DARLA MOORE
SPEECH TO THE SOUTHERN CAROLINA ALLIANCE
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
USC-Salkehatchie Campus
May 22, 2007
Thank you, Kay, for such a kind introduction. I really appreciate you allowing a farmer from Lake City to share in your 10th Anniversary celebration tonight.
When Kay Maxwell got in touch with us about speaking to the Southern Carolina Alliance, it was an opportunity I was anxious to accept. There is such a parallel between the counties you serve and the Pee Dee Region I now call home. We are both mainly rural, and we both have pockets of growth but we still need to improve our economic foundations. We both struggle with building the infrastructure needed to provide a better quality of life for our people. Challenged as we are by these hurdles, however, there is a always that real sense of shared destiny. We have our roots in these small communities – we are invested with our family and friends – there is a work ethic that few areas can offer – and we care about one another as well as our community. We do not want our major export to be our children leaving to find better opportunities. We want a quality of life equal to the quality of people whom we share our lives with every day. In other words, we need economic power. Make sure you understand what I just said. I did not say “political power” – I said “economic power.”
Lots of politicians talk about what rural communities need and some, a few of you I see here tonight, do their best to deliver. However, you know just as well as I do that, in the pecking order, rural communities are like – well, if I can use the analogy of a sow and her litter at feeding time – we would be at the end of the line. Do I have to say more? It is alright if we need to build a hotel or help a museum or submarine or historical site if it is in an urban area but let a rural area need a little help with agritourism or a civic center or to keep a facility operating that returns $2 million to a county, and you would think we had asked for the crown jewels.
So, tonight, I am going to adopt a motto of a friend of mine who sums up the approach I want us to take and that is: “When you really need a helping hand – look at the end of your arm.” For rural communities to be successful – to build an economic foundation sufficient to support its citizens – we have to develop a competitive advantage and we have to develop that advantage based upon our own assets. I do not want what I just said to be misunderstood – I do not mean that you say “NO” to recruiting new industry or to receiving outside funding. However, for you to be successful, recruitment plus outside money alone will not be sufficient. It will take an economic plan that uses these tools to build assets that you can sustain and grow. Now, let’s talk about how you go about building those assets.
First, a community cannot do it alone. No matter how hard you work or how much money is poured into your community, you cannot survive unless you build regional alliances. By the very existence of your Alliance, you have demonstrated you understand this point. Even more impressive, I understand you have undertaken a regional economic development assessment and planning effort. That is an excellent idea and one that will pay substantial dividends in the future. I think we will be able to help you with this effort with a project the Palmetto Institute is undertaking, which I will discuss in a moment. But, you understand there must be a vested interest in the region with the same vigor and commitment as you are vested in your community. By taking such an approach not only are you able to share such necessities as economic foundations, infrastructure and brainpower, but you are forced to work to make the pie larger rather than fighting to divide it.
Second, to compete in today’s global economy, we must all work to improve our economic foundations, especially our workforce quality. While I am impressed with the successes of the Alliance, I do not care how hard Danny Black and his staff work, if you do not have an educated, skilled workforce to offer, you will find it almost impossible to recruit new industries much less expand existing ones. The bottom-line is – the future prosperity of this region and the state will depend on the strength and quality of its workforce.
In anticipation of speaking to you tonight, I reviewed the Southern Carolina Alliance website. It is very well done and I commend you for your marketing effort, but I do have one question – “What is a flexible workforce?” Does that mean everyone here can touch their toes or do high leg kicks? The truth is what you need and what we must all strive for is a “skilled” workforce. If we don’t have such a workforce as a basic economic foundation, there is going to be a Chinese or Indian worker 10,000 miles away who will gladly accept a dollar an hour in order to take our jobs. It is that simple.
The Palmetto Institute recently completed a study on workforce quality in South Carolina. By the way, raise your hand if you know about the Palmetto Institute. Well, for those of you who are not familiar, let me explain who we are and what we do. The Palmetto Institute is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan research foundation. The Institute has only one mission – to increase the wealth of all South Carolinians. We have two basic tenets: One, while we constantly measure a number of economic and innovation metrics, we use per capita income as our basic measurement. We chose that measurement because it is probably the hardest to increase and all of the population, not just one segment, must be improved to increase it substantially. Second, while our Board is an outstanding group of business and community leaders with very strong opinions, we will not take a position on a public policy until we have completed independent, thoughtful research on the subject. That is why I am so proud of you for undertaking your regional study.
Our study on workforce quality involved background research, comparative analysis of other states, and interviews with every Workforce Investment Act or WIA District in the state. As a result of our interviews, we learned a great deal about the challenges faced by workforce and economic development leaders. We found wonderful pockets of traction, success, and entrepreneurship. Individuals like Anne Rice of USC-Salkehatchie’s Leadership Center work tirelessly to inspire and improve the workforce quality of their communities and regions. But, it is a difficult task, especially in rural areas. We saw serious issues involving lack of adequate transportation, a mismatch of job-seekers to immediate vacancies in critical occupations like healthcare, and poor collaboration among economic development, education, and workforce groups. And, unfortunately, we also found areas with adequate funding and the qualified people to train but no job opportunities. These were just a sampling of the issues raised by our interviews but the one consistent concern by everyone we interviewed was the lack of vision, coordination, and guidance by the state. As a result of our research, we made three key recommendations, which include:
1. Creation of a single entity, made up of both private and public groups, but led by business, to coordinate and oversee our workforce activities at the state level.
2. Implementation of a statewide career readiness certificate, using WorkKeys, to provide a lifeline to students who may not follow a traditional education path. WorkKey’s testing and job profiling offers an opportunity to connect employers with job seekers or with those employees who wish to upgrade their work skills and, in turn, increase their wages.
3. Establishment of an internet-based employment marketplace to connect job seekers and employers and to educate ourselves as to potential economic development opportunities.
We’ve seen progress. The coordinating entity is pending consideration by the Governor. The State Workforce Investment Board and the Department of Commerce have allocated $1.5 million to develop the statewide workforce credential and to offer timely and relevant labor market information – information and data that can be used to support economic development efforts.
I cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of these efforts to increase the quality of our workforce, but it also requires us to work harder in the educational attainment of our children. Notice I said “us” and not just the educational institutions. When our kids do not graduate from high school or complete their studies at our technical education colleges and 4-year institutions of higher learning, we all must take responsibility for finding ways to help them to improve their graduation rates rather than just blaming it on the school systems and walking away.
The Palmetto Institute, in conjunction with the Tech System and the Lumina Foundation for Education, has just launched an initiative to improve individual student achievement, especially for students from disadvantaged areas or students of color who face traditional barriers to success. Did you know that 40% of students entering Tech have to take remedial courses? And, did you know that, if you follow national graduation rate data, less than 13% of students entering Tech graduate or receive a certificate? It is a problem we have to address and I am happy to tell you that 3 out of the 4 colleges selected to participate in this initiative serve this region – Technical Education College of the Low Country, Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, and Aiken Technical College. I might add the presidents of all 4 colleges selected are females. How about that, girls?
Now that we discussed the importance of regional collaboration and the need to focus on workforce quality as a part of your economic development plan, let’s turn our attention to the case of building your economic power. We will never be a Silicon Valley – we will never be the textile mecca we once were – therefore, we have to choose wisely how we commit our limited resources. The regional study should help you immensely with this effort and, of course, I have a few thoughts I want to leave with you. The first is you must embrace and support your existing economic engines. Just because they are economic engines today, does not mean they will be economic engines tomorrow. So, in your economic development plan make sure you include the questions:
· How can the region help its economic engines maintain a competitive advantage?
· Are there suppliers that need to be recruited?
· Are there courses that need to be added to the TEC programs to ensure a more skilled workforce?
· What can the alliance do to help the economic engines continue to be more innovative and productive and to add value to its products and services?
Don’t guess – talk to those in charge of these economic engines to make sure you understand their needs and they understand your needs.
I applaud your efforts to be awarded the site for the GNEP nuclear fuel reprocessing project. Obviously, the nuclear industry can be a substantial economic engine to you with the proximity of SRS. I have met with both Senator Graham and Congressman Barrett to voice my support for the project being located in South Carolina. In fact, Senator Graham has asked that I meet with DOE officials to let them know how strong the South Carolina business community supports the project. I look forward to such an opportunity. We cannot sit idly by and ignore the consequences of climate change and our dependence on foreign oil. More important, we must find ways to turn these problems into economic opportunities. Let me give you a really good example of such an opportunity. The opportunity I am speaking about is agriculture – this is right – agriculture. By capitalizing on our agribusiness potential, you can both improve the environment and lessen our dependence on foreign oil while building your own assets.
If you do not believe what I tell you about the potential for agriculture in South Carolina, let me give you some basic numbers. In 2005, China consumed 380 million tons of grain versus 260 million tons in the United States. China is now grain-deficient. In fact, they are negotiating with Brazil to plant an extra 100,000 acres of soybeans just for their use. China’s 2005 meat consumption of 62 million tons is far above the 38 million tons consumed in the United States. Indeed, half of the world’s pigs are raised in China. On the energy side, China now only trails the United States in oil consumption but its consumption is growing dramatically. In addition, China’s annual burning of 960 million tons of coal easily exceeds the 560 tons used in the United States. And, I am just talking about one country -- think what will happen as other countries ramp up their demands as their economies expand and their populations increase.
Now look at our state – in South Carolina alone, 2.5 billion gallons of gasoline were consumed in 2005. $5.6 billion was paid just for the gasoline not including taxes. Of course, those dollars left the state and did very little to boost our economy. What if we were able to grow agricultural products to provide feedstocks for renewable fuel like ethanol or biodiesel to replace the gasoline? We are talking about an opportunity to pump billions of dollars back into the South Carolina economy. And when you talk about the continuing price increases for oil, you are talking about an entirely new economy where local products will play a much greater role due to production and transportation costs.
I can tell you, the Palmetto Institute is taking it seriously. With the guidance of an agriculture advisory board, on which one of your Board members, Johnny Williamson, serves, we are in the process of launching a major initiative to facilitate a comprehensive assessment of the agribusiness cluster in South Carolina to include the mapping of the entire state for agriculture and bioenergy resources. It will analyze the historical supply and demand, projected supply and demand, and opportunities for growth. It will review current infrastructure and resources to identify strengths and weaknesses relating to growth opportunities. We will analyze potential markets and will assess our competition to determine best practices. In other words, we want to build a roadmap for agriculture to become a greater economic engine for South Carolina and, in particular, for rural areas in our state. As part of the study, we will pay close attention to the opportunities to develop renewable fuels in South Carolina and what we can do to accelerate the research, production, and marketing of such fuels in our state.
We will also undertake to develop an overall energy plan to recommend to the state that will incorporate the use of the renewable fuels. What we want is sound research with an overall strategy that will benefit our farmers and other agribusinesses as well as improve the economic opportunities for regions like yours and mine as well as the entire state. However, to achieve such an opportunity, we must have an energy plan that will drive us to these markets.
As a beginning to this effort, we have applied for a rural business enterprise grant from the USDA for the development of strategic mapping of our state’s existing agriculture and biofuel assets in a targeted area of the state. It will serve as a pilot program for our larger study to make sure we are doing the right research and asking the right questions to move forward on our project. As I mentioned earlier, I thought we could help you with your regional planning. Well, the three counties we have selected as our initial counties are Allendale, Bamberg and Barnwell. I feel confident that the information that will be provided by the study will help you in your study and planning.
So, there you have it – a way to find a helping hand at the end of your arm. I believe the Southern Carolina Alliance is on the right track. I believe the assets are here – from nuclear energy to agriculture – you have the opportunities to grow your economy. The question always is, “Do you have the will?” Can you overcome the disadvantages of a rural area? Can you build an alliance strong enough to support your communities? Can you take the steps necessary to build a skilled workforce? Can you grow your economic engines?
While it is not an easy task, I can assure you of two things tonight. First, I truly believe you are on the right course with your alliance, and I applaud your efforts. And, second, the Palmetto Institute will do all it can to help you succeed.
Thank you for listening to a farmer from Lake City. It has been a joy to be with you.