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The Honorable
Gerald L. Baliles
Chairman |
There was a time when Patrick County
and many areas like it in rural Virginia thrived as agricultural
and manufacturing communities. Tobacco,
timber and textiles were our economy's mainstays. People
lived off the land--by the sweat of the brow, the flexing of the
muscle. The low-tech, labor-intensive industries of the "old" economy
have provided a reliable, stable source of jobs and decent wages
for many generations of Patrick County citizens. Physical
labor has been the capital required for success while education,
though "nice to have", has simply not been a necessity. In
this environment, education became a low priority as both a work
force and economic issue.
Today, it is clear that times have changed.
The doors of our generations-old businesses and industries are
now closed and locked, the lights turned off and most
of the jobs have been lost to technological replacements or shipped
off to places where labor is cheaper. In just a few short
years, our region's richest resource, physical labor, has lost
value and the economy, businesses and jobs it fueled are gone.
In their place is the vastly different face of a rapidly transforming "new" economy
fueled by the power of the mind, by information, knowledge, and
education. In today's economy, knowledge is the new capital
and education is now a critical necessity.
The impact of these
changes on Patrick County has been profound. Not only
are the reliable industries and jobs of our past gone, but
we find that we are woefully unprepared for the demands of
the new opportunities that will replace them. Because
of inadequate attention to education, Patrick County ranks
near the bottom of Virginia's rural counties in critical work
force education and readiness measures--the percentage of high
school students who go to college, the percentage of adults
over age 21 who have a high school education, and the presence
of effective, functioning work force training initiatives.
In 2001, only 30% of the county's high school seniors took
the SAT, 43% of adults over age 21 did not have a high school
education and our county's workforce training programs were
loosely organized and falling behind in meeting the demands
of the new economy.
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For those of us who love this beautiful
rural mountain community, this realization is sobering. If
we are to successfully bring new businesses, jobs and economic
opportunities to our area and if we are to participate fully
in this new knowledge-driven economy, we must rapidly shift
our focus to education. Businesses
of the new economy are looking for an educated, skilled work
force--education is the key to economic growth. To succeed, we
in Patrick County must change our culture to assure that education
is seen for what it is...the key to the future. Raising
the education attainment level of all our citizens must become
our highest priority.
This is the challenge that the Patrick
County Education Foundation has set out for itself and for
our community. Our Foundation
Board and staff are made up of people who care about the future
of Patrick County and who are committed to bringing about the
changes needed to assure our citizens of a bright future and
full participation in this new economy. But for this to
happen, we must act now. Our mission is to move Patrick
County from its place near the bottom to among the top five rural
Virginia counties within ten years in the percentage of high school
students who attend college, the percentage of citizens with
a high school education and the implementation of a working and
effective program of work force initiatives.
Our mission is an aggressive one, yet having now reached the midpoint
of our ten-year mission, we can already point to significant progress. Each
of the Foundation’s three initiatives - College Access, GED Promotion and
Work Force Training - are fully operational and returning good results.
One especially notable achievement has been realized in our GED Promotion
Project. Patrick County rose to second among 45 rural Virginia counties in
the number of GEDs awarded per 1,000 residents during 2005. When the Foundation began,
Patrick County was ranked 43rd. We are continually seeking ways to raise
education and job-training levels of the County's adult population. Each year,
the Foundation has launched new work force training programs and increased efforts to recruit
even more adults into the County's GED program.
But this is just the beginning. There is much work yet to be done.
The key to success will be the small but important steps
that individual Patrick County citizens take--to complete their
own high school education, pursue post-secondary education,
participate in new work force training initiatives and encourage
and support others to do the same. Through successful
negotiation of these small steps, Patrick County will begin to
attract the information-driven businesses and jobs
that will help us build a bright future for all our citizens
for many years to come.
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