EDITORIAL: RI’s Population Problem

Monday, December 24, 2018

EDITORIAL

The Monday after Benny’s announced it was closing, Arnold Bromberg of the iconic Rhode Island institution appeared on GoLocal LIVE and said that when he started working for the family business at the age of 16, they had just a handful of stores and the state had a population of one million people, and that 50 years later, Rhode Island's population was roughly the same.

In that half century, the population of the United States grew from 207 million to 325 million people — a 57 percent increase. Rhode Island's population growth was just 9.5 percent.

While most may love Rhode Island with all its blemishes, the rest of America doesn’t seem to.

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Rhode Island must transform to survive. As a result of our lack of popularity, Rhode Island is slated to lose a Congressional seat which, will impact our political influence in Washington and ultimately cost the state billions.

The state has three critical opportunities to reverse the stagnation and grow the population, and, thus, the economy.

First, Rhode Island is rich in high-quality institutions of higher education and poor in its ability to retain the graduates.

Rhode Island is consistent in losing its college students — the Providence metro area is the second worst in America. Providence retains just 36 percent of its college grads versus Detroit, which retains 77 percent of its new grads.

Smart young people want to live and work in a place where there is opportunity and quality of life. Clearly, these grads aren’t buying — they are selling. They are not just off to New York City, Washington, DC, and Chicago, but they are going to “cool cities” like Nashville and Austin.

If each year just 50 grads from each of the schools of higher education decided to stay and work in Rhode Island — Brown, RISD, URI, PC, etc., —  the state would transform via talent and energy.

Second, Rhode Island is old. The composition of the population is one of the oldest in the country. Rhode Island ranks 11th with nearly 16 percent of the population over 65 years years of age.

Rhode Island needs strategies to retain young, talented smart people. And, it is clear that growing companies in the state could hire more if there was a better-educated workforce. On GoLocal LIVE’s Business Monday more than 50 small and emerging businesses have appeared and consistently the number one barrier that CEOs mention to their growth is the scarcity of talent in the workforce.

Third, Rhode Island needs to improve its schools. This will ultimately create a better workforce and Rhode Island will spawn a better economy. The recently RICAS testing scores unveil the sad condition of Rhode Island’s education system.

Massachusetts, the national leader in education performance, has small and large schools systems, poor urban children, and rural regional schools -- not unlike Rhode Island -- yet their students perform significantly better — 17 percent and 20 percent respectively for English Language Arts and Math.

Massachusetts is the 8th highest in per-pupil spending in America and RI is ninth.

It is time grow Rhode Island — become a destination and not just a place to stop for four years of a great college education or a great tourist destination. It should be the “cool place” to move. If Rhode Island students were better educated and more competitive there inherently would be a better workforce, more innovation, and a stronger economy.

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