I am sometimes asked why I think Promise Neighborhoods is such a big deal. True, Promise Neighborhoods is potentially ground-breaking because it proposes integrating a multitude of social service and education programs, breaking down silos and measuring results. But why get so excited if only 20 neighborhoods will be chosen? Pilot programs are proposed and run all the time, so why should we care so much about this one?
The answer is that I think Promise Neighborhoods is at the center of something much larger. At the federal level, this certainly includes elements of the administration’s urban policy, such as Promise and Choice Neighborhoods. But if you look more broadly, you can see that the administration seems to be extending the concepts of service integration at the local (place) level and performance measurement into many other federal programs, too.
We are already seeing signs of it in education policy, with the Race to the Top program and the Investing in Innovation fund being prime examples, but also other programs, like the Social Innovation Fund, where the Obama administration is moving from formula grants to grants that are driven by competition and performance.
While I can not say that I have heard anyone in the administration say it this clearly, it seems reasonable to assume that this approach will be scaled up and extended to many other programs as they come before Congress for reauthorization in the years ahead. This is already happening with ESEA. If true, fusty old programs that have been around for years, including Title I education money and various block grants like SSBG, CDBG, CSBG, and so on, will be transformed over the next few years. At that point, we won’t be talking about a few million dollars spread over a few communities anymore, but billions of dollars affecting the entire nation.
The fact that some states like Florida and Wisconsin are getting on board even without federal prodding suggests this is part of something much larger. As I wrote in a report called Tipping Neighborhoods to Success, Promise Neighborhoods seems to be the crest of an emerging ‘third wave’ of social policy that may bring real and enduring change not just to our nation’s urban neighborhoods, but to American social and education policy as a whole.
That makes it a big deal.