BRACK: If you want prosperity, you’ve got to invest to build talent

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |  By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |  If you’re a little overweight, you know – in your heart of hearts – what you really need to do:  Eat less, get rid of junk food and exercise more.

For states like South Carolina that are underweight in terms of education, economic disparity, health outcomes and poverty, we know – in our heart of hearts – what we really need to do:  Invest more in our future, throw off the shackles that still hold us back and increase opportunities for our people.

The new State of the South report by MDC reiterates what the nonprofit has concluded for years:  that the South has come a long way, but still has a long way to go.

“Though educational attainment beyond high school has increased, and median income has grown, there are still staggering disparities across racial lines, and children born into low-income households have little chance of doing better than their parents,” the report says.

It highlights how Southern states need to take our medicine and adopt and maintain a regimen of using existing resources in smarter ways and finding more resources to do more.

“We have substituted a culture of investment for a culture of withdrawal,” the report asserted. “Today, we see the re-segregation of schools and the persistence of racial disparities in housing and employment, some enabled by state and federal legislation, some perpetuated by structural inequities that laws didn’t remove or relieve. The social and economic consequences of these inequities affect generations of families, particularly communities of color, and families across the region are less financially secure.”

Progress – and money – have come to the South.  But they’ve come to pockets of excellence, not regionally.  Lots of communities aren’t thriving.  Some places are actually moving backward, the report warns.

One of the report’s more interesting conclusions involves the South’s phenomenal growth over the last 50 years.  Some54 million more residents live in the South now, compared to five decades ago.  Since 1970, the South has had half of the nation’s population growth.  Simply put, a lot of new Southerners came from somewhere else.  And as they moved here, they brought their college degrees and expertise – the result of past public investments by other states.  In other words, the South benefitted as an “importer of talent.”

But is the model of relying on others to invest so that we can benefit sustainable?  The report suggests it’s time for us to make more and better investments in Southern talent so we can reap future benefits.

“State and local efforts are not forward-looking enough to anticipate and adapt in ways to take advantage of new opportunities,” the MDC report says. “The public schools continue to educate eight out of 10 Southern young people. As states have expanded school choices, a decade of budgetary austerity has left most states with a lower relative level of public investment in public schools and higher education than before the Great Recession.”

The State of the South report suggests that a way forward for the region is to invest in generating more Southern talent.  Without more talent here or throughout the nation, we won’t compete in the global marketplace.

“Local public schools, community colleges, and universities can be a cornerstone of educational opportunity in a community, but the pattern of increasing divestment in public institutions could affect long-term upward economic mobility prospects in the region,” the report notes.

“The very people who have been historically devalued in in our education and employment systems will soon make up a significant portion of our workforce. Shifting demographics demand that we ensure a strong, coherent alignment between the economic and civic institutions and equity all along the pathway from education to career.”

South Carolina has an obvious choice on education and future prosperity.  It can continue to underfund education,  live in a dream world that less money will propel us out of the education cellar and stop hard-to-stomach headlines about how the state has taken over another failing school district or how Mississippi jumped past South Carolina on education test scores.

Or the Palmetto State can commit to additional, real investments along the education spectrum to bolster talent that drives the economy.

Investing is a long-haul proposition.  Failing to do more is to fail the people of South Carolina.

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