Earlier this month, James Koch, Old Dominion University’s board of visitors professor of economics and president emeritus, presented his annual “State of the Region” report to Hampton Roads business, civic and philanthropic leaders.
One key takeaway from the report? Rather than investing millions in arenas, conference centers and performance venues with “questionable” economic impacts, cities need to be investing in K-12 education.
According to Koch, “Mediocre low-performing schools with high dropout rates are a recipe for economic stagnancy.”
Last year, only 3 of Hampton Road’s 13 public school districts reported four-year, one time high school graduation rates above the state average of 88 percent. That’s something that needs to be addressed. Koch admits, fixing it won’t be easy–it will require additional funding; a willingness to reallocate educational resources when necessary; and providing incentives to school districts, teachers and administrators to do things differently to improve their students’ performance, but it’s something that needs to be done.
As we’ve said before, we can’t keep doing business as usual and expect the same results. While our traditional views and approaches might have been successful in the past, our students and our future workforce are falling behind. The things that worked in the past won’t get us to new levels of growth in the global economy.
In order to propel the state’s economy and ensure Virginia’s competitiveness in the global marketplace, our state and our cities need to be investing in education.
Click here to view Koch’s full report.