State Chamber's workforce study: the missing job skills of the "troubled quarter".

• Author: Hicks, Michael
• Position: INDIANA INDICATORS

JUST OVER A HALF century, we have built complex statistical models to explain why regions enjoy different levels of prosperity One critical insight in this extensive body of research is that human capital--the quality of a labor force--yields the strongest explanation for differences in prosperity.

For this reason, I welcome the Indiana Chamber of Commerce's recent report on the state's workforce, both for the good and bad news it heralds.

Worker productivity is strong, and many of our schools are performing quite well. Indiana has a strong technical and community college system and universities that compete internationally for students and faculty But, this shouldn't lull us into inaction.

With Hoosier schools performing at about the national average, the data places us dead last among the developed nations, and far behind the top third of truly academic schools everywhere else including China, India and Malaysia.

We mostly remedy these schooling shortfalls in public education by having the majority of our youngsters attend college, where they are quickly and expensively remediated. For two thirds...