It took a huge amount of work over more than two years, by many people, to get to the point where Cleveland last week became the country's fourth Say Yes to Education communitywide chapter.
Now, a new phase of work is about to begin in an initiative to increase the education levels of Cleveland residents, improve college access and, over the long term, bolster the quality of the workforce to help bring about more economic growth.
The Say Yes designation is a significant achievement for a city that has begun the hard work of improving its educational system, most prominently through implementation of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District's Cleveland Plan. That effort, launched in 2012, has helped improve graduation rates and test scores, among other measures of success, though much work remains to be done for the district to get to where it wants to go for its nearly 39,000 students.
Joining the Say Yes project is an important milestone along that journey. The value of the "public-private partnership" has become a cliché in Cleveland, but in this case, the efforts of partners including CMSD, the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, the Cleveland Foundation, College Now Greater Cleveland and the United Way of Greater Cleveland, as well as more than 40 initial funders for the Say Yes Cleveland Scholarship Fund, have made a major contribution to the community's fortunes. The hiring of Diane Downing, a can-do presence in Cleveland's business and nonprofit communities, as executive director of Say Yes Cleveland gives us confidence that the organizational structure and follow-through will be a match for the program's ambitions.
The headline number from the Say Yes announcement is this: $90 million.
That's how much has been raised locally in the first phase of the effort to provide scholarships to any public university, college or Pell-eligible certificate program in Ohio for the Cleveland students who meet residency and other eligibility requirements. Big as the $90 million number is, there's still work to do, as the fund begins a public campaign to reach a goal of $125 million — enough to provide scholarships to students for 25 years.
It's true that college isn't necessarily the right destination for every student. But this also is true: Every student who is qualified and wants to go to college deserves the opportunity to do so and shouldn't be denied the chance because of family income. Too often in this country, and particularly in our community, students don't even consider going to college because they believe they can't afford it. That's a damn shame. The scholarship component of Say Yes will go a long way toward righting that wrong.
There's great community value in broadening the pool of students able to go to college. Ohio is a laggard in educational attainment, with a below-average percentage of residents holding a certificate or degree beyond high school, and the status quo won't cut it in a tech-driven future economy.
But Say Yes isn't just a scholarship guarantee program. The program's framework calls for "all entities serving the community's children to share their data to better address students' individual needs and connect them to additional support services, academic and non-academic, from pre-K through postsecondary graduation." The national Say Yes program is providing $15 million in seed money to help Cleveland roll out features such as family support specialists in schools, after-school and summer programs, and mental health services.
Say Yes works best when the private sector is involved, too. If you've ever found yourself saying some variation of "Cleveland will never thrive unless its schools get better," here's your chance to be part of the turnaround. The effort here seeks a few thousand mentors to help guide young scholars through the transition from high school to college.
That's not an easy time in life. You can make a tangible difference to a young person with a modest investment of your time but a major contribution of your experience, wisdom and compassion.