Science: Not Just for Nerds

OK, maybe that’s not the best slogan for a new STEM initiative marketing campaign. I’ll leave that up to the experts. But a marketing campaign is exactly what the Obama Administration is talking about with its new Educate to Innovate campaign. And it’s exactly what the Prosperity Partnership has been talking about as well:

Remember That Whole Thing About the Creative Economy?

In the go-go days of the mid-2000’s, Richard Florida was king, and the creative economy was going to lead us to cafe-cultured prosperity. Here in the central Puget Sound, not only did we take credit for all our smart people, we actually hired Richard Florida to come and help us develop strategies to capitalize on these resources. But you don’t really hear too much about that these days. What happened to the creative economy?

Happy Anniversary, Recovery Act!

They grow up so fast…it seems like only yesterday that Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In fact, it was not yesterday, but rather February 13, 2009. (The President signed it four days later.) Which makes today the nine month anniversary!

Even after all this time, there are actually a number of major opportunities still open. On this happy day, here are a few to keep an eye on (or apply for!):

Hello from Abu Dhabi

Not much time to talk – in a presentation on clean tech and the Masdar City project – but wanted to check in from the Chamber’s UAE study mission. In Abu Dhabi now, and it’s not only absolutely fabulous but also so relevant. There are so many Puget Sound/UAE connections already (Boeing, Microsoft, UW, etc.) and so many similarities in terms of their economic development strategy. Their Economic Vision 2030 is a lot like the Prosperity Partnership’s Regional Economic Strategy, not only in terms of the fact that it’s a cluster based/foundation supported strategy, but the specific focuses: clean tech, tourism, aerospace, education, arts and culture…they’re shifting from a resource based economy to a knowledge economy. Of course, they have almost unlimited funds and limited public process to get it done…

Washington, the Writing is On the Stimulus Wall

If you’re thinking the stimulus package for education comes as a free lunch or merely a life raft to keep state education budgets afloat, think again. Two statements released this week—an editorial by Bill and Melinda Gates and a speech by Ed Sec. Arne Duncan—confirm that a large part of the education stimulus will be used to reward and incentivize education reform.

So just what will those incentives for reform be? Duncan’s message is becoming increasingly clear. He said the Education Department would want to use the money in part to reward states—as well as districts and nonprofit groups—that have set rigorous standards linked to strong assessments and monitored by student-data systems.

College and Work Ready Skills are More Important than Ever

Is post-high school education and training critical for securing a family wage job and avoiding unemployment?

The answer is yes.

December nationwide unemployment among workers with some college education was 3.7 percent, and just 2 percent for those with at least a four-year degree.  Overall unemployment was 7.2 percent.  And even with increasing unemployment, the bulk of job openings require some amount of post-high school education and training.  Yet a majority of Washington high school students graduate needing remediation in math and other subjects before they can enter training program or college.   And about 30 percent of our students don’t even graduate from high school.

Blogging from Leadershp Conference #2 – Global Health

The Conference topic this year is Global Health.  As in, how can we capitalize on the list of great things going on in our region, from Gates, to PATH, to SBRI, to of course UW and WSU?

BTW, if you don’t know it, Seattle is rapidly becoming the center of Global Health on worldwide scale.  This has all grown organically, some would say “by accident.”  But I always think when someone says that it just means that they weren’t the ones that planned it.  I say it grew up because talented people executed their vision.  And because we have UWMC and the Gates Foundation.

So, recognizing that it is hard to say what should be done when we haven’t wrapped up the preceedings yet, my vote goes to a little planning and a lot of doing. 

Washington is a net exporter of college freshmen

According to postsecondary.org, only 16 of the 50 states are net exporters of college freshmen. Washington is one of them. Washington is also #43 among the 50 states in net migration, with a net loss of 2,377 students every year between high school graduation and college entrance. Keep in mind, that is a net number…many more of our students went out of state but were offset by out-of-staters coming here to our colleges.

Also, note that California – with a population approximately 5x our size – lost 2,384. That’s only 7 more students than we lost.

According to Washington’s Education Research and Data Center, about 54% of Washington’s graduating seniors go to college each year, and in 2006 about 60,000 students graduated from high school in Washington. That means around 32,750 of them went on to college. At the end of the day, we lost over 7% of them.

This is a key indicator of whether there is enough room on our campuses. With us losing more people than 42 other states, I think the answer continues to be: no there is not.

UW, WSU ask for more enrollments

According to the HEC Board, UW and WSU together have requested enrollment increases that would yield an additional 2,000 degrees in high-demand fields by 2018.  Their budgets, described in a story on the HEC Board’s website, were presented to the HEC Board at its July meeting.

This is great, as it contributes to Prosperity’s goal of 10,000 new degrees by 2020.  Added to the new degrees funded in the last biennium, we are approaching 5,000 new degrees annually since 2005.

Also, if you haven’t seen the HEC Board’s Strategic Master Plan, it’s worth a look…and even more ambitious than we have been.