Better schools key to economy

I ran across an interesting editorial commentary in the Denver Post by Tom Honig. Honig, Rocky Mountain regional president of Wells Fargo Bank and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce president, outlined a number of important reasons why a city needs a strong, repsected public school system to attract businesses that provide good-paying, competitive jobs.

Within the business communities of Hudson and New Richmond, you can here echoes of the points raised by Honig. Compare the thoughts of a wealth-creating capitalist like Honig to the nickle-and-dime Tom Paine wannabes at ontheborderline.net. At OTBL is all about anti-public education, anti- union, anti-taxes and anti-community sludge. Honig included this excellent summation of why strong public schools are important:

A competitive public school system is directly tied to a region's ability to compete for jobs in today's global marketplace. Colorado's business leadership is deeply committed to the future of Denver Public Schools because of what the health of our public schools says about how we value education and because of the role schools play in providing a future workforce.

Employers considering relocation or expansion evaluate a community in two major categories. First, they look at the overall business environment including geographic location, available workforce, tax structure, political climate, the transportation system and other important factors. Second are considerations about quality of life, including housing affordability, cultural opportunities, recreational amenities, health care and, perhaps most important, the quality of the public schools.

Any company considering long-term investment in our region must be concerned about a continuous supply of highly skilled and educated workers. We compete with other regions on a variety of factors, many related to education...

The only point raise above that would be mention on OTBL would be the tax structure. To them, it's not about moving forward, it's about moving backwards and crippling whatever they can of the existing community infrastructure.

Honig's commentary can be found at the Denver Post.