The Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency created in 1935 to address the nation’s then-worst economic catastrophe, is getting a fresh look as we think about how to help millions of Americans left jobless in the pandemic. 

But the recovery challenge today calls for more than just a 21st century WPA. We must go further than jobs alone. This crisis demands we address the full range of human infrastructure needs that will emerge in the coming years. What we need now is an Office of American Advancement.

Tanya Gladney is a Black woman in an academic field responsible for studying the violence that results from racism and inequity. She also is a former police officer and the person who oversees the law-enforcement degree program at the University of St. Thomas.

Gladney is now re-examining what kinds of coursework students should have before they earn the credential needed to become a police officer. Yet, one question hangs over the reckoning: Does any of it make a difference? Can a more comprehensive curriculum do anything to undo centuries of entrenched racism and violence?   

Two years ago, after living in the United States for more than two decades, Madai Zamora headed to the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, and boarded a one-way flight to Mexico.

By leaving the U.S., Zamora joined a small but growing global community of people who once had legal protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and gave up on a country that has struggled to pass comprehensive immigration reform for a generation.