Last week, I attended the San Antonio Report’s education forum. I found myself immediately nodding when the keynote speaker, former Education Secretary Dr. Miguel Cardona told the audience: “this is a great time to be an education leader.”

Unfortunately, as he closed his remarks, I felt like the promise of that opening statement was unfulfilled. I share his fierce certainty that now is an absolutely pivotal time to be in this important field, but I had hoped to hear his insights on how to best meet this moment.

Since then, I have been chewing on this idea – how does the current moment, with all of its challenges, also present opportunities for those of us who have the privilege to hold leadership positions?

In the past two weeks, our CAST Tech and CAST STEM High School were both visited by groups of national leaders excited about the potential for transforming high school. We are so proud to be earning this kind of national attention, but the highlight of my week was hosting Leadership San Antonio Class 49 – all local business and civic leaders – for a conversation about how we can make a difference in public schools at the local level.

And yes, in case you are wondering, I am paying attention to the news and I do have concerns.

But, y’all, there is so much we can do together at the local level. I am convinced that this community, that voted both for Pre-K4SA and Ready to Work, understands how important the education of both our young people, and our adults, is to our economic future.

I was thrilled to see some of the takeaways from the business leaders who spent time with our schools: including a few I’m stealing/sharing from Toyota’s Melinda Higgins Louden:

• If students (and families) don’t have access and opportunity to quality education, resources and support, they will have an uphill battle for success. There is a path for every young person, and not all paths are linear.
• Industry needs to have skin in the game. To ensure the students of today grow into the workforce of tomorrow, industry needs to dig in as a partner and a resource to help schools & out-of-school time programs succeed.
• Thank teachers!! Let’s do everything we can to let them do what they love: teach.
• VOTE! Not just for municipal leaders, but also for school board! 
•  Workforce development is not just about technical skills; how are we helping our employees become better humans?
• Continuous learning is foundational to workforce development, helping to future-proof your business and yourself.
• And last, but not least: Education >> Workforce Development >> Economic Development. They’re all related. The further upstream we invest, the larger dividends we’ll get downstream.

There is no resource more important to the future of our young people than caring adults in our community. At CAST, we have seen over and over again the tremendous power just one engaged mentor or employer can have on a young person’s life trajectory. 

I will just close by saying, the feedback that made me the happiest, but was the least surprising, was how impressed these leaders were with our CAST Tech students. I am so proud of these young people, who demonstrate on a daily basis what young people are capable of when given the opportunity.

Jeanne Russell

Executive Director

CAST Schools