In his role as Mississippi Secretary of State, Delbert Hosemann has been about the business of the State of Mississippi.
He’s made it easier for businesses to incorporate as limited liability corporations, there are now some 22,000 new LLCs per year formed in the state.
In that time, his office has taken on the task of surveying the current business climate to find out what the state’s businessmen see as their need.
The No. 1 answer? An educated workforce.
The second-place answer was a committed workforce.
The answer wasn’t some form of government assistance or a reduction in taxes.
The answer wasn’t a reduction in regulation.
The businesses wanted a workforce prepared to do the work necessary to keep the businesses operating.
More than half of the respondents say they’d be prepared to expand if they felt the workforce could handle the work.
That’s a sad state of affairs.
Our local economic alliance has seen the problem and is working hard to create training and testing vehicles to provide a work-ready environment.
But it isn’t their problem to fix.
It’s the problem of every person in the state of Mississippi.
We have allowed our education system to fall woefully behind. So far behind, our own business operators say they often can’t find workers ready to work.
Hosemann said the state has only a 55 percent participation in the workforce for those between the ages of 16-65. Nationally, the average is 63 percent.
That means barely more than half of the working-age people in the state are holding down regular jobs, yet the state-wide unemployment is in single digits.
That means half the people in the state can’t work, won’t work, are homemakers or are in prison.
To put a finer point on it, each worker is working for at least one person who isn’t working. That means we all are carrying the load for at least two people if you only count the working-age people in the state. The number is higher when children are factored in the equation.
Hosemann’s survey says those numbers would look better if our workforce is educated properly.
He said it’s not up to the big corporations brought in with millions of dollars in subsidies from the state — those investments are extremely risky.
He said the biggest benefit to our economy is the employer from 25-250 who, with a better educated workforce, would be able to add a small number of workers at each business.
While most of the fixes for the entire education system in Mississippi are generational in nature, there are a few programs Hosemann said that could have immediate impact:
• The Leader and Me program piloted in the Vicksburg School District is showing immediate response in young workforce training;
• Year-round school in Corinth;
• Funding Pre-K; and
• Workforce testing and training.
Hosemann also alluded to the No. 1 problem facing children today: single parent homes.
While he said it is the major problem the state faces, government will be reluctant to get into a fix or provide an answer to the situation.
But, he said government can work to mitigate the effects with training and education.
I’ve now gone through a full cycle of raising a child from elementary school to graduation and was astounded to see the lack of requirements to start college in Mississippi.
When helping our oldest son select a school, I first looked at the requirements for entry to Mississippi State University, the University of Mississippi and Delta State University. The ACT and GPA requirements for those schools are akin to the requirements to attend community college in Florida.
The requirements to attend a major university in this state are minimal yet the out-of-state student enrollment at Ole Miss is about 40 percent. Our own students can only fill 60 percent of the available slots for enrollment and those out-of-state students are taking there education and going back home.
For the 13 years I have lived in this state, I’ve listened to countless politicians speak about the importance of education.
The businesses in our state demand a better-educated workforce.
The people in our state clamor for better schools.
And our politicians promise to make education a priority at every election cycle.
Why hasn’t it happened yet?
Angel alert goes out to the fathers and mothers who volunteer to coach the little league teams now filling our baseball fields. Happy birthday goes out to all of us who have May birthdays, my wife Holly Alverson, myself, Drew Newsom, Rhonda Brozovich, Scott Christensen, Harold Mitchell, Kevin Cunnigham, Carolyn Weathers, John Todd Gist and Chad Freeman. A special birthday note to Ruth Bramuchi who is 100 years old. Send birthdays and alerts to the contact information below.
Jon Alverson is proud to be publisher and editor of the Delta Democrat-Times. Write to him at jalverson@ddtonline.comor call him at 335-1155.
