BETTER SCHOOLS CALLED KEY TO LURING BUSINESS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 19, 1993                   TAG: 9303190243
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: George Kegley
DATELINE: FERRUM                                LENGTH: Short
BETTER SCHOOLS CALLED KEY TO LURING BUSINESS
Southwest Virginia must improve its public schools if the region is to be competitive in the 21st century, a Virginia Tech professor said Thursday.
The region "must improve the achievement of its high school graduates, reduce the number of dropouts and increase the number of graduates continuing on to college" or other training, Thomas Johnson told a Ferrum College Regional Business Symposium.
Of "critical importance . . . is its less-than-world-class primary and secondary education system."
The economics professor said Southwest Virginia schools should teach entrepreneurship and problem-solving skills.
If the region wants to attract more business, Johnson said, "much more has to be done." Its communication infrastructure is lacking, he said, and its quality of life is limited by poor housing, lagging health care, minimal child day care and little or no public transportation.
The region's economic base will change because its coal base will not last through the first quarter of the next century, the professor said. But its mountains, rivers, clean air and water and forestlands, if carefully protected, will attract and keep engineers, investors and consultants, as well as affluent retirees and vacationers, he said.
If Southwest Virginia can create the conditions to become an economic development hot spot while protecting its natural advantages, Johnson said, "it can and will be very competitive and prosperous" in the next century.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB