Tonight I had the pleasure of meeting Barry Broome, CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. www.gpec.org He gave a very interesting talk on Phoenix's economic outlook, and it wasn't pretty. Didn't know that the state legislature has not passed one bill in the past 5 months! That we come after cloudy Oregon and New Jersey with our solar energy policies! That we have turned down business opportunities that would have brought $2 billion (yes with a B) to Phoenix, but Gov. Brewer and Gov. Napolitano couldn't find the time to meet with the CEO and bring this to fruition! That company has now gone elsewhere. We have a unique opportunity to supply solar energy to California. We need to bring business to Arizona, we need to be the leader in solar (not following cloudy New Jersey and Oregon), and we need to get our legislators off their butts and in gear! We have amazing opportunities to seize and move forward, but we must make these decisions now. Snooze and we lose!
Education needs to change. The way our children are taught must change. What we are doing now is failing--25% non-graduation rate, and 25% of our kids can't even get accepted to ASU or U of A; hardly top-tier schools.Google came and left because we couldn't provide them an educated workforce or incentives to bring one in. We need to bring innovation to the classroom and train our students in emerging technologies.
We need to mobilize and motivate our elected officials to work for our state. We need to diversify our businesses. The outlook doesn't look so pretty for our kids. The demographic prognosis is that in 30 years Arizona will be a state of uneducated, non-English speaking, people living in the dark. I don't want that for my grandchildren--who would?
On a lighter note, I was introduced as the new Director for Central Phoenix Women, the premier women's professional organzation in Phoenix. I will be presiding over our meetings for the next year at the Ritz Carlton, enjoying fabulous speakers, engaging with the most astute women, and listening to what our members' concerns are. For information, www.centralphoenixwomen.org
Excellent. It will be wonderful to have a conservative woman in such a position.
I'll look forward to reading this blog daily.
Posted by: Kristen Burroughs | 05/14/2009 at 07:35 PM