even if your your desire is there What can you do? And clearly we need way more macro solutions than that like the city Especially and politicians and all the rest but when an average person wants to get involved who's also suffering the circumstance What what's their next step? Actually Richard stole the words run out of my mouth before I could answer a question that the one of the last young ladies had talked about In engagement. I mean just and it's difficult, you know, we all were busy We you know, we have families we're raising we have jobs But engagement and there's one thing that you know that it just has to be said In those four zip codes and I don't know the exact data, but I know what it is in my in my voting precinct We don't vote And I have heard it. I've literally heard this Why can't we do this or why can't we do that? And I've heard it come out of politicians around porque ellos no votan because those people don't vote And it really goes back to being engaged and holding people accountable I mean, that's one that's one very easy way that you can make a difference is by voting for people who Who who actually will make good decisions and make good policies because everything that we've talked about All goes back to policies old policies and they've continued to You know, they've continued to continue to manifest themselves in the ways that we're seeing today And so that's that's one thing that I think is very powerful And it's not just us but encouraging and educating our neighbors our friends our family about why it's so important And it's something that doesn't take a lot of time Um, you know, maybe you know, you're don't have the you know the time or the energy or whatever it is to devote to You know a specific You know area to volunteer or to whatever it is But one simple thing that you can actually do and that we all have the right guarantee by our constitution Is the right to vote just to kind of pick you back off of that I would say be be a disruptor be someone who it doesn't settle right like Um, just for example, you're gonna meet this even you know, I'm speaking more towards The younger folks in the audience as well that are thinking about career and college and that kind of thing You're gonna meet up against systems that are designed for you to be comfortable that are designed for you to look away and be silent For example, I get no academic credit or prestige for being here Right, even though this to me matters more. They want me to talk to other academics only and publish journals And no one's ever gonna read And but that's the system that's designed to keep the knowledge that I have to myself And and you're gonna come up against things like that But you have to choose to buck the system you have to choose To come back to the community to live to Engage to do all these things right like these are personal choices. You can either You know, it's really the same right there's this crescent of comfort But there's also personal comfort that we can slip into and just be like, you know what it's not my problem But um, and and that can be a personal thing that you just have to kind of choose to You know, I you know as a college student as a first generation student, right? I worked the two jobs and helped support my family and I still didn't help support my family Really, that's just part of my story Um, but I'm happy for that right because I have pride in that and I know you do and everyone up here, right that um But yeah, I think the the idea is what if somebody can do is just be a disruptor and constantly Be active and constantly be aware I'm just gonna say this I'm gonna say this for what accountability looks like isn't so much just to vote Blast me what they can do. I can say go to me or anyone else and say this is an issue I care about and I want to know two things. What are you going to do a bit? What are you going to do about it before and say remember that conversation we had and you can do some email Or the phone because we're supposed to respond right and say remember why I asked you about that thing What are you doing about it? What have you done? And if you don't get a satisfactory answer Whatever they're whatever one their public persona is and whatever their political parties that they're not answering the question That's the accountability The accountability is not just in the ballot box. It's in the fact that they're not responding In a real way to a question of someone to think represent I feel like too many of us get away with saying the things you want us to say and acting like we really understand and then We sort of escape and we agree. Let me say this great things. We all not from the west side Right, we're all cool here. I think it's what have they done and I will I will say it right now There are lots of people who are elected with overlapping jurisdictions in areas like this and others that if you were to look at what they've actually done And I'm not talking about a pilot program of a hundred thousand dollars I'm not talking about one donation to a nonprofit if you look at the policies that they've implemented or suggested They're designed to fix these problems. They don't for the most part I thank everybody for their comments and I agree with you when I what add to it is You know and usually your voice I beg people to speak the truth Some of you may be familiar with saw linsky. His teaching was behind organizations like cops and They they um And his insistence on speaking the truth I think is very important So to to assert the truth speak up be brave about it um, there's a little incident I talked about sometimes just to emphasize the power of of doing that and When I was on city council, there was a street that The school district wanted to close it was between the daycare center and the main school building Because they had just built the early childhood center and they wanted the safety of the kids crossing the street Well, some neighbors were upset and they were they were loud and they were they were vocal and they were up front There was just a few of them, but they were loud. There's not enough to just be loud But You know, it's how you would think that everybody in the room Didn't want to close that street until one mother in the back Holding her child said for the safety of my three-year-old I'll go an extra block I'll drive around an extra block for the safety of my child And it turned the energy in the room and those people who were afraid of those people that were loud Started to speak up and they got a little louder And you got to let people know who you are and that you're in the room And you have something to say So speak speak the truth. Be brave speak up wanting to share the same microphone I I believe wholeheartedly that promote Whether it's progress or equity or is to as often as possible bring about dignity Right because I think that's one of the things that Really helps move people in a certain direction just a basic right basic dignity And talking about hunger and homelessness and poverty Those are sort of the things that that pulled at what I at what I would like to see change in our city And patty's probably looking at me and saying well, I say all that stuff patty's been Been able to gather a lot of how I see the world and variances and put them to What I've learned from her But I think that's important wherever you go to tell people what you're passionate about Right and and put that human element to it because sure we can be very data-driven Right, we're a very data-driven society But you need to make sure that you're always adding the human element And that's why I say it's important to include as many voices as possible Because I think even coming from an academic like lily who brought up and said Dignity we talked about dignity tonight, and that's what stood out to you because that is the human element of of our discussion That's important. I think more important than anything On a big round of applause including the audience for being kind enough to come today Thank you so much You can look on the website for more of the links and we want to get our whole social work grad student class Up here to take a photo with the panelists That our lovely ywca hostess is going to do for us. So thank you so much for coming