New State Committee to Address Global Workforce Competition

None by Jeff Robinson

(KCPW News) It's up to the state of Utah, not the federal government, to ensure that students graduate with the skills they need to move into a workforce that is facing more and more competition from other countries. That's according to Governor Jon Huntsman, who has formed a new steering committee on the issue that met today for the first time.

"We want to make sure in this state, now that increasingly the burden and the opportunity are falling more and more on states to do something about education, that we rise to the occasion, step up and address it like never before," he said.

The committee includes the president of Zion's Bank, the president of the University of Utah, four legislators and other education and business officials. It will meet over the summer and present its recommendations in the early fall.

Christine Kearl, the Governor's education director, says efforts will partly focus on expanding access to pre-school.

"I don't think any state would go wrong if they were looking at quality pre-K for children at risk," she said. "There's too much research to support that those investments and the return on the dollar for those investments is a wise thing to do."

The committee is being advised by former U.S. Senator Bill Brock, who contributed to a national study of this issue called "Tough Choices or Tough Times."

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