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Three panels composed of six participants each tackled one of the questions posed, with each panelist being allowed 90 seconds to respond to the question, followed by a second round of responses limited to 90 seconds each. Tables of six throughout the room then focused discussion on the topic, jotting their thoughts onto index card-sized Post-its, which were transcribed into booklet form for participants.
The first panel addressed “What should we stop doing?” and included: Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon of the Texas House of Representatives; Father Virgil Elizondo; Charles Cotrell, president of St. Mary’s University; Robert Dugas, president/CEO of Goodwill Industries; Elizabeth Ames Jones, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission; and former Mayor Howard Peak.
In the first round, McClendon, recalling her prior work in the field of juvenile probation, advocated an end to the mind-set that illiteracy is “OK,” noting that 25 percent of San Antonio’s citizens cannot read. “If you cannot read, the quality of life is not going to be as high as it should be,” she said. With it being estimated that 85 percent of new jobs here will require some level of education or training beyond the high school level, those who cannot read will have no hope of acquiring these jobs, she observed.
Father Elizondo stated, “We can’t have a great city unless we have good education for all our people.” He would like to see an end to the inequality of our independent school districts, he said, opting for a regional school district that would provide a quality education for all students. He would also like to see students have the option of attending private school, noting the incredible amount of local leaders Catholic schools, with their emphasis on a good education and moral values, have produced. “We need the public school, along with another school option,” he said.
Said Cotrell, “In order to promote an enhancing moral vision for the city in the next 25 years, I think we should stop maintaining boundaries through sections and limits that are artificial, historically based.” This included, he said, the need to end the inequality of San Antonio’s school districts, as well as doing away with “artificial and undue limits on the election of city officials, so that active vibrant voices can continue in leadership.”
Dugas’ plea was to “stop ignoring and wasting the talents of people with disabilities and barriers, who have so much to offer the workforce and our economy.” These disenfranchised people are, he noted, struggling, with a 70 percent unemployment rate — a group numbering more than 150,000 persons in San Antonio. A DuPont study has shown, he pointed out, that people with disabilities outperform their non-disabled counterparts. Employment barriers also face those who have been incarcerated, he said.
“We say we don’t want them to re-offend,” he continued, “yet we don’t give them employment opportunities, which is the number one method to reduce recidivism.” Lastly, he observed that we need to stop refusing to pay people a living wage. “We must provide a viable option to public assistance,” he said. “No one should take a cut in quality of life when moving from public assistance to independent employment.”
Jones spoke of the need for the city to concern itself with the physical well-being of its people. San Antonio has the reputation of being one of the fattest cities in the country, she noted. “Many San Antonians cannot fulfill their potential because of the barriers of bad health, perhaps due to obesity or diabetes,” she added. Regarding schools, she suggested that perhaps we should stop looking to state government to provide scholarships for low income and deserving children, and look at other alternatives.
Peak’s emphasis was to “stop settling.” “Stop settling for what we are today, for how things are today,” he said. “Stop being so complacent. Stop griping about things without doing something about it.” He cited as problem areas low educational achievement, high poverty rates, low wages and “virtual combat zones in some of our neighborhoods.” Other areas cited included the poor state of low-end housing, a lagging infrastructure, squabbles between groups that turn into permanent enmity, and poor physical health. “Despite this list of negatives in San Antonio,” he said, “we’re a great city, but we’re not near what we could be if we apply ourselves to making some of these fundamental changes that will provide for a better future.”
In the second round of 90-second presentations, McClendon urged the extension of city council terms, pointing out that just as council members learn how to get things accomplished, their term is up, limiting their effectiveness. “Some of the best talent that we have leave before they’re able to accomplish much for their district,” she said, noting that once a person, including a mayor, has served two terms, current rules prohibit their ever serving again on the council.
Father Elizondo noted, “The real sign of greatness of a people is how we treat the weakest amongst the people.” He related that too many of our young people are currently in detention centers. “I think we need to pay attention to those that we could turn into potential good citizens,” he said. “Right now, we are almost preparing them to be lifetime professional criminals.” Term limits and reaching out to the disenfranchised were also mentioned as concerns of his.
Said Cotrell, “I think that we sometimes speak in far too narrow a partisan way.” He reiterated the need to eliminate “jurisdictions, limits and boundaries that are humanly made” and “to promote equality in the best sense for all of our youth.”
Dugas stressed the need to be proactive, rather than reactive, noting it would be a “wonderful state of affairs” if we could reach young people, such as those now in detention, “before they committed that first crime and help to turn them around.” Noting the sense of community and working together fostered by the symposium, he expressed the hope that “boundaries” previously in place could be eradicated, leading to great progress in the years ahead.
Jones observed the general agreement of all the panelists on what needed to be fixed, but ruefully observed, “We’re preaching to the choir with this group in this room here today.” She noted the same issues being discussed had also surfaced in her days in the state legislature and that in recent years the federal government had been turning over more jurisdiction to the states. “Wouldn’t it be interesting if we could depend less on the state and ask for our own resources back?” she said, pointing out that locally we could more wisely apply revenue. Regarding schools, she commented, “We know that our Catholic schools, high schools and colleges are a treasure for our community.”
Peak noted one of the common threads in the morning’s discussion had involved finding a better way to deal with fundamentals — better education, raising wages, reducing poverty levels and reducing rates of illiteracy. “Unless we deal with those fundamentals, the true foundation of our community, then we’re not going to improve,” he said. Noting the current trend to describe great cities as those that attract high-tech and creative persons, he observed that “no amount of waxing and shining our city is going to mean anything, if we have a high rate of poverty.” Education should be our top priority, he said.
“The population of our city that is most associated with lower wages, lower education achievement, high rates of illiteracy,” he continued, “is the segment of our population that is going to grow the quickest, and that means we’re going to have the same kind of San Antonio that we do today — except that we’re going to be in worse shape!”
In the April 27 issue — What we should keep doing. |