A look at state's report card

I can remember dreading report card time. I always hoped for high marks, but was a little uncertain about where those final grades might come in. Those grades were an important measure of my academic progress and would be critical to my efforts to get into college and to find gainful employment.

Report cards remain an important part of our life even now after the completion of our academic pursuits. Earlier this month, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce released an important report card tracking the state of Indiana’s progress. The report card is a part of its Indiana Vision 2025 Plan. Tuesday they reported those findings to community leaders from Elkhart, Marshall, Kosciusko and St. Joseph counties at a forum in Elkhart.

The Indiana Vision 2025 program is a long-range economic development plan that was developed by a statewide task force of community, business and education leaders. The plan was released in early 2012. Its ultimate goal was to make Indiana a global leader in innovation and economic opportunity where enterprises and citizens prosper. The task force hoped to do that by developing 33 goals in four critical areas: outstanding talent, attractive business climate, superior infrastructure and dynamic and creative culture.

The Chamber then planned to report on the plan’s progress each year until 2025, utilizing 59 statistical metrics.This would help identify key areas of progress and highlight those areas where our state would need improvement.

So how did we do? Of the 59 metrics, Indiana improved its ranking (from the 2013 Report Card) compared to other states on 28; it declined in 19 rankings; and remained the same or there was no updated data available in 12. In terms of raw scores, Indiana improved in 30 metrics, declined in 17 and there was no movement or update available for nine.

We had a number of positive developments that should be noted. Our students are doing better with great progress on reading and math scores for our fourth- and eighth-graders. Our poverty rate decreased significantly across the state. Our regulatory climate ranked as one of the top in the country. We saw a nearly 4 percent reduction in our adult smoking rate. And we saw significant improvement in research and development funding at university and business levels.

We also had a number of areas where improvement is needed. We rank near the bottom on postsecondary attainment. We should be concerned about funded pension liabilities. We rank near the bottom in the country on broadband connectivity. We rank near the bottom in the country on the Kauffman Index for Entrepreneurial Activity. And we saw a decline in the amount of venture capital invested in our state, a key factor in new business creation.

So where do we go from here? To improve our grades and move up in the rankings, a concentrated effort is required of all of us. Some parts of the state have experienced great success; some have not. Our region can be an important catalyst to help move those Indiana scores up and improve our rankings. We can do that by making sure our students have the support they need to excel in the classroom. We have to work to improve the business climate and we must ensure the environment is ripe for new businesses to start. The Vision 2025 plan presents some great goals and benchmarks. Let’s utilize it to help improve our local and state economy.

For more information on the Vision 2025 project, visit Indianachamber.com.

Jeff Rea is president and CEO of the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at jrea@sjchamber.org.