Will Louisiana ever become an information economy in a world where countries have jumped from the Agricultural era to become “Information Giants”, bypassing the industrial revolution in the process?India is a prime example of a nation that is becoming known for its technology having “leaped-froged” into the 21st century.
By contrast, due to a variety of reasons, including Katrina and Rita, Louisiana has over 100,000 jobs available, but most of them are lower income and easier-accessed jobs which will not put this state on the world stage in the “information age”.
Unlike many states in America, our unemployment is low, we are operating with a surplus for now but most forecasts see darker financial clouds overhead in the future.Those clouds mean fewer opportunities for a growth economy.
So, if we are expecting to be the future “information jewel of the South”, it won’t happen anytime soon.
Based upon the information provided by the Jindal administration, we have approximately 100,000 jobs available with 55% of the jobs requiring only a high school diploma or less and no specific training.Approximately 33% of the 100,000 jobs will require a two-year degree, certificate or advanced training.Approximately 12% of the jobs will require a four year college degree, at the minimum.
However, based upon the future such as 2014, the government is saying that approximately 55% of the jobs will require a two-year degree certificate or advance training.
These statistics raise a very disturbing issue.Based upon our natural resources, our geopolitical position, our existing needs, many of our “best and brightest” will not be needed in the future Louisiana workforce at the level of their highest achievements.
In other words, we might be “dummying down” and not using our brain trust at its most esteemed potentials.
Currently, our greatest need in terms of job vacancies fall within requiring only a two-year degree, certificate or advance training in occupations such as vehicle operators, vehicle mechanics, nursing aids, health techs, metal/plastic workers and construction workers which make up approximately 19,600 of the “lower level” 33,000 jobs of those 100,000 jobs currently available.
These figures mean that our resources are going to educate the lower paying jobs which will fill the available and foreseeable occupations.So, for now, we can forget competing with the Silicon Valleys, the North Carolina triangles, the New Englands, the Redmond Washington or the Indias of the world where technology and information is a premium and where those jobs are available and wanting.
The dreams that Louisiana will be the “Information South” is becoming that—a dream.
The jobs are not here, and the training is not going in that direction.
The new approach towards economic development and education under this administration requires a sorry dose of realism.Based upon the realities of our economy, the “information age” is a vision of the far future.It would be surely better if more than 12% of the current and perhaps future jobs needed a four-year degree, but the administration for now says, it won’t and it is hard to argue against facts.
Many of us for years have wanted and have worked very hard to see Louisiana become a “knowledge economy”.We thought that if we could build it, they would come.Unfortunately, with limited dollars and jobs here going begging now, with Louisiana having lost ground due to the twin storms, the money that would have been allocated for the four-year colleges will fund the community and vo-tech schools and to a lesser extent the academies of higher education.Governor Jindal is seeking provable outcomes to fulfill our present needs and not throw money into mere mirages of hopes and dreams.
The visions of many parents that our kids will be in the higher echelon of income earners and professionals will just have to wait until we fill those jobs that are begging.Unfortunately, that process might take years.For some of us, that means more “brain drain” for those individuals who desire life in the fast-lane of information and the new economy, but are being slowed down by reality of who we are at this point in our history.
The administration is feeding us a brand of harsh reality based upon the cards it has been dealt, the makeup of our infrastructure, our geography and our past.No governor can ignore the needs of available industries.Yet, many of us must still prove that we will seek and achieve better for our kids or else the really “best and the brightest” will continue to live somewhere else while we the rest of us drive trucks, weld ships and fix cars.
Those jobs might be good work, and we can “get them.But, filling our needs is not “thinking about tomorrow”.
Ahhh the cyberpolice................ they won't allow... Baaahhhhhhhhhhhh,,, twoooolegs gooooooooooddddddd, 4 legs baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddddddddd...... Written by Stocks drop after jobless claims hit two-year high
on 4/3/2008
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Smitty rules vote for smitty Written by Lil dab il do
on 4/1/2008
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Oh, and never, never, never confuse legality with morality..... That is oil and water. Legal equality in reality is in direct proportion to the thickness of the contents inside your wallet...... Of course kpf may want to try to expend a little energy to calcualte out what the square root of that is.... HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA (I think the binary codes have something to do with 1's and 0's, or perhaps it is merely words...........A2(n-1,2e-1) = A2(n,2e). Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha...........) Written by ..............Oh blah..........................
on 3/29/2008
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In fact RDS, I can appreciate the fact that you were in the teaching field. I would suppose what irks me is that "Those that think they know so much and have the answers really pizz off those of us who really do". Social Security? I know an approach that will make that a sound instrument in less than 8 months and will perpetuate its existence for the rest of the lifespan of our United States as we know it. Will I get a chance at causing that small feat into fruition? No..... Why? THE WALLS MY FRIEND, THE WALLS................................... And this is only figuratively Written by ........So tell me who are you, are you, who who
on 3/29/2008
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Uhhh,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, RDS (chuckle, I like the cut to the chase Rhett's Wife, your dry style sometimes makes sense) MISTAKE? Handy little word you used there. Sort of like “Whoops, I accidentally dropped a hand grenade after I pulled the pin. Not my fault the damn thing went off and killed some people”…. No, INCOMPETENCE + GREED + a few other despicable characteristics displayed by those involved with the implementation processes of prior flood protection mediums = DISASTER is the phrase...... Not enough funds? No, what was built is what was certified by COLLEGE professionals as being adequate to do the job. Simple as that. And if they didn’t have enough money to do the job, which you are trying to claim they always didn’t, and yes this process has been going on for decades, so the issue of more money was never a valid question or concern, well, projects could have stopped at that point until more funds arrive, and they could have picked up where they ended. So no, it was not an Engineering mistake as you put it, and I am still trying to decipher the cryptic nature of that sentence, or the lack there of. I appreciate that you have your opinions, and RDS, I have their ‘facts’, I have my facts, and the dead have theirs. And that is all there is to that. And the facts of the matter are: This travesty could have been reduced to a bare minimum if not completely avoided except for the fact that the Chutes and Ladders, the backrooms, and side doors the illusionists utilize cause common folks such as you, I , our neighbors, to suffer. Financially, as well as economically and with safety. (Yes there is a difference between finance and economy) The only ones not suffering are the ones that are dead and gone, they think about the bovine scatology no more. Or as the raven cried Never More, Never More. And this is one subject, and one subject alone. As far as Afghanistan, and Iraq go, well it would appear that those two locations are a necessary evil of sorts. I support the President on his policies, I am not saying the wars are right, wars are usually wrong. But back to the flood protection for Louisiana and costs associated. The money is going to be spent one way or another, and one way or another something is going to be built. But on a local level it is up to the citizenry to decide at what cost. And there you have it. But then we get into the subject of dumbing down the masses, censorship, oligarchies, and a whole host of other subjects that someone as stupid as me who never graduated from highschool probably doesn't even have the slightest inkling of>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Written by ............So they say.....................
on 3/29/2008
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RDS, dear well put. It is time to give people choices and not to limit their future at early ages. Equality of opportunity and equality of choice. Time will tell. Written by RhettsWife
on 3/28/2008
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I appreciate all compliments, but perhaps it's time not to be nice. We need each other's help to survive, and sometimes we help most when we're frank and not nice. My high-school was in Germany, where there were only ethnic Germans at the time. The Turks hadn't immigrated there yet. The idea of requiring ALL students to be separated into vocational preparation and college-preparation tracks by junior-high school was applied at that time to people of the same ethnicity, so I think in terms of human beings, not in terms of ethnic beings. Not all human beings are born capable of college-level work. Of those who are, many will not WANT to do it. So among those who are both able and willing to do college-level work, we will find our professional leaders.... Yes, the flood protection was an engineering disaster, but it seems not to have been an engineering MISTAKE. From the reading I have done, it appears to have been a governmental decision, made because Congress didn't provide sufficient funds. After all, there are wars the president wants to fight, and if the feds spend money on flood protection in Louisiana, there won't be enough for bombing Iraq or Afghanistan.... Every society I've ever read or known about has been obliged to recognize that human beings are born unequal in natural and cultural gifts. Inequality in gifts does not imply inequality before the law. In a just society, all men are equal before the law, however unequal they may be in their personal gifts. Of course, it would be nice to see legal equality in reality! Written by Robert Desmarais Sullivan
on 3/28/2008
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Rhett's Wife, dear, your 'doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, computer experts, etc.' fall within the classes that scare me the most. A little knowledge can be a good thing, and in many instances, a lot of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Just go out and ask the victims of our Engineered failure here in Louisiana. Written by Sonds sort of Bourgeoisie to me.
on 3/28/2008
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And of course there is Robert Desmarais Sullivan. You seem like a nice enough person, but let me explain to you about that 15% you 'slighted' in your dissertation. Within that 15% lays an even smaller percentage that is the innovators of the world. Or was it a college educated person that invented fire, and the wheel? Funny thing is, I find the remaining 99% don't have the intelligence it takes to know a good thing when it slaps them right in the face, so in other words, and relying on some of my 'experience with "black America" and its varied colloquialisms, Most ya'll don't know chit frum shineola.... (Do you remember what Shineola was Mr. Sullivan? But then again, I wouldn't want to be accused of leading horses to water, or forcing them to drink. That wouldn't be democratic now would it? (I imagine lots of horses is drinken till there bellies burst up in Arkansas about now). Written by As an afterthought.
on 3/28/2008
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In other words you were putting the chicken before the egg in an attempt to write something you considered to be 'Wisdom'? You see, under your approach, they would be called 'journeymen' or, people about to enter into business for theirselves. Sort of like Nagins counter top production when there are folks that have been in the business for 30 years that can tell you his success is "somewhat of a miracle" But then again, T-Dud will try to explain the hardships of the minorities and throw all those pointed observations off the screen........ Written by In addendum...................
on 3/28/2008
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Rhett's Wife, dear, the things you are referring to are called 'Apprenticeship'. And no, those don't require tax payer funding to proliferate. Actually it is a true reflection of the concept of 'Supply and demand' at its greatest rendition. Written by So take out ads in the New York Times for labor
on 3/28/2008
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Thank you, Rhett's Wife, for sanity in the craziness of smart retorts! As a teacher of 34 years, 31 of them in New Orleans, I have learned from my students that many of them want to become artisans, tradesmen, and technicians, without spending four or five years earning a degree. One of my students from Ben Franklin, for example, chose to become a professional arborist. For him this has meant a rejection of learning through institutional courses and a choice of learning through personal sources. He works on his trees as a day job, and he reads and writes in the afternoon and evening.... His choice was his own, but I estimate that two-thirds of the young people in any society world-wide would prefer vocational preparation with cultural opportunity over "college-prep" curricula. Of course, we need professionals with college education and training, but the students for those curricula select themselves or are selected by the eighth grade. Contrary to recent decisions of BESE, trigonometry is not essential for a high-school diploma. The restoration of the vocational-preparation option in the Louisiana schools is long overdue. Young men and women who have sat hopelessly imprisoned in my French classes often told me frankly that they wanted to learn a skill that would earn them a decent income and position in life. I think we can give them that. It is hope for them and security for our communities. If 30% become professionals and 55% become skilled workers, there will be the 15% who either cannot or will not receive any training at all. There is work for them to do as well, but we have been neglecting the 55% who need training. I see no need for New Orleans to become an information center. Our life can be rich and full without being Silicon Valley. Written by Robert Desmarais Sullivan
on 3/28/2008
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We dare talk of the "information age" and job availability! We watch as thousands of able bodied men and women from near and far stand for hours in line ( and trash the grounds while they're at it)to get "free" rental vouchers while wating for others from other places to rebuild their neighborhoods. We have the nerve to talk of jobs! What evidence do we have that anybody actually wants to work? College grads with a "degree" who can't fix a broken pipe.People riding aroud all day on 3 plus dollars a gallon gas with nothing to do and nowwhere to go.Give me a break. The "I'm owed" mentality has eaten this place up. Look around. Written by poboy1
on 3/28/2008
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For those old enough to remember, this city once had a flourishing school that provided a basis for education of workers that are sorely missed in this state today, Delgado Central Trades School. There we found courses and diplomas granted in painting, hands on decorating, cabinet making, cabinet finishining, plumbing, air conditioning, drafting, landscaping, sign making, auto mechanics, culinary arts, etc. Then came the push for the junior or community college. With the change of this honored trade school came a new name and the eradication of the fact that men and women could earn a decent living even without a college degree. The new junior college was meant to serve those who were not sure of what they wished to do with their lives, but to give them an opportunity to look, enroll, think, imagine and make a decision. The 4 year colleges and universities refused to accept many of the credits earned at this school and frankly, dears, many of those who taught some of those subjects that could have been transferred were better qualified than some teaching in the 4 year colleges and universities. Now we need those men and women who could serve as the basis of renewal in this city and this state. Men and women who could help rebuild - but who were not given the opportunity to become trained in a viable and necessary trade. Students thought only of "high paying" college degrees but failed to see the possibility of becoming "high paying" people with a necessary trade and skill. It is time to learn from history and start to encourage those who could use the trade and skill to help build this city and state. We need to train such craftsmen and women and place them in apprenticeship programs that will lead to better lives for themselves and for others. These individuals are part of the essential brain trust that this city and state needs. Yes those high paying college degree jobs may be lacking now but they will not for long, if we re-evaluate our educational programs and encourage all to work in respectable jobs. The doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, computer experts, etc. will come back and many of our best will refuse to leave because they are part of this city and this state. We know of many now in some of the highest degree and research programs in this nation and abroad who will come back when their training ends. They were bred, born, and lived here. They are New Orleans as are those who are trained for what some would refer to as menial jobs, but which are essential to the growth and well being of this city. From our history comes the source of our future and the revitalization of our city and state. We know of one man who has a diploma from a prestigious high school, three degrees from universities, but who wears none of the rings from those esteemed schools but the one that his father earned from Delgado Trade School. Why, because he relies on what his father taught him - that with common sense, determination, dignity and respect for others, he can be more productive in our city and state than many others. What Jindal and others are proposing is nothing than what that man always proposed and what could have been a source for a greater New Orleans. Yes, dears, we believe that we can re-gain a future but it will begin only when people put their hearts back into this city and make it what it should been a nouveau New Orleans. Written by RhettsWife
on 3/27/2008
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Interesting, or perhaps it is not. Sort of vague, appears mostly coincidental in nature. And nature is full of coincidences. Take the platypus for instance, talk about a conundrum.... Or is it? I would suppose the trick is in the fuse of the subject………. Or perhaps how to hammer it down. Bona fides out there oh inquisitive interjecting interrupter? Written by 3rd party interested.........................
on 3/27/2008
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Get help. Written by to the ONE who posted all below
on 3/27/2008
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And the relevance of francois? Written by Time is of the essence........ Getting itchy feet
on 3/27/2008
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The reason to vote for smitty? Written by Time is of the essence........ Getting itchy feet
on 3/27/2008
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I will pronounce it how I see fit La has needed a face lift its entire life. Only one man had enough sense to do it and he got shot for his troubles. oh king fish how we need you now so I can write Louisiana instead of Lousy-Anna vote for smitty Written by lil dab will do
on 3/27/2008
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It is called Louisiana, and it needs a face lift. Hopefully Bab's understanding that her mug wasn't appreciated will serve to inspire the hangers oners of an obsolete mindset out there that they need to stop, and step aside. My next 'hopefully' would be that Piyush would provide for the benefit of Louisiana, instead of providing for the benefit of the doubters......... Written by Time is of the essence........ Getting itchy feet.
on 3/27/2008
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I tend to agree............ And believe this, if some intellegence does make an advent on the Louisiana Horizon, those same people you speak of that don't work the shovel will do what ever necessary to enslave it, steal it, or trample it underfoot if it does not bow down on bent knee to serve their tastes and desires. Written by Interview with a Vampire
on 3/27/2008
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hey wall are you back in lousy-anna Written by lil' dab will do
on 3/27/2008
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Who are you trying to kid La was never going to compete with silicon valley and in case you have forgotten silicon valley defunct and India is king of info. the only people left in NO were the people who could afford to rebuild after kat... that is why you got a shortage of people who can serve you rich white privileged butts. La has never been Known for its brain trust its always been known for the abundance of cheap labor and can we please stop whining about katrina the only ones suffering are rich people who have to do for themselves now katrina drove the poor people out and now they dont wanto come back and i dont blame them Written by lil' dab will do
on 3/27/2008
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Rich man, poor man, Beggar man, thief. Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief! So who decides what percentage of what is what is needed, and how is it that the taxpayers are going to be told that they have to obligate these quotas? Twoooooooo legs baaaaaaddddd, 4 legs goooooooooodddddd Written by The writing on the fall
on 3/27/2008
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I would wonder who is going to dig all the drainage ditches for all the 'smarties' we want to create? Written by Balance
on 3/27/2008
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Will 
