Closing Schools To Slow a Pandemic

The U.S. Department of Education recently published a notice in the Federal Register announcing its intent to prioritize federal education funding across 80 discretionary grant programs for areas of the country that have been designated as Opportunity Zones.  More than 8,700 Opportunity Zones exist across all 50 states as well as the entire island of Puerto Rico. When a community is designated as an Opportunity Zone, a series of federal tax incentives encourage investors to pool capital and reinvest it in these distressed communities.  By using the Opportunity Zones designation, Secretary DeVos is focusing investment in projects that serve children in some of the neediest areas of the country.

Establishing competitive priorities is a practice every Administration has used to encourage certain activities, assist specific groups, or focus government support in targeted areas.  For example, the Obama Administration established priorities for the Department of Education’s Promise Neighborhood grants that were connected to certain HUD programs and Promise Zones designations.

Secretary DeVos is using that same approach to propose a set of priorities for discretionary grants that:

1. Encourage applicants to plan projects in Opportunity Zones;

2. Solicit applications from eligible entities who are located in Opportunity Zones; or

3. Solicit applications from eligible entities that have received investments from Qualified Opportunity Funds.

Applicants will still need to develop compelling projects and compete alongside other applicants, but they may get additional bonus points for projects connected to these low-income communities.

Research shows that these communities could benefit from priority consideration due to the challenges they face. An Economic Innovation Group analysis of the designated zones found that these areas had an average poverty rate of 31%, well above the national average. Additionally, poverty rates actually rose in nearly 60% of zones between the 2006-2010 and 2013-2017 periods. Even though Opportunity Zones only cover one-quarter of the country’s low-income census tracts, they account for 38% of all census tracts that have been persistently poor ⁠— defined as having a poverty rate of at least 20% since at least 1980.  More than 35% of Opportunity Zones saw family incomes decline between 2006-2010 and 2013-2017.  And during a time of historically low national unemployment, Opportunity Zones have an average unemployment rate of 14% compared to the national average of 3.7%.

Prioritizing Opportunity Zones addresses equity and educational quality considerations as well.  African Americans constitute twice as large a share of the zone population as they do the national population. Additionally, as I highlighted in EducationNext, there are 13,536 elementary or secondary public schools located in Opportunity Zones. On average, 71% of students in these schools come from low-income families. Working with GreatSchools, I found that the average rating for schools located in Opportunity Zones was 4.0 out of 10.0, compared to 5.2 for those located outside an Opportunity Zone, suggesting greater academic and student support needs.

The good news is that there are a number of ways Opportunity Zones can be leveraged to strengthen education from cradle to career. For Example, Opportunity zone funds could:

• Expand access to early childcare.

• Build new schools or finance charter school facilities.

• Finance new career and technology centers.

• Build Teacher Villages to expand affordable housing for teachers.

• Support community redevelopment around HBCUs.

• Strengthen higher education, through initiatives such as Stillman College leveraging investments to build student housing and a new hotel for training students in hospitality.

• Invest in new workforce companies, such as technology apprenticeship provider Kenzie Academy or the training provided by solar installation company Chart House Energy.

• Incubate entrepreneurs through programs such as Youngstown Business Incubator, Bounce Innovation Hub, Embarc Collective, or the Justice Accelerator.

• Or build out broadband for schools and communities.

Department of Education grants could boost these community projects that are tailored to local needs. Schools and universities are anchor institutions for many communities and can play a critical role in helping children climb out of poverty. The Department deserves credit for prioritizing Opportunity Zones as a way of ensuring that grant dollars reach the communities that need them most, and where they will have the biggest impact on children’s lives.