And let me add that there seems broad agreement that Georgia’s rural schools are floundering, in part because of lack of funding. This article from 2010 is one of many that one could find on the subject: http://www.ajc.com/news/news/georgia-schools-lay-unequal-foundations-for-colleg/nS9B8/

Thanks Roxanna, I’m a little puzzled by your comment since I’m not talking about greater government spending in this post at all.

But since you bring it up, I think it seems obvious that the Savannah metro area benefits greatly from military spending, from government spending that supports the ports, from government spending on the airport, from local and federal spending on beach nourishment, etc.

Savannah is also a regional health care hub that benefits greatly from Medicare, Medicaid, and other government programs.

As many others have noted, Savannah has a more diverse economy than much of the state including some major growth areas — tourism, the ports, health care, Gulfstream, etc. Much of that growth is purely private sector, much of it is government supported.

Hey Sim,
The labor force participation rate includes everyone 16 and over (I think that’s the cutoff) — the percentage is determined from the number of people of that age who are part of the labor force (either working or looking for work). A few decades ago, women were entering the labor force in large numbers and baby boomers were entering the labor force as they became adults. The labor force participation rate climbed steadily.

But now we are seeing baby boomers retiring (a big demographic group), and we’re seeing more young adults in college for longer periods, the number of women in the labor force might have maxed out, etc.

Some portion of the decline over the last 7 years in the labor force participation rate is certainly due to the weak economy, but much of the decline in the participation rate is due to demographics. As the large baby boom generation dies and younger cohorts represent larger percentages of the population, the rate should eventually go up again.

Among men 16 to 64, the participation rate in Nov. was 82.2%, up from 82.0% a year ago. The rate for women 16 to 64 was 70.6%, up from 70.1% a year ago.

In other words, among working age people, we’re actually seeing the labor force participation rate increase again. The commentators harping on the low rate overall either aren’t taking into account the aging of the baby boomers or are just trying to stir up trouble.