Business must act now to save the future

To the Editor:

John Kominicki's column ("The future of the NY workforce? Check out Nebraska," LIBN, Nov. 2) was spot on. But it's not just political leaders who need to step up to deal with the workforce issues Long Island faces, it's all of us.

The business community cannot expect political leaders to take on problems we ourselves avoid.

It has been 10 years since McKinsey and Co. published "The War for Talent," which foresaw the intensifying competition among companies and regions for creative workers as the baby boom- retirement-driven demographic changes affect the country. The beginning of that period of change is just a few years away now.

According to most forecasts, for a period of well over 20 years beginning in 2011, the nation will experience almost no workforce growth. That will produce intense competition for talented, creative workers. In order to grow economically, regions like Long Island will have to retain the talented young people they raise and educate, and attract other young people to locate here. Losing young people to outmigration and being unable to attract others to take their place will be a sure prescription for economic decline. That is the situation in which Long Island currently finds itself. But we can change that.

Nine years ago, the LIA created the Long Island Works Coalition in response to the McKinsey study. LIWC's small staff of remarkably dedicated people has worked tirelessly with one purpose in mind: keeping young people on Long Island. And they have done that without nearly as much support from the business community as they and their mission deserve.

This year, LIWC and the LIA took on an additional mission: bringing to Long Island the career academy and career education model that Kominicki described. Career education teaches normal academics - math, science, English - within the real-world context of the workplace. It makes academics relevant to reality, it motivates kids and it prepares them for the real world of work. The results from Bullard-Haven High School in Bridgeport are emblematic of what career education can achieve.

Last April, I had the privilege of addressing the State Board of Regents when it visited Long Island. I told them simply that the current system of high stakes testing in New York is not what we need to prepare and motivate the workforce required for the future economy, where creativity will be highly valued. The current system teaches to the tests. Kids learn to the tests. Creativity is not encouraged. We need to move to the career education model, and we need to move quickly.

For that reason, the LIA and LIWC have been meeting with visionary school superintendents across Long Island (and there are a lot of them) to help set up career academies as soon as next year. We're doing that with the help of the Ford Motor Company Fund, a major national supporter of the career education movement. Already, several career academies are in the detailed planning stage. Soon, we will establish industry advisory boards in specific industries to link with the newly established career academies.

Kominicki also hits the mark on the need to redevelop downtowns in a way that will be attractive to talented, creative younger people.

But affordable housing sprinkled randomly across the region will not be enough. Long Island needs the development of vibrant, stimulating community areas in which younger people can live in the company of other younger people. All of the relevant research that has been done on the preferences and desires of talented creative younger people, the so-called Creative Class, has shown they are seeking places to live that not only have good schools and local services, but a strong sense of community and the easy availability of an exciting, interesting, creative atmosphere.

For Long Island, that means the redevelopment of downtown areas throughout the region, especially those that are on or near the Long Island Rail Road line to provide efficient mass transportation. One excellent example of the kind of development we need is the Cool Cities program of the State of Michigan, which can be accessed at www.coolcities.com. Michigan is well advanced in doing what New York should have been doing for at least the last decade.

Downtown redevelopment has been discussed on Long Island for many years. Some projects have been undertaken in a handful of places. But in every instance, local governments have struggled with the problem of funding. And, despite the encouraging progress made in some places, Long Island does not have a region-wide impetus to redevelop downtowns as a clear, accepted economic development strategy.

Only state funding and state leadership can change that.

Mathew Crosson, President, Long Island Association

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