Using his Bully Pulpit to Transform a City and its Schools
How the former Mayor of Miami started a grassroots initiative to improve Miami.
Manny Diaz is the former mayor of Miami, Florida, where he forged his reputation as a national leader on urban design, focusing on sustainability and education. Manny ranks as a high-impact mayor, in the same league as Michael Bloomberg, Richard M. Daley and Charleston's Joseph P. Riley; impact not only on his own community, but on national leadership as well.
Making transformational changes in bureaucracies is tough - in some ways, they are designed to protect the status quo. Bureaucracies tend to be rule-bound, calcified and filled with individuals whose power and self-interest is tied to keeping things as they are. This is true in both the private sector and public. So how we make change happen in cities and school systems is of particular interest as we think about Reimagining our Schools.
When we come across someone who has been successful in breaking the status quo, we want to know how they did it.
Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz is such an individual and in our recent conversation, we talk to him about how he led transformation in the city of Miami and used his bully pulpit to turn Miami's schools around.
Ron Bogle: Before we jump into your work as Miami Mayor, I know you are providing national leadership as a member of the board for Bloomberg Philanthropies. Tell us what you’re working on with the Bloomberg team.
Manny Diaz: What Mike Bloomberg has done is pretty remarkable, especially in responding to the pandemic. You see some of the things that are public, like the feeding programs and the contact-tracing program in New York and issues like that. But I can also tell you that we have, for the past four or five years, run a “mayoral school” of sorts. We created a partnership with the Harvard Business School and Kennedy School, where we select 40 mayors a year and we provide them with a one-year tutorial process, which includes their two or three top key advisors in their city. Of course, when March hit, we pivoted right away to COVID. And so we have been running weekly sessions from the very beginning in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health.
We've been educating mayors, helping mayors going through these turbulent waters, giving them up-to-date facts, medical information, hearing it from doctors, hearing it from scientists, and also from professors at the Harvard Kennedy and Business Schools — basically how to lead during a crisis like this one. I think this has been a phenomenal program. We have between 200 and 300 mayors on every call.
And we've expanded; we're having monthly calls now with mayors from Latin America and from Africa. Latin America is going through a very tough time, especially in Brazil, where the pandemic response has been disastrous. So, we have convened the world's mayors to deal with the virus, and it's been a very exciting process. And frankly, only Mike Bloomberg can do this sort of thing so it's been a very exciting learning process, even for me.
RB: Manny, your life story informs your actions and approach to leadership.
MD: In order to understand what led me to do the things that I did, I think context is important.
On a personal level, I was born in Cuba. My dad worked for the electric company in Cuba. And he studied at a vocational school and, whomever the leader of the country was at that time, set up a process for the poorest students in the country. My Dad was among the inaugural group of 250 students. My mother was a teacher; my grandfather was a teacher.
My dad was working for the electric company when Castro nationalized private industry. My Dad went on strike with a number of friends and ended up being arrested and sent to jail as a political prisoner. My mom and I left in 1961 with me sitting on my mother's lap on the airplane. And we got to Miami and we were pretty much the typical immigrant story. We moved in with my uncle, my mom's brother, and his family. There were about eight of us in a two-bedroom apartment. Eventually, my dad would join us and my parents, like most immigrants, worked two or three jobs each. I went to public schools and I was a young immigrant getting into trouble in the streets.
My first job was the CETA — the Comprehensive Employment Training Act — which was a work study program for kids below the poverty level. I played many sports and went to the parks and that kept me out of trouble. Education was always instilled in me big time. One of the jobs that I held was working part time at the auto parts factory warehouse where my father worked. I remember him looking at me several times and saying, "You don't want to be doing this for the rest of your life, stick to your education, get your education. No one can ever take that away from you." And so I did. I got my undergraduate degree at Florida International University (FIU) and went to law school at the University of Miami. I was the first in the family to graduate from college while working full time as well.
So that's my personal context, and the city context was also important. Miami essentially had the reputation of being the worst at everything. We were the capital of drugs, poverty, murder, riots; you name it. We were number one. The unemployment rate in 2001 was actually higher than it was at any time during the Great Recession. We had a declining urban population; everybody that could afford to move out, moved out. There were no projects being built or even contemplated. The state had to create an oversight board. Our city was in decay and without much hope.
In terms of political stability, one of our mayors had been removed from office by a court for absentee ballot fraud. The racial and ethnic tensions in Miami were horrendous. And speaking of education, in particular, our schools, we have a state test that students participate in and then the schools are graded. Only 9% of our schools were either ‘A’ or ‘B’ and over 60% were ranked ‘D’ or ‘F’ and they were also in terrible physical condition because of suburban sprawl, which happens so often in many inner cities. Everybody moved out to the suburbs and the resources followed to enable the “flight.” So all of our schools were ignored. As a result, our graduation rates were between 50% and 60%.
And by the way, I should note, this is the Miami of only 19 years ago. This is not going back to the 50s, 60s, or 70s. So, with that kind of background, I thought that I had enough. I had spent my entire life in the private sector. I've worked in many campaigns. I was a community organizer before that term was popularized, but I had never run. I decided to run in 2001 because I was just fed up with where we were. And I decided to run in a year where Miami mayors from 1973 to 2001 were on the ballot. I remember when the first poll was released, I was at 3%.
I came from the streets and I ran a very grassroots, stealth, door to door campaign. I walked over 10,000 homes and lost 25 pounds. You learn a lot when you listen to people at their homes. Politics and campaigns today have lost that sense of community. But when you're out talking to people you learn. And one of the things that I learned is that parents were very concerned about education. And many of them had expressed to me their goal of moving out of the city if they could just afford it, because they did not want to send their children to their neighborhood schools. It was part of my DNA, but hearing it from other people just emphasized the point.
While debating with my opponents, I would talk about education. It was an integral part of my platform. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do about it, because I didn't have any background in it, from an academic point of view. But I talked about it and said that was going to be a priority for me. One of my opponents, who actually ended up being in the runoff with me, would make fun of me and call me a “demagogue” because “mayors have nothing to do with education.” "Manny knows that, he knows that he has no authority over education. So I have no idea why he's talking about that." In the meantime, I would look out at the parents in the room watching the debate and they would all be nodding their heads at me, saying, "Hey, no, Manny knows what he's talking about. He's got something going here."
I was very clear about what was important to me. I was going to invest in five major drivers of growth. One was attacking the issue of poverty and economic opportunity. The 2000 census had just been released, and we were the poorest large city in America. I focused on incentives and investments that were all about economic opportunity and job creation, which by the way, for me includes education, affordable housing, homelessness and digital equality.
We created a program called Access Miami, which was a multifaceted approach where I consolidated numerous resources, and it became a nationally recognized comprehensive effort to combat poverty. That was actually one of the first areas where Mayor Bloomberg and I first developed a relationship, because he and I and three other mayors were developing a national anti-poverty program.
Public safety, infrastructure, the environment and sustainability, and arts and culture, were the other four areas of focus. With regard to education, one of our goals was to raise our statewide average from a ‘D’ to ‘B’. We wanted to create an affordable housing portfolio of a billion dollars, and reduce our homelessness population by 50%. We accomplished all of these goals.
So now I am elected, and the question becomes, how do I accomplish all the things I want to do? One of the first things I did was to hire two staffers exclusively dedicated to education, a historical first in the city (because again, the city has "nothing to do with education.") I am proud to tell you that one of them became a member of the current superintendent's cabinet; and, the other one is a principal at Children's Trust. So they are still both very much fighting the good fight in education.
But you are right. Many mayors, I would say, probably most mayors don't have direct jurisdiction over their school system. There is always some other type of entity in charge. Also, by the way, it gives a good excuse for mayors, when things are not going right; they just throw up their hands and say, "It's not my job. It's somebody else's job."
RB: So as mayor, you show up as a person who wants to get involved with the schools. As they had probably never worked with a mayor before, what was the reception like?
MD: Well, the first thing I did was to attend the first state legislative session after my election and lobby the legislature to transfer control of the schools in my city, much like they had done with Mike Bloomberg in New York and Richard Daley in Chicago. I actually got one of the two houses to pass it, but the other one ran out of time with the budget and other legislative priorities. Encouraged, I returned and committed to returning the following year to complete the job. Subsequently, two things happened. First, the current members of our school board were fairly old school; they had no appetite to collaborate with the City or anybody else. So, we decided work with a slate of reform-minded candidates. After the election, our group constituted a majority of the School Board
At the same time, the superintendent resigned. As part of its search for a new superintendent, the board created a search committee, and I was selected to chair the committee. The combination of working with a new school system, new school board members and conducting the search for a new superintendent began a relationship/partnership with the school system, which from that point forward, grew stronger and stronger. Our committed recommended and the School Board selected the former Chancellor of New York, Rudy Crew. After his appointment, Rudy came to me and acknowledged my desire to take over schools in Miami. He understood and appreciated my reasons, but he asked that I give him a chance. Why not? I had plenty of other responsibilities to keep me busy!
I liked and respected Rudy. I lobbied for his appointment. Nevertheless, I said to him, "Rudy, for your benefit and mine, let’s evidence our understandings with a written agreement to be approved by your board and the city Commission. “I think we should identify a series of goals and the action steps necessary to hold us accountable to the process and each other. At the same time, the city commission and the school board need to be an integral part of this process by, among other things, approving the agreement." This agreement became known as the Education Compact. As far as we know, the Compact was the first of its kind; no other large city in America had done something similar, where a written contract between a city and a school board had been adopted to establish a partnership created to improve the education of our children.
RB: How did the city and school district partnership take shape? Was it mostly between you and Rudy, or did you build others into the conversation?
MD: We brought in the nonprofits, the philanthropic community and the business community. We brought everybody. One of the things I heard while I was trying to persuade investors to Miami was that the schools were not good enough and we were “really devoid of culture and arts, which we believe in.” “We are arts patrons in New York or somewhere else, and we don't see it in Miami.” So those were two areas that we had to turn around.
That was not difficult because the private sector saw two layers of government working together for something they feel very strongly about. So they were going to jump in personally. For example, our mentorship programs that we created had 1,500 interns from the city schools working with the private sector. We created a program where CEOs would come into schools and work with principals, like being “Principal for a Day.” So that relationship also grew as a result.
When we had to get contributions for programs to offset budget cuts, we looked at natural areas for support. At least one in four children, if not more in Miami, are alone after school or unsupervised. Meanwhile, I have parks with buildings and with employees being paid while school is out. So, why not have the school participate? Why not have the city participate with schools to create after school programs in our parks?
At the same time, AT&T and Comcast were fighting to renew their cable contract with the city. So one of the conditions I imposed was "Great. You're going to wire all my parks." Which they did, gladly. We now have computer labs in our major parks. I played sports all my life, but I recognize that not everybody can shoot a basketball or hit a ball. Some people like to sing, some like to dance, so we created programs around singing and dancing, working with the University of Miami.
In fact, we even had one of the student groups record a very popular holiday CD. We held recitals at the end of every summer; we created a “Miami Idol” program for kids to compete. So, we created all kinds of activities and we actually had tutors at our parks as well. The kids couldn't go out and play basketball, they couldn't go out and sing or dance or whatever else they were doing until they finished their homework. We had some teachers working with us and we found grants to pay them.
One of the things that was very important to me, and every time I went out, particularly in the inner city, is that I would see a young girl in living conditions where they had no connection to the world; no computer, no internet, and then I would go home and see my daughter at home, connected to the entire world. And I would think to myself, "I've got to do something to even this up." Because it is very, very difficult for somebody who doesn't have the resources, as smart as they are, to compete with somebody who does.
Rudy and I created a program called Elevate Miami. The program was designed to give every Sixth Grader the opportunity to receive a free laptop, and free Internet. To qualify, a student had to pass a curriculum the school board developed called the Rites of Passage, it was a life skills class. It wasn't a typical curriculum; it was about getting the respect of their peers, getting good grades, their conduct, and learning life skills, like simply looking someone in the eye and knowing how to shake someone’s hand. If they were successful, and their parents attended what we called the “Parents Academy”, they would receive the laptop.
Once again, we brought in the private sector and philanthropists to make the initiative work. After a certain number of years, everybody who started in sixth grade and graduated from high school in the city would have had the opportunity to receive a free laptop and free Internet service.
RB: Was it your strategy after leaving office that Access Miami, Elevate Miami and the Parents Academy would protect and preserve the changes you implemented?
MD: Yes, this initiative existed in a written, living, breathing document. It was something that developed a life of its own, had the support of the governing bodies, so it was their project too. It wasn't “Rudy and me.” Now, that is not to say that a mayor that succeeded me didn’t prioritize it as much as I did. Because all of these things need a champion, that's leadership 101. If you don't have a champion, it's very, very hard to move an agenda forward. The good news is that on the school board side, the person that helped us develop the compact is the current superintendent of schools, Alberto Carvalho, who was Rudy's number two and is still there doing a phenomenal job. So that's helped. I think the methodology that we used helped sustain our initiatives beyond my term and Rudy's term.
RB: AS I listen to the Miami story, it seems that bringing your personal leadership style was an essential part of the strategy?
MD: yes, I have eight principles of management that I think are essential. From an internal perspective, first, you have to set a goal, you have to set a vision, and you have to communicate that to people. If you want people to follow you, they need to know what the vision is. And for me, those ought to be big ideas, big dreams. You should aim high. As you see, I quote Burnham in the front of my book, "No small plans." The second thing is that you really need to change the government culture. The most popular answer in the bureaucracy is “no.” Bureaucracy will give you 99 reasons why you cannot do something. And my response is always "Look, I know all the reasons why I can't do something, I need you to tell me how we can get this done."
So it's that ‘can do’ attitude. Notwithstanding the criticism that a lot of public employees get, I am a fundamental believer that all of us at the end of the day want to go home and feel proud about our day. It takes a while, but you can change the work culture from “We can't do” to “What we can do?” You can get people to realize that they don’t have to keep doing things the same way they've always been done, simply because they've always been done that way. The other thing that was important to me was to change the structure. Most governments work off of a very archaic type of structure, so I created more of a business, vertical CEO, CFO, COO, CIO type of structure.
Regarding employees, I think it is important that they understand your expectations. I have always felt that it is hard to hold somebody accountable for something, if you have not specifically told him or her what it is that they are supposed to do, and give them the tools to do it. When I got there, people were definitely afraid to suggest anything because they were afraid they would get their head cut off if they suggested something. And with me, it was totally the opposite. I wanted to encourage employees to be proactive.
Political relationships are very important. Some of my predecessors actually, believe this or not, challenged each other to duels, just a few years before I was elected. Seriously, Alexander Hamilton kind of stuff. So to me, it was very important that I had the support of my commission, and I spent an inordinate amount of time with them. When you build a relationship, you have trust. When I proposed another one of my “big” ideas, they would know where I was coming from. And so it was not about, "Oh, Manny's doing this for political reasons. Rather, Manny really believes in this, and let's see what he's got to say."
Resources. It's hard to ask somebody to do something if they don't have the resources. With technology, for example, we still had mainframe systems in Miami when I got there. We invested heavily in introducing Miami to the 21st century. You have to give employees the resources to do their job.
Finally, something that I think is, unfortunately, very unique to government, is the lack of alignment of your resources with your vision. The default in government is, if revenues are down 5%, everybody gets a 5% cut. If revenues are up 5%, everybody gets a 5% increase. Well, that's not the way I do things. If I prioritize, for example, parks, or if I want to create a budget to work on these education initiatives, then I'm going to spend a disproportionate amount on those issues and cut somewhere else. It is a function of your vision and priorities aligning with your resources.
From an external point of view, I think you have to show that the government cares, is empathetic, understands the needs of its constituents and can be trusted. This message must ring true in each neighborhood of your city. If you are pursuing private sector investments to create jobs and build your tax base, you must show a willingness to be a true partner. They need to know that a handshake means something, that your word means something, and that you are going to be their partner. Invariably, every project will experience issues that must be resolved. If they cannot be resolved in the field, the mayor, the city manager and staff are available to make the necessary decisions.
It is critical to develop trust, being a partner, and showing that you care and that the city is willing to invest. Every time I went to the private sector and said, "I would love you to do a project in this area, and I'm going to join you by investing in infrastructure, I'm going to fix those streets. I am going to fix the sidewalks. I am going to plant trees, I am going to do things that I can do, that I am supposed to be doing to improve that neighborhood, to make your project more marketable and hopefully more successful because, in the final analysis, that produces more taxes for me to collect and dedicate for education programs and other initiatives.”
RB: Ideally, what role do public schools play supporting stronger neighborhoods?
MD: In terms of neighborhoods, schools should be at the center of community; it is government in the neighborhood. Food drives today, where are they taking place? Mostly in a lot of schools. When you see a hurricane threaten South Florida, like we did last week, where are the shelters? Schools. They should be our community ‘home,’ the heart of every neighborhood.
Additionally, the sustainability of a city and of its people begins and ends with education. If you are failing there, you will fail as a city.
Look, life was a lot simpler when you and I were growing up, and upward mobility was a lot easier than it is today. Even when we had a recession because real estate was in the tank, or because the car industry was in the tank, you always felt that you could come back and your job would still be there. Today, studies show that 70%, 80% of jobs require increasing technological knowledge, with 30%-40% of jobs in the next 10 to 20 years affected by automation.
This is what really drives me crazy. We lost 6 million manufacturing jobs in the last decade. 85% of those were attributed to technology and automation. This has nothing to do with Mexico or immigrants or trade with China. And guess what, those jobs aren't coming back. Rather than blaming others for their failures, we should be brutally honest with the American people and our cities, "We need to train you for the future. We need to train you for the new economy that exists today.” We need to hold them accountable. I go back to my daughter's example and that little girl in the inner city, who is going to have a better chance of getting the jobs of tomorrow? My daughter.
Talking about affordability and income inequality is very popular. While the gap was not as pronounced during our era, today that number continues to increase. In our time, the middle class was more readily attainable even as some made a little more than others did, but nothing compared to today. If you have the skills necessary to compete in our global economy, you can make a very comfortable living. It is where we are experiencing job growth. We also see job growth in lower-paying, service jobs. However, those in the middle-level job category, where people have not been trained adequately to compete, are seeing their jobs disappear to technology and automation. This condition is only going to worsen, and if your residents cannot compete, then your city will not be able to compete.
RB: What advice do you have for mayors regarding their role in influencing change in our public schools?
MD: I would venture to say that most mayors probably have at least 90% name identification in the cities that they represent, because every day we're doing something — good or bad. Who knows the name of their school board member? I could walk down my street and ask everybody “who represents you on the school board?” I bet you, it will be difficult to find someone who knows the name of his or her school board representative.
Short of some terrible scandal making the front page, school board members generally do not get much exposure and therefore are not really known. Yet, arguably, they hold the most important and consequential job in local government. However, never lose sight of the fact that they still have to be elected (or reelected), and having the support (or not) of a mayor, a city commissioner, councilor, alderman, can be critical to their election.
Mayors have not learned to appreciate the potential they have to sway or influence the results of these elections. Not only is it the right thing to do, but politically, that school board member or those school board members better start paying attention to the mayor and the commissioners in their areas. Otherwise, they may find it more difficult to be reelected.