The conference included three panel discussions, in
which leading scholars discussed various policy issues that directly
affect the strength of the middle class.
The first plenary focused
on budget priorities. Topics included education, specifically the
training needed to prepare for 21st century jobs; employment and the
importance of revitalizing the public service sector, where jobs have
often been a pathway to the middle class, especially for members of
minority groups; a public-private partnership financing system known as
Pay for Success; and ways to better measure financial stability.
Panelist
on the second plenary discussed workforce dynamics. Speakers delved
into financial instability among todays middle class; infrastructure
investment as a way to increase opportunities for all Americans; social
inclusion, specifically the use of education and employment policies to
expand the middle class; and the importance of economic, personal
finance and entrepreneurship education.
The last panel of the day
highlighted the role of innovation in developing policy solutions.
Participants engaged in a thoughtful discussion around state initiatives
addressing middle class challenges; moving from policy to practice in
implementing ideas; programs that offer free tuition to promote college
attainment; and practices that promote civic engagement among students.
Heather
Boushey, executive director and chief economist at the Washington
Center for Equitable Growth and a member of the Biden Institutes policy
board, delivered the luncheon address on economic inequality.
Instead
of the assumption that a rising tide will lift all boats, economists
now know that it will lift some boats, while others will run aground,
Boushey said.
Inequality drags down the overall economy, she said, and changes the kinds of policy recommendations that economists make.
At
the conclusion of the days final panel discussion, Dan Rich, professor
of public policy at UD, offered his answer to the Biden Challenge.
Noting that more than half of the discussion at the conference appeared
to involve education, Rich proposed universal, lifelong education,
from early childhood through retraining adults as needed when job
markets change.
The prosperity and growth of the middle class that
occurred after World War II didnt just happen but resulted from
massive public investment, said Rich.
We did it once, and we can do it again, he said.
More about the Biden Challenge
Biden
originally issued his challenge to find ways to revitalize the middle
class when he spoke last year at the NASPAA conference in Washington.
The
Biden Institute and School of Public Policy and Administration
organized the Sept. 28 conference and idea exchange as a way to generate
ideas for Biden and others to consider. After Assanis welcomed the
attendees, SPPA Director Maria Aristigueta, the Charles P. Messick Chair
in Public Administration, introduced Biden.
Some of the papers presented will be published in a special issue of the
journal Public Integrity Symposium. The Biden Challenge will also be
highlighted at upcoming conferences of NASPAA, the National Academy of
Public Administration and the American Society for Public
Administration.
Updates and more information will be posted on the websites of the Biden Institute and the School of Public Policy and Administration.
About the Biden Institute at UD
Led
by its founding chair, former Vice President Joe Biden,
the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware's School of Public
Policy and Administration is a research and policy center working to
bring together the sharpest minds and the most powerful voices to
influence, shape and solve the most pressing domestic policy problems
facing America.