By BRIAN DURAND
The Stamford Advocate’s business page yesterday reports on Connecticut’s growing “brain drain” in an article about Christopher Bruhl, president and chief executive officer of The Business Council of Fairfield County:
We (Connecticut) are leading the nation in exporting our 25- to 34-year-olds. The workforce has a growing number of under-educated people,” said Bruhl…
…Bruhl referred to 2004 figures showing that the county experienced a 21 percent decrease in the 25- to 34-year-old population from 141,437 in 1990 to 111,849 in 2004.
Connecticut had a 30 percent decrease in the samehi demographic during the same period, placing the state last in U.S. rankings, falling from 583,882 to 409,393.
We have, of course, all heard this before. The article uses 2004 figures, and the paper reported on the trend as far back as then. The fact is, most residents don’t need the media to tell us about the phenomenon. As a Connecticut native and UConn graduate I’m amazed at how, with each passing year, I have more and more friends that require a plane ticket to visit.
I’m not knocking the media for reporting on the same problem — of course it’s critical that they continue to shed light on it. The larger point is that not much has changed in the last three years; we’re still framing the situation exactly the same way.
There is mention of some of the root causes of the drain towards the end of his piece, listing transportation, education and health care. I would add property tax reform to that list, as well the topic of Mayor Malloy’s post about affordable housing. All of these issues impact and propagate one another, and until we have a governor that is willing to explain that hard truth to the state and then begin taking systematic and gradual steps to address each problem, nothing is going to change.
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