Making an educated decision

Headnote

How high is the public school systen on your list of site selection factors?

Maybe it should be higher.

Public education's significance as a site selection factor can be huge, depending on your needs. When high-level workers with children need to be enticed to move, the quality of a location's public school system can "make or break" the relocation or expansion decision. The treacherous reefs around low-performing school systems are often littered with the wreckage of failed relocation projects because key personnel have refused to relocate to these areas.

Secondly, the public education system is usually a reflection of the quality of the community and how it feels about itself. Does it spend money and time developing its youth? And, in trying to predict your future needs, in trying to predict your future needs, is the public school system good enough to consistently produce the talent your company is looking for, whether it is general labor or more skilled candidates?

"A good public school system also tends to attract good colleges and tech centers, which means a talented and motivated work force will usually develop in the area," says Kate McEnroe McEnroe Consulting in Atlanta, Ga. "You don't want to be caught having to undertake the remedial education of the work force. Students graduating from good public schools will have solid math, reading, writing, and communication skills and should be able to do well in team settings." Even when it comes to hiring unskilled labor, those who graduate from high-performance high schools will give you the maximum bang for your buck.

"About 60 percent of our clients do some sort of evaluation of the public school system," says Frank Spano, assistant director of planning for the Austin Co.'s facilities location group in Cleveland, Ohio. "Of those, about one quarter delve into much more detail."

Mark Sweeney, a principal at McCallum Sweeney Consulting in Greenville, S.C., agrees. "The public school system is a serious factor in the decision-making process for about half of the companies we work with," Sweeney says. "And the rest address it in some form during the screening process."

When a company moves into an area, its initial concerns often focus on the quality of the work force - its skills,...