On Wednesday, July 1, 2009, Dr. Garrison Walters, Executive Director for the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education presented information to the Bluffton Rotary on the economic impact of higher education during his presentation: The Shift to Knowledge: Higher Education and Today's Economy. Dr. Walters began by discussing the historical shift over the last twenty years from a society based on manufacturing where the focus was on goods and labor to a society based on technology where we must compete on our ability to create and apply knowledge. He cited as an example that in 1980, there were no personal computers in the United States, but by 1990 there were fifty million. How does education affect all of this? Dr. Walters stated that, "College graduates have learned how to learn, and in a knowledge economy, that matters more and more." And as a result, knowledge equals income. Statistics indicate that we are not keeping up in terms of education with South Carolina ranking 38th nationally in funding education.
What can we do? For the future of South Carolina, we need to make education a priority and let our elected officials know that we support higher education. For each dollar that the state spends between 2010 and 2030, $11.20 is added to the economy (measured by gross state product) over the period. For a copy of the Action Plan that Dr. Walters co-authored, go to
www.che.sc.gov/HigherEd_ActionPlan.htm
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