The state of our economy—and how education can address the problem of our growing poverty rates—was the theme of the inaugural ElevatEd conference, hosted by The Holdsworth Center.
According to Dr. Michael J. Sorrell, President of Paul Quinn College, and moderator of the Education and the Economy panel discussion at ElevatEd, the majority of American K-12 students are on free and reduced lunch, while the majority of higher ed students are eligible for the Pell Grant.
“We should care as much about everyone else’s kids getting an excellent education as we do about our own,” said Dr. Robert Putnam, author and Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. “If our neighbors’ children are able to receive a better education, we will all be better off. Public education benefits future job opportunities for everyone in our communities, including ourselves.”
Education experts, including Dr. Robert Putnam; Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath; President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Robert Kaplan; Dr. Richard Reeves, Senior Fellow in Economic Studies and Co-Director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution; Dr. Ruth Simmons, President of Prairie View A&M University and Dr. Michael Sorrell, President of Paul Quinn College dug deep into the status of our education and how we can empower educators to improve education across the state of Texas and beyond.
