Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's Amazing Childhood Program

There is more to leadership beyond responding to crises. Here's a critical point that I want to emphasize to everyone reading this:

The most recognizable signature of a strong leader is STABILITY. The wider world outside of our communities as well as internal changes in our own community's fundamentals are constantly introducing stressors to the system. A strong leader adapts the government response to these changes to help people maintain a baseline stability in their lives.

I wanted to point out something Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's done that's incredibly forward-thinking for strengthening our community:

Judge Hidalgo has initiated a Childhood Development Fund [1].

If you review information provided by sociologists, a letter from police in Maine to legislators in 2012 sums up the impact (with links):

"High-quality early-learning programs for at-risk kids give them the best chance at success in school and in life, improve graduation rates, lower the need for special education and reduce later crime" [2]

One way to look at the Houston area/Harris County budget is by looking at costs and income [3]. Costs cover a lot of police work and other issues associated with poverty. Imagine if we just decided not to cover those costs? Then each individual would end up covering whatever happens to them. Then there's the whole court system, much of which is devoted to crime. What if we got rid of those county courts? Costs on the community would be greater, no? So the costs in the county budget are actually savings: if we didn't incur them, then the costs borne by the community would be much greater. It's a return on investment of sorts.

Now lets look at income. One of the sticking points in which Republicans and Democrats (in my opinion) differ significantly is how to address the "working poor". I'm sure the definition of what is working poor is different between them as well. In general, you're looking at an adult who is working full time (or maybe overtime) OR is underemployed in that they've not been able to secure a full time job or a job that matches their skill level and is not bringing in enough income to cover the basics for themselves and any dependents: healthcare, housing, food, utilities, transportation, and internet. Yes, in my judgement, the internet has become a "need" rather than a "want"; you are reading this article using your internet connection...imagine life without it. How many Texans don't have health insurance and are one healthcare crisis from bankruptcy [4]? That's working poor, which covers a lot of the middle class. The working poor also have costs on the county budget. For example, despite their purchases, they can't pay enough sales taxes to cover the costs for police, public works, and the county hospital [3]. So here is another cost that really is not discussed as much as it should be:

Q1: Where is the break even point: how much does a job need to pay in order for the county services versus income to break even?

Every year Houston/Harris County's population grows. Spending per person in the county has grown as well (see the attached image for the article from [5]). What you're looking at is that relative to the various sources of income, the distribution is around $500/person/year. So the income sources have to be making enough money in aggregate to net be able to pay $500/person/year relative to budget spending.

Q2: How much of the increase is due to an increase in poverty-associated costs?

Which population falls within the break-even point? I've got a strong feeling that it's among those with a professional/trade education (for example, see [6]). Lets go revisit that Sheriff's statement from [2]:

"High-quality early-learning programs for at-risk kids give them the best chance at success in school and in life, improve graduation rates, lower the need for special education and reduce later crime"

So in other words, the costs to the county budget decrease while the incomes increase. Wouldn't it be nice to have less spent on programs that address the problems rooted in poverty and more on programs that enhance our standard of living? Lets remember what comprises "poor": lack of access to healthcare, housing, food, utilities, transportation, and internet. Would you like more parks, sidewalks, libraries, museums, farmers markets, and makers spaces (specialized equipment too expensive for your garage or craft room) IN YOUR AREA?

Why is this distasteful to Republicans such as Commissioner Cagle*? The primary issue I've seen coming out of the Republican party in general is that they are more than happy to provide government (aka, taxpayer) support/subsidies to businesses but not to individuals. To understand this perspective, here are important questions that we need answers to:

Q3: If you review the County Budget, what percent of it directly supports/subsidizes (tax cuts/loopholes) businesses? (What proportion of those businesses take those profits out of Texas? Out of the United States?)

This effort of Judge Hidalgo's is working to help develop businesses &/or programs essential to our community. The endeavor focuses on increasing access to high quality childcare and teaching parents the skills they need to parent (see [7] for more information on what makes high quality childcare different). The main problem with this seed-money investment fund? Making a profit at it makes about as much sense as a for-profit religion. That, I think, is truly where Republicans and Democrats differ on governance. The for-profit focus of governance fundamental to the Republican mindset is a significant problem where the pursuit of banning abortion is not met with support for the parent (usually). The call to assume "personal responsibility" is hollow when there is no follow through with the tools and skills to achieve this result. Tools/skills, which I'll also add, that make no sense to instill via for-profit enterprises. So once again, I'd like to leave you with this quote:

"High-quality early-learning programs for at-risk kids give them the best chance at success in school and in life, improve graduation rates, lower the need for special education and reduce later crime" [2]

Note*:
Yes, I'm picking on him. Commissioner Cagle and I have disagreed regarding supporting Rep. Valoree Swanson. He's of the opinion that you have to be loyal to the incumbent; I disagreed that the unethical activity she engaged in to convince ill informed voters to get that position disqualified her [8]. This was in the Republican primary when we chatted outside of the Lone Star College Creekside Center (consider the quality of my statement here to be heresay; Commissioner Cagle may remember something very different). I was a Precinct Chair actively campaigning for the challenger to her position [3]. I resigned the Precinct Chair position in the fall of 2019, realizing that my efforts to increase ethical conduct in the party were a failure (for example, see [9]).

References

[1] https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/Hidalgo-proposes-10-million-early-childhood-15676682.php
[2] http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/early_years/2012/01/early_education_a_crime_fighting_weapon.html
[3] https://patch.com/texas/houston/swanson-wants-abolish-property-taxes-heres-why-thats-nuts
[4] https://www.texastribune.org/2019/09/10/texas-has-most-people-without-health-insurance-nation-again/
[5a] https://budget.harriscountytx.gov/bmd_budgetsprioryear.aspx
[5b] https://opendatanetwork.com/entity/0500000US48201/Harris_County_TX/demographics.population.count?year=2015
[6] https://www.lonestar.edu/economic-impact.htm
[7] https://www.naeyc.org/get-involved/advocate
[8] https://refpac.org/wall-of-shame/
[9a] https://patch.com/texas/houston/harris-county-republican-party-making-damaging-errors

[9b] https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/HCDE-trustee-Wolfe-seeks-emergency-injunction-to-13774756.php

Elizabeth Jensen, PhD, PE, CSP is the Treasurer of Referee PAC, a non-partisan, non-ideological voter information service. https://refpac.org