Secretary Duncan speaks to United Way leaders

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who gave the keynote address on May 13, 2009 at United Way’s national conference in Detroit, said, “I want to challenge all of us to think differently not just about how we use resources but about how we interact with each other. We need more meaningful partnerships with stakeholder groups like United Way, which has done tremendous work increasing parental involvement, improving adult-child mentoring programs, and helping child care facilities get the resources they need. We cannot do this important work in silos.”

Secretary Duncan was on hand as United Way and American Human Development Project (AHDP) announced the release of the Common Good Forecaster™, a Web-based tool that forecasts how conditions might change in a community if educational outcomes were to improve. The tool can drill down to the county level for communities across the country and can answer such questions as:

• To what degree might higher levels of education in a certain county boost incomes and lower the poverty and unemployment rates?
• How might changes in the educational level of a particular state affect the incarceration rate? The percentage of adults who are obese? Voter turnout in the next election?

(Photo: Detroit, MI, Wednesday, May 13, 2009. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and United Way President and CEO Brian Gallagher addressed a crowd of more than 1,200 United Way professionals from across the country.)

Links:
Common Good Forecaster™