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By: Patrick Rupinski, Business Editor – Tuscaloosa News

Businesses depend on educated workers to succeed. So it was no surprise that among the several hundred people at Thursday’s Education Summit were business people.

Their concern focuses on educating today’s students for tomorrow’s jobs.

“It’s a question of economic development,” said Carl Jamison, a partner in the Tuscaloosa accounting firm of JamisonMoneyFarmer PC, and chairman of the Business Council of Alabama.

“In today’s economic development climate, if you do not have a workforce that is up to the standards employers look for, you are not in the ballgame.”

The quality of school systems is a major consideration when industry decides where to build plants and create jobs, he said.

Jamison said Neal Wade, a longtime industry headhunter in Alabama and the director of the Alabama Development Office during the administration of Gov. Bob Riley, told him that before

ThyssenKrupp made its decision to build a steel production facility in Mobile, its officials met for two days with state and local officials to review the education system.

ThyssenKrupp is a major German steel maker that built a $4.65 billion steel mill outside Mobile during Riley’s tenure.

Wade now heads the Public Affairs Research Council, which presented a report on the performance of Alabama schools at the Education Summit at the Bryant Conference Center.

Jim Page, president of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, the summit’s sponsor, said a chamber survey found that quality education was the No. 1 concern of business and civic leaders in the Tuscaloosa area.

“It is critical to economic development, and it affects the whole community. It affects the businesses a community has, the growth of the community and even housing values,” he said. “It affects the whole quality of life.”

Page said he hopes the summit prompts discussions in the community about how to improve education, particularly with elections for the city’s school board slated for August.

The Public Affairs Research Council’s information on area schools’ dropout rates is particularly alarming, he said. All the Tuscaloosa city and county high schools had graduation rates below 80 percent with one school at only 54 percent.

Studies have shown dropouts not only have the hardest time finding a job but also tend to have more problems with the law.

“We have to either improve our education situation or extend the size of our jails,” Page said.

State Superintendent of Education Tommy Bice said during his comments that eight of 10 prison inmates in Alabama are high school dropouts.

Fitzgerald Washington, the chamber’s chairman and general sales manager for Buffalo Rock in Tuscaloosa, said having well-educated workers also is important for longtime businesses like Buffalo Rock, a Pepsi bottler and distributor.

“It is imperative for Buffalo Rock to have skilled workers,” he said.

His company hires high school graduates, but they must possess basic math skills, writing skills and the ability to solve problems, he said.

There is a need for workers who possess more technical skills, too. Washington said he knows of two area companies with jobs to fill but the companies cannot find workers with the technical skills.