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Over the past 7 weeks, I& #39;ve had the honor of working with the incredible @CAGovOps team to help understand why too many Californians haven& #39;t received their unemployment insurance benefits, and what to do about it. Our work has now stopped the growth of the backlog, 1/x
and we’ve given EDD the tools to begin working through these claims with far greater efficiency, and in ways that create less burden and confusion for claimants. EDD now has it in their power to allocate resources to the bottlenecks and get checks to everyone eligible. 2/
This work has been a powerful and poignant reminder to me of why it’s so important that we stop neglecting the machinery of government. Not just the technology, which is certainly outdated and therefore easy to blame, 3/
But also the practices and policies that stop working but persist; they bloat over time, and make for systems so complex they can’t scale up in times of greater need, and cost more than they should to deliver. Updating tech alone doesn’t modernize the delivery of services. 4/
It’s also a reminder of something too few people buy into, but I believe deeply: that government CAN work for people. It does in so many ways – SNAP has scaled during the pandemic, for instance (shout out to my former colleagues at @codeforamerica for their role in that success)
EDD has a long road ahead and I wish them all the luck and strength in the world. If you’re a service delivery nerd, our full report (70 pgs!) is here: https://bit.ly/3cfyR6Z
and">https://bit.ly/3cfyR6Z&q... the shorter report is here: http://bit.ly/3kzMDnM ">https://bit.ly/3kzMDnM&q... 6/
and">https://bit.ly/3cfyR6Z&q... the shorter report is here: http://bit.ly/3kzMDnM ">https://bit.ly/3kzMDnM&q... 6/
Thank you to the many courageous and tireless public servants I got to work with. You’re amazing. So much of what you do goes unseen, and I wish for more people to appreciate all that you give to the public good. We are forever in your debt. /end
