The One Shelby plan appears to pick up where Mayor Lowery’s campaign left off. Specifically, the first stated priority of the plan is early childhood education. Recommendations include creating a roadmap to full “Pre-K for All” within Lowery’s first term, as well as utilizing early childhood investments as a two-generation strategy to help parents enter the workforce. The plan commits to creating a financial roadmap within the first 12 months.
Furthermore, One Shelby indicates an intent to connect early childhood programs to the K-12 system and literacy goals to reduce losses in transitions. Creating a seamless path from high-quality early learning to literacy instruction, middle school, high school graduation, and postsecondary and career pathways is a sizable portion of the plan. Crucially, several public, private, and nonprofit entities are named as partners in coordinating efforts to alleviate issues that children are currently facing in the county’s education system: chronic absenteeism, low literacy rates, and mental health issues, to name a few. Mayor Lowery’s team emphasizes that this work cannot be done in a piecemeal fashion.
The administration also sets its sights on some ambitious workforce development goals, including creating a system of referrals for training programs and creating high-need certifications in healthcare, early childhood education, and more.
Of course, no cradle-to-career plan is complete without addressing the out-of-school factors that impact a child’s ability to learn. The One Shelby plan dutifully includes recommendations to improve housing stability by investing in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and improve public health through data partnerships and priority health targets.
None of this will be possible, however, without what is perhaps the most crucial portion of the plan: fiscal sustainability. The mayor’s team has set its sights on improving the county’s reserve fund to over 20% while assessing revenues and spending to prioritize investments. A huge portion of the county’s budget involves large-scale capital projects, which will need to be right-sized, according to the plan. Presumably, this includes the new Regional One hospital, new jail, and any new school buildings. Many of the priorities listed above will require significant investment and coordination across sectors, which will be out of reach unless the county’s finances are in order.
