Higher Education the future of our economy Let us support it

LAN,FENG

Econ479-2

Assignment2-1.doc

Higher Education the future of our economy: Let us support it

A speech for governor by Feng Lan

I am here to announce that we are going to support increased funding for our three public universities. This is after confirming how good the education is doing to our economy. Although we are spending too much on education, the long run outcome seems to benefit our economy. Education is the backbone of every economy. We should be able to provide our economy with the right skills. If we do not fund our universities, we are likely going to have inefficient workforce in the future. I strongly believe that, if we cut the budget for our public universities, many young people with talents will not afford to pay the fees hence lesser graduates. Georgetown University Centre on Education and workforce pointed out that, by the year 2018, about 60% of the US jobs will require at least post-secondary qualification (Lumina Foundation, p. 8). To be more specific, jobs in our state will require 61% post-secondary graduates by 2018 (Lumina Foundation, p.17). Therefore, to ensure this we must support higher education.

Our state requires about 907,000 new workers to fill vacancies that have resulted from jobs creation and retirements among other factors by the year 2018. About 554,000 of these vacancies require post-secondary qualifications (Lumina Foundation, p. 17). Our state must ensure that it assists residents to attain degrees, for them to occupy these vacancies. This can only be achieved through you and me as taxpayers.

With the increased technology, the occupation for high skills qualifications is rapidly increasing. Occupations such as health care are growing at a very high rate. In this case, the demand for high-skilled workers is increasing rapidly. Therefore, we must ensure that, there is enough supply to meet the demand. To ensure success in our national economy, every state in the US must ensure that, by the year 2025 the number of graduates hits 60% (Lumina Foundation p. 8). To ensure that our State reaches the target, we must add 900,000-degree holders to the existing total of 1.7million (Lumina Foundation p. 17). Therefore, we need to increases college success for the fast growing groups in all countries. How do we ensure the college success? It is only through providing enough funds to our universities.

Those who are for the Budget cut for public universities argue that, we are spending much on these young people yet the job market is deteriorating. Some people in this society suggest that there are no job opportunities for graduates (Lumina Foundation p. 5). However, if we may look at that clearly it is evident that, the number of unemployed graduates is lesser than those who have not gone beyond secondary school. As has been noted, I would like to let you know that, of the unemployed people aged 25-64, 31.5% are secondary school dropouts. On the other hand, 29.9% are secondary school certificate holders and graduates hold only 8.9% (Lumina Foundation, p. 6). Therefore, I urge everyone to stop fighting education using unemployment rates.

Today education investment is one of the largest state’s expenditures, but it pays in the long run. Graduates get good paying jobs, meaning that they pay more income and sales taxes, and rely less on states assistant programs (Berger & Fisher para. 39). It is true that education investments contribute greatly to the state’s budget in the long run. If we continue supporting our students today believe me that, we will have a leading economy in the US some years to come.

If we do cut budget for our public university, this will mean that we are going to have fewer students graduating. With fewer graduates we are going to have a less productive economy, this is because the lesser the education, the lower the wages, the lower the productivity. Some of my opponents argue that we can obtain labor from other states (Berger & Fisher para.17-18). Yes, we can do it but the problem is with many untrained residents, we are going to experience a higher rate of unemployment and there for spend more on assistant programs. In my opinion, we should spend on education, which has a positive impact to our economy in the long run, instead of spending throughout on assistant programs.

Works Cited

Berger, Noah and Peter Fisher. A Well-Educated Workforce is Key to State Prosperity. 2013. Web. 7th Oct. 2014. HYPERLINK “http://www.epi.org/publication/states-education-productivity-growth-foundations/” http://www.epi.org/publication/states-education-productivity-growth-foundations/

Lumina foundation. A stronger Nation through Higher Education. 2012. Web. 7th October 2014. HYPERLINK “http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/A_Stronger_Nation-2012.pdf” http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/A_Stronger_Nation-2012.pdf

D

1. This is 750 words long. Please see the assignment and syllabus for requirements on word length.

2. Please review the section of the syllabus headed “Citation.” Work in this course does not use a formal bibliography, footnotes, or other apparatus. And how could you hear a bibliographic citation in a speech?

I strongly urge you to pay closer attention to the specifications.