This title is strange, it looks weird, it’s wrong, but it’s not a typo. There is no quote that more aptly characterizes San Antonio’s economic condition better than Charles Dickens’ line in his Tale of Two Cities. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In many ways, San Antonio can be described as two cities. “Cities” divided between the North and South, between rich and poor, between educated and non–educated. Many of these differences can respectively be written down side–by–side with a line between them marking the literal border dividing San Antonio.
San Antonio has experienced incredible growth in its population and has achieved great success in attracting corporate headquartered companies. It has an increased feeling of added value and higher self–esteem, which we have added to our ever present cultural identity. However, there remains a nagging recognition that much of the community is still underprivileged and much of it blighted. We’re like a cherry red corvette with a 4–cylinder engine.
This seventh–largest city in the greatest country on earth, while boasting a diverse economy with high–growth industries such as health care, finance, and technology, has a real dilemma in how to retain and grow those industries with a lagging workforce.
The physical differences are evident – schools, churches, sidewalks, shopping centers, streets, neighborhoods, homes – are very different when traveling through these two cities. This is an ever present testimonial to the disparities which exist and the unfortunate status of the underprivileged areas in our beautiful city.
This alarming tone may sound overly pessimistic in light of our unemployment rate, which remains lower than other parts of the State and our ever–resistant, growing economy being shielded from the woes of the economic storm at the national level. Indeed, many would argue how bright our economy’s future seems.
However, the nagging feeling persists that San Antonio is on borrowed time; borrowing time to catch up on infrastructure, borrowing time to catch up on long–awaited projects, and most importantly and alarmingly, defaulting on the time to cure our deficiencies relating to our severely under–prepared workforce.
San Antonio’s economy could indeed have a very brief, bright future without a concerted visionary approach to addressing our problems with education. We have unacceptable statistics for a city with incredible opportunities. According to the Junior League of San Antonio, Inc., twenty–five percent of our city’s adult population is functionally illiterate.
San Antonio’s success depends on our population being educated and preparing our workforce to accommodate existing and expanding industries.
As mentioned, we have done well to create job opportunities with corporate expansion, small business growth and diversifying our economy with new industries. If we didn’t have people such as Henry Cisneros leading efforts to develop relationships with Japan more than 25 years ago, we wouldn’t have Toyota here today. Currently, our efforts include reconnecting and reinvigorating business relocations and expansions with Mexico and establishing new ties in China and India.
By creating a long–term vision and a results–focused effort on education, we can keep Toyota and AT&T, and attract more Fortune 500 companies to San Antonio.
The greatest percentage of our population without the means to acquire their education is our Hispanic one. According to the Intercultural Development Research Association, Bexar County Hispanics had a dropout rate of forty–three percent in the 2006–2007 school year. Our San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce hasa direct responsibility to take this challenge head on.
In recent years, we have strived to go beyond delivering resources to Hispanic businesses and advocating for the right environment to help Hispanic business grow. We have also focused on a longer–term trajectory of developing a new level of Hispanic entrepreneurship. We have done this through focusing on objectives at what I view as the 36,000 ft., 18,000 ft., and ground-level areas.
At the highest–level approach, we have worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help promote smaller learning environments and encourage mentorship through the Texas High School Project. At the local level, our Chairwoman in 2004–2005, Elaine Mendoza, began our School Board Initiative, which provided governance training through the Center for Reform of School Systems to our more than 17 Bexar County School district presidents. We recently turned this program over to UTSA to carry this endeavor for the long term and to expand upon its many successes. Finally, at the grassroots level, through Henry Cisneros’ leadership, we received a grant from the Kaufman Foundation to send approximately 40 high school juniors over a two–year period to the University of Texas Red McCombs School of Business for a two week, all–expenses paid entrepreneurial boot camp. We are in the early stages of developing a new program where our small business owners would help employ and mentor high school juniors and seniors struggling with the affordability of staying in school and saving for college.
Our Hispanic Chamber is responsible for developing our workforce and making our Hispanic population an important asset in San Antonio’s future development. The entire city has the same responsibility to ensure our population, Hispanic and Non–Hispanic, North and South, rich and poor, the educated and those who must be–educated, are prepared to fulfill our destiny as a united, successful city.
A concerted, focused effort on education and developing our workforce will serve to unite our community. If our community joins our Hispanic Chamber and other organizations throughout our city to address educating all of our children, it will serve as our way to write a new chapter in our development. This new chapter will begin with “It was the best of times, and will remain the best of times” in our creation of this new tale of one city –SAN ANTONIO.
