State of the South 2011

Chapter 3: Looking Ahead: Leadership for Hard Times

With 2011 shaping up as a year of reckoning and most Southern states facing budget shortfalls that threaten recent economic progress, the region's leaders must focus on a "North Star" of long-term priorities for real recovery to take place, a new report says.

The State of the South 2011, the concluding chapter of MDC's The State of the South 2010 series, finds that for the region to move forward, Southern leaders must look beyond budget cuts and focus instead on education reform (with an emphasis on postsecondary completion), tax modernization, regional collaboration, improved civic connections, and development of new leadership.

"While cuts appear inevitable, an across-the-board, cut-only 'strategy' won't do; in fact, that's no real strategy at all," the report says. "Better is a mix of budget reductions, critical investments and revenue increases, all guided by a "North Star" for setting priorities." It is a time for "decisions that cry out for leaders focused on equity, opportunity and competitiveness," the report says.

One key to the region's long-term economic health will be improving the economic prospects for African-American and Hispanic young people. The U.S. Census reports that 80 percent of Southerners over 75 years old are white, 11 percent are black, and 8 percent are Hispanic. But of Southerners under 15 years old, 50 percent are white, 21 percent are black, and 23 percent are Hispanic. Age groups in between show a steady drop in white percentages of population and steady increases in black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American populations.


MDC President David Dodson said focusing on public policy and investments that remove the structural barriers that hold people back should be a critical focus of policy in a time of diminished resources.

"Put bluntly, a large majority of older adult Southerners are whites, while blacks, Hispanics and other recently arrived ethnic groups form a near majority of younger Southerners," the report's research finds. "It is imperative that the South sustain efforts to close educational achievement gaps and assure that tomorrow's more diverse workforce has the skills to thrive in a high-tech, high-wage, knowledge-centered economy."

MDC President David Dodson said focusing on public policy and investments that remove the structural barriers that hold people back - such as transportation problems, inadequate schools, health and housing inequities, and a lack of internship opportunities - should be a critical focus of policy in a time of diminished resources.

"While this is a difficult time, we're also at a crossroads," he said. "It is a great opportunity for legislators and policy makers to focus their sights on rethinking systems and programs so they prepare us for the world of work and life in the 21st century. We need to make all of our decisions with an eye on the 'North Star' of broader economic opportunity."

Read the full State of the South 2011, Looking Ahead: Leadership for Hard Times , and the State of the South 2011 News Release about the report.

For questions about the State of the South, please contact Richard Hart, MDC Communications Director.

To register to receive future State of the South updates by email, please click here.

State of the South 2010

Chapter 2: Talent and Skill: Antidotes to Uncertainty

Most Southern states lag not just the U.S. but many developed nations in college completion rates-just as national recognition is growing that improving the number of people who get a college certificate or degree is crucial to competing in the global economy.

Three Southern states-Mississippi, West Virginia, and Arkansas-lag behind Slovenia near the bottom of the postsecondary rankings, and eight states are below the average of the 36 members and partners in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, according to the latest chapter of The State of the South 2010. The report ranks 13 Southern states in comparison with the OECD countries.

"For states and communities, a citizenry with a higher level of educational achievement has multiple pay-offs," the report says. "For one thing, people who go beyond high school have a habit of avoiding poverty; people with some college education or better tend to figure out how to sustain themselves in the middle class. What's more, the more parents are educated, the less likely their families and their children will fall into poverty; an aggressive offensive to increase the numbers of young people with degrees and credentials amounts to a frontal assault on intergenerational poverty."

The South now has a "job gap" totaling 3.1 million jobs-the number of positions it would take to get back to 2007 employment levels, the report says. At the region's best recent rate of job creation, it would take five years to recover. Beyond that, there's a growing postsecondary gap: in 2018, it is projected that 49 to 64 percent of Southern jobs will require some college, while states are producing postsecondary degrees at rates between 30 to 44 percent.



To attain that number of degrees, special emphasis must be placed on addressing the needs of those who historically have been left behind. Though blacks and Latinos have markedly lower postsecondary success rates, they will constitute a larger share of the working-age population as largely white baby-boomers move into retirement, the report says.

"The region no longer bears the burden of legalized racial segregation, and its economy is no longer dependent on investment from elsewhere," the report says. "The region now features homegrown businesses that compete across the globe. Southern states and communities have embraced public school reforms, have strengthened systems of community colleges and universities, and have invested in highways and airports. At issue now is whether the South's citizens and their leaders will see in the advances of the past three decades a reason for hope and confidence that the region can rise to the challenges of the recovery and beyond."

Read the full State of the South 2010: Chapter 2 and the MDC Press Release about the report.

For questions about the State of the South 2010, please contact Richard Hart , MDC Communications Director.

To register to receive future State of the South 2010 chapters by email, please click here .

Chapter 1: Beyond the 'Gilded Age'

From 1980 until 2000, the South was on a trajectory to erase the poverty gap that perennially separated the region and the rest of the country. During this gilded age, the South led the country in population growth and job creation while developing a broader middle class than it had ever known. The poverty gap between the Southern states and the rest of the country diminished from 4 percent in 1980 to 1.4 percent in 1998, moving hundreds of thousands of people above the poverty line and giving them a chance at the American dream.

But the two recessions of the last  ten years created a "lost decade," pushing too many Southerners back from fleeting middle class prosperity and wearing away the veneer of the gilded age to reveal an uncertain foundation. Millions of low-skill, low-education jobs disappeared, probably for good. Median household income declined more in the South than in any other region, and the poverty rate increased. Nine Southern states saw median incomes decline relative to the United States median income between 1997 and 2007--a sign that the region was falling behind the nation.

The data reveal many different Souths. Some places grew through both recessions, while other places and groups of people suffered disproportionately.

T he State of the South 2010 will be released as a series of chapters. This first installment, Chapter 1: Beyond the 'Gilded Age,' examines the economy in the South and the reasons that the increases in prosperity achieved before 2000 proved so fleeting. This opening chapter will be followed by white papers that offer transformative suggestions for Earning, Learning, Living, Connecting, and Leading that can return the South to the trajectory it was on until the recession and lead the nation in decades to come.

Read the full State of the South 2010: Chapter 1 and the MDC Press Release about the report.

Read George Autry's 1998 speech about the Gilded Age .

See a State of the South 2010 Fact Sheet .

For questions about the State of the South 2010, please contact Richard Hart , MDC Communications Director.

To register to receive future State of the South 2010 chapters by email, please click here.