2020 Concern #3: Availability of Jobs / Sufficient Wages.
Sandra Zera would like nothing more than to remain in Brownsville, but without a viable job offer the chances of her staying seem unlikely.
The 22-year-old is a year away from completing her Master’s in Business Administration at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College’s School of Business. Last December she earned a bachelor’s degree in government and immediately began sending resumes to local businesses and banks. It’s mid-October and she’s still waiting for a single response.
Now, Zera believes her only shot at finding the sort of work her education’s prepared her for is by leaving behind her hometown, even though an April 2007 Forbes magazine report ranked Brownsville the 184th best city in the country in which to start a career or business.
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1 comment:
Brownsville needs to identify its economic niches and work to actualizing those. I live in Brownsville but drive 120 round trip miles daily to work in the upper valley. I do notice some distinct differences between the upper and lower valley that makes them unique.
I The distinctions between the chamber of commerce. McAllen’s is located in a primo facility, Brownsville is located in an old and not too attractive facility that is very unwelcoming. The McAllen Chamber’s office conveys a message: We mean business here.
II. There is no collaborated or integrated economic development strategy for Brownsville which is anchored to non-political agendas and the settling of old scores. There is one in McAllen. This strategy should reflect a commitment to a shared future by the city, UTBTSC, BISD, and key members of the private sector. Where is such a document? Witness the recent comments of the mayor and other members of the City Commission about Cameron Works. After the dust clears, there is no accountability and the same old way of dong business goes on. Where is the accountability here?
III.This community needs to hold its educational providers accountable for developing and nurturing a graduate base that is either capable of entering a university level academic track or pursuing a job with an opportunity to advance. The BISD is producing graduates, subtracting the drop outs that no one can account for, that are not ready to enter the workplace or become part of an academic enterprise. Many of the school district’s graduates are reading below the 12th grade, technologically illiterate and in need of remediation upon entry to an institution of higher education. Does anyone out there realize that UTBTSC’s enrollment is made of over 70% graduates from BISD. There needs to be more diversity in the enrollment stream here to truly build a university community.
IV. The TSC component of the UTB partnership needs to affirm its role as a true community college and become the major economic and workforce trainer and provider for this part of the Valley. In reality, there is no need for a Cameron Works if TSC stepped up since all Cameron Works does is add another tier of bureaucracy and not much in return for the investment of workforce training dollars.
V. Close down the Amigoland/ITEC site of the UTBTSC and focus on developing programs which are closer to the demographic development zone: north, northwest and northeast of the city. The ITEC is hard to get to and very inaccessible in its present locale.
VI. Do away with the BEDC. Totally unnecessary in that is measures its success by how many more cheap restaurants, car dealership and hotels are constructed along North 77. There is an absence of any focus on creating a sustainable economy rather than one which is anchored in low wage, non-benefits eligible jobs: we produce little here-all we are is a flow through for products manufactured in Asia and in Mexico.
Carlos Colorado III
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