Slow Growth For NWI

Filed Under Indiana University Northwest, economy

The economic forecast for Northwest Indiana is slow growth, according to Indiana University Northwest economics professor Don Coffin.

The bad news is that the Northwest Indiana area has been and will remain a region of slow growth in employment, income and population …

Its average annual income lags behind other parts of the state and nation with most of its job growth in low paying, service industries.

What we need to do to spur economic growth is to fix the educational system in the urban core and work harder to attract more white collar jobs to the area that currently go to places such as the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago.

Also, political corruption needs to be rooted out as it keeps businesses from locating in the northern parts of the county. Government waste means high taxes.

I predict Gary could make a huge come back sometime in the near future if city leaders can figure out ways to show businesses they are serious about addressing crime and educational problems.

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Comments

3 Responses to “Slow Growth For NWI”

Buzzcut on November 19th, 2007 3:54 pm

Yeah, good luck with that. The “problem” with Gary schools has nothing to do with the administration of them. It has to do with the people who go to them.

My kids are in Munster schools. In don’t think that there is anything special about Munster schools. I think that there is something special about the people who go to Munster schools. It is competitive beyond belief. That competition for excellence is what makes the schools good.

Until the parents and students in Gary want the schools to be good, and increase their own effort in getting an education, those schools will be failures.

That kind of cultural change is a lot harder to enact than just changing administrators.
admin on November 20th, 2007 7:19 am

Hi Buzzcut,

I know what you mean. When I was in high school, I felt positive peer pressure to succeed because all of my friends were ultra competitive. Sometimes just being around people who were driven to succeed was enough to provide that extra motivation to keep plugging along even though a class was tough or the subject matter was mind numbing.

When I look around, I see that a lot of my classmates and peers are relatively successful. There is something to be said for competition and the human desire to want to follow what others are doing.

I keep up the hope for Gary. You are right that most of the will to success has to come from the individual. Forcing someone to appear at school won’t make that person learn unless he or she wants to absorb, process and remember the information taught.

But, I do hold out hope that the educational system and the community as a whole can reach out and show students that education isn’t a chore, but the key that unlocks the limitless potential of the future.

I’m optimistic for the future. We just need to figure out a way to reach out to today’s students who aren’t motivated externally.

Maybe the solution would be to radically change the way classes are taught?
Buzzcut on November 20th, 2007 12:52 pm

I hold out hope for “scripting” and other such common sense education/ pedagogical reforms. But they’re not miracle cures to what ails the education system.

What we need is to take Bill Cosby seriously. The people who are not living up to their responsibilities as citizens of this great country (a country that people literally die trying to get into) need to be held accountable for their actions. We can’t make excuses for people just because they live under less than ideal circumstances.