Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | February 18, 2019 | Worcester Business Journal 27 Time to start paying attention to education reform Women of color must lead by example V I E W P O I N T E D I T O R I A LS E ducation reform is not a topic readily coming to mind when businesses start lobbying the Massachusetts legislature for change. e so-called reforms typi- cally boil down to re-allocating money between communities – producing winners and losers – while throwing a billion or so additional dollars into the bucket so more programs can achieve funding. But as the legislature seems poised to take up the topic this year with legislation rolling along toward a possible vote before the fiscal year ends in June. Business interests from around the state are keeping a watchful eye out for the way new laws are helping to shape the workforce of the future. e North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce already has gone on the offensive, pushing for changes to help facilitate more manufacturing workers into the pipeline. Manufacturing makes up a robust one-third of the jobs in the North County, and manufacturing and other trades are the largest share of overall Central Massachusetts economic production. e Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce in partnership with several employers groups in Feb- ruary ran a survey drilling down on the needs of employers when it comes to workforce readiness of our graduates. Access to a well-trained workforce remains a critical issue statewide and ties directly into the education curriculum and what initiatives receive funding. While the details in any education J ust like when WBJ first started e Boardroom Gap series a year ago, I still strongly feel the underrepresenta- tion of women in leadership roles in our community is a disservice to the population making up more than half the workforce, and the lack of women of color is even more disheartening. is past November, I was filled with a renewed sense of inspiration and excitement as a record number of women were elected to Congress (I was especially proud 58 percent of newly elected women are Girl Scout alums). ere were numerous firsts, including our commonwealth's own Ayanna Pressley becoming Massa- chusetts' first African-American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. I optimistically thought, "Now, nearly every little girl can see someone who looks like them in position of political power!" While the political arena offers a glimmer of hope, it's a fleeting one as the business world still shows little progress for women of color. Last year, only two Fortune 500 compa- ny CEOS were women of color. Today there are none. Refusing to accept this abysmal fact and saddened by the missing role models for girls of color, I reverted to the Mil- lennial go-to of Google searching for a shero. And I found one: Cynthia "Cynt" Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks. She's the first African American women to oversee an NBA franchise – among many other firsts for her and her family, including first one to attend and graduate college, first Afri- can-American cheerleader at UC Berkley, and first African American to lead a North Carolina chamber of commerce. When Indra Nooyi stepped down as the CEO of Pepsi last fall and was succeeded by Ramon Laguarta, she said there is a pipeline issue, "I would have loved for the board to have had a woman to pick from. But at the end of the day, the board selects the CEO, and we just didn't have any women who were ready for the job." at is a problem, and I'm still wondering, "How do we fix it?" I still wholeheartedly believe seeing is believing, but if our community doesn't have it in the present leadership, how can we inspire these high-potential girls to keep thinking big? We need to continue to create a pipeline, locally and na- tionally, of women who can step up and change the look of leadership. I sit around many meeting tables within Greater Worcester, and I always take stock on who is present and what groups are represented. I hear, and live, the same issues every day – the lack of available mentors, role models and volunteers. If women, including ones of color or ones who understand and value diversity, want to make a difference and change the landscape, we need to make an effort to show the younger generation we're here and we're ready and willing to support them. ere are numerous opportunities to make a difference, many with short-term commitments making a long-term impact. I urge us all to follow the sentiment and direction of my new shero Cynt Marshall, "At some point, it's almost embarrassing. I've got to make sure I'm not the last. ere's no stigma in bringing up others." Melanie Bonsu is the director of development & marketing for the Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts. BY MELANIE BONSU Special to the Worcester Business Journal Melanie Bonsu The Worcester Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Please send submissions to Brad Kane, editor, at bkane@wbjournal.com. reform package coming this year have yet to be fully formed, the chambers are on the right path prioritizing this issue. Top priority initiatives include expanding career-exploration programs to younger grades and changing the success metrics of high schools – with less focus on college placements and more on diversifying the faculty pool. is time around, it seems like education reform has to be about more than just recalculating the funding mechanism. One topic on the agenda is increasing access to vocational-technical education. Not that long ago, voke/tech schools were populated by students wishing to eschew a college degree in favor of entering into a skilled trade job immediately. Now, spurred by new investment in facilities and programs and efforts to attract high achievers, voke/tech schools are bringing in college-bound students while the student waitlist for the schools has grown longer and longer, now numbering more than 3,000. is backlog will deprive em- ployers like manufacturers the skilled employees they need coming right out of high school. e good news is the legislature is still early in the sausage-making process. e education reform bill can still be molded to fit the current and future needs of large groups of employers. For businesses who know of shortcomings in the current educational system, it's a great opportuni- ty to influence the outcome and help strengthen our economy in the long run. W W WO R D F R O M T H E W E B Tweets of the week "We look forward to our future with this fast growing and uprising community." - Feldman Surveyors (@feldmanboston), Feb. 8, on a WBJ story on its new Worcester office "So this fascinates me. What's with this? What has fallen out of favor? Historical fiction for the young reader? Engaging with dolls and imagination? Non-digital kids' entertainment? ... Seriously, I think there may be something to this." - Maggie Granados (@GranadosMaggie), Feb 8, on a WBJ story about Natick's American Girl store closing Facebook feedback "Main Street? Are they budgeting for armed guards?" - Michele Veronique, Feb. 10, on a WBJ story about Bloominus Holdings hoping to open a recreational cannabis store on Main Street in Worcester "Come to Grafton, I can help connect you to the right people to proceed." - Michael Scully, Feb 7, on a WBJ story about Valley Green Grow's uphill battle to build a 1-million- square-foot marijuana cultivation facility in Charlton

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