A reader from southwest Indiana challenges me to offer solutions for the problems of smaller towns posed in last week’s column. Indiana’s current efforts are focused on improving the towns. I think we need to work on improving the skills of Hoosiers.
Our Stellar Cities and Regional Cities programs involve generous competitive grants that result in some good projects, but are misguided. They tend to focus on amenities and faddish efforts to “attract talent.” These are well-meaning projects, useful to some extent in bringing people together, but basically, in my view, leading to dead ends.
The governments of Indiana are supposed to serve the people of Indiana. Our efforts to rescue our failing cities and towns should focus on the people of Indiana. Our investments should be made in closing the gaps that keep Hoosiers from participating in the modern world.
What should we do? Here’s a starting list:
First, require every person who gets an Indiana driver’s license to demonstrate a proficiency in reading and communicating in English in both verbal and written form. If they cannot pass the test, a six-month license is issued and they enroll in classes conducted at local high schools to bring them up to the standard. Failure to attend and progress ends up with no renewal of the license.
We cannot talk about STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and math) without basic literacy and communication skills. How do you get through an initial job interview for the average job if your reading skills are subpar and if you cannot communicate effectively?
Second, let’s help people and firms redirect themselves to alternative opportunities. Farmers have learned to diversify their crops as market price change. Many people and firms are too proud to admit the course they chose in the past is no longer serving them well.
It is not easy for workers to retrain or for firms to serve new markets with new products. New networks have to be built. But it has been done and we can learn from those who have done it.
Third, our communities require leadership, a resource that must be identified, cultivated and harvested. What’s missing in so many Indiana places is a bench of rookies and seasoned veterans who can take responsibility for community advancement.
We still expect the mayor and the local banker to sit down and design our future over a beer. There is a shortage of mayors with those skills and the local banker has become a branch manager. Many existing “leadership” programs are a farce. Serious attention to leadership recruitment is necessary.
Where communities are small, it is difficult to do these things without help from the central government operating out of Indianapolis. Whether the universities or the bureaucracy should provide that help requires careful examination.
Indiana needs to invest in people, specifically “the three Rs”: reading and communications, redirection of careers, and recruitment of committed leadership.
Morton Marcus is an economist, formerly with the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Send comments to [email protected].
