JACKSON - Gov. Ronnie Musgrove says there is a vital link between public education and economic development. If he needed any reinforcement about his belief, the governor got it last week in New York.
Musgrove spent two days before last Saturday's annual Mississippi picnic in Central Park meeting with the editorial boards of several financial publications.
He also pitched the state to eight prominent site-selection consultants and had lunch with Thomas Reece, the head of Dover Industries, which has three companies in Mississippi.
The governor said education was a hot topic in all the discussions.
"It reiterated that the focus on education is essential in today's marketplace," Musgrove said Thursday. "If we're going to be competitive with jobs, we have to be competitive with education."
That theme confirmed the results of a recent statewide survey done by the Mississippi Economic Council and Jackson-based GodwinGroup, in which business leaders listed education as the top issue facing the state.
"Business leaders understand they're not going to create the quality jobs we need in Mississippi without dealing with the education issue," said Blake Wilson, president of the Mississippi Economic Council.
Musgrove met with representatives of Forbes, Business Week, The Financial Times and Barron's, among others.
To emphasize his commitment to education, the governor said he touted his plan to have an Internet-accessible computer in each of Mississippi's 30,000 classrooms by the end of 2002. The state is more than half way to that goal.
Musgrove said he had several questions about the state flag, although he didn't go into detail about the discussions.
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