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<blockquote data-quote="It Takes Eleven" data-source="post: 1418682" data-attributes="member: 11353">Alabama is certainly near the bottom, nothing to be proud of, but we are 44 to 47 by most measures in K-12.&nbsp; Higher education, on the whole, is middle of the pack.&nbsp; We have our best and brightest who are likely to leave our state (pre-pandemic speaking) to go where there is greater opportunity, and we have the impoverished who live in inner cities and areas of rural hopelessness who are going nowhere.&nbsp; As long as many of our best are skimmed off the top for other destinations we'll languish.I have family members&nbsp; (wife, sister in-law and niece) and friends who teach/taught in GA (they rank in the low 30's by most measures) and they all spend money on classroom supplies.&nbsp; It's not limited to Alabama.&nbsp; My wife worked in the Cobb County school system (a good system in GA) for ten years (and at the time also made window treatments) and we bought fabric and she made window treatments, seat covers, you name it, to help young teachers decorate their rooms.&nbsp; My sister in-law's hearing-impaired classroom is a treasure trove of teaching and interactive supplies she's built up over the last 30+ years.&nbsp; She's started talking about transitioning to part time and seeing fewer students (letting another teacher use her room for part of the week) and the administrator's attention went immediately to &quot;can they use your classroom items?&quot;.As a state, we've made huge economic gains, and much of it has been due to the automotive industry.&nbsp; That has made Alabama a more cyclical state, prone to follow national expansions and contractions.&nbsp; However, with the shift toward EV, and the dramatic decline in the number of moving mechanical parts in them, means the state must compete to retain automotive jobs.&nbsp; The next ten years will not be pretty for the worker in that industry, including many secondary suppliers.&nbsp; If our current slate of politicians are not savvy, we'll have neighboring states pilfer our gains - a chilling thought.&nbsp; Also, it is going to be devastating internationally for those companies from Mexico to China making all of those replacement parts for IC autos.&nbsp; At some point, I'm seriously thinking of stocking up on extra brake pad/shoes, rotors/drums, water pump, alternator and such for my old mustang.&nbsp; Can't really do that as well with hoses/belts/wipers (and wires to a lesser degree) as they will deteriorate.RTR,Tim</blockquote>

[QUOTE="It Takes Eleven, post: 1418682, member: 11353"] Alabama is certainly near the bottom, nothing to be proud of, but we are 44 to 47 by most measures in K-12. Higher education, on the whole, is middle of the pack. We have our best and brightest who are likely to leave our state (pre-pandemic speaking) to go where there is greater opportunity, and we have the impoverished who live in inner cities and areas of rural hopelessness who are going nowhere. As long as many of our best are skimmed off the top for other destinations we'll languish. I have family members (wife, sister in-law and niece) and friends who teach/taught in GA (they rank in the low 30's by most measures) and they all spend money on classroom supplies. It's not limited to Alabama. My wife worked in the Cobb County school system (a good system in GA) for ten years (and at the time also made window treatments) and we bought fabric and she made window treatments, seat covers, you name it, to help young teachers decorate their rooms. My sister in-law's hearing-impaired classroom is a treasure trove of teaching and interactive supplies she's built up over the last 30+ years. She's started talking about transitioning to part time and seeing fewer students (letting another teacher use her room for part of the week) and the administrator's attention went immediately to "can they use your classroom items?". As a state, we've made huge economic gains, and much of it has been due to the automotive industry. That has made Alabama a more cyclical state, prone to follow national expansions and contractions. However, with the shift toward EV, and the dramatic decline in the number of moving mechanical parts in them, means the state must compete to retain automotive jobs. The next ten years will not be pretty for the worker in that industry, including many secondary suppliers. If our current slate of politicians are not savvy, we'll have neighboring states pilfer our gains - a chilling thought. Also, it is going to be devastating internationally for those companies from Mexico to China making all of those replacement parts for IC autos. At some point, I'm seriously thinking of stocking up on extra brake pad/shoes, rotors/drums, water pump, alternator and such for my old mustang. Can't really do that as well with hoses/belts/wipers (and wires to a lesser degree) as they will deteriorate. RTR, Tim [/QUOTE]

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