The recession has been a brutal economic period in American history. With unemployment reaching a national average of 9.6 percent before eventually falling to its current 8.8 percent, things were most certainly not as they should be in the land of opportunity. Despite these daunting numbers, the Triangle, while still hit hard by the recession, never fell anywhere near the national unemployment average.
A national “college-educated” unemployment percentage of less than five percent should be seen as the cause of this phenomenon. The Daily Beast naming Raleigh-Durham the “smartest city in America” in 2009 was not by blind luck. It’s not much of a secret anymore: companies looking to expand highly-skilled, college-educated workforce are wise to set up shop in the Triangle as it is home to one of those most widely educated populations in the country.
Despite these staggering statistics, the Republican Party in the state of North Carolina has decided that the recession is over and that we are out of the woods—or at least it seems that way.
With a college-educated unemployment rate much lower than the national average, President Obama is not exaggerating when speaking of how Americans must out-educate to out-compete. The days of unionized manufacturing jobs are seemingly over. Welcome to a new era where being middle-class means being more than just in the middle of the pack, education wise. With this in mind, Republicans, in light of the party’s unyielding adherence to free market principals that have created this situation to begin with, have decided that the one thing that sets our state apart must be cut.
Flash-forward to now where the state’s education budget is facing a potential reduction of nearly half a billion dollars, or 15 percent. While such reductions might allow for immediate tax breaks and reorganization of funds, perhaps it would be best to step back and look at the greater impacts caused by such cuts, something the Republican party often seems hesitant to do.
When my younger brother was diagnosed with Autism in 1993, my parents searched feverishly for a place to relocate from Washington State that would provide him with the services he would need to learn and grow. After extensively researching the situation, they discovered that North Carolina and Oregon offered the best services for Autism in the United States.
Why then would they choose North Carolina despite only having to move one state south had they chosen Oregon? It should come as little surprise, given what we are witnessing around us that North Carolina’s university system ranks much higher than Oregon’s and with my future in mind, they packed their bags and relocated us to N.C., the state I’ve called home for the better part of my childhood.
Since living in North Carolina, my parents have paid taxes to the state and consumed countless local goods and services which help support our state’s economy. Relatives visit us here and spend their hard earned dollars as well, dollars earned in other states. While this is just a personal example of how the education system lured a single family to N.C., think of all the businesses that have made our state home in recent years, from IBM in RTP to EPIC Games in Cary.
The North Carolina education, and particularly university system, lures in new businesses, residents and visitors who all contribute to an economy that, thanks to its modernization is doing much better than many of its southern counterparts. To disrupt this progress is foolish and shortsighted.
If state Republicans wants North Carolina to remain prosperous and prepared for the rapidly changing, better educated world, it would be in their best interests to leave any idea of massive education cuts in the past with the old textile manufacturing jobs that paid $20 per hour and tobacco farms as far as the eye could see.
