If You Find Yourself in a Hole, Stop Digging

Whenever my Dad heard me complain about something more than once, he would mutter, “If you’re in a hole, stop digging.”   To his way of thinking, life was a matter of common sense – if things weren’t turning out as hoped or expected, before too long it was time to consider a new course.

I’m often reminded of Dad’s phrase when I think about the ‘outcomes’ we are - or more often aren’t - getting from our public investments.

As I’ve previously written, inside our Budgeting for Outcomes work, we encourage clients to spend time assessing their outcomes up front.  We ask them to step back from current practice--
  -- From the services of today,
  -- From what government provides or does not provide,
  -- From dollars and the budget itself, and
consider what outcomes they are realizing.

What are the data telling them when they do so?  Some surprising (to me) information has surfaced.  Here is my own list of Top Five Disturbing Facts:

1. 85% of brain growth occurs in the first 6 years of life – yet, in most states, fewer than 20% of America’s young children have access to an accredited preschool. (RAND and Iowa Dept of Education figures)
   
   
2. The Department of Labor reports that 49 out of the top 50 paying jobs will require post high school education (Occupational Outlook Handbook, UDSOL, 2004), yet many metropolitan US high school graduation rates hover around 70%.
   
   
3. One in every 32 adults was on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at the end of 2002 – a total of 6.7 million.   (American Correctional Association). 
   
   
4. According to a March 2005 Fox News poll, when asked whether they were bothered more by the amount of taxes they paid or how the government spent their taxes, only 12% said the amount bothered them more.
   
   
5. What matters in producing health outcomes and where our public dollars are invested are inversely correlated –

Did any of these facts surprise you?  Disturb you?  I share them to cause us to pause and ask,” Isn’t it time to stop digging” (i.e. continuing to use our current approaches/ activities without much more reflection on their effectiveness)?

This reflection leads naturally to the next question: “Where should we aim the investment of public dollars?”  I love when the budget teams dig up evidence of proven and promising practice showing what DOES matter most.  Here are a few examples:

1. Decreasing class sizes is much more costly than full day kindergarten for roughly comparable results. (What Works, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, January 2005)
   
   
2. What works in preventing crime? 
   • For pre-adolescents: Family therapy
   • For older male ex-offenders:  Vocational training
   • For domestic abusers who are employed:  On-scene arrests
   • For rental housing with drug dealing:  Nuisance abatement actions on landlords 
   (National Institute of Justice Research Brief: July, 1998)
   
   
3. What matters most in health outcomes?
   • Changing personal behaviors (50%)
   • Genetics (20%)
   • Environmental factors (20%)
   • Access to health care (10%)
   (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

More research is coming out each day.  I’m issuing a challenge to get this kind of data and information into budget and policy debates. 

Connie Nelson