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 We Can’t Get There from Here
by Tom Campbell
October 19, 2006
Census forecasts indicate that North Carolina will be home to more than 12 million people in the year 2030, making us the seventh most populous state in the nation. Leadership in our state should be asking questions about what we want this state to be like, where people will live, what kinds of jobs will be available, and what education levels will be necessary to ensure that our economy is healthy.
Unfortunately, that forum doesn’t currently exist, but it is clearly evident that the North Carolina of the future will demand a better educated workforce than we currently have. Based on data contained in the 2005 American Communities Survey that was released by the Census Bureau our educational system is badly failing our current population.
Despite all the emphasis our educators place on high school students going to college, two-thirds do not have a college degree. Of the adult population over twenty-five years of age, 2.6 million have a high school education or less. As might be expected rural areas have adults with lower education credentials than the urban areas of our state. The NC Justice Center reports 60 percent of the adults in six counties, all rural, never went beyond a high school education. They further report that national estimates point to a need for an associate or postsecondary vocational credential in at least 28 percent of all job openings.
This is further proof that our education system is in crisis in North Carolina, begging the question why our leadership and educators are not alarmed. The failure of our state to acknowledge and address the education crisis forces the conclusion that school choice is inevitable. When school officials wake up to empty schools or buildings filled with problem students they will be forced to deal with the problems. Many parents are already voting with their feet. Why wait longer?
Parents and students deserve better solutions than are currently available in many cases. Judge Howard Manning has been preaching this message for years. We cannot waste the potential of our state, our children.
For those adults who do not have postsecondary education or skills training we need to immediately and emphatically strengthen our excellent community college system. These same community colleges, working with our high schools can help current students who should not or will not go on to a bachelor’s degree.
Unless the situation changes dramatically the North Carolina of the future will have an extremely large population of ill-prepared citizens, earning less than the national average, and therefore unable to pay taxes sufficient to support government services. This is not an appealing scenario, yet one that appears certain unless we start to better educate our children and do a better job of preparing our workforce. Whatever we envision for North Carolina’s future we can’t get there from here.
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