 All right good morning everyone. How's everyone doing? Good, good. Thank you so much for joining us today. I think it's gonna be tough for me to be a moderator when I'm just in awe with the people that we have here today so with no further ado I'd like to to welcome you all to Black Perspectives and Public Policy and it's hosted by the Program and Practical Policy Engagement here at Ford School obviously. My name is Yandere Calvert I'm the Community Engagement Manager for P3E and we have a great program for you today so I'd like to introduce our panelists starting first with Mayor Wimberg. Good morning everyone. My name is Patrick Wimberley and I have the honor of serving as the mayor for the great city of Inkster. When I say that Deandre gave me the call I said I had to answer as it relates to this issue. We know that we're living at a time of change and I'm looking forward to the discussion today. I don't know if you did you want me to give a little bit more background? Yeah, yeah. Okay, well native son of the city of Inkster for the most part born and raised in Inkster lived outside of Inkster probably two two two times in my lifetime for the most part. Love the city of Inkster started my career at the Inkster Public School District in 2003 and unfortunately it was closed in 2013 by the state of Michigan and I went right into public activism. During that time I had a chance to open up a federally qualified health center in the city of Inkster for people that's uninsured and underinsured to be able to you know of course provide quality health care for them and then went off into becoming the mayor pro tem the actually the youngest mayor pro tem in the city of Inkster. It's kind of like a deputy mayor from 2008 to 2012 and then came back around in 2019 and at the height of COVID became the mayor for the great city of Inkster. So I've been serving and now I'm just looking forward to those next steps and creating a better world not only for the city of Inkster but of course for the state of Michigan. Thank you. I'm Alma Wheeler-Smith. I'm delighted to be here this morning and I'm a veteran of the Michigan legislature. I worked on Senate staff for eight years with Senator Lana Pollack and then was elected to the Michigan Senate in my own right and served there for the term limited eligible eight years. After a two-year hiatus and moved on to the Michigan House served there for six years. All of that time was spent on the Appropriations Committee and on various subcommittees of that larger committee and it's been a wonderful opportunity of course to get to know my constituents and the community in which I lived. I was raised here in Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor was always home. My when I told my dad I was running for the Michigan Senate he looked at me and said I think that's a terrible mistake. He said everybody has this concept of Washtenaw County is a very liberal bastion. He said it isn't and I don't want you to get hurt. So I said I think after all of these years with you and mom I've grown a pretty thick skin so let's let's take this on. It was a challenge but I had had some pretty good footing in running for the school board and the county commission prior to running for the Michigan legislature. I have two sisters who are also in public service and so we've batted around a whole lot of conversations about how do you make change how do you affect people's opportunities and we do to this day my older sister is still serving. She is an appeals court judge in Illinois but I'm looking forward to this discussion and to learning and learning from your questions and if I really do have anything to impart I hope I can get it out of my mouth and into your ears. Well good morning everyone. My name is Dr. Theodore Jones but please call me Ted. I am a project manager with the office of the superintendent for Detroit public schools community district. In that role I work on board relations education policy for the district as well as special assignments. I also work for the office of partnerships helping out with increasing their fundraising capacity for the district. So my journey here was a pretty winding one. I actually moved up to Michigan in the third grade. I was born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania so I'll be rooting for my second favorite team. Go birds but always go lions first. And you know we moved to Texas where my dad did his residency in Dallas and then Arkansas and finally here. So I attended college in Hampton Virginia and after a while came back in 2007 to take classes at the University of Michigan but eventually I was accepted into the social work program here in 2008 and from there I was a community organizer and school social worker before working on a state house campaign for Rudy Hobbs. This was back in 2009 2010 and when he won he brought me up to work for him in the legislature so I was a legislative director for two years. I worked in government relations then I worked on a host of other campaigns and finally started my own firm doing community development as well as political consulting but I started working for the district through a fellowship program Detroit revitalization fellows and they placed me with Detroit Public Schools Community District and none of the rest is history. So I'm really happy in my role and to be able to have such a direct involvement in education policy and I look forward to this lively discussion being here with all of you. Thank you all so much. So let's let's transition right into education especially in the black community. So the cities of Inkster and Detroit have seen major changes to the education system in the last few years. In addition to COVID and I'm going to target Mayor Wimberley and Ted first and then I want to hear from your perspective from the state but in your roles how do you ensure that children are supported and educated. Mayor Wimberley. Oh boy you know number one by showing up you know and making sure that not only they have a choice of education because in the city of Inkster unfortunately we have a school of choice type of setup. Would you mind giving some context to Inkster school system? So when the city of Inkster was formed in 1964 and believe me I can get on the whole soapbox as it relates to that but unfortunately because of segregation you have the north side of Michigan Avenue and you have the south side of Michigan Avenue and if you lived on the south side of Michigan Avenue the only school that you had to go to during that time or actual district was the Easter public school district because you were African-american you couldn't necessarily go across Michigan Avenue or east of Inkster Road. So the other districts within our 6.2 square miles which is a city block in the city of Detroit is Westland Public School District. It's always been that way if you lived just north of the Inkster Recreation Complex which is just off a middleboat road you went to Cherry Hill Performing Arts and then you went to Westland Public School District. If you lived on the east side of Inkster Road you went to Dearborn Heights Public School District but most of those folks were Caucasian-Americans and the Inkster Public School District was pretty much settled for those families that worked for Ford Henry Ford and Mr. Inkster actually formulated the first high school in the state of Michigan for African-Americans and from there homeschooling became into elementary school setups. Baylor Woodson was was there and also Blanchett Middle School actually Farrell Ralph Middle School and unfortunately in 2013 the state dissolved the Inkster Public School District and now for the most part you know people you know think that there's no school district in the city of Inkster as a whole but since its inception it's always had those other entities inside of the district because of segregation so now unfortunately those kids that live in those areas have to go out and they're bust out to go to other districts but we do have a great charter school and I know that when people hear about charter schools you know they kind of tense up a little bit but it was actually formulated the charter school was formulated by a group of teachers that had lost their jobs at the Eastern Public School District and they it's American International Academy and they have a really good K-12 program so for us just the barriers overall you know transportation of course you know living in Inkster with you know the economic and social settings that happen in the city that that caused barriers so just making sure that you know we have safe routes to school transportation and then of course you know being able to provide any wraparound services through any entities that we can work with to be able to make sure that the kids get everything that they need in order to you know have a chance at life. Thank you I'm going to uh to agree with everything you just said because actually my son goes to AIA he's in the kindergarten right now so he's he's off Henry Ruff and uh when he when it's time to go to third grade he'll be at Avadip so so yeah it's it's it's it's incredible. Dr. Jones? Yes so um my daily role uh is working with uh board relations and public policy I mean um well just policy education policy so uh just breaking those down board relations so pretty much anything that the uh board of education has to vote on um whether it be contracts or new curriculum etc it's generated first by the cabinet member and their departments and then my role is to actually go through look at the board at the board item see where there are questions or inconsistencies just generally get it ready for superintendent review then once the superintendent looks at it and gives his feedback on the board item my role then is to work with the individual departments divisions to answer his questions and also just make sure that everything is accurate and and ready to go so basically when I work with board items I always ask myself how does this board item uh advance the mission of students first which is part of the tri-public schools community districts uh core values always student first so uh also my role is uh pretty much leading the policy process for our district um is really just making sure where are their gaps within um the way that we currently operate versus you know what would the ideal be so uh when you look at uh policy you want to make sure that you're not creating something that is outside of um you know the daily operations of our district uh for lack of a better term creates uh a funded mandate um something that uh the departments that have to adhere to it just cannot fold into their daily operations so you know it's really making sure that um you're being practical that um you're also having the the bottom line of how does this policy better the lives of our students but also um help our uh staff have clear guidelines uh for their daily operations in a way that's least onerous now would you mind providing a little context for the community district versus the the former district sir so uh when the district was and um I'm going to correct a popular misconception people actually believe that the district was bailed out in 2017 that actually is not true so um the taxpayers will be paying back uh what the state gave us to create um our school district to be financially solvent um so DPS is pretty much the um the debt holder for uh for uh for the for the the money that we got from the district so uh Detroit taxpayers will actually be paying till 2048 and that's when um that debt will be uh released um and then what the just what the legislature did was they also created uh Troy public schools community district um so the community district is actually the one that does the daily operations of uh teaching uh our students um and yeah so now basically the um what was your question or yeah yeah that yeah you know just to let everyone know kind of the split that happened right a few years ago and I know it was very big for the city especially um I was working for the city at the time um and when the Little Caesars Arena was coming and you know they were getting money a brownfield money and and everything like that um there was this uproar about money being taken from the students in the school so it just shows how the the students and the education issue in the city really had ramifications not only from the kids but all the way up to development in the city and just to um add something so uh our property taxes go to um uh to to fulfill the the debt um that's 2048 so we do actually get um property tax money going towards uh uh the community district that is funded through um another source uh through the state government. Thank you. Now um Alma so for those that don't know the state of Michigan plays a key role in education um from your perspective and your time in the legislature uh what statewide policies have hurt and helped uh black students in Michigan in your opinion? Well um I think one of the major responsibilities for the state in terms of public education has been funding um and we have worked um since Prop A in somebody helped me with the year 1980 Prop A 1994. 94? Yes just be yes. See you see the greatness here and there. This is awesome. 1994 um we have been working on a school aid formula that has tried to equalize the amount of money that the state invests per pupil. It has taken from 1994 to 2020 for us to hit that level where each student was getting the same amount of money from the state of Michigan which um is great but um at we need to recognize that there is something more important than equal funding there needs to be equitable funding we need to be looking at the conditions of the school districts the students that come to school what extra expenses the school district incurs in meeting the needs of low income students and their families the environment in which they live and learn when they're outside of school. So um that was a conflict in the legislature. The the term equal funding was you know everybody thought that's great but we allowed school school districts at the institution of prop A to decide if they were going to create their own local millage that would add extra support to their school districts and then we limited which school districts could exercise that option. So a certain number of larger primarily high income school districts instituted their own millage because they were complaining that they would be losing funding for their students if they didn't have that opportunity. So we continue to have unequal funding in the state of Michigan even though we have the same state formula dollars going to each student. Those kinds of mismatches need to be corrected. We need to correct them through an equity funding process. I know that in the Epsilon A school district not very far from here we have schools with laundry facilities so that kids who come with their one change of clothes for the week have an opportunity to get them washed and dried before they go back home if they've been on recess and they get muddy and wet. We have other kinds of the federal lunch program of course helps but three meals a day is critically important to students who are low income and who may not have a functioning member at home when they get home from school to fix dinner because mom may be working. So those are the kinds of concerns that school districts are faced with that as legislators we are reluctant to acknowledge and perhaps don't even understand. We also enjoy attention between the legislature and the state board of education about who's responsible for policy in education and for making curriculum decisions and for promoting education policy statewide. So there's always been a power struggle between the two institutions about that's not your bailaway and the legislature of course feels that it's empowered to do everything and steps on a lot of toes but have we gotten there? Yeah I just want to give her a hug because thank you and man you know everything that you just said is basically what happened with the Inkster public school district and you know and I'm sorry am I okay but you know I just want to you know just say this you know publicly and I say at every chance that I get I want to thank Governor Gretchen Whitmer for her leadership and of course you know the legislators that have supported her to up the funding and and get it to be like you said at least equal but we know that the equitable conversation is is a pretty tense one because in the city of Inkster as we talk about the millage we're like 72 and millage and the millage rate you know and and we couldn't necessarily do what say a canton net 40 percent at the millage rate could do you know to balance it off so by you saying that you know the discussion has to be on equitable services across the board we have to figure out how to not only awaken the people but then in turn rally the people to be able to hold our legislators accountable and I hate that when we talked about a little bit before he came in with the term limits because you have an understanding you you get it most kids in the city of Inkster that go to school every day are dealing with poverty they're dealing with you know mom dad maybe even you know a broken home as it relates to mom or dad not being in the home they're dealing with you know just the strain of their ecosystem in the city of Inkster we have a large population of low to moderate income housing as it relates to HUD services and it's like 1200 units of they used to call them project housing but now they call them you know affordable housing and everyone that's there for the most part they're in this circle in this rat race and they're trying to get out and me being from Inkster myself I actually grew up in Denby which is Denby Terrace and a lot of people know it as Little Saigon and in some circles you know it's it's tough you know being able to you know get up and go to school every day and and focus on your work when you're worried about you know eating breakfast in the morning or you know your lights may be out you know you may not have the model the water may be off you know so those things as we talk about you know what you know Governor Gretchen Whitmer is doing and she gets it and she's really pushing for that and I really thank her I thank her personally every time I see her I know she probably get get tired of me saying it but just having the courage to try to understand and put the conversation on the table for people to become responsible so I want to definitely continue that conversation with you as it relates to who should we be holding responsible you know because people can bat it back and for for all day but who's responsible like how can we get change and and and pack change that really will change people's lives because it's really about economics at the end of the day and Deondra if I can add so speaking more of the proposal a funding piece there are also some very glaring omissions so the foundational allowance that comes from proposition a that is for a general education but there are also some funding that needs to be done at the state level with regard to school facilities which I add community black communities you can see where there's less of a tax base that a lot of facilities need just a lot more tender loving care as well as the ELL students are English language learner students and and just basically more funding for at risk students students in poverty so when you do not have dedicated funding sources for issues like those then what happens is you have to use general education dollars and in education funding we call that encroachment we have to use those dollars to pay for for ELL students for upkeep to school facilities and basically you're Robin Peter to pay Paul so you actually all have answered the second question which is great expand oh go ahead I think there's a part of your question that we haven't really answered yet and that's how we how we address what the state has done wrong so let's look at the Detroit public school system the state took over the Detroit public school system probably for a period of eight to ten years and in that in the course of that time we didn't watch the process and you know we complained about a lot of cheating and a lot of fraud that was on the state's watch and the public school system lost millions of dollars that was not going to the education of the students stories in the Detroit newspapers would talk about trips to you know the Caribbean for school board meetings limousines and chauffeurs for school board members money that just sort of disappeared which became a part of the school districts debt that citizens are paying it's a situation similar to epsilon community schools it was a merger there of two school districts that were low income school districts primarily minority school districts and they are saddled with millions of dollars of debt that money is not going to the education of the children it is going to dollars are being used from the taxpayer roles to pay off that debt so instead of saying to a school district like Detroit and epsilon community you've done what we want you to do you've consolidated school districts you've taken on a new path for the students we as the state have the resources and we should be taking care of the debt that is a burden and a detraction from your ability to educate these students have tremendous needs we found that we could make some progress in the legislature when we started talking about not black communities and urban districts that have these problems but relating them also to rural districts that have the exact same issues of low funding low property value and the same kinds of needs because the parents are not as educated not as focused on their their children's education and the opportunities are not the same i can remember going to the st john's public school while i was working from senator pollack and doing a presentation on computer technology in the schools and the superintendent asked me why they should spend money on computers when these kids were just going to stay here on the farm i was so flabbergasted i couldn't answer the question for a few minutes and i i said well the reality is your kids are not going to stay here they are going to go out and compete for jobs that they will not be ready for because they do not have the basic education and technology it we need to make sure all kids have an equal chance to get a job that has value to it um we we have at this point in time in our state budget dollars that we're wondering what to do with and we're talking about putting in an economic development fund i mean get on my high horse about spending money on business you know the whole business concept in the united states is you get an idea you find funding from other businesses or other investors and you build your business it is not the job of the state to put taxpayer money into certain chosen businesses if we did it across the board and every business got a grant to do some phase of its business that would be different but we're picking winners and losers and that's not the job of the state those dollars need to be invested where our role as a state is critical and that's in education and health care and i'll get off my high horse and no you stay on right actually i'm gonna ask you to get right right back up there yeah go ahead go ahead um because how can legislation assist in access to resources capital and opportunities in black communities i'm going to start with you well it's recognizing need and opportunity when i was in the legislature i introduced a bill that would do free community college in the state of michigan because we were seeing kids who had worked hard regardless of what their educational opportunity was in their school district and were ready to go on to school but couldn't even afford the lower tuition rates at community colleges so they hit this roadblock and kids that would watch them you know working their butts off to get their education saw them just stopped cold and said well what's the point so we kept saying look we can do this easily with the resources we have to do the two years of community college it gives the kids the opportunity to take that associates degree and get a good job or to move on to a university and complete their education and get a better job or go into a profession we had a great piece of legislation that would get that done it i was in the minority in the senate and i had a couple of people come to me and say this is a great bill they had signed on to it and i said take it because a democrat can't get it passed and instead of taking mine the governor developed his own and the community colleges were saying this one works yours doesn't governor nobody will qualify for money under your bill so the intention has to be there to make things work and you can put out public policy that looks good but is totally inoperable and if what your game is is to take credit then that's the way to work but if you want to get things done that create opportunity and improve lives you got to do the heavy lifting ted in your policy journey where you know what are how can legislation assist in access to different resources in capital yeah well i think there's a you know something that can be done in the short term medium term and long term so for the short term i would say that the expansion of the michigan eitc earned income tax credit would really help with the black community at moment i believe that the legislation would be it would be a 30 percent of the federal level and that would return 163 million to wane county so that would be a substantial yeah i would also say affordable housing policy would be another area that the state could work on at present i believe the national average is there are about 73 percent of majority households on their own helms whereas it's at 43 44 percent of black homes home ownership so in detroit those those figures are actually track pretty precisely as well i think it's 77 percent majority home ownership in detroit versus 40 yeah around 43 percent of black home ownership as well and then i would also say improving public transportation would be something that could help black community as well so there was a study a while back in 2018 that showed in detroit about a third of detroiters lack an automobile and what happened was 40 percent of those respondents said that unreliable public transportation interfered with them either being able to go to an appointment or having to miss work so those would be three issues short medium long-term that yeah could really make a difference thank you and so as as a mayor of a city that uh so i think it's safe to say the founders of inkster would be kind of mad that you're uh you're sitting at the top of the city you know but you know with issues of redlining gerrymandering and transportation uh what policies have you fought for supported to combat these systemic inequalities in the city well in the city of inkster you know unfortunately as you know just the council and locals can do so much but it really is at the state level and the federal level so we we always as much as we possibly can you know look and see where we can help and then of course write our legislators sit down with our latest legislators let them know exactly what it is that um we're looking for like for for instance um last year um something happened in the state of michigan and i can get off real deep off into it but i want to keep it as simple as possible um redistricting happen in the state and unfortunately cities like detrait um plain easter black and brown cities we lost representation from people that look like us so for me it's been one of those things that okay well how did it even start what did the conversation start and then in between um who can we work with to make sure that you know we have the proper representation um not saying that you know everyone has to look like me or even think like me but at the same time understand what i'm going through you know i have the have compassion and and understand that you know it's needs that you may have grown up a little bit different and i think you know both the people that are sitting on the diocese with me they they understand and they get it that it's it's tough you know it it is man it's it's really tough when you look at you know gerrymandering um it's been happening red lining has been happening um for for years and years and systemic racism unfortunately has just created this system of injustice that you know most people can't get out in their trap then so just being vocal as much as we possibly can but also to not just talking about it actually figuring out a plan to actually work to plan and and do the work to try to get some things um across the line across the finish line now the one thing that i can't say has happened uh and i believe it was last year um as it relates to the term limits being extended a little bit is um as it relates to state state representatives and state senators being able to hold their place a while longer instead of you know having to basically you know once they're elected they they they learn in the job and then the next thing you know they're running for office again and you know now it gives us a little bit more time to actually work and cultivate those relationships to where those people hopefully they can get it you know i would like to create a show where where i would take any person that wants to be in a political realm and they have to live first in a black and brown community to you know really understand you know what's what what the needs are so um you know just really just for me again being being as vocal as possible um working with our state legislators to to try to correct some of the things that have been happening systemically for over 300 years in our country so it's gonna be it's gonna be tough but i think that um the next generation by having these discussions especially in places like this i think that uh we'll be able to make some great segue great uh now ted how have i'm i'm trying to i'm trying to reframe this because you all are having such a great conversation this piece of paper is almost useless at this point which is a great problem to have um but issues like you know redlining gerrymandering you mentioned transportation um how much do you see external factors impacting the children within the classroom um you know maybe hearing from teachers or from a policy perspective yeah well i mean i would say that covid um gave a very stark uh put it put the issue in very stark relief um you know at the very beginning of the pandemic um one of the major issues that we had to combat with uh was now that the schools were no longer open how do we make sure that our students are able to get the meals that they need on a daily basis that that they really do depend on so what we did was we uh created a grab and go a grab and go program where we um started off first at at um all the schools and then really started going to a hub um type of approach where uh district families can just come um they can pick up meals uh for not just their student but but for all the children um in the in the uh in the household and they can pick up you know several days worth of meals so you know one would just be in food insecurity is something that we have to deal with um i would i would say also another thing that we have to deal with uh not just in Detroit Public Schools Community District but um for black communities in general is a lack of um of lack of access to advanced placement um programming so you know i i believe that um that the last i believe was in 2019 um 2020 that there was about 77 percent uh i'm sorry about 110 thousand uh students who took the AP test um 77 percent of them were a majority students uh four percent just over four percent were black students and just over six percent were um Hispanic students so there are um still um uh niggling uh disparities within the education system that we have to deal with just on um education programming itself. Dr. too if i can just add to that you know during COVID technology and and having access to the internet was a big thing for um you know black and brown communities because of the disparities and as it relates to economic you know economics within the community so you know even with that now um being one of the major issues as it as it changed the way all of us um do business and we we interact with each other as it relates to um the internet so like we would have had this on zoom last year possibly right but most of our kids in the eastern public schools in that whole area and and i call it eastern public steel because it is what it is but um they had major challenges getting on the internet because they couldn't afford it they couldn't afford the high-speed internet that was required so um seeing the state government actually putting um and the federal government actually putting some monies towards that i think it's going to really help um close that gap as it relates to the digital divide for black brown communities and rural communities also absolutely so alma you said uh you mentioned that there was a bill that you had to pass off because you didn't think that you know you'd be able to uh get the support from it but what are some of the bills that you were able to pass or able to support in the legislature that combated some systemic issues well um i don't know i always went for the esoteric crazy stuff um like universal health care so um i started i introduced legislation to um eliminate lead poisoning in the housing and that one was taken and passed by my majority team which was great um i was happy to hand off um we did i did a lot of work uh because i was on the appropriations committee we did a lot of policy through amendments to other bills because you weren't on those committees where you had deep involvement in structuring them so um i did a lot of amendment work on some policy pieces but in appropriations i was able to do quite a bit of funding direction um toward environmental justice issues toward health care um and education so you know if i could i passed a lot of pieces of legislation but i didn't look back after all these years to see what they were um but with with appropriations they are one-year bills um but you have an opportunity to direct to direct spending and that is such a key um portion of the power of legislature um for um folks who may not be aware the congress has returned to earmarking and building a relationship with your legislator your congress person is critically important to getting your hands on dollars for nonprofits and government projects in your communities i was very concerned and headed the corrections subcommittee of the appropriations committee both in the house and senate while i was vice chair of the senate um but i worked with probably the most conservative senator in the legislature um who was the chair of the senate appropriations subcommittee on corrections when i was in the house to create a reentry program incarceration and um the sort of school to prison pipeline is of critical interest to the black community while we aren't we don't think monolithically we certainly have issues that we want addressed we may have different ways to get there and i found in working with um my republican counterpart in the senate on corrections issues he was ultra conservative and here i am a radical liberal but we wanted some of the same goals and you just had to create a language that could get you there um so it was a matter of listening and understanding where he was coming from that built that line of communication where we could create a reentry program so that people who were released had an opportunity for housing work and not going back that's one of the major problems with our correction system we spend billions of dollars each year trying to help people get on a different path but we do nothing to help them put their foot on the path when they're outside of the prison system so a reentry program was established and i take a lot of credit for that um working with alan crops i think um we did a decent job um the and and that's one of the major issues for a black communities too is um overpolicing of some of the communities finding children being criminalized in school for what used to be just bad kid behavior um the iep yes yeah so you know it's we the black community is intensely interested there was a poll done of black voters at the end of the just before the midterm elections last year and it showed that yes we were concerned about economic issues we were concerned about inflation and high prices but we were equally concerned about social issues of health care covid would have been far worse for our community if we had not had the affordable care and insurance but it was still horrible because of systemic things like gerrymandering the inability for black families to gain wealth and create greater opportunities for their kids and pass that on so i'm kind of meandering so i'm going to no so this is this is a great way to end with our our formal questions um you know in the black community we're familiar with opacro from uh from color purple all my life i had to fight you know we we we know that and that's something that we can joke about but it's real um and you know this one thing that is great about this conversation uh and seeing you all just riff off each other not only is it fantastic from a policy perspective and a professional perspective but we can get in that barbershop talk and that you know those those talks that are that are real and unapologetically black so from from that perspective from you know from policy and community how do we keep fighting in a country uh that was built by us but that wasn't built for us in your opinion and i'll start with you know again i will just go back to continue to have in these conversations and and really holding people accountable in in their positions as the mayor for the the great city of inkster and i love the city of inkster you know i tell my people all the time listen hold me accountable make sure that i'm responsible you know for the position that you put me in and we have to do the same thing for you know just conversations and with our legislators you know holding them accountable you know and saying to them what our needs are you know i don't think most of the folks even know about the statistics that you just you know gave off as it relates to you know legislators is there now you know unfortunately but you know truly putting it right in their face not only fighting but educating people and giving up an opportunity to hopefully shine ultimately yeah and which is something we we were discussing before this it's it's tough especially if you are you know the only black face in a white space or you know they say that squeaky will gets the oil but if you're the only one that looks like you know looks like you and representing your communities how do you do that in a manner that just doesn't get drowned out or that isn't just kind of pacified you know so it raises so many questions but you're you're completely right you have to keep on you have to keep on pushing you have to you have to you know again and understand this i mean you know america wouldn't be the place that it is today if we didn't have help from our brothers and sisters that don't necessarily look like us it's people that you know again that want to do the right thing that's a human thing so really finding those people and then making as much noise as you can together um and and and i think that's ultimately what it is keep talking and the wonderful thing about social media and i know we can talk about all the negatives with social media is that everyone has a platform and if we continue to talk about the issues make sure that the issues have um an actual charge with the issue not just you know this is my issue but how do we solve it how do we work on becoming better human beings ultimately i think that's that's what we should be doing great start Alma well i think i learned that you keep on keeping on um it's a persistence and a resilience my dad was the first black faculty member at the university of michigan um he remained an assistant professor until a few years before his retirement because he kept rocking the boat at the university and in the community and in the state he was engaged in civil rights work and so was my mom and they were out there pushing this liberal community to bring black folks on to those public schools teaching staff there wasn't one when i was growing up to make sure that if you went into a restaurant the table that you were assigned wasn't near the bathroom or the entrance exit door so the rest the food area to make sure that kids saw administrators in the school that looked like us to make sure that we had opportunities for housing wherever in the city we wanted to live um that the black areas of the city were not the only place a black family could have a house um that was supported by real estate agreements with the realtors and by the banks not lending i think everybody's pretty aware of that um but it's that constant move forward and being patient with a step at a time i am not a patient person but you've got to understand that it isn't going to happen your way you've got to bring a whole lot of people along with you who are resistant who aren't understanding who may in their hearts want to believe but um it's not their experience so they they have trouble understanding that you're not making excuses you're explaining what life has been like and what that means over a continuum of yours so persistence finding people who will work with you um my parents couldn't have made change in Ann Arbor if they hadn't had a whole lot of white folks understanding the issues and working with them to create a housing ordinance um to to break down the barriers in education to create opportunities for their kids and others so we keep on keeping on absolutely i have little add so i i i agree with both my fellow panel members here we need to be persistent we have to have relentless conversations about the effect still of racial discrimination and discriminatory policy on the black community i would say also i i think for instance with regard to criminal justice um and and police and reform um you know i i think it was the advent of the cell phone camera that really brought into stark relief uh what was going on in the black community with regard to police encounters and and unarmed black people being disproportionately exposed to police brutality so i wonder what are the next things that we can bring that type of spotlight to within the black community to to really you know open people's eyes up and make sure that we can attack issues such as the need for affordable housing the need for you know equitable funding in education and other uh issues with regard to access to resources thank you so much so now we're going to open it up to questions from our audience uh we did have one that was a part of the rcp so while everyone's thinking of their questions i will pose this to anyone that'd like to answer but do you think effective change comes from federal policy or local policy i think it i think it comes from all it comes from three levels the local level cities townships um where people think creatively about how to resolve a problem and if they haven't been limited in their opportunity to solve that problem by the state legislature they're able to create a pilot program that may work very well for them and be replicable in other communities we also have an opportunity at the state level for that same kind of bought and policy development the federal government has its role i think there are places where universal opportunity is important and that's where federal policy plays a very important role transportation is a great example you know the federal highways that allow us all to move across the country but it's in states where a transportation department can say we've got electric vehicles can we actually use our freeways to create energy to power those vehicles so that we don't have to have a hundred thousand charging stations they're charged as they're driving but the dollars that can be spent on some of our very heavy lifting projects have to come from those that have the dollars and that is often most often the federal government we've got some real infrastructure problems that you know the new infrastructure bill that was passed last year can certainly help with but when you talk about the billions of dollars it's going to cost to put a new water system in for Flint and Benton Harbor that's not something the states can take on on their own and it certainly isn't something that angster can afford so we each have our role and sometimes it's the little guy that pushes the state and that's when the legislature sometimes gets nose out of joint and passes a law that says local units of government cannot do a b and c you know but we all have a role we learn from some of the programs that are started at the very smallest local level thank you for that okay do we have any questions we have a microphone we can hand off to you so we're starting over here and then see you live you and if you all like to introduce yourself your name your your program and policy interests that would be great yeah hi my name is Tania Harris I'm a second year MPP student and my policy concentration is mostly social policy um Dr. Jones I also went to college in Hampton Virginia so I'm wondering if you're a pirate as well absolutely and me too um but my question is along the education basis I was just wondering if you guys can talk about how much you've interacted with or like the current debate on whether or not critical race theory should be included in what we're teaching in schools or not and like how you create policy that combats that well I will um actually point to Detroit public schools community district I believe it was in 2018 that we put out a resolution stating that we were an anti-racist district so it is things like that that school districts can do that you know start at the board the board of education level and the way that that work kind of redounds to you know all aspects of what we do is we're very intentional in our curriculum about you know showing African American history showing you know really putting it into our our daily curriculum and how we teach history so I would say that would be the most you know learning example. Thank you, Olivia. Great um hi my name is Olivia Badan I am a second year MPP student here at the Ford School um my focus is on economic mobility and workforce development and my question um has less to do with policy and more to do with just um I guess your careers and you talked about like the persistence and having these conversations even maybe when you are the only voice in the room and as someone that's about to re-enter the workforce after being here in someone of a bubble um how do you with that persistence and with the care that I can tell that you all have for your communities how do you take care of yourself as Black public servants because that's something that you know we don't have a class here at the Ford School about like taking care of yourself in public service and and that's something that I think a lot of us are running into right now the burnout of it all. Well I'll try to answer that. When you're passionate about something I mean you know it's just that human nature in you to always want to go and always want to work and I think that was one of the things earlier on for me as I became the mayor of the great city of Inkster you know it was like I was burning the candle with both ends and really not getting things done in in the whole you know um I was doing a lot of things but I had to refocus myself and you know say okay these are my priorities and when you start to work on your priorities and then you bring a long help from the people that's you know passionate like you and of course in my position I'm you know the CEO of the organization you know I hired the people to actually assist me and help me and carry that load but to to take care of yourself is if you're not if you're not good nobody else is good you know especially in my position is the mayor of the city of Inkster you know it's for me it's the grassroots approach but at the same time knowing that you know family first well God for me first um family and then you know community is all part of that and when I look at the community it is family so um for me in my position that's pretty much how to you know I go about it for the most part but I'm always somebody's always telling me stop me are you doing too much deal you know but you know when you have passion it's just what it is my knee jerk answer would have been I don't take care of myself but the hardest thing I had to learn was to say no because you can spread yourself like peanut butter and then you become ineffective because you are exhausted I found that being around people who have a good sense of humor is worth more than sleep so I I've tried to find people who care a lot about policy but can also sit there and laugh at the crazy things you've gone through to make a little tiny bit of progress you know because it is humorous if you otherwise you cry spend your life crying so um it's family is important because I've got family members who are involved in public service but who see the humor every day of what they do before she became a judge my sister worked in a model cities legal service and I mean they would have people come in off the street who were just out of their minds and want them to solve all kinds of problems through the legal system and the problems were definitely not going to court so um I always told her she should write a book her secretary had a phrase what makes them go out to lunch and never come home it's like but you have to find the humor in your life because it is the thing I think that will sustain you well one tangible thing I did was I bought a Peloton yep so you sound like my daughter so I'm a big proponent of you know working out and for last month or so I've been trying to eat healthier so you know taking care of my body but also really making sure that you know not taking on too much too many things so knowing when to say no to new projects and of course you know family time and I also have a girlfriend who has a two-year-old son so having some time with them as well just yeah really helps with guarding against burnout thank you oh over here first hi um thanks for being here um I'm Hailey I'm a dual degree in the policy school in the business school um and I came in late after work so if you already covered this skip my question but um when I was an undergrad at Michigan the black student population was six percent and 10 years later it's now four percent and we talk about the increase in scholarship availability for students in Detroit and for black students coming to Michigan but clearly that doesn't address so many of the systemic problems that are you know um causing this discrepancy so I was just wondering if you guys could speak to you know what might be going on here and how can we as students better hold the university accountable the cold the cold yeah the weather yeah for sure it's a great question um I affordability is an issue the university over the past seven years has worked to create scholarship opportunities in Detroit in Ypsilanti um but those opportunities importantly began with young students so it's going to take a while before you see the students in those paths arrive at the institution but having affordability I don't know if you were here when I talked about my legislation to create free tuition for community colleges we in working through that bill we were talking with the senate fiscal agency and one of the economists said you know it's just a few million dollars more to do the full ride for a four-year institution because the federal government picks up most of the money through Pell grants and there are other sort of universally applicable fellowships and scholarships so the state would have been paying approximately 25 percent of the cost of tuition here at the University of Michigan for four years for students I think being bold in our public policy that makes opportunity universally available is something that is achievable and desirable I had a lot of people say well the kids won't work hard they won't learn if it's given to them and maybe for some that would be true you don't always value what's free but I think it's the way we teach people about how critical education is to their own development that makes it important not how much it costs and not the job you might get afterwards but the value of learning and the creativity it generates and you to solve problems and help other folks so I'm a big proponent of free education all the way through I remember Morris Hood when he was in the legislature said to the University of Michigan if your student population doesn't look like the population in the state of Michigan I will cut your funding for a long time that meant something to the University because the state share of funding to the institution was significant it is no longer significant to the University of Michigan so that threat is an empty threat and the desire for diversity has to come from the institution itself I think it's there I think we just have to be more creative about how we give kids the belief that if they work hard in school that opportunity to go to a university is available not just a hope I think I'd like to mention we'd be remiss if we didn't think kind of socially also and think about imposterization you know the University of Michigan you know that there's so much prestige from athletics to academics and there may be people from you know from different communities I can't go there like I'm not smart enough to go here I've worked here for five years and I still feel that you know working here shoot I spoke to students a couple weeks ago and I emailed my colleague I'm like did I do a good job like I feel like I I wasn't polished enough even though I've been doing this for how long I'm cool enough to get the mayor of Inkster to text me you know so but that's you know from a from a student perspective I think maybe the university can can kind of open that and students can open that too to let people know that you know whatever you're looking for here you can find and there is a space for you and you know there are opportunities to to get you in the space too because you deserve to be here you know just as much as anyone else so actually if I could add to that also so with affirmative action being disallowed I would also say you know university should explore a more economically based model for for for this action not based on race but on the on income of a family as well and you know that will capture more minority students but also just students in general who whose families might be unable to to board University of Michigan Education so that's a great model and if I could just add to that more on the social side of it you know and I really appreciate what you said because it's part of that but it's also too that you know in most black and brown communities about 50 percent of the kids read at a ninth grade level when they graduate from high school so you know being prepared and making sure that again we have those wraparound services because you know again you don't know what the situation may be at home so when a kid gets to school and you know that may be their only meal that they've had and understanding to mental health issues across the board and understanding that talking to a therapist is you know is out of reach for a lot of African Americans to be able to you know actually you know if they're going through something at home you know not being able to talk to someone you know so we talk about you know the economic barriers mental health barriers you know the wraparound services to make sure you know the kids are being tutored properly you know and being and in getting that curriculum right in their face in the ninth grade you know the one thing that I loved about the Eastern Public School District is that we had a dual enrollment program where the kids went to college in the day and at the same time they went to the high school and they were exposed to to that you know but you know of course that that went away and it's in the Westland Public School District and it's great and the Dearborn High School District is great but however what happens when they leave school and they just don't feel prepared you know they're not ready for the University of Michigan you know we you know excellence is achievable if you have the tools to be able to apply yourself so I think that's the biggest part of it absolutely I think uh I think my my clock is ticking we have one more how many more questions do we have just I can also like wait until after no no no um oh if you're the last one then we can end on that yeah uh thank you all for such a refreshing event my name is Sam Owusu I am a staff member here I work at one of the research centers the education policy initiative we sort of leverage administrative data and mixed method approaches to do research for social progress primarily in Michigan a lot of our studies are based in Michigan so a lot of contact with the Detroit Public School Community District uh my question is sort of uh and I also wanted to mention I'm so glad someone mentioned the issue of terminal limits it makes my life as a researcher hectic because there's a new administrative priority and new new people to talk to all the time right um but my question sort of relates to the idea of relationship building for policymaking um I guess how do you all approach building and maintaining strong relationships with policymakers advocacy networks even the research community I mean we can think about this as like you know it's not only a triangle between bureaucrats policymakers and advocacy or it's also sort of like a square where the research organizations are involved community activists are involved so how do you manage sort of building those connections and maintaining those connections to build effective policy particularly for marginalized groups what was a big joke uh with Clinton something about the Clinton Rolodex that he started when he was age seven I think I think we all do that as as policymakers you start with your friends in high school and you say well that person went to you know some institution and studied public policy and their area of expertise was environmental justice I'm calling them if they don't know the answer maybe they know someone who knows the answer or has a public policy interest or they'll know someone so it's starting with a tree when you were in elementary school there was the phone tree for the bus when you're in public policy there's the phone tree for an issue you call the agency that works on that issue and you say I need so and so to give me advice on this particular component of the issue I'm working on it's and then because you've stolen their ideas if you will and put them in the legislation that you're drafting you stay in touch to let them know what's happened but it's looking beyond the specific issue area to things that are tangential to it I worked on ending corporal punishment in the public schools here in michigan when I was working for lanapolic she was the senator that preceded me and you know we were talking originally to educators and then we said well wait a minute there are other people who are concerned about this we need to contact parent teacher organizations we need to contact mental health workers we need to be in touch with people who do after-school care who can bring different perspectives to bear on this public policy issue that most people wouldn't think they even thought about but they have a lot to contribute and they have a lot of context they know other legislators that they can talk to and build that support for the policy um through their network so the more networks you can get engaged on a public policy issue the