How Brilliant Are Promise Neighborhoods?

My bike is in rough shape these days. The brake pads squeak, the derailleurs miss gears when I shift, and the chain occasionally jumps off entirely. Fortunately, I’ve worked out a variety of little tricks to keep it road-worthy until I can get around to fixing it entirely. Oddly enough, my bike came to mind on Wednesday, during an event at the Capitol to discuss the past, present, and future of Promise Neighborhoods in the United States.

Promise Neighborhoods seek to combine a host of social services—including education—together in a seamless web of support for low-income families. The Harlem Children's Zone, founded by Geoffrey Canada (with whom I share an alma mater), is the first and most famous instance of putting this model into practice.

In a Talking Points Memo column yesterday, I explored whether Promise Neighborhoods are—like my bike—the best we can do in the context of a poorly-organized system.