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We need balanced legal immigration, so we are not bringing in 90% people with no skills or education
We need 75% educated professionals like doctors ,scientists , business creators since almost the whole world would move here if given the chance we can pick the best and brightest.
You'll get none of that with Arizona's reputation as a state with a poor education system. The best and the brightest aren't just going to come here. They need a reason to. With Arizona's proximity to Southern California and Texas, I just don't ever see Arizona taking center stage. We could invest very heavily in solar energy and also in the entertainment business (due, again, to our proximity to Southern California), but we refuse to. Our growth will primarily come from segments of our population with high birth rates and retired people. That's just our reality. I think our politicians know that if we started bringing in highly educated people, they would lose political power. People like Ducey, our legislature, and Sheriff Joe keep power because of the large senior population who puts them in office. Start bringing in younger, more educated people and watch this turn to a blue state in an instant. Not going to happen.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
27,606 posts, read 14,680,307 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Valley Native
Absolutely right! Unfortunately, we keep attracting people from various parts of the country based on how bad the weather is where they came from, and how much better the weather supposedly is here. While I can perhaps see weather/climate as one reason to consider moving here, it shouldn't be the most important (or the only) reason. Many of these sun loving transplants aren't exactly bringing in the money, the skills, the knowledge, the ambition, or the entrepreneurship that we need more of.
I'm a skilled worker, and the weather here was a HUGE draw for me
You'll get none of that with Arizona's reputation as a state with a poor education system. The best and the brightest aren't just going to come here. They need a reason to. With Arizona's proximity to Southern California and Texas, I just don't ever see Arizona taking center stage. We could invest very heavily in solar energy and also in the entertainment business (due, again, to our proximity to Southern California), but we refuse to. Our growth will primarily come from segments of our population with high birth rates and retired people. That's just our reality. I think our politicians know that if we started bringing in highly educated people, they would lose political power. People like Ducey, our legislature, and Sheriff Joe keep power because of the large senior population who puts them in office. Start bringing in younger, more educated people and watch this turn to a blue state in an instant. Not going to happen.
Ah, if only we have one of the "best of the worst public education system"(let's face it....overall our public school system in this country is rated mediocre at best), often determined via perception based on how much money is thrown at it, lots of our problems will be solved argument again. And if only we turn "blue" we will be the envy of everyone and only then we will thrive.
For starters. I would think for those who are educated out there/do their homework before moving to a region knows that there are many public schools in the Phoenix metro, especially in many of the suburbs, that are up to par with the rest of the nation. And that we already have many people here that are highly educated that work in fields like the medical industry and such that employs a great number of people here. And a growing IT field.
In past posts I believe you were concerned with the current fast population growth in the Phoenix metro, sprawl, etc? If this is true, do you realize if you get a public school system that has the ever important "perception" as one of what I would define as "one of the best of the worst public school system in our nation", all the others things happen on your wish list, and all the jobs/people that you believe will come from this, I trust you wouldn't be very happy with the extra large gain in people this would supposedly bring to our metro, above and beyond the already fast growth/sprawl we have now? Visit/research other regions in our nation how they like hyper growth with higher pay jobs coming in/all the growth pains. It's not all pretty. See how a "world class" city like san francisco is doing in this regard with their high paying jobs and with crazy high rents/real estate costs that comparatively very few can afford. And check out the out of control homeless situation that your bluest of "blue" state/city envy has created there and all the other issues in that city.
And many parts of southern CA, Denver, etc with their cost of housing, rents, traffic, etc etc. All of a sudden, those well paying/educated job salary's get consumed by high rent/housing costs, cost of living overall not to mention large amounts of time spent in traffic that makes Phoenix metro traffic look like a walk in the park. And the quality of life for most with average salaries that make up the vast majority of workers in our nation get squeezed out. So what is gained in the end one might ask?
I'm not saying highly educated people with technical degrees/jobs in demand aren't a good thing to have as they are. We have a decent amount of such people in fields like the medical industry here already and that's a good thing in my view. I'm just saying be careful what you wish for/what you think you want the Phoenix metro to become. I have a feeling more than a few of those complaining about our current traffic, sprawl, population growth, etc. would have a field day of complaints if those things on your "wish list" came true. Prototypes already exist what I think you want your utopian Phoenix metro to look like. And many people are fleeing those "utopias" because of reasons I already outlined above and beyond. And many escape to Arizona/the Phoenix metro to get away from those "utopias". Talk about irony.
For decades, the success of a city has been determined by how fast it grows. That is a horribly misguided measuring tool.
With growth comes strains on city services (traffic, utilities, schools, etc.). This requires increased taxes to facilitate improvements to these services. In all the places I have lived in my life, I have NEVER seen an example where the taxes that the additional people moving in were paying covered the additional services needed. There was always tax increases or bond measures that were put forth to pay for adding services needed for the growth.
Based on this, I would argue that growth (certainly rapid growth) is a bad thing.
Ah, if only we have one of the "best of the worst public education system"(let's face it....overall our public school system in this country is rated mediocre at best), often determined via perception based on how much money is thrown at it, lots of our problems will be solved argument again. And if only we turn "blue" we will be the envy of everyone and only then we will thrive.
For starters. I would think for those who are educated out there/do their homework before moving to a region knows that there are many public schools in the Phoenix metro, especially in many of the suburbs, that are up to par with the rest of the nation. And that we already have many people here that are highly educated that work in fields like the medical industry and such that employs a great number of people here. And a growing IT field.
In past posts I believe you were concerned with the current fast population growth in the Phoenix metro, sprawl, etc? If this is true, do you realize if you get a public school system that has the ever important "perception" as one of what I would define as "one of the best of the worst public school system in our nation", all the others things happen on your wish list, and all the jobs/people that you believe will come from this, I trust you wouldn't be very happy with the extra large gain in people this would supposedly bring to our metro, above and beyond the already fast growth/sprawl we have now? Visit/research other regions in our nation how they like hyper growth with higher pay jobs coming in/all the growth pains. It's not all pretty. See how a "world class" city like san francisco is doing in this regard with their high paying jobs and with crazy high rents/real estate costs that comparatively very few can afford. And check out the out of control homeless situation that your bluest of "blue" state/city envy has created there and all the other issues in that city.
And many parts of southern CA, Denver, etc with their cost of housing, rents, traffic, etc etc. All of a sudden, those well paying/educated job salary's get consumed by high rent/housing costs, cost of living overall not to mention large amounts of time spent in traffic that makes Phoenix metro traffic look like a walk in the park. And the quality of life for most with average salaries that make up the vast majority of workers in our nation get squeezed out. So what is gained in the end one might ask?
I'm not saying highly educated people with technical degrees/jobs in demand aren't a good thing to have as they are. We have a decent amount of such people in fields like the medical industry here already and that's a good thing in my view. I'm just saying be careful what you wish for/what you think you want the Phoenix metro to become. I have a feeling more than a few of those complaining about our current traffic, sprawl, population growth, etc. would have a field day of complaints if those things on your "wish list" came true. Prototypes already exist what I think you want your utopian Phoenix metro to look like. And many people are fleeing those "utopias" because of reasons I already outlined above and beyond. And many escape to Arizona/the Phoenix metro to get away from those "utopias". Talk about irony.
Yawn lets explain away the virtues of education because it's alrite man!
Who needs economic growth when we can depend on stagnation?
Spending almost 3x our budget on prisons compared to Universities sounds about right. It's all good!
Besides we have some decent charter schools our wealthy have access to what more do you guys want?!!
You'll get none of that with Arizona's reputation as a state with a poor education system. The best and the brightest aren't just going to come here. They need a reason to. With Arizona's proximity to Southern California and Texas, I just don't ever see Arizona taking center stage. We could invest very heavily in solar energy and also in the entertainment business (due, again, to our proximity to Southern California), but we refuse to. Our growth will primarily come from segments of our population with high birth rates and retired people. That's just our reality. I think our politicians know that if we started bringing in highly educated people, they would lose political power. People like Ducey, our legislature, and Sheriff Joe keep power because of the large senior population who puts them in office. Start bringing in younger, more educated people and watch this turn to a blue state in an instant. Not going to happen.
You want blue? Go to Chicago.
Whats that? You dont want to live there because of the crime, mass numbers on welfare, a ban on guns (hows that working out for you, Chicago?), corruption, crumbling infrastructure, high taxes, rising outmigration, and job losses due to the complete Democratic mishandling of the city? Funny, that. But you'll wish that upon AZ? Seems logical.
Whats that? You dont want to live there because of the crime, mass numbers on welfare, a ban on guns (hows that working out for you, Chicago?), corruption, crumbling infrastructure, high taxes, rising outmigration, and job losses due to the complete Democratic mishandling of the city? Funny, that. But you'll wish that upon AZ? Seems logical.
Why be like Chicago when we can aim for Mississippi?
For our public school system to rank higher, I guess the solution is throwing lots more money in largely hispanic school districts to get the test scores up because money is the main way to achieve better school test performance?
For our public school system to rank higher, I guess the solution is throwing lots more money in largely hispanic school districts to get the test scores up because money is the main way to achieve better school test performance?
Is it then fair to blame other large minority groups in other states? The state is 60% non Hispanic white and 29% Latino/Hispanic. Immigration is down etc. Why do more diverse score better? Why do states with large African American populations score well?
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