Education

When a new industry – or an expanding one – needs a trained workforce, Georgia’s technical colleges are there to help. The system’s Quick Start Program is a not-so-secret weapon in the state’s economic development arsenal.

A $100 million-plus gift to Emory University in 1979 started the school on a dramatic upward path. Now another gift will continue the transformation, leaders say, and bring the university national recognition.

On and off the campus of GCSU - and it is sometimes difficult to know where the campus ends and the town begins - intellectual capital is a local currency that stimulates life at the school as well as the Milledgeville economy.

Atlanta's colleges and universities bring unprecedented brainpower and economic muscle. They create wealth and jobs, promote diversity and enhance the city's international credentials - and they are influencing the way the region grows.

Private schools take justifiable pride in their students' SAT scores — it's something they work at. Most say it's not just a matter of successful test-taking strategies, but the whole academic experience that makes the difference.

Educating Georgia's new manufacturing workforce means teaching technical skills largely unknown five years ago, offering remedial math and English courses and working to instill good old-fashioned workplace values.

Sure, the city has corporate headquarters, dynamic growth and a thriving economy. But it also has one of the largest concentrations of colleges and universities in the country. It's time to celebrate the brainpower and highlight the economic clout.