Let’s make education a priority for 2010

The Detroit Free Press recently ran an editorial about the Michigan economy and what the future holds for our State.  The editorial noted,

“The future belongs to the smart states — and Michigan had better be among those states if it expects a better one. People who learn are also people who change, challenge, adapt and innovate, the very things the auto industry has struggled to do for a decade. Complacency is born from a lack of appreciation for learning and stretching. And that complacency, as much as anything else, brought Detroit’s auto industry to the brink of extinction.”

They also pointed out that,

“A better educated Michigan will be a more stable, and more prosperous, state. It’s no accident that the correlation between a state’s per capita income and the percentage of college graduates who live in that state is very strong. Mississippi, with a per capita income below $30,000, has a population in which fewer than 25% have earned a bachelor’s degree. In Connecticut, where per capita income is highest, the rate of college-educated citizens is above 35%. Michigan is in the middle of the pack, with less than $35,000 in per capita income and less than 30% of its citizens boasting 4-year degrees.”

It is my hope that 2010 is the year that our State figures out how to make education the focus for our future.