Food security is now a well established term, referring to both the availability of food in a community as well as engagement in the process of creating, selling and consuming food. Food security began as an elite concept among whites, but in recent years has been adopted by a quite diverse, multi-ethnic community. This was evident at the 2011 Community Food Security Conference in Oakland, CA (https://foodsecurity.org), which was attended by my wife, Sharon Lezberg, who works in this area. Food security now goes well beyond food itself to embrace the fabric of communities.

For many years, the concern about diversity in education was focused on the “achievement gap”, notably that poorer students–read under-represented minorities, or URMs–did worse than richer students–read white and most Asians. In recent years, efforts have been made to shift the focus from “gap” to “debt”, notably talking about the “education debt” and the “economic debt” to URMs (https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X035007003). This admirably shifts the “blame”, if you will, from the have-nots to the haves. (See also “The next civil rights fight: Scholar Gloria-Ladson Billings believes African American students deserve better”, Isthmus, Dec 2013, https://isthmus.com/news/cover-story/the-next-civil-rights-fight-scholar-gloria-ladson-billings-believes-african-american-students-deserve-better/. See also “Please Stop Using the Phrase ‘Achievement Gap’” by Camika Royal, https://www.good.is/articles/please-stop-using-the-phrase-achievement-gap.)

Casting the issue as education dept reveals a national problem that needs fixing, rather than a community issue. Yes, it is a national problem, but is there a national solution? The apparent solution at hand today is the Common Core Standards (https://www.corestandards.org), which are now being implemented at elementary schools across the country. Many aspects of these standards are laudatory, and the need for some transformation is clear, particularly given the heavy external pressure to shift education funding from public to private resources.

However, is there not another way to think about learning, particularly in these times when there is so much interest in lifelong learning? That is, we need to ensure that children at important development stages have appropriate learning opportunities. In addition, young adults need the opportunities to learn practical and cognitive skills that prepare them to as adults enter society in all its manifestations (building family, jobs and careers, civic engagement, etc.). And adults have wishes and needs to expand their learning, whether for job retraining or to learn new skills or simply for pleasure. It is well known that an educated society is safer and healthier, and that success of that education and learning is measured by advances for women (https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/17/bridging-the-gender-gap/). Is learning not a community security issue that is as important as food?

So, why don’t we think in terms of “learning security” rather than gaps or debts? This is about lifelong learning, and people turn to learning opportunities and tools at many points in their life. These include the library (witness the modern Madison Public Library, https://madisonpubliclibrary.org), a community college, a major university, and a series of online courses. And they include community centers, parks and gardens, and blogs and web spaces. Thinking of this broader concept of learning security–making sure all individuals in all communities have many-faceted access to learning opportunities–allows us to focus on the social/economic system that includes the community and the individuals (each within multiple communities to be sure). Viewed this way, learning security is a systems issue rather than a problem due to one group or another (haves and have-nots). And solutions will emerge by considering the learning system that is embedded in and between communities.

In fact, solutions are all around us (such as the new library), but systems holes (to avoid the word “gaps”) abound. One hole I learned of recently involved online learning for gateway courses, with the hope to reach low income individuals. Unfortunately, there was inadequate infrastructure for these individuals–in terms of ready access to technology and resource people–leading to a disaster (https://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23366281/online-college-course-experiment-reveals-hidden-costs). The question is, how do we engage community to address learning security issues? And how do we engage the established education system (Dane Co and Madison K12; UW-Madison; MATC and other colleges nearby) and support infrastructure (People Program; Parent-Teacher Groups; College for Kids & GearUp/EIP) in next steps for learning security? (See also https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-do-you-get-poor-kids-to-apply-to-great-colleges-180947642)

And how do we engage the business community? Andrew Young gave a fascinating talk in Madison on MLK Day (broken link: host.madison.com/news/local/writers/pat_schneider/andrew-young-tells-madison-activists-to-stay-the-course-set). He spent a lot of time talking about the transformation of Atlanta, GA, focusing on the effort to involve industry leaders in building the international airport. What investment in Madison will lead to a similar transformation in Madison (hopefully without the sprawl and traffic challenges of Atlanta)?