Grand Rapids schools struggle to create college culture that Promise brought to Kalamazoo

Grand Rapids schools struggle to create college culture that Promise brought to Kalamazoo

Grand Rapids schools have struggled to create college culture that Promise brought to Kalamazoo. An article in the Grand Rapids Press compares the struggles of Grand Rapids Public Schools with the success that the Kalamazoo Promise has garnered for Kalamazoo Public Schools. From the article:

Superintendent Bernard Taylor saw a presidential visit as a means of elevating the importance of graduation in a district where only 51 percent of students graduate on time, and a college readiness study determined that fewer than a quarter of graduates are prepared for college level work in any core subject. Meanwhile, enrollment continues a long decline and student poverty rates are risinge. (Taylor declined to comment for the story.)

Grand Rapids Public Schools also is trying to rally community support for reforms at its comprehensive high schools, where student achievement is improving by some measures.

A Kalamazoo-style Promise was explored by The Grand Rapids Community Foundation, education program officer Cris Kooyer said. A private study calculated how big an endowment it would take to guarantee new graduates up to 100 percent of college tuition but concluded the district is too big.

"We don't have a Promise, but if we're strategic, intentional and collaborative, we think Grand Rapids can help students achieve more," Kooyer said.

The district benefits in many other ways from a generous philanthropic community, Kooyer said.

Examples include the Meijer Foundation funding classroom grants and United Way's Schools of Hope program providing tutors. The DeVos Family Foundation funds the district's participation in University of Pittsburgh's academic excellence initiative called Institute for Learning, Steelcase backs a college-bound program called U-Prep Academy, and Spectrum Health, Rockford Construction and Amway are active in career-based programs housed within comprehensive high schools called Centers of Innovation.

Read the full article: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/06/grand_rapids_schools_struggle.html

Turning Poverty into a multi-billion dollar industry

Turning Poverty into a multi-billion dollar industry

In a recent story, NPR investigated the growth of the Payday lending industry and its manipulation of those in poverty. From the story:

Payday lending operations have grown rapidly in the United States since the early 1990s. At the industry's peak a few years ago, there were more payday lenders in the United States than McDonald's and Burger King stores — combined.

"The payday lender is kind of the emergency banker for the working poor," explains journalist Gary Rivlin. "The idea is that you have some bills that you have to pay today — your check isn't coming for a couple weeks, and you can take a loan out against that upcoming check."

In return, a person agrees to pay interest on the loan — which can be up to "200 percent interest or more on their money," Rivlin says. "It's a bridge loan to cover a gap, but the problem is, the gap keeps getting wider and wider."

Rivlin goes behind the scenes of the payday lending industry in his new book Broke, USA, which examines the $33 billion-dollar-a-year "poverty industry." Rivlin, who attended an annual conference of check cashers to learn industry tips, says he decided to write about the industry because of its rapid growth in recent years.

Rivlin answers a variety of questions throughout his interview, including why these loan operations exist in the poorest neighborhoods:

"[Payday loan operations] are there because banks have fled certain neighborhoods — it's working-class neighborhoods, inner city neighborhoods, some rural neighborhoods. Where can you get your loan? You go to a payday lender, you go to a consumer finance shop [or] you go to a pawn broker. To me, the real reason payday has grown like it has is more of an economic reason than a geographic reason. There's been stagnating wages among the lowest 40 percent [of wage earners] in this country, and so they're not earning anymore real dollars. At the same time, rent is going up, health care is going up [and] other expenses are going up, and it just becomes harder and harder and harder for these people who are making $20,000 [or] $25,000 [or] $30,000 a year to make ends meet. And the pay lenders are really convenient. Between going home from work and going shopping, you can stop at one of these stores and get instant cash in five minutes."

The story sparked a long conversation on Facebook about the Payday lending interesting. Some comments were particularly insightful:

• Banks won't cash checks unless you have an account. if you can't afford an account (i.e. fees, overdrawn charges have you upside down) you have no choice but to cash at these places or through friends...have you never been poor? banks are soooooooo NOT free of charge.
• Having worked at a place that had a check cashing service, it's been my experience that people use those businesses because they can't get a bank account (extremely bad credit, owe money to someone-usually a bank) or don't think to get a bank account.
• it's an outrage! I looked through a free newspaper here in Houston called the Greensheet last month and there were over 9 full pages of advertisements for these payday lenders and check cashers places..... ACK! How scary is that?!!
• I can so relate. I was so poor between 2000-2006, I was forced to use payday lending services. It was either that or have utilties turned off. Hellish way to live. The USA now thrives off of Poverty Pimps.
• Isaiah 3:14-15 - The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.
• It's amazing how expensive it is to be poor -- if you don't believe it, leave your middle-class bubble and visit a convenience/grocery store within walking distance of a housing project. You'll see crappy, unhealthy food offered at up to triple the price you pay at your nice clean well-stocked suburban store. It's so incredibly messed up.

Read the full article at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127236038&sc=fb&cc=fp