Education means economic development

justin.schneider@heraldbulletin.com

Economic development relies on education.

That puts Madison County's school superintendents at the forefront of the area's economic turnaround.

Superintendents of five local school districts participated in an education forum Wednesday during a meeting of the Leadership Academy of Madison County at Anderson University's Reardon Auditorium.

The forum was moderated by Jim Ault, board chairman of the Flagship Enterprise Center.

"During the past five years, we have usually broken up into small groups. But we found the predominant conversation deals with education," Ault said. "Instead, we've invited our five school superintendents here for a discussion."

Only Dr. Thomas Warmke, superintendent of South Madison Community School Corp., was unable to attend.

Each superintendent delivered opening remarks before a question-and-answer session.

Anderson Community School Corp. Superintendent Mikella Lowe said the auto industry had a negative effect on education in the area. Instead of pursuing a college education, many high school graduates moved to high-paying factory jobs.

"Unless you wanted to be a doctor, lawyer or teacher, there was no reason to go elsewhere," she said. "GM was bad for education, although it was good for the economy."

James Willey, superintendent of the Alexandria Community School Corp., said new technology is transforming education within the county.

"There is a partnership between the superintendents," he said. "Through the Madison County Educational Alliance we are connecting all the schools with fiber optic cable. We all realize that the school walls are coming down with the global economy."

Thomas Austin, superintendent of the Elwood Community School Corp., said it's impossible to separate training from economic development.

"We need to recognize that research is the link from primary and secondary education to economic development," he said. "And we need to recognize that people are a type of economic asset."

Ned Speicher, superintendent of Frankton-Lapel Community School Corp., said the level of cooperation between school districts is unprecedented.

"For the first time in my career, all five school districts are working together and one of our commitments is to make sure every child can read by third grade," he said. "If you look around the county illiteracy rates are one in two, one in three, one in four or one in five. But we have no throwaway kids."

Questions from the audience addressed declining graduation rates and rising expulsion. When one question took aim at teacher development, Speicher had a ready answer that drew applause from some in the audience.

"Teachers need to be continually retrained just as the work force must be retrained," he said. "The world is changing and it's going to continue to change. We all have to change, we cannot continue to do what we've always done."