Education and Economic Development

Recently, I attended the Governor’s Conference on Education and Economic Development with several other leaders in our community from Batesville, including Anne Moore, Ron Carter, Ed Mabry, Tim Bruner, Ann Webb, James McLean, David Wyatt, Fran Flenor, Ted Hall, Kathleen McNamee, and David Baker.  The purpose of this summit was to have each county in Arkansas represented with at least ten attendees so we could hear presentations and get information that we could then take back to our communities and devise a strategic plan in accordance with our educational system here as it relates to economic development.  I have had some time to think about the summit, and what we will be doing here locally to come up with a comprehensive plan to address what we need to do going forward.  While I appreciate the work the Governor and his staff put in to this, there were some important elements missing, and I believe they are crucial to the overall landscape of this picture.

When you consider educations role in the grand scheme of economic development, its not so black and white as one would think.  College degrees, while good, helpful, and beneficial to the recipient (this writer has one, just in case you wondered), are not what every employer wants.  There have been correlations made that say if we are to compete with the likes of China, India, and Luxembourg, we have to graduate as many college grads as we can or face the impending doom of economic isolation by these other countries.  Well, I have a problem with that.  Of course, that is somewhat of a generalization, in which we also heard how our math and reading scores were low, etc.  But the real issue we have in our country right now is not a shortage of students or people for that matter its that we don’t have people who are inspired to do what they really want to do.  Granted, a majority of people want to work and have jobs and with our current economy that is a challenge to an extent, but for the most part, people, especially our young people, are probably on a track to do something they may not want to be doing.  Is college for every student?  Do we need every child to go to college?  Does going to college mean that every child will do exponentially well and be so much more successful?  I am here to tell you that the answer to all those is no!  Like you, I know several people who have not gone to college that have done very well in their lives.  Like you, I know of jobs that don’t require a college education.  Like you, I know that college is not for everyone.  While on an economic development trip to Rome, Georgia, we visited with leaders in that community who had experienced layoffs that exceeded 7,000 people over a period of five years.  They, as a community, came together and devised a plan that set them apart not only from other places in Georgia, but other places in the Country.  So, a contingent from Arkansas went to visit, and the results to me were astounding and a testament to a methodology that looks at what is the most important and valuable to the student, not the system.

They have a different school system structure over there (county and city schools), but in their restructure, they said that there are three tracks that we need to encourage a student to take, starting in 8^th grade.   The tracks were to go to work after high school, to go through a two-year program, and to go to college.  They said that they would overwhelmingly support every child no matter what their choice was (which was made with their parents), and would encourage them and give them the tools necessary to be successful no matter the route they chose.  They would show the students the income potential in each scenario, and what it would take to be successful in each path.  I would like to insert here the relevancy of this was seen in a video last week in Little Rock where there were at least two children who said that they wanted to be a truck driver and a construction worker, respectively.  These children are a prime example of doing something that did not require a college degree.

Their efforts behind a two-year program included nursing, and health related fields, as well as skilled positions like welding, plumbing, electrical, and other certification type jobs.  Lastly, they had the college bound program and this one stood out to me in that they were willing to put their money where their mouth was in their approach.  Once a student chose this path, they worked hard with that student to make them successful, and so successful, that if the student who met the different requirements of that program who went on to college and needed any kind of remediation (catch up courses if they were not up to the college standard in a certain subject) the Rome County Schools would pay for their college education in full.  That’s right, they said if we did not prepare you for college we will pay for your college because we did not do our job!  They started that program over six years ago and up to the day we visited, they had never had to pay for a child’s college tuition!  Part of our presentation last week had to do with remediation rates in Arkansas, and how high they were.  Once again that goes back to not just getting students to meet certain performance criteria, its ensuring that they understand what they are tested over.  Its putting the student first!

I asked the folks there in Rome a very pointed question about the parent’s feedback about the three track position they took, and if they said that it should all be college bound, etc.  The resounding answer I got was that the community fully supported it, that the parents fully supported it, and it was evident to me when we visited Suzuki of North America, their only manufacturing plant in America, and I saw a lot of young people working there, having a great time, making money.  I saw what they talked about in action, and it was working.

 Our system in Arkansas has to put the people first, and most of all, our students.  See, they are the future workforce.  But what role do we play in shaping that workforce to meet our future needs of our largest, best, and brightest employers?  Are we doing a disservice to our companies by churning out what they don’t need, and putting our children in a position where they can not secure the work we told them would be there?  I say we are, and I say that we are doing an even greater disservice by not awarding the ambition that is found in every child, and that ambition does vary by degree with each child.  But as leaders and role models for these kids that are the future leaders in our community, we need to flesh out their passions, and facilitate those passions into a career for that child.  It may not benefit our higher educational institutions if kids opt to work after high school, or the various other routes.  It may not benefit employers if we don’t turn out more college grads.  But who do we want to benefit the most?  Ourselves, or the ones who will be working and being responsible for their own lives?  Our country was founded on ambition, and ambition has to return to everything we do or we will lose the one aspect that has been fostered and encouraged for over 200 years!  Every child has an ambition to be something, and instead of directing them to our ambitions, lets foster their ambitions and see how we can match them up with our employers so everyone wins.  Everyone will benefit from this approach, and our country will get back on track and in a direction that we were founded on; a country that allows the person the right to vote for who they want to, live where they want to, work where they want to, and to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!