On the same day El Dorado received news of EDIE’s Village — a cute name for a serious idea to incubate local small business initiatives — the city was also lauded with a 2012 Arkansas Business City of Distinction award for its workforce development efforts.
The award is in the 5,000- to 20,000-population category and takes into account not only the hefty endowment by the Murphy Foundation to fund the El Dorado Promise, but also economic development leaders including El Dorado Public Schools, South Arkansas Community College, the South Arkansas Workforce Training and Education Consortium and the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce.
According to Arkansas Business, alongside the Promise El Dorado can tout the new Process Technology Program which aims to train young workers looking to fill a shortage in local oil, gas and petrochemical fields; the Contractor Safety Training Orientation Program to help implement an across the board curriculum for petrochemical and energy plant workers; and a Chamber internship program.
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Since the El Dorado Promise is cited as one of the reasons for this award it begs the question, “What has the El Dorado Promise really done for El Dorado and and its High School graduates?”
Looking at this “El Dorado Promise Impact 2012″ report on their website it cites five areas of seeming improvement and implies that the promise is one of the reasons.
EL DORADO PUBLIC SCHOOLS ENROLLMENT TREND
MIDDLE SCHOOL TEST SCORES UP
HIGH SCHOOL DROP-OUT RATE DECREASES
COLLEGE ENROLLMENT INCREASES
COLLEGE PREP & ENROLLMENT
COMMUNITY COLLEGE SEES GAINS
Nowhere in this report are there any results on the increased number of college graduates or the number of EHS grads that returned to El Dorado after using the Promise.
There is a story here. And News-Times really should cover it.
I’ve passed your idea on to the editor who will give it to the writer responsible for covering the Promise.