While this blog has rightly criticized the Greater Memphis Chamber (GMC) on workforce, there is no way the Chamber can be this bad ! No Way !  They must have powerful help. And they do from the spooner elitists and SCORE board. Its impossible to be this bad, unless even the GMC is being obstructed.

This blog will take a historical look at this cockblocking of the workforce development system, which will include a review of the entirely useless Shelby County Joint Economic Community Development Board (SC-JECDB). 

Keep in mind The SCORE Board, at the end of the legislative session, took a victory lap for phonics and ACT WorkKeys. While both have their places, they are hardly an innovation and I am a WorkKeys or like tool advocate. ACT WorkKeys, assess individuals’ academic competencies against workplace criterion references and is used to build common language in support of workforce and economic development. 

At the same time, and Blackjack will love this, history says that Tennessee was the first ACT WorkKeys state in the country. The implementation occurred in the 1990’s under Governor Ned McWherter and Dr. Charles Smith, Commissioner of Education. But the elitists soon killed WorkKeys while erroneously pushing a 4 yr college for all. Again WorkKeys, while a credible and needed tool, is not an innovation to take a victory lap about. 

First, lets review the last presentation on workforce involving the GMC on June 17,. 2021. I am convinced the elitists are even cockblocking the Chamber, just as the elitists have done for years with the regional economy. Gwyn Fisher, Greater Memphis State Regional Economic Development Director, opens up the presentation by commending the publicly treasonous and incestuous GMC / University of Memphis partnership. Then, without any representation on the panel from 2 yr colleges, Ted Townsend launches into a UofM/Chamber outsourced Brookings data presentation on workforce, all while the UofM pursues Carnegie R1 research status. Odd……

Anyway, the data presentation correctly emphasized Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers and diversity, while without 2 yr colleges on the panel,  seemed slanted toward 4 yr degrees (See page pg 14). This is unfortunate, as the labor market is paying for 2 yr degrees. Southwest CC 2 year wages are $45K and The UofM 4 yr wages are $46K. See SCORE Higher Ed By the Numbers report. 

At the same time, per the Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System, Shelby County completion rates languish most, due to falling 2 yr and less post-secondary completions. Using STEM program completions, as defined by the Chamber, from 2014 – 19, Above 2 yr completions increased by 64%, while 2 yr or less fell by 38%. The greatest opportunity for quickly increasing completion rates is 2 yr and less degrees. And the labor market is paying for them ! 

Historic All Time Spooner Cockblock

Spooner cockblocking of the workforce development system goes back years in Memphis. I suspect the cockblock started, 20 years ago, right when Memphis Tomorrow started, as this corresponds with the beginning of local ecosystem decline. And then, to make it worse,  local elitists teamed up with the SCORE Board. Anyway, lets look at a timeline for this multi-billion dollar taxpayer cockblock.  

2009 – As early as 2009, connecting the workforce development system was a concern. See Shelby County Joint Economic and Community Development Board (SC-JECDB minutes)

2011 – County Commission later follows the disastrous advice of Mayor Luttrell to fund Memphis Tomorrow with $1M. See SC-JECDB minutes

2014 – Co-chaired by FedEx’s Christine Richards, Memphis Tomorrow Fast Forward FOCUS Economic Development plan is launched, and includes the Greater Memphis Alliance for Competitive Workforce (GMACW) initiative 

2014 – GMACW hires Dr. Glen Fenter of ASU Midsouth who supports ACT WorkKeys implementation

2015 – Spooner elitists rig a deal for Canadian provider that has little to no United States domestic experience in workforce development

2016 – Mayor Jim Strickland launches WorkKeys as a local initiative.

2016 and after – ACT WorkKeys never widely promoted and implementation fails to occur

2016 – Connected workforce development flounders and Haslam and Hyde launch Complete Tennessee initiative

2016– I join the Chamber and begin to promote my small business workforce development solution. 

2016 – With small business solutions in hand and workforce development locally disconnected, I file formal complaint of concern with County Mayor Luttrell, who also sat on the GMACW Board and chaired the SC-JECDB Board. Luttrell does nothing with complaint. 

2017 – Obstructed by the elitists, which is common, GMACW’s Fenter departs. (This seems to parallel the recent Dr. Damon Fleming departure from the UofM)

2017 – EDGE takes over GMACW

2017 – Complete Tennessee issues first report and states institutional ignorance of labor market in Memphis. This was a core deliverable of GMACW

2017 – I am kicked out of the Greater Memphis Chamber without cause or provision of Chamber bylaws while promoting my connected workforce development solution. As data shows, local elitists despise local small business. 

2019 – Complete Tennessee folds into SCORE

2019 – In October, Chamber launches Upskill901 workforce initiative, along with with Brookings out of DC and Burning Glass from Boston. 

2021 – SCORE Board takes victory lap for ACT WorkKeys legislation. 

2021 – Chamber appears obstructed by the elitists. 

2021 – Local disconnected workforce efforts remain.

Conclusion

The elitists have staying power and one has to stick with it for a while to find out what is really going on. History says, there has been a sustained and intentional effort to cockblock connected workforce development efforts in Memphis. And its not the rank and file but the spooner elitists that are botching the workforce development system. Think Blackjack, Puke, Orifice Ingram and Loser Frist. 

The public University of Memphis (UofM), in partnership with the Greater Memphis Chamber (GMC),  has moved the economic development goal posts. The moved goal posts come through a research partnership with the Washington DC based Brookings Institute, who in the last Memphis/Shelby FOCUS economic development plan, failed to deploy any measurement parameters whatsoever!

In typical Memphis rigged system fashion, the Brookings failure was rewarded with yet another contract by the UofM/Chamber partnership. The moved goal posts come in the form of Brookings establishing a more accommodative 10-member peer group (to be examined in the following section), than the 16-member group previously established by the UofM Memphis Economy project.

Riddled with conflict, the UofM / Chamber partnership is an act of public treason and could only be the brainchild of a civic, corporate socialist imbecile. It’s a partnership that surrenders public university thought leadership, on matters of public economic development, to the private GMC, all while the UofM hypocritically pursues Carnegie R1 institutional research status.

Keep in mind, the UofM touts $98M in additional annual wages or effectively $3M in estimated Memphis/Shelby tax revenue resulting, upon becoming an R1 institution. But what if, in 2017, the UofM had just been a solid R2 public university community partner?  In this way, the UofM would have  locally advocated the elements contained in the UofM “We Are Not Lost – Amazon Gave Us a Road Map”  publication, while leveraging their originally selected 16 member peer economic measurement platform.

Had the former occurred by the UofM, there is a good chance that the $3M increase in annual local tax revenue from R1, would be dwarfed from 1) tax incentive reform and 2) the implementation of a public workforce/economic development plan. Had these two items occurred, future local tax coffers would have likely seen $25M+ additional in annual tax revenue.

That’s not to mention that such a local public university, would not have been on binge, bullying the local taxpayer out of $45 in local grants and tax incentives. Let’s hope the UofM achieves R1. But in the end, being a good public partner and independent university thought leader, dwarfs R1 status for community benefit.  

And another aside to lacking local credibility was Dr. David Rudd, strangely finding it necessary, to assert a false top 25 ranking for UofM Men and Women tennis teams before the UofM Board of Trustees. The assertion came regarding the ridiculous $10-14M City participation in the $20M tennis center. In 2019, the UofM was not even in the Men’s or Women’s top 75 and that is nothing against the local tennis program and its great student athletes at all.  But sadly, false assertions seem to have become habit for the UofM under Rudd. See 15 minutes in the Trustee meeting video.

Its just such a strange and unneeded false assertion, when all that needed to be said is that “Our UofM Tennis teams are quickly becoming more competitive, as compared to recent years”. Anyway, back to the moved goal posts.

Moved Goal Posts and Consolidation???

The elitists will do ANYTHING to control the narrative, to include not measuring anything or moving goal posts to dodge accountability. That’s why nothing seems to change. The problem is not so much below average total wage growth but how much taxpayers have paid, in excessive tax incentives, for deficient growth.  Further, it appears the elitists want to talk about governmental consolidation, which while not transformational, does have merit.

But unfortunately, instead of just publicly advancing the case for consolidation, the elitists must move goal posts and seemingly rig data sets, for their presumed consolidation case. So here is what has happened to the previous 16-member peer group and data set. Gone are Charlotte, Greensboro, Jacksonville, Omaha, Cincinnati, Tulsa, and Little Rock. New, to the now 10-member peer group is Milwaukee and includes: Birmingham, Louisville, Nashville, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Memphis, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, and Milwaukee.  

Most alarming, is the illogical exclusion of Charlotte from the peer group, who like Memphis, is a southeastern non-consolidated border city with a significant 33% Black population. The non-consolidated Charlotte also led the previous peer group in total wage growth. So, it appears, if you can’t beat them, exclude them and a high performing non-consolidated city vanishes from the data set. 

Also illogical is the new addition of Milwaukee to the peer group, which is a northern non-border city, with a lower than Charlotte 27% Black population and lower total wage growth than Memphis. In the end, the new peer group allows Memphis “economic developers” to shave 4% points off their 10 yr. total wage growth deficiency, against a lower peer average of 36.5% down from 40.3%.

To get a complete understanding, the below table contains both old and new peer groups, with recently excluded members shaded in red. The chart at the beginning of this section, visually depicts the impact of the  moved goal posts. Also below, are tables and charts for Tennessee municipals.

TN Peer Group