Need to Know

Recently I was at a program and heard a presentation by Keith Stover, the head man at South Central Technical. They are doing some very innovative things to help put people back to work. The unemployment rate is high in south central Minnesota, but not has high as it is nationwide.

We all want to see people have a good job and see the unemployment figures down in the 1 or 2 or 3% range. This will probably never happen unless there are huge changes. Why? Stover gave the answer. He said that the one bit of information that is never stated when the national unemployment data is given is the fact that a huge percentage of the unemployed (over 50%) of those people looking for jobs have not graduated from high school.

Until we correct this, we will have high unemployment and well as many other social problems. One thing I learned from 16 years in county government is that we can decrease case loads in law enforcement, probation, and social services by getting more young people to stay in school and graduate.end