Monday, January 20, 2003
Governor McGreevey of New Jersey has proposed five important ideas to build a competitive economy: upgrade teacher skills, reduce incentives for sprawl development, unify the state's university system, better alternatives for high school students who "test out" of required courses, and a technical proficiency test for high school graduation.
Here's why each idea makes sense.
Upgrading teacher skills: This approach is the fastest way to improve educational performance.
Reducing srawl: Sprawl costs more in infrastructure and services to support.
Unified university system: Postesecondary education is critical to economic development, but too many state systems are inflexible "silos".
More K-14 alternatives: We face a similar problem with secondary schools. Not enough choices are available to encourage K-14 thinking among students and parents.
Technical proficiency in computer skills: Computer literacy is no longer an option for a middle class job.
These ideas are controversial, so don't expect them to survive. The Governor didn't help his case by doing a poor job of framing his proposals. But at least the governor has put them on the table. Read the speech. Go
posted by Ed Morrison |
links
Some Background on EDPro Weblog
The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it.
One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information.
If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site:
Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber:
Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development
As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking.
Background on Ed Morrison
Download some background information on me here.
New Jersey's governor pushes different ED buttons
