Mayor Ragsdale doesn't realize that he's about 10 years too late in calling upon the private sector in Knox County to do anything, as the private sector as most counties know it moved to Blount, Loudon, Roane, Anderson, and Sevier Counties several years ago and there really isn't a private sector in Knox County anymore. When Clayton and Ruby Tuesdays set up shop in Blount County and H.T. Hackney moved their primary distribution center to Roane County, the last vestigates of Knox County's home grown businesses left the county. Seventy percent of the people employed in Knox County work for the government or work for non-profits and there is no reason to speak of a private sector any longer in our community. It's gone and it's not coming back. Not with goofballs like Mike Edwards, Mike Arms, and Mike Ragsdale purportedly leading this community and living large on public dollars. People are sick of it. The local business community, which is primarily closely held family businesses, is worn out with the steady dribble of effort in relocating real businesses and jobs that pay a real wage to our community. If local homegrown businesses won't stay in Knox County, why should any relocating business stay in Knox County?

Ragsdale is looking to create additional distractions in light of pending details regarding his fiscal mismanagement of taxpayer's dollars and he, of all people, is least qualified to ask the private sector to do anything, as he himself is a horrible example of why our community is turned around, everybody living off the government or some healthcare related operation.

If all we are going to have in our community is call center $10 an hour jobs, you really don't need a lot of additional education, as your grammer needs to be correct, you need to be able to add and subtract, the call center will train you in their specific processes, the process takes 3 or 4 months total and the employer will cover all of the costs of the additional training.

In short, Ragsdale needs to stick a sock in it, as he's done nothing to get the jobs here and while he's been in government more real jobs have left Knox County than have arrived in Knox County, such that these education initiatives are to train our kids to live and work in Blount County, Loudon County, Roane County, Nashville, Memphis, and Atlanta. If he can't do any better than that, I'd petition the legislature to dedicate everything south of the Tennessee River to Blount County, everything north of the river and west of I-75 goes to Loudon County, everything east of I-75 and north of the river goes to Sevier County and be done with it.

It's not about jobs and education, it's about the lack of private sector jobs and wholesale mismanagement of the economic development in Knox County and the propensity for leadership to get fat and happy on the public tit while surrounding counties grow and prosper, partially on businesses leaving Knox County.

We need to create an educational system relevant to the future needs of the community. This isn't about if you like Ragsdale, the Chamber or anything else. It is about parents with children, citizens without children or parents with children in private school.

In the end, improving education affects everyone. Ragsdale 2010, I don't know where you got your information. The workforce project started at least one year ago. This isn’t a new effort. Your point that this is too late because the jobs are in neighboring comments is illogical. People do not necessarily live and work in the same county. It is about the region. It's about educating our children in Knox County and the surrounding areas.

This is about preparing the youth of today to be employable adults for tomorrow. The school system currently educates our children for jobs that no longer exist.

EVERYONE needs to speak out. Maybe this topic will unite Knox County. Or we could just make it political and go nowhere.

Rest assured, Ragsdale makes everything political. He of all people, tossed $5 million into Blount County's industrial park, the same $5 million that could have been used to buy books, pay teacher's a descent raise, relieve overcrowding without building a school nobody wants with a trade curriculum partnering with Pellisippi State of all places.

There's plenty of blame to go around, setting the school superintendent's salary at $240,000 so they can give Donna Wright more money that any other county employee? It will be a cold day in Hell when we have to worry about a Knox County School Super leaving Knox County for another school sytem, it ain't going to happen. However, we need to worry everyday about a young talented teacher that loves to teach and kids really connect to going to Blount County, Maryville, Alcoa, Loudon County, or maybe Oak Ridge. That's what I'd worry about and I'd take that Superintendent money and throw it at young up and coming teachers that can teach anywhere they want, we need them a hole lot more than we need another high paid beaurocrat downtown.