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The greatest opportunity we have in South Carolina...

Submitted by: John Warner on Jun 23, 2009 at 10:49 am Tagged with: Economic Development, Engineering Source: Swamp Fox

The greatest opportunity we have in South Carolina is tapping into the innate human potential of everyone in the state. We all benefit from living in an educated, prosperous community with skilled people around us who deliver everything from healthcare to car care. Deep, focused ecosystems of educated, innovative people are our only sustainable, competitive advantage in a global marketplace.

In the past decade, we have laid important foundations of our future success. It is time to consolidate our gains and accelerate the pace of progress. In recent weeks there has been much discussion about the lack of leadership in developing a comprehensive plan for South Carolina. Below are elements of economic development and education public policy essential to moving our state forward.

We must build a modern economic development strategy to grow innovative, productive ecosystems around major industry anchors serving global markets. These anchors must be supported by world-class workforces, supply chains, and service providers, and surrounded by strategic entrepreneurial companies and academic centers. In these focused areas the state must have a strong pipeline of talent from K-12, technical colleges, four year institutions and graduate programs, to employment in industry and entrepreneurial opportunities.

We must ensure affordable access to high quality, life long higher education for all adults. Per capita income in South Carolina will not increase without raising the level of educational attainment. All adults, from recent high school graduates to working adults, should have low cost access to technical colleges in South Carolina to improve their skills. A seamless transition must exist from the first two years at a technical college to the final two years at a four year institution, so more students start out low cost at home and finish at a university. The quality of our research universities must continue to improve so they serve as magnets to attract and retain the best and brightest in South Carolina.

We must empower K-12 teachers to be heroes in delivering excellent, innovative public schools by having money follow the child so parents can choose the best educational environment for their children. Our enlightened self interest and our mutual responsibility are ensuring that all children have access to one of most effective and innovative public education systems in the world. The key to rocketing to the top is giving teachers their profession back, allowing them the freedom to operate all schools like charter schools, with clear, transparent accountability that emphasizes critical thinking skills and creativity as essential to our children's success. While doing that, we must ensure access to high quality public schools for all students, especially children in poverty.

We must reform our tax structure to create low rates and a broad base that generates the resources needed to provide essential government services to the citizens of the state. Our hodgepodge of tax rules is weighted too heavily to volatile tax bases and special interests which have resulted in devastating reductions in essential services at the depths of this economic crisis.

We must have a modern state government, where the Legislature creates public policy and the Governor executes it. Our current constitution was adopted in 1895 and intentionally fragments state government because the authors were concerned that a black would be elected Governor. It is essential that we write a new South Carolina constitution as a foundation for an effective and efficient state government appropriate to the needs of the 21st century.

We must have consensus-based leadership that unites us across the state to work together in our enlightened self-interest. Currently our strategy for moving the state forward is fragmented between departments like Commerce, Agriculture, Transportation, Parks, Recreation and Tourism, and Education, as well as agencies like SCRA, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Ports Authority. Most of these entities do not report to the Governor, but are essential to modern economic development and education. A year and a half from now, we will elect a new Governor who must have a strong track record of leading by consensus.

There is no better time to have this discussion than at the depths of an economic storm, because major institutions from industry to academia to government will be very different coming out of this crisis than they were going in. We have a great opportunity in 2010 to rally around a leader who articulates a powerful, positive vision for launching South Carolina forward by tapping into the innate human potential of everyone in the state.

John Warner is founder of InnoVenture LLC, which promotes innovation and entrepreneurship through the annual InnoVenture Southeast conference and related forums throughout the year, and the SwampFox.ws website with weekly email and public radio updates. He can be reached at JohnWarner@SwampFox.ws.