Mind Opener: Grasping and Reducing Poverty in Minnesota

A conversation with Mitch Pearlstein, Founder and Senior Fellow of the Center of the American Experiment, and Angelica Klebsch, Citizens League Policy Director.

Over 50 years after the U.S. Congress passed the Economic Opportunity Act to address poverty in the nation, the country still grapples with persistent income disparities, a widening gap between the richest and poorest Americans, and a high number of children growing up under extreme economic hardships. These trends are seen all across the nation, including Minnesota.

What are some of the root causes of such disparities, and how can they be effectively addressed?

In 2015, a working group organized by the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution aimed to tackle the many facets of this issue. After a year of convening, the work culminated in a report: Opportunity, Responsibility, and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream. The report makes twelve recommendations that address issues related to family, work, and education. In response, representatives from four policy organizations in Minnesota – the Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism, the Center for the American Experiment, the Citizens League, and Growth & Justice – penned essays that can now be found in a newly-published compilation: Grasping and Reducing Poverty in Minnesota. The compilation, as Laura Bloomberg, Dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, writes in the forward, “does not—and is not intended to—offer definitive solutions to poverty in Minnesota circa 2018.” Rather, she writes, they are to “inspire consideration, consideration, dialogue, debate and – most importantly – a commitment to act.” We invite you to read the original AEI/Brookings report, and the compilation of essays that the Citizens League participated in, below.

• Read the AEI/Brookings report: Opportunity, Responsibility, and Security
• Read Grasping and Reducing Poverty in Minnesota

On Tuesday, January 22, two contributors to the recent compilation will sit down for an informed discussion on the report and their essays. Mitch Pearlstein, Founder and Senior Fellow of the Center of the American Experiment, will join Angelica Klebsch, Citizens League Policy Director, for our next Mind Opener: Grasping and Reducing Poverty in Minnesota. Join us for this limited-seating discussion at the Downtowner Woodfire Grill.

Mind Opener: Grasping and Reducing Poverty in Minnesota
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
7:30am-8:30am

Downtowner Woodfire Grill
253 7th Street W
Saint Paul, MN 55102 (map)

$10 for Citizens League Members Complimentary coffee and continental breakfast included. Register below!

Citizens League Mind Openers, sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, are deep dives into policy topics that affect Minnesota and its citizens. The talks, over breakfast, are an opportunity for Citizens League members to learn and talk about a variety of different issues.

Citizens League Mind Openers are sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.