ELKHART — There’s a sure way to improve Elkhart County’s communities and its economy — education.
That’s the conclusion of dozens of community leaders involved with the Horizon Project, a forward-thinking planning group.
Monday the Horizon Project leadership outlined an initiative to boost education attainment, lower drop-out rates and use education as an economic development tool.
“We offer there is a clear connection between a community’s economic success and the academic prowess of its citizens,” said Dan Boecher, Horizon Project chairman.
And Boecher and other Horizon Project participants want success for Elkhart County.
Challenges
In outlining the challenges ahead, Boecher presented graphs that showed the county’s high school dropout rate is 22.1 percent. That’s way above the state average of 14.2 percent and the national average of 15.5 percent.
“Without restructuring our manufacturing-based economy that relies primarily on an uneducated work force, Elkhart County consigns itself to compete in a new-world economy with outdated tools,” the Horizon Project stated in materials handed out during the presentation.
Boecher said Elkhart County’s current plight of having led the nation in unemployment during the recession and continuing into this slow-growth period, is an example of why a new approach to local education is needed.
“The original Horizon plan from 2002 identified an important weakness in our economic fabric, that we were clearly overly reliant on durable goods manufacturing, particularly in the RV industry.
“What happens next was well documented and was broadcast to the entire country that Elkhart County was in real trouble,” Boecher said.
On top of a high drop-out rate, the county has a below-average rate of residents with higher-education degrees, 11.9 percent compared to the state’s 14.2 percent and the nation’s 17.3 percent.
So, if most local families are not willing to send their children to college, the Horizon Project’s idea is to bring college to them while they are still in high school.
The goal is to “blend high school and the first two years of college or professional technical certification. Since students earn college or technical credits while in high school, the time and money required to complete post-secondary education can be significantly reduced,” stated the Horizon Project outline.
Already, several county high schools, including Goshen, offer students the opportunity to earn college credits. Some colleges are willing to give students credit for high school courses that meet their academic requirements. Parents or the students still have to pay for the college course cost.
Educators on board
Mark Mow, superintendent of Elkhart Community Schools, said all seven county superintendents and their districts are willing to participate and cooperate to create college credit and certification programs.
In addition, they intend to work to create a countywide distance learning program, whereby one school may offer a college-level class with just a few students, but students in other schools can tap into that instruction through the Internet and fill out the class size.
“We see the initiative as a powerful economic development tool to attract business and individuals to Elkhart County who desire advanced education opportunities,” Mow said.
How to pay for it
Private funding sources will be sought to pay for the initiative, according to Elkhart County Commissioner Mike Yoder. But, he said public funding must be part of the equation.
Yoder said Horizon Project members will be seeking a 1 percent food and beverage tax and a 0.25 percent hike in the Economic Development Income Tax. He said the food and beverage tax would raise $2.5 to $3 million annually and the EDIT tax increase would provide $4 to $5 million yearly.
Getting these taxes in place will require enabling legislation from state legislators, which will be a tall hurdle to overcome. He said just one local legislator is willing to help, the others have told him no new taxes will be passed in the upcoming General Assembly session.
If the work on the program is to begin in 2012, Yoder said state legislation must be approved in 2011.
The community
Boecher believes the political push for this program will have to be at the grassroots level.
“The community is going to have to demonstrate they want this,” he said.
He said the recession has shown county residents they can’t rely on having high-paying jobs in the future by making durable goods.
“The opportunity to make $70,000 without a high school education is coming to an end,” he said.