AIAA Panel Urges California to Undertake Major Reforms or Lose Aerospace Industry

[bananas]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/08/13/aiaa-panel-urges-california-to-undertake-major-reforms-or-lose-aerospace-industry/

AIAA Panel Urges California to Undertake Major Reforms or Lose Aerospace Industry

Posted by Doug Messier on August 13, 2012

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AIAA PR) –California’s aerospace industry dwarfs both Hollywood and Agriculture as the state’s primary source of jobs, an AIAA panel reminded representatives of the California state legislature at the California State Capitol Building, Sacramento, Calif., on Tuesday, 8 August. The event’s theme was: “California Aerospace: Stuck in the Past, or Rocketing into the Future?”

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Mike Rossi, jobs adviser to California Governor Jerry Brown, addressed the meeting as well. Mr. Rossi stated that while he knows that there are threats to the aerospace industry in California which made the future look grim, he also believed that bi-partisan consensus would be achieved to protect the industry and its vital jobs base. He agreed that the industry is too large to lose from California’s economy.

Among the topics covered by the panel were the overall state of the aerospace workforce in California, the economic contributions that aerospace makes to the California economy, and why California is losing business to Texas and other states which are willing to make substantive economic concessions in order to lure business to Texas.

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[KamaAina]

1. So we're supposed to join the race to the bottom?

and why California is losing business to Texas and other states which are willing to make substantive economic concessions in order to lure business to Texas.

But wait a minute...

Among the barriers to aerospace growth in California that were cited by the panel were:... the dwindling state investments in education – making it hard to educate a viable workforce in the STEM areas,...

Ken Guss discussed the general decline in quality of the workforce in California, brought on by increasingly frequent cuts to job training programs, as well as to higher education programs.

If we give away the store like Texas does, we won't be able to reverse this disturbing trend. "It's the best there is, that Catch-22!"