Educated populace: where are Winston-Salem & Greensboro on this list?

[intcvlcphlga]

Once again Raleigh and Charlotte deserve praise for moving forward in education and its direct correlation of higher median incomes. This is what the Triad cities should be striving for. An educated citizenry is an engine for economic development and is what Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point should be focused on. In a state that is renowned for its support of excellent colleges and universities with UNC-Chapel Hill regularly picked as the best bargain among the nation's best public universities and with excellent UNC system schools like UNCG, NCSA, NC A&T and a top 25 institution in Wake Forest in the Triad, what is the excuse for W-S and GSO not being on that list?

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Departments/...=educatedcities

City, in order of education rank

Percent of population with college degree or higher

Median household income & (rank)

1. Seattle, WA

51.3

$46,650 (8)

2. San Francisco, CA

51.0

$60,031 (2)

3. Raleigh, NC

49.7

$47,878 (7)

4. Washington, DC

47.7

$46,574 (9)

5. Austin, TX

45.1

$45,508 (15)

6. Atlanta, GA

42.9

$37,385 (50)

7. Minneapolis, MN

41.1

$44,116 (20)

8. Boston, MA

40.9

$45,892 (13)

9. Lexington-Fayette, KY

39.2

$38,322 (43)

10. San Diego, CA

39.0

$51,382 (5)

11. Portland, OR

37.8

$41,128 (28)

12. Oakland, CA

37.7

$46,190 (11)

13. San Jose, CA

37.3

$71,765 (1)

14. Charlotte, NC

37.2

$46,082 (12)

15. Denver, CO

35.9

$43,777 (21)

16. Honolulu, HI

34.4

$46,500 (10)

17. Colorado Springs, CO

34.1

$45,388 (16)

18. Pittsburgh, PA

33.6

$31,910 (59)

18. St. Paul, MN

33.6

$38,731 (41)

19. Cincinnati, OH

33.5

$31,960 (58)

19. Virginia Beach, VA

33.5

$55,781 (4)

[sax184]

Once again Raleigh and Charlotte deserve praise for moving forward in education and its direct correlation of higher median incomes. This is what the Triad cities should be striving for. An educated citizenry is an engine for economic development and is what Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point should be focused on. In a state that is renowned for its support of excellent colleges and universities with UNC-Chapel Hill regularly picked as the best bargain among the nation's best public universities and with excellent UNC system schools like UNCG, NCSA, NC A&T and a top 25 institution in Wake Forest in the Triad, what is the excuse for W-S and GSO not being on that list?

Lack of cultivation of new leadership in the Triad cities, particularly High Point.

Lack of jobs compared to other areas for recent grads.

Lack of amenities/cultural opportunities for young college grads compared to other areas.

Greensboro and Winston are definitely making progress on the third item. Not so sure about the first two.

I just don't see many Wake grads going to work in the Dell plant or at the Fedex hub.

[intcvlcphlga]

Lack of cultivation of new leadership in the Triad cities, particularly High Point.

Lack of jobs compared to other areas for recent grads.

Lack of amenities/cultural opportunities for young college grads compared to other areas.

Greensboro and Winston are definitely making progress on the third item. Not so sure about the first two.

I just don't see many Wake grads going to work in the Dell plant or at the Fedex hub.

I agree with your statement regarding Dell and FedEx. While I appreciate the need to go after both companies to replace a lot of the manufacturing jobs the region has lost in the last decade and I applaud the efforts of all involved in landing the deals, I would hope that the same zeal could be applied to creating/finding higher paying jobs that appeal to a more-educated crowd. One example where this seemed to be lacking was with one of the WFU/PTRP start-up companies who sought some incentives to help create 50 or so jobs at $70K+ salaries, yet the county commissioners voted it down while giving Dell and US Airways (which seems to have taken the money and run) millions.

[DigitalSky]

I just don't see many Wake grads going to work in the Dell plant or at the Fedex hub.

Exactly. Charlotte's got the banking jobs and Raleigh/Durham have the medical and technical jobs... We just don't have that much in the Triad. Plus, most of those cities on that list are at a slightly bigger scale than W-S and Gso

[intcvlcphlga]

Exactly. Charlotte's got the banking jobs and Raleigh/Durham have the medical and technical jobs... We just don't have that much in the Triad. Plus, most of those cities on that list are at a slightly bigger scale than W-S and Gso

I'm not sure of their exact sizes, but W-S and GSO are comparable in size to Lexington, KY and Colorado Springs. Raleigh and Virginia Beach are not that much bigger either. The positives for W-S is that it still has BB&T and a small Wachovia presence, both of which are eclipsed by the medical industry powers of WFU/NCBMC and Novant Health. There's hope, but I think the focus should follow 2 tracks: improving education in the public school systems in Forsyth and Guilford so that more of the students will be able to get into and graduate from a 4-year college and to provide the type of jobs that the new college graduates will want to return to or stay in the Triad for.

[sax184]

This link will allow detailed analysis of NC cities on this topic.

Census American Factfinder Custom Data Table

[intcvlcphlga]

This link will allow detailed analysis of NC cities on this topic.

Census American Factfinder Custom Data Table

Thanks for the link. It's a really interesting breakdown.