What exactly is the role of government? A few years ago, when I was Alameda County public health director, a local politician stunned me with his answer to that question.
I had just presented a solid, evidence-based proposal for reducing the county’s costs for foster care, emergency room services, jail stays, welfare and homelessness by making a coordinated set of strategic prevention investments in a small number of Oakland neighborhoods.
My argument was based on extensive data that allowed us to predict a range of adverse life outcomes, including school drop-out and shorter life expectancy, based primarily on the neighborhood where a child was raised.
At the end of my presentation, this politician stood up and said that he was convinced by my presentation, but it was not government’s role to invest in prevention, rather government was responsible only for maintaining a “safety net.”
I was flabbergasted and demoralized by that comment. If prevention is not government’s role, then whose role is it?
Fast forward to last month when I sat with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to hear the latest results from the Oakland Promise, a public-private initiative of the mayor’s office.
Oakland Promise is a thoughtful and coordinated series of investments beginning from birth through college that provides incentives and support for the city’s families to keep their children on a trajectory to graduate college.
Extensive public health research shows that education is a critical factor in health. College graduates live more than 5 years longer, have better overall health and have healthier children than high school dropouts.
Oakland Promise is the epitome of sensible prevention policy. It will make Oakland healthier and save money in virtually all of our government safety net systems.
Current data shows that without Oakland Promise, only 15 percent of OUSD ninth graders will likely graduate college by 2027. Through a series of interventions, including college savings accounts, coaching, classroom culture change, scholarships, financial assistance guidance and peer mentorship, Oakland Promise is already starting to see very promising results.
An independent evaluation has shown a significantly higher college application rate and enrollment rate among Oakland Promise participants, including double-digits increases for African American and Latino students. To date, over 1,500 babies and their families have been served and 4,300 kindergarteners and first-graders have early college scholarships in their name.
Some 4,800 students are being served by 10 campus Future Centers that are guiding students through the college application and financial aid process as well as connecting them to internships to acquire real world social skills.
Oakland Promise is changing the trajectory of thousands of OUSD students through a model public-private partnership. This is local government at its best!
When I asked Mayor Schaaf what she sees as the role of government, she said that it is “to make people’s lives better.” As mayor, she doesn’t run the school system, nor the network of pre-school programs across the city. Nevertheless, she sees investments in those systems as absolutely critical to improving the lives of all of us in Oakland.
From my vantage point as the former county Public Health Director, she is absolutely right. Particularly now, in a time of terribly noxious and flagrantly racist vitriol and retrograde policy oozing out of Washington D.C., a visionary, coordinated, inclusive and long-term prevention policy like Oakland Promise is precisely what our local government should be doing.
As Oaklanders, we know that we can do better, we can work together to prevent predictable harm. Our support for Oakland Promise proves that we can.
Dr. Anthony Iton is senior vice president for healthy communities at The California Endowment and former Alameda County public health director.