People often think about economic opportunity as an individual circumstance, shaping chances of upward mobility within a family or household. But what if we thought about it as a public good instead?
In contemporary California, people depend on at least three things to achieve economic stability: education, employment, and digital connectivity. What can California do to ensure these essentials are available for all our state’s residents?
In the summer of 2024, the Possibility Lab invited public policy researchers from across California to share their ideas on addressing these questions. Here, we present reports from three policy experts: Carrie Hahnel (on education), Anibel Ferus-Comelo (on employment), and Edward Helderop (on digital connectivity).
According to these researchers, California can generate economic opportunity for all by reimagining how we learn, how we work, and how we connect with one another. There’s a role for everyone to play in the policy solutions described by these researchers — from students and parents, to teachers, workers, civil servants, and employers.
Read the full memos on Education, Employment, and Digital Connectivity
Reimagining How We Learn: Policies for Abundance in Education
Despite California being a place that has incubated groundbreaking innovations in science, technology, and medicine, there is a persistent literacy crisis among our state’s youth, with only one-third of 8th grade students demonstrating proficient reading levels in 2024. This status quo is not inevitable, says Hahnel, but rather a function of specific (and changeable) factors: inequitable funding that disadvantages students, inefficient governance that undermines progress, and inflexible requirements that constrict teacher talent.
California is a state of abundant wealth, and yet California allocates less funding to public education as a share of its economy than many other U.S. states. In her report, Hahnel highlights a range of policy strategies that could more effectively tap California’s plentiful economic resources and ensure adequate funding flows to students statewide.
While more money to underserved schools could make a meaningful difference, the total dollar amount is not the end of the story. According to Hahnel, it also matters how that money is spent, and whether the state’s standards and requirements for ensuring high-quality education also enable a diversity of learning methods that meet the full spectrum of student needs.
According to Hahnel: To address the root causes of scarcity in education and move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach, California might consider embracing innovations in school design, such as alternative scheduling, personalized learning, and hands-on work experience. While every child in California is legally entitled to a free public education, not every student receives one that helps them realize their full potential.
Reimagining How We Work: Policies for Abundance in Jobs
While education is important for its own sake, it is also a means to an end, offering a crucial pathway to rewarding jobs and stable household income.
In her report, Ferus-Comelo argues that to connect people with prosperous careers, California could explore new ways of coordinating investments in education and workforce development, providing a variety of learning routes for people to become trained in high-demand skills, with or without a college degree.
Ferus-Comelo describes this vision for employment abundance in terms of the “high road.” Originally coined by Joel Rogers, the “high road” refers to a policymaking approach where the state plays an active role in fostering cooperative labor relations and steering public investments towards enterprise and innovation that serve the common good.
High Road Training Partnerships (HRTPs) are the centerpiece of the high road toolkit. California has already seen this tool put to good use, says Ferus-Comelo. For example, the Education Fund’s Career Pathways offers a model for effective HRTPs, where employers and unions come together to design training programs that prepare people for well-paying jobs and help address workforce shortages.
According to Ferus-Comelo, HRTPs could play a bigger role in California’s workforce development strategy. Ideally, says Ferus-Comelo, the state would fund and support more HRTPs that are grounded in a regional framework — like the Jobs First Economic Blueprint, which invests in training programs that are tailored to the industries and labor markets of specific regions throughout the state.
In this vision, HRTPs are an example of policy strategies that recognize the foundational role of workers in providing the essential goods and services on which California residents depend, whether it be growing food, driving buses, or teaching students. From this perspective, workforce development is not just about catalyzing individuals’ upward mobility; it’s about creating an ecosystem of economic opportunity that ripples out to benefit all of us.
But successful implementation of the high road toolkit is predicated on workers’ rights, says Ferus-Comelo. Without robust minimum wage laws and worker protections, the California social safety net pays the price, with low-wage workers relying on public assistance programs despite having full-time jobs. Instead of effectively subsidizing “low road” employers who do little to invest in workers, California could solidify high-road standards and create a virtuous cycle that helps both workers and society thrive.
Reimagining How We Connect: Policies for Abundant Broadband and Digital Access
Now more than ever, people rely on the Internet to participate in a wide range of opportunities and services, such as online learning, remote work, telehealth, and more. Nonetheless, approximately 15% of California residents lack broadband access, including one-third of rural households and one-fifth of low-income households.
This digital divide is not a failure of technology, says Helderop, but rather a failure of regulatory design. Historically, California has relied on private companies to develop fiber-optic networks that enable digital connectivity, but many places in rural California are unprofitable investments for private companies and thus remain disconnected.
The good news, according to Helderop, is that California has already taken big steps to address this market failure. Through Senate Bill 156 (2021), California made the largest state broadband investment in U.S. history, funding the creation of a state-owned fiber-optic network. This network can serve as a digital highway, connecting rural parts of the state to people and places around the world.
For California to build on these successes, Helderop proposes considering broadband within the same policy framework as other utilities, such as by establishing universal service obligations, regulating rates for affordability, enforcing reliability standards, and requiring non-discriminatory access. These changes could further pave the way for universal participation in the digital economy.
By reimagining how we learn, how we work, and how we connect, California can begin to create abundant economic opportunity for all.
To learn more, visit the UC Berkeley Possibility Lab’s Abundance Accelerator
