Broadband Education Strategies
Pennington Gap has significant education challenges that will require a long term commitment to education and workforce training and retraining. The town and region have a slightly higher high school graduation rate than the state and national average, which suggests that over time, the town’s workforce will slowly improve. However, Pennington Gap has a very high number of workers without a college degree--more than double the state and national average. The town also has a very low number of college graduates--less than half the state and national average. Another bright spot is that the number of workers with “some college,” while low, does not have same deficits as the high school and college degree categories.
As manufacturing jobs have left the United States for lower cost labor areas in the rest of the world, there actually have been many new jobs created; by some estimates, as many as three new jobs for every one that has been lost. However, the new jobs typically require at least some college, compared to the lost jobs which often required no more than a high school degree and many times did not even require that.
Pennington Gap, as a community, needs a strong commitment from parents, employers, community groups, and elected leaders that emphasizes the importance of education.
