THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603310056
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Although the South has achieved a high level of economic growth, better schools are needed at every level to maintain the pace into the 21st century, a research group says.
In its ``State of the South'' report released Saturday, MDC Inc. of Chapel Hill calls on Southern states to adapt their school systems to meet significant changes in the South's economy and demography, and provide education beyond high school for every Southerner.
``A demographic and economic double whammy will hit the South over the next 15 years, disorienting employers, distressing workers and demanding much more from Southern states,'' the study says. ``The South will prosper if it can build an economy of competitive businesses and trained workers.''
Despite a series of advances, the region still remains behind the rest of the nation on every level of learning, the report says.
While the economy demands a measure of education following high school, the report revealed 30 percent of the South's adult population lacks a secondary school diploma. Nearly half of the South's adults have not entered either a college or a community college classroom. Much of that group is in the 45-to-64 age group.
``We're going to have to have a massive program in place 10 years from now for educating andre-educating adults,'' said George Autry, MDC president and co-author of the report.
``We're so much better off by every economic standard than we were in the nostalgic 1950s of my youth, or any other time,'' Autry said. ``But yet we share the nation's angst and dyspepsia.''
MDC is a non-profit research firm specializing in economic and workforce development. When it was formed in 1967, MDC's primary goal was to help North Carolina make the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy, and from a segregated to an integrated workforce.
It has since grown into a national organization with an emphasis on the South.
Forty-five years ago, only a quarter of the South's adults had completed high school, the report said. By 1970, nearly half had earned a diploma. Now, 70 percent of all Southerners over the age of 25 have completed high school.
But these days, a high school diploma ``does as much good as rabbit ears on a computer,'' the report says.
``A worker armed only with a high school diploma today has fewer prospects than a dropout a generation ago.
``Adults who do not return to school or receive further training on the job will see their incomes and job prospects diminish.''
The report also says demographic trends and inadequate education threaten the South's march toward prosperity in an economy that increasingly discriminates against the uneducated and single-parent families
``Over time, racial and gender gaps should continue to narrow as more blacks and women earn bachelor's, graduate and professional degrees,'' the report concluded. ``It is in the South's self-interest to work toward that end.''
Black Southerners continue to earn less than comparably educated whites, according to the report. ``But advanced education is a sure way for black Southerners to earn middle-class incomes.''
Still, black Southerners have made impressive gains since desegregation.
By 1990, 46 percent of black adults had at least a high school diploma, compared to 17 percent two decades earlier.
While blacks continue to fall behind whites in overall income, black married couples have made dramatic economic gains. The trend, the report says, suggests that low educational attainment and the surge in the single-mother families have surpassed racial discrimination in the workplace as the main reasons for the white-black income gap. by CNB