ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—Colorado needs to do a better job of recruiting and retaining engineering students if it wants to promote homegrown industries like aerospace, energy development and biosciences, Gov. Bill Ritter said Wednesday.
In a meeting with business leaders, the governor said other states are doing a better job teaching their students the fundamental courses—science, technology, engineering and math—needed for those jobs.
He said taxpayers need to invest more in public education if they want educated workers.
“If we fail to do so, we fail at our peril,” Ritter told the South Metro Chamber of Commerce, which has set up a task force to help students get the math and science courses they will need to compete with foreign workers.
Ritter said companies are recruiting foreign workers because there are not enough math and science students in the United States. He said employers are willing to pay more for students educated in the United States because “Americans add value to education, being innovative and creative.”
“That’s what separates us from the rest of the world,” Ritter said.
Bud Ahearn, senior vice president for CH2M Hill and a task force supporter, said companies are caught in a vice, being squeezed for talent because of a graying work force that is retiring and a declining number of math and science students in this country.
“We have a bit of a pincer attack,” he told Ritter.
The governor said the state is caught in a financial squeeze because of an economic downturn that was forced to spend more money for prisons and Medicaid at the expense of higher education, which isn’t protected by the state constitution, forcing colleges and universities to raise tuition at a time when the state needs educated students.
He said it resulted in what he calls the “Colorado paradox,” where the state has the second highest educated work force in the country, but the majority are recruited from other states.
Ritter said he has convened a task force of his own to make recommendations on reforming education from preschool through graduate school that will begin meeting Aug. 6.
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, said some schools can’t even provide safe facilities, with roofs and floors caving in. He said that prevents some school districts from being able to provide a 21st century education students need to compete in a global economy.
He said state law requires school districts across the state to provide a uniform education, but that’s not happening.
“That’s unacceptable, and possibly unconstitutional,” he said.
