This past week’s Mississippi Department of Education report onschool dropout rates should raise a warning flag for all SouthwestMississippi residents interested in the economic future of thearea.

While some districts can take pride in their results, thereality is that 8 of 13 area school districts had dropout rateshigher than the state average of 15.9 percent. And even thosedistricts that did well, there is always room for improvement.

Since major employers – like a Nissan or a Toyota – will drawemployees from a large area, company officials are not particularlyinterested in the success of one specific school district. Rather,they want to know about the education levels of potential employeesfrom across a region.

Area economic development officials’ efforts to attract andrecruit new business and industry are hampered when there existsthe lack of a well-educated and qualified work force.

Lowering school dropout rates and improving the chances oflanding new business and industry will take a collaboration on thepart of community leaders, schools, parents and of course, thestudents themselves. The joint effort needs to insure that studentsare not only educated, but properly educated to meet the demands ofan ever-changing and ever-advancing job market.

During a recent gathering of business leaders at Copiah-LincolnCommunity College, Secretary of State Eric Clark pointed out that60 percent of Mississippi’s jobs in the 1950s were filled byunskilled labor. Today, only 15 percent of the state’s jobs areable to be filled with unskilled labor.

Clearly, the demands of the job market are changing and arerequiring more skilled labor. Communities that are able to meetthose demands will be in better shape as the new economydevelops.

What can area communities do to prepare for the changingdemands?

First, parents must be a part of the effort to encouragechildren to stay in school and finish their education. If parents’educational standards are not high, then their children’s standardswon’t be high either.

Furthermore, while in school, students need to be exposed to andgiven the opportunity to take as many courses as possible to betterprepare them for the job market they will face after graduation.Those courses should include an introduction to the high-techskills necessary to compete in a technologically advancingsociety.

Southwest Mississippi is hindered to some degree by our smallpopulation base.

To combat that fact and to attract the high-paying jobs we alldesire, this area must have a pool of workers who are bettereducated and better prepared than those in other parts of thestate. A basic but vital step in that process is having workers whoat least have completed their high school education.

Quite simply, having almost two-thirds of SouthwestMississippi’s school districts with dropout rates higher than thestate average is not acceptable and does not foster an image of anarea that is interested in economic development. What is doessignal is a continuation of a downward spiral involving low-payingjobs and economic distress.