By HDN staff
HDN staff
The Havre Daily News
Friday, May 14
Over the next few weeks the playing of Pomp and Circumstance on high school and college campuses will herald the arrival of hundreds of former Montana students into the job market.
They are the best of the best, the cream of Montanas crop, a generation of youths with unlimited potential and a desire to succeed.
Every year national statistics report Montana high school students are near the top of the heap in science and mathematics and Montana college students are sought out by employers all over the country.
It is the position of The Havre Daily News that Montana schools produce some of the best educated young adults in the country and we, like most of our fellow citizens, are very proud.
However, that said, we also share the concern voiced by many Montanans that once our children graduate they need to leave Montana to find decent paying jobs in the career fields for which theyve been trained.
Family farms and ranches are also seeing a drop in the number of young wanting to follow in the familys footsteps and continue the farming tradition. Some farm families will even go so far as to actively discourage their children from continuing in agriculture.
A lack of technical jobs and low pay are commonly believed to be reasons for Montanas youthful exodus and increasingly fingers point to government to do something that will solve the problem.
It is our position that while government cant and shouldnt try to solve all of the peoples problems, it does have a responsibility to remove barriers that inhibit the growth and expansion of existing businesses or the creation of new ones. Particularly those barriers government itself has erected.
This does not mean business should suddenly be given a free hand to pollute our waters or pillage our forests. Nor does it mean employee protections should be removed.
It does mean an increase in tax incentives, a reduction in property taxes, and a simplification, reduction, or streamlining, of government red tape should be started or continued. Duplicate agencies and programs should be eliminated and penalties on inheriting businesses or family farms eliminated.
Lets give our children a choice and end Montanas brain drain. Lets make Montana a place where you dont have to sacrifice income for lifestyle.
