The City Club of Cleveland Podcast

This March, many Ohio students will return to the classroom for the first time in a year, after schools first shut down because of COVID-19 last spring. Teachers, administrators and parents have worked tirelessly to educate these students, but most agree that remote instruction simply cannot replace the learning done in-person with a teacher and student face-to-face. Some educators and policy makers, fear that, for some students, the educational and social losses that have occurred as a result of remote learning are steep and will be hard to surmount.\r\n\r\nOhio Governor Mike DeWine recently asked all Ohio public school districts to formulate and submit a plan to address the educational losses of the past year by April 1st. Some suggestions have included extended school-day hours, more tutoring, adding days to the beginning or end of the school year, or the creation of robust summer learning programs. This request comes just a few weeks after the Ohio Department of Education published a solemn report on literacy statistics in the state: Almost half of literacy tests administered to kindergarteners revealed that these students scored "not on track," and third grade reading proficiency rates dropped by eight percentage points.\r\n\r\nJoin us as national and regional educators discuss what learning loss is, how severe its effects really are, and what school districts are doing to mitigate it. We'll also discuss what teachers, parents and students may have gained educationally during the pandemic.

Despite the attention paid to tech and gig jobs and workers, the manufacturing industry continues to occupy a central place in the American economy. For many, a manufacturing job provides the most promising path to job stability and upward mobility. However, over the last decade, the implementation of technological advances in manufacturing - digitalization, automation, robots, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things (IoT) - led to heightened fears of job loss, especially for workers without a college degree. The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated these fears, creating deep divisions between workers able to engage in remote work and those unable to do so.\r\n\r\nNow, as vaccine efforts ramp up, the United States is about to enter a \"new normal\" and recover from the economic downturn, while also re-engaging previous efforts to revitalize and develop its manufacturing industries, in both traditional and emerging sectors. What does the \"factory of the future\" look like post-COVID? Will the reliance on emerging technologies deepen - and, if so, what effect does that have on workers? Is it possible for the manufacturing industry actually gain resilience through the adoption of technology?

It has been one year since the COVID-19 pandemic entered Ohio. Now, hioans are hopeful that we\'re at the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Vaccine distribution is accelerating, confirmed cases and positivity rates are declining, schools are returning to in-person classes, and certain restrictions are being lifted. Governor Mike DeWine discusses what\'s next for the state of Ohio.\r\n\r\nThis forum is the The Annual Bolton Memorial Forum on National Politics. Support for City Club Virtual Forums is provided by Bank of America, KeyBank, PNC and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. Production and distribution of City Club forums in partnership with ideastream is generously provided by PNC and the United Black Fund.

Dwindling enrollment. Another look at the digital divide. Hybrid and totally remote learning. The pandemic has sent ripples through the education system in the United States, in many ways permanently changing how our nation's children learn. Amongst these change, how students are tested has been altered as well.\r\n\r\nAfter schools were shut down a year ago, several college and universities made submitting SAT and ACT test scores optional. Prior to the pandemic, there were 1,070 schools that were test-optional - one of whom was test-blind. That figure has jumped to nearly 1,700 and counting, with more than 70 considering themselves test-blind for enrollment this coming fall semester. The College Board, the non-profit organization with a mission of making higher education accessible for all, recently announced they are no longer offering the SAT Subject Tests and the essay. With standardized testing under more scrutiny than ever before, educators, parents and student are taking a deeper look at the organization and the history and legacy of testing in the U.S. The College Board nearly operates as a monopoly with more than $1 billion in annual revenue. In recent years, studies and data have found that that testing in general puts our nation's most vulnerable children at a socioeconomic disadvantage, leading to the College Board creating its controversial Adversity Index. In that same vein, opponents of say testing can actually give some kids an extra advantage.\r\n\r\nNow, some colleges are phasing out the test altogether or, in some cases, creating their own entrance exam as is the case with the University of California school system.\r\n\r\nThe effects of the pandemic aren't limited to college testing-high school and elementary school systems around the country are also taking another look at the benefits and shortcomings of standardized testing as well.\r\n\r\nIs standardized testing in the U.S. in jeopardy? How can doing away with testing altogether help or harm students? Join us for a City Club Youth forum to discuss standardized testing.\r\n\r\nThe livestream will be available beginning at 12:30 p.m. Have questions? Tweet them at @cityclubyouth or send a text to 330.541.5794.

For more than 30 years, The City Club of Cleveland has hosted the annual High School Debate Championship in which the top two area high school debaters square off in a classic \"Lincoln-Douglas\" style debate. Despite the pandemic, we are moving forward with this tradition and presenting the championship virtually.\r\nThe two finalists, Sophia Avery, a junior at Chagrin Falls High School, and Soren Palencik, a senior at Hawken School, will be debating Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee universal child care.

In 2021, Cleveland faces a mayoral election. Leading up to the primary, the City Club will be speaking with candidates seeking the city\'s highest office.\r\n\r\nRoss DiBello grew up in Chesterland and graduated from both The Ohio State University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. An attorney, he spent most of his career working for Judge Cassandra Collier-Williams, most recently as her staff attorney at the Court of Common Pleas.\r\n\r\nDiBello formally announced his candidacy for Mayor of Cleveland on October 28, 2020. As mayor, he plans to institute more democratic procedures on Cleveland City Council and increase transparency, prioritize public transportation, close Burke Lakefront Airport and create a vibrant lakefront, and increase innovation in education.

A recent poll from the Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center found that 91 percent of Americans favor some sort of criminal justice system and police reform. But that\'s not the only aspect of our legal system hampered by decades of discrimination, racism, and classism. There is also a persistent civil justice gap in America - and it\'s widening.\r\n\r\nThe civil justice gap is described as the difference between the civil legal needs of low-income Americans and the resources available to meet those needs. According to one recent study, poor and low-income Americans received adequate legal attention for only 14 percent of the civil problems they reported. The vast majority, unable to afford representation, too often navigate the courts and other bureaucracies on their own as they face eviction, debt collection lawsuits, issues with immigration, disability, and domestic violence. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this problem. What is it about the way our courts work that make it so hard for ordinary people to navigate them and get the resolutions they need?\r\n\r\nJoin us as national and local experts discuss the scope and scale of the problems that people encounter in the civil legal system, and explore some potential solutions.

As the nation begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, we\'re learning that the availability of child care, decisions regarding when to safely re-open schools, and the broader workforce are inextricably connected.\r\n\r\nWhile child care professionals were initially lauded as essential employees at the start of the pandemic, their prioritization declined as time passed. Statewide lockdowns, the closing of schools and in-person learning, and the dramatic increase in the number of parents working from home or not working at all resulted in the shuttering of many child care centers, some permanently. It is estimated that up to 40 percent of child care centers will never reopen after the pandemic subsides.\r\n\r\nThis situation has and will continue to disproportionately affect women. With schools closed and limited options for safe and affordable child care available, women have dropped out of the workforce. According to the National Women's Law Center, women have accounted for 55 percent of the net 9.8 million jobs lost since February 2020. The lack of high-quality, affordable early care and education has been a barrier to women\'s employment and advancement for decades. Now, if current trends are left unaddressed, we risk exacerbating existing inequalities and reversing decades of progress toward the creation of an inclusive economy for women and people of color.\r\n\r\nWe\'re at a critical point in our state - and our nation\'s - history. The decisions made in the near term will impact child care providers, working women, businesses that employ parents, and our children, the future of Ohio's workforce. Join us as two local leaders discuss efforts underway in Northeast Ohio to address the child care crisis.

More than 22 million Americans have lost their jobs since the onset of the pandemic. As a result, in early January, American households were $40 billion behind in utility bills and $32 billion in rental arrears. A stimulus package that earmarked $25 billion in rent and utility assistance helped some as did a federal moratorium on evictions, issued first by the Centers of Disease Control, followed by Congress, and extended by President Biden through March, 2021. But is it enough?\r\n\r\nOver the past few years, Cleveland has made great strides in combatting evictions. In June, 2020, the right-to-counsel program was launched, guaranteeing free legal representation in eviction cases for extremely low-income residents. Yet the threat of eviction isn\'t solely an urban problem. In Cuyahoga County, there are about 76,000 renters, who are facing

Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption investigator and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin's most prominent critic, is determined to challenge the authoritarian leader and change Russia\'s political system. He was arrested on January 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Putin has denied being involved. Navalny is currently jailed for violating the terms of a 2014 conviction, a conviction Navalny maintains is politically motivated.\r\n\r\nNavalny's arrest and jailing has prompted the biggest dissent the Russian government has faced in years, and the peaceful protests that have occurred across Russia have been met with heavy police presence and thousands of civilian arrests. The situation has also heightened tensions between Russia and the European Union (EU)