(Part 7 in an 11-week economic plan to get Michigan moving again and get our people back to work)

Last summer, on a business trip out east, I decided on the way home to get off the interstate and travel some of the state highways and county roads that wound through the small towns I otherwise would drive right by.  In one of these towns I noticed an old brick schoolhouse located on the main street, and above the schoolhouse door, carved there into the stone, was a single word: Opportunity.

That idea, of education as opportunity, and a chance to make something more of yourself than would otherwise be possible, is even more relevant in today’s globalized knowledge economy than when that word was first carved into that stone.  And so today, as part of our comprehensive blueprint to get Michigan’s economy back on track, it’s time to look at the importance of investment in education to building the globally competitive workforce Michigan needs to compete.

In fairness, the language “building a globally competitive workforce” comes from my good friends over at the Center for Michigan, a non-profit “think-and-do-tank” that has been active in articulating a Common Ground Agenda for Michigan’s Future, working to move beyond narrow ideology and the petty partisan gamesmanship that has done so much to hurt our state and develop an action plan that addresses the big challenges we’re facing.  I’m honored to be a Founding Champion of the Center’s Michigan Defining Moment campaign, and I believe I am the only candidate for State Representative in Michigan, of either party, to serve as a Founding Champion for this effort.

As the Center points out, building this globally competitive workforce means going beyond the traditional K-12 approach to education and delivering the learning infrastructure necessary and relevant to the challenges of the 21st-century.  So here are five big ideas to make sure we’re delivering the opportunity only education can provide:

·                    universal, quality pre-school education for all Michigan children;

·                    additional teachers and support staff to reduce class sizes, providing the one-on-one attention that can boost student achievement;

·                    ending the inequitable funding formula that hurts local students;

·                    additional investment in higher education to keep tuition low; and

·                    greater funding for skills training (including expanding Michigan’s No Worker Left Behind program) for workers who have been displaced by changes to Michigan’s economy.

Today’s news that Tower Automotive is going to close their auto parts manufacturing plant in Traverse City, putting 350 local people out of work, shows the importance of investing in ongoing education and skills training, and I’m calling on Governor Granholm to make funds available through the No Worker Left Behind program to assist local workers in getting the education and additional skills they’ll need to transition to new jobs.  As I’ve written earlier, efforts such as these are essential if we’re going to weather difficult economic times, and we must and can do much more to ensure that those Michigan workers who have lost their jobs because of global changes to Michigan’s economy have the skills training they need to reenter the labor force at a competitive wage.

We know that education is absolutely crucial to increasing Michigan’s economic competitiveness in a global, information-based economy.  As State Representative, I look forward to leading efforts to ensure that, from early childhood through an affordable college degree to the skills training and lifelong learning opportunities for those currently in the workforce, we’re doing all we can to build the globally competitive workforce it will take to get Michigan moving again.