The refusal to pay better wages limits the labor pool. We have plenty of college graduates, but that isn't what they want. They desire better educated minimum wage workers to work all of the $6 an hour jobs this region produces. They won't get it. See the following:

• It's not the workers, but the wages: My response in the press
• Businesses want job candidates already trained and ready for work.
• Survey: Region at risk due to critical skills gap Bunk

Quoting a Sullivan County official, he confirmed again what most in power here will not address: "I was in no way casting dispersions on the level of education at ETSU. When I said that "we have ETSU students flipping burgers," I was pointing out that we do not have the level of jobs in this area to sustain the number of graduates from our local colleges. Therefore, they are forced to either leave the area or take what jobs are available to them, which in most cases are in the service area," The trouble is there are no decent jobs even in trades as the Tarnoff report revealed. See:

• Sitgreaves: 'Burger' comment aimed at lack of white-collar jobs in Tri-Cities

Why should businesses pay for schools' failure?

Monday, May 10, 2004

In analyzing the results of a study of the region's work force, a university researcher has made what is, at least to her mind, a disturbing conclusion: employers need capable employees, but are unwilling to pay for it.

The 18-month study, conducted by Dr. Karen Tarnoff, assistant professor of management at East Tennessee State University, has found that employers have an urgent need for people with a strong work ethic and good reading, math, communication, leadership and teamwork skills. However, the professor laments, most businesses are spending few resources on training their employees.

"Not only are businesses spending little money, but the increases they want are relatively small," Tarnoff notes.

"A couple of the large employers had reasonable training budgets, but we surveyed mostly medium-sized firms."

Tarnoff reports that while a majority of businesses realize there is a skills gap among employees and applicants, they don't perceive themselves as being responsible for the creation or resolution of that gap. "This passive view by organizations will likely compound the severity of the skills gap in their work force," the ETSU professor writes.

While Tarnoff faults the business community for failing to make a significant commitment to work force training, the attitude of most employers is hardly surprising. In fact, such a stance is entirely understandable. Arcane or job-specific training aside, why should the region's employers be responsible for re-teaching what 12, or even 16 years of formal education have failed to instill?

If a high school or college graduate cannot follow written or verbal instructions or perform routine computational skills, of what use is public instruction? Should private employers be expected to remediate what more than a decade of professional instruction and tens of millions of dollars in spending have not accomplished? Isn't that precisely why property and other taxes exist? Don't business and industry pay their fair share of these costs every year?

If any finger-pointing is warranted, it's to the educational community and not the region's employers.

Spending on education has increased more than fourteen-fold in constant dollars since it was first reliably measured in 1920. America already spends more on education than any other nation. Arguably, the problem of low skills isn't due to a lack of money, or lack of commitment from the business community, but this nation's unwillingness to adopt high academic standards. Recently, the 16 states which make up the Southern Regional Education Board, of which Tennessee is a member, pledged to lead the nation in educational progress.

Their bold pronouncement, laid out in a document titled "Goals for Education: Challenge to Lead," included a vow to move away from the negative labels of earlier eras and to reach beyond national averages.

But shortly after the ink had dried on that document, The College Board released the annual ACT and SAT state score reports. Serving as a reality check, the news - mixed at best - underscored the monumental challenge before SREB states if they are to live up to their boast of educational excellence.

While the student scores of most SREB states have improved and more high school students in the South are taking a college preparatory curriculum, SREB states have not kept pace on test scores with others in the nation. In Tennessee, the news is particularly disturbing.

The state has the dubious distinction - along with Mississippi - of showing a decline in its ACT scores the past decade. Tennessee also ranks near the bottom of the region and the nation in college entrance exam scores.

Nationally, there's not a lot to brag about, either. Approximately one-third of the population 16 or older cannot read a street map. One in five Americans reads at a level insufficient to adequately compete or perform in the labor market.

While the U.S. may be the world's only economic and military superpower, the nation's literacy rate ranks only in the top 15 in the industrialized world.

Some 44 million Americans cannot do simple mathematics or read a newspaper, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The educational community is asking for higher taxes, even as it continues to produce students who lack basic, employable skills. That's no fault of the business community.

Copyright 2004 Kingsport Times-News.

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