Welcome to Insight and Influence, a podcast presented by CNG Strategies, bringing you insightful conversations from influential people, including government officials, industry leaders, and advocates from across the state.
Thank you guys both for joining us today. With me today is Selene Grail, who is the executive director of the Pittsburgh Promise. And fun fact, he is the first guest who has been on two of our podcasts. So, welcome back.
Well, that's an honoring. Thank you.
Thank you for joining us. And also, we have Leroy Ball who is the CEO of Koppers. And thank you for joining us today.
First guest. We'll be happy to have you back a second time if you like it anytime. So, we'll see how it goes. So, I know that Selene, we joked about that it was the highest podcast that we've ever had, highest amount of viewers, but honestly, there's people are just catching on to the fact that we have a podcast. So I wondered if you would mind just taking a quick moment to tell us about the Pittsburgh Promise and what it does in our community.
I'd be delighted to. So back in 2007, we made a promise. We made a promise to every child who lives in Pittsburgh, goes to our public schools, and they stay for the four years of high school. If they maintain just a basic minimum GPA of 2.5 and show up to class at least 90% of the time, we will support them with $5,000 a year or $20,000 over four years to pursue a post-secondary credential. They could do a four-year degree, but they could also do a two-year or a short-term certificate program and go straight to the workforce. So since then we've had the incredible privilege of supporting more than 13,000 kids with about $192 million in scholarships, all privately funded. And some of the funding came from companies like Koppers and from individuals like Leroy and his wife, and we're very grateful for that. 192 million in scholarships. Today, 730 companies here in Pittsburgh have Promise alumni working for them. It was really impactful.
Yeah, I was actually going to say that when Selene and I started talking about this podcast that you were one of the first names that popped into his head that both you personally as well as Koppers has been a really strong supporter of the Pittsburgh Promise. So why is it so important to your organization and to you?
Well, from a personal standpoint, it is personal for me because I grew up in low-income housing in Beaver County. And only through being fortunate to have a strong left arm and to be a pitcher was I able to parlay that into an athletic scholarship, which led to my degree. Otherwise, it would have been a tougher road to hoe for me. So, I understand the value of higher education because it's meant so much to me. And I know I'm an extreme example, but from that, it was a simple decision when Selene had first approached me and educated me about what the Promise does.
Selene, the Pittsburgh Promise wasn't really ever set up to be a here forever sort of fund, but there are a lot of changes coming up for the organization. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about what that looks like for you.
Sure. When we first announced it in '07, we announced that we'll be out to raise $250 million and that it would take $250 million to be able to pull this off. For some, they interpreted that as we're setting up an endowment of $250 million. If that were the case, that would indeed secure a perpetual future for kids in Pittsburgh. But no, we've been raising the money and spending it as we go along. So like I said, we've spent so far 192 million and we have another 50 or 60 million still to spend on kids to whom we made that promise. We pledged to do that for a generation of students and we quantified that generation as 21 classes of graduates starting with the high school class of '08 and we will continue to do this through the high school class of '28 and then see them through to completion in 2033. So by the time we're done, we will have supported 17,000 to 18,000 kids with about $300 million in college scholarships. Remarkably along the way, we've seen high school graduation rates in Pittsburgh grow from 68% to 84%. Very substantial increase in graduation rates. Still ways to go because that still means that about 15-16% of our kids are starting high school and not finishing. The work persists and the intentionality behind it also. And for many kids, removing the financial barrier is not enough. For lots of kids, we need to rebuild the essential foundational building blocks that some kids have, some others don't have, that result in success or failure once they graduate from high school. So we also have 10 full-time employees who work for us, are paid by us, report to us, that they're embedded inside high schools where the college-going numbers are abysmal, and their impact over the last six years has been pretty substantial. And in those schools, numbers are telling the story and it's a very positive story.
That one-on-one connection makes a very big difference in so many people's lives.
So you have this vision for what Pittsburgh Promise can sort of transform into and you wanted to see the organization or at least the premise behind it expand to perhaps a statewide impact. Can you talk a little bit about what that thought was and why you envisioned that?
Sure. You know, like I said, we serve kids who live in Pittsburgh and go to Pittsburgh public schools along with the charter schools that received their charter from Pittsburgh Public. From the very beginning, I would run into elected officials who would say, 'Ah, those kids in Pittsburgh are so lucky they have the Pittsburgh Promise.' And my answer then was and continues to be to this day, kids shouldn't have to be lucky in order to be able to pursue a post-secondary credential. Our view at the Promise, and we're pretty convinced of the truth of this statement, is that a high school diploma is no longer enough. There once was a day when a high school diploma could result in gainful employment that could result in family sustaining wages. Those days are long gone. They're not coming back. But while a high school diploma is not enough, a four-year degree isn't always necessary. A post-secondary credential is absolutely necessary. Having a skill, a specialized skill that somebody is credentialed and certified in is absolutely essential for economic mobility and growth. And kids shouldn't have to be lucky to be able to get an opportunity like that. So, what I tell electeds when they tell me kids in Pittsburgh are so lucky, my response is Pittsburgh is one public school system among exactly 500 public school systems in Pennsylvania. And that doesn't include the kids who go to private schools or who are homeschooled or are in some other version of formal education. There are 500 public school systems and every one of those public school systems has lots and lots of kids who need to be able to obtain a post-secondary credential but can't because Pennsylvania went from the second most expensive state in the country to the most expensive. We hold first place and that's not a position of honor. But using median household income as a measure, in Pennsylvania it takes 72.5% of median household income to send a kid to college. And as a result, lots of kids are not going to college or they're leaving Pennsylvania because in some cases it's cheaper to pay out of state than to pay in state. And that ought to be embarrassing to us as a commonwealth. So we have proposed a Pennsylvania Promise and we have some very bold, courageous elected officials who have embraced it. Led by Senator Vincent Hughes in Philadelphia and Chairman Representative Jordan Harris also from Philadelphia. But they've gotten lots of support from many in our region and throughout the Commonwealth for bills that are currently active on the floors of the House and the Senate. And the bill is called the Pennsylvania Promise. So, the beautiful thing about the Pennsylvania Promise is that it guarantees every child in Pennsylvania, regardless of where they go to school, public or private, across the Commonwealth, for those whose family's income is below $75,000, that guarantees free tuition and fees, as well as room and board at the state university system. And for those whose family's income is between $75,000 and $150,000, it's free tuition and fees, but they will have to pay their own room and board. So, it's a generous scholarship that also requires that once they graduate they live and work in Pennsylvania and if they don't then it becomes a loan. But if they stay it becomes a forgivable grant.
That's I think a very important piece for this especially from a business perspective. I think that retaining the workforce here and making sure that they have access to the credentials and the degrees that they might need to enter into a workforce even at Koppers or any other of our regional companies. That's really important. How vital is that?
Yeah, no, no question. I mean, we've been fortunate here lately in that it's been more of an employer market as it relates to labor. But that's not always that way, right? We go through cycles and so there's periods of time where that bumps up significantly. Just in general, we're turning over a quarter of our workforce every year right as a manufacturer. And so to be able to continue to build that pipeline is critically important for us to be able to sustain our businesses. And so, you know, the fact that you talk about Selene, you know, being able to get credentials, the skilled trades, right? Not just focusing solely on a four-year education or two-year education because we've created our own gap by every, you know, we're part of that generational philosophy of always wanting our kids to do better than us. And we define that in terms of how much education they get. But the reality is there's a lot of kids who don't want to go on to a four-year school, who aren't built to go on to a four-year school, but have pathways, solid financial pathways that they can build a great life through the skilled trades and just stacking credentials. So yeah, it's critical.
I have a friend's son who is 23, just bought his first house. And when I look at that and think I went the traditional route, I went to college, did all those things. I didn't buy my first house until I was in my 30s. And he was able to put a huge nest egg aside to do that. And he's staying here even more importantly and has the skills and is involved and engaged in all those things. That's really, really important.
Yeah. And that is the other piece of it. I think the stickiness, you know, there is a stickiness to the kids who grow up here and go to school here, get educated here, and find jobs here. They're going to be more patient, if you will, in terms of their career progression to stick around. Again, I have a couple young adult children who are in the workforce who have several friends who went to school here, and got their degrees, got jobs in the area. Great, they loved it in the area, but they again didn't see a progression fast enough for them. And if that's the case, then, you know, you're sitting there sort of thinking of the trade-offs. Well, maybe it's better to just go back closer to home. I can kind of work in this level back home and at least be around people I know and all the rest of it. And so, there's a stickiness to keeping the kids who grow up here and get educated here that I think is different than the ones we're importing into our schools.
The other issue I think that we see not just in this region but across the state is this idea of how many people are becoming of retirement age, will be leaving the workforce very soon, and how do we address that. And I know that the Promise and you have looked at exactly those numbers and some of those demographics. What does that look like? It's kind of a scary future for us without taking some action.
It really is. Pennsylvania's workforce today, skilled workers in Pennsylvania's labor market today, there are 1.2 million people my age or older. You're younger than me, so you're not included in it. So, 1.2 million skilled workers older that are 55 years old. And where are they going in the next 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 years? They're leaving the market. Pennsylvania's death rate is much higher than its birth rate. So we are not going to be able to replace them simply through the pipeline of our K-12 schools, but we have to retain as many of our kids as we possibly can. And that's what the Pennsylvania Promise intends to do. But there also has to be simultaneously a strategy for upskilling working adults who don't have credentials, don't have certifications, are getting by on low-paying jobs, but with a certificate, with a credential that can be a six-month, eight-month, nine-month, which the Pennsylvania Promise also includes, can get a better job, a higher paying job, and improve their quality of life and economic mobility in the commonwealth. So, it should be a very alarming thing that 1.2 million people are leaving the workforce and that we estimate will result, if it's not addressed, will result in up to about 700,000 skilled worker shortfall by the year 2035. We've come up with a slogan: 65 by 35. What does that mean? Pennsylvania's population today that has a post-secondary credential of any kind is 54%. 54% of us in Pennsylvania have a credential. In order for us to fill that skilled worker shortfall that will be created by credentialed people leaving the workforce, we need to increase the percentage of credentialed Pennsylvanians from 54 to 65% and do that by 2035. So 65 by 35 is the mantra that I tell myself I've got to attain before I can retire. So hurry up Pennsylvania, help me.
So 1.29999999 until you're ready to do, till you get to that number. So we got one on, we're not losing just one more until then if you're staying until you do the...
