Ariz. firms are making schools their business- What is your business doing to help improve education?

When it comes to business involvement in public education, Arizona is at a nascent stage.

Jonathan J. Higuera
The Arizona Republic

Although individual companies have been involved in singular efforts, such as adopting schools, encouraging employees to serve as mentors and participating in other worthwhile projects, the mind-set that business can – and must – be involved at the public-policy level in a coordinated fashion is a relatively new concept in the state.

In March 2002, a group of business and education leaders formed the Arizona Business and Education Coalition with the mission of improving the state’s K-12 education system. A year and a half later, the group has some solid goals to achieve that mission:

• Reduce Arizona’s dismally high dropout rate.

• Increase support for middle school students getting ready to move up to high school.

• Establish an academically challenging high school curriculum.

• Set up all-day kindergarten programs.

• Ensure that all students are reading at grade level by the third grade.

"We’ve always had specific companies supporting different programs," said Ken Burdick, president and chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare in Arizona and a member of the coalition. "Now we’re looking to become a loud voice and strong advocate for education in Arizona."

That sense of urgency stems from widespread business concern about the quality of homegrown workers and the obstacle the state’s poor educational record poses in attracting outside talent.

"We’ve found that as people consider employment opportunities with us, the education system is a major factor in terms of whether they accept," said Bob Enderle, director of diversity and community relations at Medtronic Microelectronic Center, a Tempe medical-device manufacturer with 1,400 employees.

The coalition has its roots in the campaign to pass Proposition 301, the successful 2000 initiative to pump millions of dollars into the state’s education system. It got business representatives and educators talking seriously about their mutual needs.

The collaboration has blossomed since then. The coalition was set up on a formal basis to promote efforts to build a high-quality education system statewide, starting in preschool.

"We’re at a very exciting beginning," said Susan Carlson, who was hired as the coalition’s executive director last October and is a former educator. "I don’t know if there’s ever been a time when people have come together and said, ‘We’ve got to do something, do it fast and do it right.’ "

But Arizona lags in these efforts compared with other states. For example, the coalition is based on a model created in Texas 12 years ago. And in North Carolina, where a group of Arizona business, education and government representatives recently visited, businesses have helped fund early-education programs for the past three years.

And even at this early point, the coalition has had tangible successes. Last year, coalition members worked with the state Department of Education to hold off labeling schools as underperforming after only six to 12 months of reform. During the 2003 legislative session, 10 top Valley chief executive officers expressed concern to legislators when they learned that a $19 million federal grant for early-childhood education was on the chopping block. That program eventually was saved.

The business leaders had learned during the Proposition 301 campaign that policymakers would listen to them and their concerns in exchange for support. The proposition earmarked millions of dollars for the state’s educational efforts.

"Business has been very helpful in setting policy with standards that are both reasonable and rigorous," said John Baracy, superintendent of the Tempe Elementary School District. "They recognize that it’s crucial to attain the resources to improve achievement. . . . I don’t know of any business that doesn’t put the appropriate resources" back into the company so it can get better, he said.

While some critics maintain that the business rhetoric on education stops at the wallet, the dialogue between the business community and educators has allowed both sides to better understand the other’s perspective.

"The closer they work with the education community, the more they understand the challenge we have ahead of us," Baracy said.

To its credit, the business community didn’t come in demanding to run schools based on a business model, even as it pushed for greater accountability.

"We went into it thinking we needed to improve the dropout rate and we would have to work on the curriculum to do that," Burdick said. "We kept peeling back the onion and came upon statistics that showed the dropout rate increased dramatically if students were not reading at grade level at the third grade."

In fact, that’s the growing national thinking on the most effective way to improve educational outcomes.

"There are many things to do, but this group decided to put its oar in the water for all-day kindergarten," said Jim Zaharis, vice president of education for the Greater Phoenix Leadership, a group made up of presidents and chief executive officers from the Valley’s largest corporations and law firms.

Zaharis, former superintendent of the Mesa Unified School District, said business involvement in education is imperative to improve student achievement.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/1021bized21.html