Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, John Morgan, told the Chattanooga Rotary Club on Thursday, “If Tennessee is going to succeed in a global economy, which places a premium on knowledgeable workers, we are going to have to plug the leaks in the student pipeline.”

To define the student pipeline, Mr. Morgan gave these statistics. For every 100 students in Tennessee, 63 will graduate from high school. The U.S. average is 70. Of those same 100 students in Tennessee, 39 will enter college. That matches the U.S. average. Only 27 of those 100 students will enroll for their sophomore year. That also matches the U.S. average. Only 17 of those 100 students will graduate from college within 150% of the normal time it takes to graduate. The U.S. average is 18.

Mr. Morgan said the best performing states scored significantly higher in the same four categories (91, 57, 42, and 28) than Tennessee and the U.S. average.

The educational attainment of at least a bachelor’s degree by persons 25 years and older in Tennessee is 19.6%. The U.S. average is 24.4%. Mr. Morgan said Tennessee has 85 counties that do not even meet the Tennessee average.

Mr. Morgan said that of parents surveyed who had at least some high school education and no college education, a full two-thirds of them expected their children to earn a bachelor’s degree. The percentage increases for parents with higher education levels.

Mr. Morgan quoted Bill Gates from a speech given to the National Governors Association in 2005, “…In the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of knowledge workers, America is falling behind.”

A 2005 survey by the National Association of Manufacturers, Mr. Morgan said, found 84% of manufacturers do not believe K-12 schools are doing a good job. The study also found that 80% are experiencing a shortage of qualified workers. Qualified workers, he said, have problem solving skills and reading, writing and communication skills.

Tennessee’s per capita income as a percentage of the U.S. average has always been below 100%, Mr. Morgan said. In 1990, Tennesseans earned 85.7% of the U.S. average. In 1995, it peaked at 91.8%. In 2000, it was 87.4%. The latest reporting (from 2006) has it at 89.1%.

Mr. Morgan said a person without a high school diploma has a shorter life expectancy than a high school or college graduate. Also, higher educated persons are less likely to be incarcerated. Only 2.9% of the prison population has a college degree, he said. Almost 87% of the prison population has just a high school diploma or did not complete high school.

Job trends for the future, Mr. Morgan said, show 70% of the 30 fastest-growing jobs will require an education beyond high school. An associate’s degree will be required for 40% of all new jobs.

Although it presently is a grim picture, Mr. Morgan said Tennessee is heading in the right direction by participating in the American Diploma Project. The goals are: to be more closely aligned with national standards; raise high school graduation requirements to increase the value of a high school diploma; improve the alignment of curriculum content, assessments, and exit requirements; and improve the integration of educational levels from pre-K through senior level of college.

The impact of making schools harder, Mr. Morgan said, means more schools will not meet standards for measured progress, initially. An informed public will serve an important role, he said. They will be the interpreters of the results of the changes and everyone needs to know what is happening.

Mr. Morgan said, “If we cannot articulate and document how education matters, we cannot develop the momentum for change.”

Turning to taxes, Mr. Morgan said he knew Tennessee was a low-tax state. He was staggered to see just how low-taxed Tennessee is, he said. Tennessee is the lowest for 2007 state and local tax burden as a share of personal income for all southern region states. If Tennesseans were taxed at just the average of the southern region states, an additional $3.4 billion in revenue would be realized.

“Money spent wisely can make a difference. Adequate resources can make a difference,” Mr. Morgan said. “The question becomes what do we need to do better?” Plugging the leaks in the student pipeline was the answer to his own question, he said.

Dana Wilbourn
dbwilbourn@yahoo.com