On one level, that speaks to the correlation between education and employment. On another, so does this: The unemployment rate in Kansas City, Mo., in December was 8.6 percent. And according to the Missouri Department of Education, the Kansas City school district had a graduation rate below 65 percent last year—more than 20 percentage points below the state average.
For most of those who failed to graduate, the chances of moving on to one of those college campuses—or any other—are remote.
So if Kansas City is ever to reconcile the gap between academic performance in its urban-core district and its efforts to groom a thriving business environment, now is the time, business leaders say. The district’s most recent crisis—one of finances, rather than classroom achievement—has prompted Superintendent John Covington’s bold plan to consolidate operations by closing more than two dozen schools, a move that will cost the district nearly 300 teaching positions.
By the narrowest of margins, the school board endorsed Covington’s plan in its entirety this month. If it works, the district will be able to plow $50 million back into a budget riddled by reductions in state aid caused by plummeting enrollment levels.
Once the unrivaled heavy-weight of area school districts, with nearly 77,000 students at its peak, the Kansas City district today has fewer than 17,000 and is no longer even the biggest district in Jackson County—suburban Lee’s Summit has claimed that distinction.
Covington’s plan is more businesslike in its approach than many past reform efforts that have yielded little success. The district’s business model is unsustainable, he argues, and must be fixed below the foundation line.
For the first time in a long time, business leaders are looking at the district as something that can be fixed.
“You bet I am excited,” says UMB Bank CEO Peter deSilva, speaking in his role as board chairman for the Greater Kansas City Area Chamber of Commerce. “This feels very different from previous attempts to remake the Kansas City school district.”
The chamber played a significant role in a recent—and rare—demonstration of community solidarity earlier this month, bringing together a broad coalition in support of Covington’s plan. More than 40 individuals and organizations endorsed Covington’s proposals in a series of ads in area newspapers. Among them were such prominent companies as Burns and McDonnell, J.E. Dunn Construction Co. and UMB, along with non-profits, educational institutions, labor interests, religious groups and more. About the only voices missing from that chorus of support were those of the teachers union and parents of students in the district.
DeSilva said the ads were part of the business sector’s increased efforts to help address school district issues. He cited a Chamber poll released in February “that showed our community is looking to the business community for leadership.”
That same poll, he said, showed that the top three concerns of Kansas City residents were jobs, education and crime.
“Those three things are inextricably linked,” deSilva said. “Without an educated work force, they’re not going to qualify for jobs, and they’re much more likely to add to our crime challenges. Those things are all tied together.
“The civic, the business, the social services communities here—we all need a thriving work force.”
From a business perspective, the time has long since passed to put the Kansas City district’s affairs in order and build a framework for producing not just an educated work force, but a more attractive place to do business.
“It’s paramount for our school system in Kansas City to help attract and retain businesses,” said Margaret Bowker, vice president for J.E. Dunn. “We cannot attract new people, new businesses to this community if we don’t have a school system that is top-notch.”
In any discussion about bringing new businesses here, she said, the quality of the schools is always at the top of the list.
Dunn’s own interests go well beyond the parochial concerns of a company that builds a lot of schools, she noted. “It’s important for the business community to be able to attract corporate relocation,” Bowker said. “When site selectors look at a community, they look at whether they have the quality of the work force needed, but also whether it’s a place they can bring their existing leadership or management, and how they’ll react to it.”
Despite its own difficulties and limited abilities to effect school change, the city government is reaching out, as well. Mayor Mark Funkhouser has proposed a $100 million bond issue dedicated to improving infrastructure and security in the areas surrounding district schools. What he calls the Schools First program would upgrade crumbling roads, crosswalks and sidewalks for 50 square blocks— around each of the schools in the city.
Even though voters would have the final say, the mere prospect of such a program is a dramatic move for a city already wrestling with its own financial demons. Funkhouser, though, believes City Hall could accommodate the $8 million in bond payments for 20 years without resorting to a tax increase.
What’s at Stake
For decades, Kansas City’s business community has watched as the school situation has declined, and not always from the sidelines. Multiple initiatives have come and gone in efforts to work with the district to improve urban education. But with the district’s leadership changing, on average, about every 18 months for roughly 30 years, it becomes nearly impossible to form any long-term strategic alliances.
The district’s chronic difficulties, area business leaders say, have produced at least three significant drags on commerce and industry within the urban core:
For one, there simply aren’t enough competent workers in the regional core to sustain a vibrant base for basic retail and service businesses—let alone attract higher-level services and industries. Jobs have fled the core, and there’s little incentive for business owners to bring them back.
Businesses aren’t getting anything approaching a reasonable return on their investment for the property taxes paid into an underperforming school district. Not only are large numbers of students failing to graduate, but too many of those who do are leaving school with math and language skills that the state deems less than proficient.
Crime and other social ills connected to long-term unemployment and low graduation rates yield a double-whammy: Fewer people are inclined to live in the parts of the city covered by the KC school district (driving down both district enrollment and property values), and those who live outside the core are less likely to transact business in that area.
The latter, said Scott Anglemyer, executive director of the Workforce Partnership in Wyandotte County, is part of a particularly cancerous cycle. Although he doesn’t have a dog directly involved in the Kansas City school fight, he deals every day with the same
kinds of issues facing businesses and underperforming urban schools. And, just as in the core of Kansas City, Kan., what happens on the Missouri side suggests that each of the many social ills at work is reinforcing the others.
“Trying to get retail into the urban core is a good example,” Anglemyer said of the impact on business. “Groceries, for one, because there aren’t that many grocers there. It becomes for some people a major effort to go to the store, often having to work around public transportation schedules, but it’s a trip that those of us in the suburbs take for granted. And a lot of times, the responsibility for that trip falls on students. It can get in the way of homework, studying or parent-teacher conferences, and it drives down the quality of education these kids get.”
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