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Brown offers workforce insights

FAIRMONT — Fairmont Area Schools Superintendent Joe Brown shared some statistics on students and workforce needs at this week’s Fairmont Exchange Club meeting.

Brown said that during weekly meetings, school district administrators discuss many issues. They all have also been reading several books. One is “Them: Why We Hate Each Other – And How To Heal,” by U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska.

The book provides a “success sequence,” which came from a study done by the Brookings Institute, with three items on it: 1) Finish high school. 2) Get a job. 3) Get married before having children.

A quote in the book reads: “If you follow the success sequence, you won’t be poor. But if you fail to follow the success sequence, it’s a 50/50 that you (and your kids) will be poor.”

“That seems so simple but half our country is not doing that right now,” Brown said.

He shared some local statistics.

“Forty-two percent of children born in Martin County are born to a single parent,” he said. “It’s the second-highest county in Minnesota. That’s been true for the last 10 years.”

Brown went on to note that 54 percent of Fairmont elementary students qualify for free and reduced lunch, while 38 percent of high school students do.

“I get eight newspapers a day and I read them at night and cut and clip them so I can try to understand what’s going on in this country,” Brown said. “Basically our nation right now has one-third of us doing really well but two-thirds are really struggling, and you see that right here in our county so we’re not unlike most of America right now.”

Brown offered a look at Fairmont Area, as provided by the Minnesota Department of Education.

Statewide, there is 85.6 consistent attendance by students. For Fairmont, it’s slightly higher at 86.2 percent.

“In Minnesota, statewide, about 75 percent of students graduate high school and 25 percent don’t,” Brown noted. “We’re at 90.1 percent, but we were at 94.3 percent a few years ago.”

When Brown first came to Fairmont nine years ago, 95 percent of the student body was caucasian. Now, about 20 percent of students at the elementary school are children of color, including 13.8 percent Hispanic or Latino.

Brown recently met with the chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, which includes all the state colleges (not private) and community colleges. He provided these recent stats: 34 percent of high school graduates do not attend any college while 66 percent go to a two- or four-year school, but only 25 percent graduate.

MNSCU graduates 38,000 students every year, or 92,000 fewer than what is needed.

“We need to replace, in the next decade, 1.3 million workers in Minnesota,” Brown said. “I can’t imagine what Minnesota will be like in 10 year if we’re short that many workers.”

When asked what he believes is causing some of these problems, Brown said society needs to bring families back together.

“It’s not that you can’t be successful and have a single parent,” he said. “Two of our last four presidents were born to single-parent moms, so you can still be successful, but it’s hard.”

The Exchange Club meets at noon every Tuesday at Green Mill in Fairmont and typically has a guest speaker from the community. The public is welcome to attend.

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