By: Mason Pashia and Bobbi Macdonald
The following is the fictional 2030 mayoral Inaugural Address that paved the way for learning ecosystems and our 2040 learning future. Check out more blogs from the future here.
My friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens,
Tonight, as I stand before you – humbled by your trust, lifted by our shared hopes and dreams – I see more than just a town or a city. I see a living network of possibility, a community ready to grow into something the world has never seen before: a true Learning Ecosystem.
For too long, our imaginations have been stifled by scarcity, relegating opportunity to a finite pie where individuals’ gain means another’s loss. We’ve watched our schools, our companies, even our neighborhoods compete for limited resources, with each one trying to prove its worth, while our young people, our elders, and too many neighbors were asked to wait on the sidelines. That time is over.
From this day forward, our city will not be defined by scarcity, but by abundance. When we choose to see every person as a learner, every block as a classroom, and every relationship as a chance to grow, we all thrive.
Just last week, I met Marisol, a young learner who spends her mornings apprenticing with a solar energy start-up, her afternoons helping younger kids design murals in the library, and her evenings learning coding at a neighborhood makerspace. Marisol isn’t just earning credits. She is shaping the future of our city—block by block, project by project.
Her story is not an exception; it is a glimpse of what’s possible when we treat our young people as creators, not just consumers of knowledge. When we trust them, when we connect them, when we give them the attention and support to thrive, they show us what abundance looks like.
To realize this vision, our future must be built upon three pillars: Innovation, Efficacy and Trust, and Agentic Pathways:
For Innovation, we will prioritize systems that are harbingers of empowerment and remove barriers so that new models of learning can flourish. That means public systems that invite every one of us to learn and grow, flexible learning hubs in homes and community centers, apprenticeships in local businesses, and cultural institutions such as museums, theaters, and libraries becoming places of curation and co-creation spaces. We will use technology, including AI, not to replace human connection but to empower our educators to do what only humans can do: build authentic relationships, guide reflection, and nurture imagination.
For Efficacy and Trust, we will no longer measure our worth by duration or test scores alone. Instead, we will use living, transparent records such as Learner Employment Records that capture the full, technicolor range of skills and knowledge gained in classrooms, workplaces, and community spaces. These records will be trusted, verifiable, and portable, giving every learner – from teenagers to grandparents – the proof they need to pursue their dreams.
For Agentic Pathways, we will expand opportunities across communities so that lifelong learners can shape their learning journeys driven by interests. Every community member will be able to design a personalized pathway. We will facilitate and provide classes, internships, apprenticeships, and projects that fit their unique journey. And lifelong learning will no longer be a buzzword; it will be a lived reality, with employers funding upskilling, with public support for retraining, and with opportunities for everyone, at every stage of life.
Imagine the possibilities for yourself. What more could you learn? How do you want to give back? What do you dream of building here? This will be a public system unlike any we have seen before. Dynamic, responsive, rooted in this place, shaped by you.
Over the past few years, we’ve been meeting with citizens, youth, and employers across the city, and we’ve heard time and time again:
- The workforce of the future is destabilized, yet full of opportunity. Robotics and AI continue to transform the labor market, and it is up to us how we respond. Together, we will create new pathways so that every citizen can find work that matters to them.
- We must shift how we do business. Our community can no longer be built on taking more than we give. We will create a city that regenerates—where the air is clean, the water is safe, and our neighborhoods are green and thriving. A city where progress doesn’t come at the expense of people or the planet, but where every investment is looking toward a thriving future.
- Our young people need us, but we need them even more. Polarization and competing priorities have placed undue burdens on our communities. To respond, we must raise a generation of experienced citizens—young people who will serve their communities and design solutions to our biggest challenges.
- We must re-emphasize what’s human. In this moment of radical transformation and technology, we will re-emphasize what makes us human: relationships, imagination, courage, and love. We will do this by building the social infrastructure of our neighborhoods and connecting our communities in new ways.
But friends, let me be clear: this vision can not be achieved unless each of you join in. It will be built through relationships and through trust, and the social fabric that binds us together. Town hall meetings, community gatherings, block parties, shared spaces and public conversations – this is work that belongs to all of us.
If we weave strong social ties, if we authentically connect schools to their communities, employers to learners, mentors to youth, and families to one another, then our digital and physical infrastructure will amplify, not replace, what makes us human.
Together, we are thinking seven generations ahead so that future generations will thank us, and past generations will know their struggles were not in vain.
If we build a city that works for learners, especially our young learners, we build a city that works for everyone.
So tonight, let us commit to one another.
To see abundance where others see scarcity.
To lift our young people as leaders and creators.
To build a learning ecosystem that is resilient, connected, and alive with possibility.
Our future is abundant.
Our future is personal.
Our future is lifelong learning rooted in relationships,
fueled by creativity, open to all.
We will be the city that shows the world what is possible:
when every person counts, and every dream can grow.
Thank you.
Bobbi Macdonald, ED.L.D., is a Senior Partner for Ecosystem Growth and Advancement at Education Reimagined, where she leads initiatives to catalyze transformational models of education that bring to life learner-centered ecosystems. Her previous work as Executive Director of City Neighbors in Baltimore sought to provide an answer to the question, “What would it take for every student to be Known, Loved, and Inspired?” That question remains at the heart of her work today.
