Ed Moore: We need immigration reform because we need skilled workers
7/9/14
There is a passage in the Federalist Papers that aptly describes the current situation in our country.
“A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives.”
Yet, we push aside knowledge-based discourse in favor of partisan bickering. Whether it is the battles over Common Core standards for education, immigration policy, improved health-care delivery systems, or just about any complex issue, we argue it but fail to solve it.
Do we not agree that our educational performance compared to some other countries is mediocre? And doesn’t our conflict over standards hold us back from setting a higher achievement bar? Can’t we agree that we have not aggressively addressed our border issues? The current border fiasco can be tied directly to our inaction on immigration reform.
And can we honestly think that the Affordable Care Act has been a rousing success, especially if current litigation kills customer subsidies?
The crises in America are too serious to be ignored — and yet we continue to see partisan dancing. Our politics are like a junior high dance, boys over there, girls over here. In each issue, not taking action is an action. And inaction has severe consequences.
A major issue that has plagued us since President Obama took office is the labor participation rate – how many people in the eligible workforce population are actually holding jobs.
A consistent decline in this rate is bad and it has been falling steadily since 2009. There are many and complex reasons for the decline: people giving up and leaving the workforce; jobs that require better-educated workers; and, the biggest factor, older workers retiring.
This is one of those issues begging for constructive, engaged, and creative review both in Washington and in our states. There have been some actions. Florida is a leader in examining what a high school diploma means and how better to produce qualified graduates.
But we must keep in mind that vacancies in most every field of employment will continue to grow as the population grows older.
We celebrate the drop in the unemployment rate at the peril of ignoring why this is occurring. At the same time, we fail establish an immigration system that would help us solve our employment needs.
We have a disaster of our own making and yet we continue to focus all of the attention on illegal immigration, even while Congress fails to address the need to reform legal immigration. Our birth rate is too low to provide the workers we need to support the growing number of older residents.
Our economic strength will be built on the solutions we generate now. But it’s unlikely gridlocked Washington will be able to provide any soon.
Dr. Ed Moore resides in our beautiful state capital and is perpetually awaiting rebirth of wonder. Column courtesy of Context Florida.