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Higher education integral to growing business

March 16, 2003 /

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Welcome to MEDA: Leadership Dedicated to Building Montana's Economy

Education is our business – everybody’s business. If Montana’s economy is to grow in the coming years, we must place a higher priority on education. Education is as integral to economic development as water is to agriculture.

By CHRIS DIMOCK
OneEighty Communications Inc. Billings Gazette

As long as the state views higher education as an expense rather than an investment, we are doomed to export our intellectual capital to other states. Without adequate funding, students are forced to bear the burden of higher tuition, making out-of-state colleges and universities more attractive. Once our students leave, it becomes harder to attract them back to Montana. To build a thriving economy, we need to build educational resources, especially at the community college level.

Investing in COT

As chairman of the National Advisory Council of the MSU-Billings College of Technology, I believe that as the College of Technology expands to fill the role of a community college, its impact on the work force and business will create a more vital regional economy. I invest time in the College of Technology because MSU-Billings Chancellor Ron Sexton and COT Dean John Cech are dedicated to bringing educational opportunities to the region.

To attract business to this area, we need an educated and skilled work force. To help our existing businesses grow, educational opportunities must be available to business owners, potential business owners and the work force. Business needs to become more actively involved in higher education, which in turn leads higher education to be more responsive to business needs. Training, development, skills upgrades are all available at the College of Technology.

Everyone benefits from a strong two-year higher education institution, especially the students. U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports that earning a two-year degree can mean almost $1.5 million during a 40-year work life. During the same 40 years, a person without a high school diploma will earn $620,000 less. With an average investment of $6,000 for an associate degree, that is more than a hundredfold return on your investment. Add to that the fact that roughly 75 percent of COT students receive some form of financial aid, and the return on a two-year degree is that much greater.

Business involvement

We need two-year higher education to grow, not to be held back. Business needs to step up to the plate and get involved. You can help in two ways. Let your legislators know that you support funding for higher education or call College of Technology Dean John Cech (656-4445 or [email protected]) to find out how your business can partner for growth with the COT. Working together, we can and will build a stronger economy in Montana through a partnership between business and higher education.

Chris Dimock is president and CEO of OneEighty Communications Inc. in Billings.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/03/16/build/opinion/guest1.inc

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Guest Opinion: Cheapest way isn’t best way for Montana

By JIM ELLIOTT
Montana State Senator

Gov. Judy Martz’s budget director recently told the Senate Education Committee, "We know that our schools need more money, but we just don’t have it to give."

That’s a decision, not an accident. No one wants to admit that we have arrived at this budget crisis through our own actions.
Lack of foresight

The budget crisis Montana and other states face today is not solely the result of events beyond their control; it’s the result of previous, purposeful policy decisions. Montana did not wake up one morning to find itself in the poorhouse, it got there through careful planning based on immense lack of foresight.

Not being willing to provide enough money to ensure Montana’s citizens the most basic necessities needed to improve their lives is a policy decision, not an act of God. "Where there’s a will, there’s a way," Mom used to say.

And not having the money to fully provide those basic necessities is also a result of a policy decision; namely the drive by previous legislatures and governors to cut taxes in areas where tax cuts were least needed and least appreciated. It is the payoff from giving away about $82 million a year in tax breaks to big business (including a $15.5 million annual property tax break enjoyed by PPL Montana, which is expressing gratitude by protesting more than 50 percent of their remaining property taxes). That $82 million a year is about 36 percent of the state’s annual budget deficit and 6.4 percent of the total 2003 state general fund.

It’s the payoff from assuming that good economic times will last forever, and blowing that extra money the good times provided by giving tax breaks. Some of those tax breaks went for good things, some for foolish things, and some for imprudent things. The point is; we have little, if anything, positive to show for it.

We are now at a critical point in deciding what the future of Montana will be, and the greater part of that decision is to determine the proper role of government.

The object of governing is not simply to see how cheaply you can get by. The object of government is to maintain a level and quality of services that enhance the quality of life and provide opportunity for the economic success of its citizens.

The tool that state governments use to enhance life for its citizens is called infrastructure, a word that means foundation. There are two types of infrastructure, hard and soft. Hard infrastructure is the collection of the physical means of communication and commerce: roads, utilities, transportation, public safety, etc. Soft infrastructure is nothing more than the knowledge to make the hard infrastructure work for us, and it begins and ends with education.
Education for economy

Education provides the means to a better life, not just for the individual, but for everyone in the state. The success of a state’s economy is greater than the sum of all our personal successes. The most impressive example is the unprecedented boom in the American economy as a direct result of the GI Bill, which provided a college education for any World War II veteran that wanted it. Education is the fundamental economic driver that provides health care, employees that can read, write and think, and the success of business ventures large and small.

We need both infrastructures to compete in today’s world. Providing those infrastructures is the responsibility of government. To the extent that they are provided, government succeeds because its citizens succeed. Our present government is failing the citizens of Montana, and has made a conscious policy decision to do so.

That can be changed only by public pressure on the Legislature and the governor’s office to make a policy decision to do what’s best for Montana, not what’s cheapest.

Democrat Jim Elliott of Trout Creek serves on the Senate Education Committee.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/03/16/build/opinion/guest2.inc