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NFIB: education failing local business owners
Lobbying group looks for ways to support local businesses’ push for better education
By Matthew French
Staff Writer
Local business owners expressed their displeasure with the state’s poor public education system during the National Federation of Independent Business’ meeting of the Lowcountry Area Action Council in late June.
“We probably had about 25 different businesses represented at the meeting, and they came from all different areas of Charleston, Dorchester and Berkeley counties,” says Michael Fields, NFIB’s South Carolina director.
“We had a very interactive meeting between the businesses and the members of the state Legislature. Education was brought up as an issue really for the first time.”
In contrast, education and worker training were not on the top 10 list of concerns of small business, according to NFIB’s statewide quarterly report, issued in early March.
This is the first time the council has listed education as one of the area’s highest priorities. And it marked a turning point for businesses in the region, says Fields.
“I was really surprised with the furor these businesses expressed in the need to do something about education,” Fields says.
“They are fed up with pumping money into a system that’s broken. The state has made improvements, but education is certainly not where it needs to be. These businesses need a workforce that is capable of doing the job, and the South Carolina education system is not providing that.”
South Carolina typically ranks at the bottom of the scale in terms of high school graduation rates, and that statistic plays directly into the development of a future workforce.
A recent graduation rates report issued in February by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research looked at statistical data from 1991 through 2002 and determined South Carolina had the lowest high school graduation rate during that span at 53%, nearly 20% below the national average for the same period.
Local business owners have started to feel the pinch in terms of qualified employees, and many have been forced to import them from out of state.
In addition, large employers, such as the airplane manufacturer Global Aeronautica, will likely cull some of the better employees from existing companies, instead of recruiting from the local high schools.
Fields says the other issues brought up, property taxes, worker’s compensation and property rights, are much more typical of recent business concerns for small business.
The NFIB, one of the country’s largest small business lobbying groups, will take a closer look at public education to determine where its lobbying efforts can be most useful to its membership, Fields says.
“We’re not going to suddenly abandon workers compensation and health care as priorities, but we set our agenda based on balloting measures with our membership,” he says.
“If education is something they perceive as a problem, it’s something that we will address.”
Matthew French is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at mfrench@crbj.com.
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