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Good Schools=Good Jobs
by Elizabeth Waibel
December 21, 2011
For a healthy economy that can compete on a national and international level, job training begins early—very early. Children are preparing to find jobs later in life even as they learn to stack blocks, count toys and read picture books.
While government incentives and tax breaks can bring in new industry, some Mississippi business leaders are pointing to education as an important component in attracting and keeping good jobs in the state. Business leaders released Blueprint Mississippi recommendations in October insisting, among other things, that businesses don't just want incentives; they want an educated work force that can compete and innovate on a national level.
Blake Wilson is president of the Mississippi Economic Council, which helped develop the recommendations. He said business leaders from around the state tell him that education is important to business. Companies can train workers, but employees need to have basic skills that come from a solid elementary education. "It just comes up consistently when you talk to business leaders—that fourth-grade testing scores are so critical," Wilson said.
If students don't learn what they need to know early on, they will spend the rest of their school years trying to catch up and won't enter the work force able to compete, he said. Wilson added that a lack of education contributes to high teenage birth rates and poverty: "It's across the board, and why is this happening? Education, education, education."
A good education often pays off in the form of a good job. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that high-school graduates earned $182 more per week than those who did not graduate high school. Those with a bachelor's degree earned $594 more per week.
The figures came from the median weekly earnings in 2010. The bureau also found that in 2010, those with higher degrees were much less likely to be unemployed. The unemployment rate for those with less than a high school diploma was 14.9 percent, while the rate for high school graduates was 10.3 percent. Those with a bachelor's degree saw an unemployment rate of only 5.4 percent, almost three percentage points below the national average at the time.
posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/21/11 at 06:19 PM. [printer version] Share |
COMMENTS
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May 24, 2012 | 09:34 PMBryant Signs Voter ID Bill
golden eagle: @notmuch, here are some facts about voter fraud, straight from the Brennan Center's website: Fraud by individual voters is both irrational and extremely rare. Most citizens who ...
May 24, 2012 | 07:14 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
notmuch: Oh, I have hundreds of those right-wing sites, and I couldn't say which ones are more "partisan"--they all include those pesky facts. Yes, when dead voters and multiple voters under ...
May 24, 2012 | 07:11 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
justjess: @ golden eagle. Thanks for the spell check. I didn't just spell assassination wrong ONE time, I did it over and over. LOL! You are right on the mark; I was trying to use the word ...
May 24, 2012 | 06:46 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
golden eagle: I don't think you could've found a more partisan right-wing site than the Daily Caller. The fact of the matter is that the right is using this issue not as a means of improving ...
May 24, 2012 | 06:10 PM
[Dish] Cobby Williams, Young Gun
trusip: WOW! was this a real interview or a joke?
May 24, 2012 | 05:00 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
notmuch: I don't think you could have found a more liberal example of a "non-partisan" site, but even so, their evidence seems to consist of 250 carefully chosen instances in one area of ...
May 24, 2012 | 04:48 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
golden eagle: Rather than using ideological websites to support your argument, I'll use the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice. Really good site.
May 24, 2012 | 04:30 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
notmuch: I might be missing something here, but I am a little confused by Golden Eagle's points: "the fact is that voter fraud is extremely rare"--so it is of no consequence that some ...
May 24, 2012 | 11:26 AM
Nick Hanauer's 'Controversial' TED Talk -- Tax the Rich?
RobbieR: TED is an elite academic conference.
May 24, 2012 | 10:18 AM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
DonnaLadd: No, Darryl, no one blocked you. Stop being paranoid. We just typically open comments in moderation during non-office hours. To me, a bozo isn't someone who disagrees with me. It's ...
May 24, 2012 | 06:18 AM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
Darryl: That's funny that you blocked my last comment...
May 24, 2012 | 05:31 AM
Nick Hanauer's 'Controversial' TED Talk -- Tax the Rich?
Renaldo Bryant: So true. This is why critical and analytical thinking are so important to citizens in a democracy. The rich have the power to shape perception ...
May 23, 2012 | 05:24 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
Darryl: justjess, you stated "Racism and discriminatory practices continue." What objective data do you have to support this? Calling someone unqualified is a subjective interpretation of ...
May 23, 2012 | 01:37 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
golden eagle: Wow, my English was bad on the previous post. You know how it is on these iPhones.
May 23, 2012 | 12:30 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
golden eagle: @Jess, I think the word you're looking for is "assassination". @Darryl, do we really know that the majority of MS'ians wanted this, when you consider that this was a ...
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