Imagine Greater Tucson 2010-11 Phase I Community Conversation and Survey Statements Related to A community where our children will choose to live

1	All three of these issues (education, public safety, and infrastructure) bring obvious thoughts about what makes a community a desirable place to live, work, and recreate. We need to maintain what we have and grow new opportunities. No one will want to stay or come here if the quality of life is poor. We need a clean safe and healthy community
2	As a teacher I value education greatly. The huge system of charter, parochial, and private schools are pulling good kids from the public system. If public schools are going to work, the govt. must stop enticing people to leave them.
3	As a young professional, I feel like I am in a minority of college educated people in Tucson. It seems like people attend the UA and then leave the city.
4	Better opportunity for my children to stay in Tucson and be employed. More economic resources to support the community - public spaces, arts, culture
5	Brain drain - need opportunities for young creatives to stay in Tucson - strong education starts here with K-12 education
6	Children would stay in area instead of moving to Seattle, Denver, Los Angeles.
7	Educational institutions, particlulary public systems, are not supported or funded in a way that yields quality student achievement. This impacts economic opportunties and local businesses ability to attract and retain a highly skilled work force. Local students who are the most talented and skilled leave the community for better careers elsewhere.
8	Funding is not the responsibility of our local community. But it is what I think most needs improvement. We no longer adequately fund education in Arizona. Without proper funding, we will not keep the caring, interesting, productive people who make Tucson a good place to live. Our children will grow up and move away. We will have job market and no sustainable, healthy growth. Personally, I want to be able to honestly tell people with children that they should move here or stay here and put their children in public school. There are lots of very capable professional educators offering a variety of successful teaching methods and curriculums, but without basic resources, they can't do their jobs successfully. This matters to me as I see people I care about and/or respect leave Tucson or not come to Tucson because of this problem.
10	I am surprised by how low people set the bar for education. I am used to people viewing college as a minimum expectation, not a possibility. I wish more people would aspire to leave Tucson for higher learning and come back for brighter career options
11	I can't get my children to stay here; I can't say to them you have a good economic future in this area
12	I can't realistically look my 17 year in the eye and tell her the economic future here is bright. She's yet another smart one (Univ High School) likely to leave and not look back.
13	I don't have children but realize our local schools are not preparing them adequetely for the future. Thos who are prepared don't stay here to work. Although I can see the tech park helping, we want local people to qualify to work there.
16	I recently had a baby and I have serious doubts about whether I will stay in Tucson long term because I can't imagine putting my son through school here. I grew up in New Jersey, a state with high taxes and outstanding public schools and I often think about moving to a state that values children and education more than Arizona. Since we are 49th in education, it wouldn't be hard to find a state that is doing a better job in this area.
18	I wish to limit the violence in my world. I have a desire to leave my children a better, kinder place to call home.
19	I would like to see people's children and grandchildren to stay in Tucson, but if there are no jobs, then they have to leave
20	It creates opportunity
21	Kids to stay here
22	Local brain drain (college grads are likely to leave the region)
23	Lot of young people seem to leave Tucson for other jobs, education and see that other larger cities offer for their age group to work and enjoy their free time.
25	More economic opportunities for my kids to stay.
26	More prevention to help our community stay away from these types of crime. Specifically for youth.
27	My children are grown and did well in the 80s with public education...and my staying involved, but we are not doing as well now I hear. My one granddaughter is ok but her parents stay tuned in.
28	My children don't live here because there are no jobs. U of A grads need jobs to stay in this community.
29	My high school kids will need to leave Tucson to get a higher paying job
30	My kids have no future here, if we stay on this same path.
31	Need to make this a place where are children and grandchildren want to stay because of job opportunities
32	Our children and we will lose the closeness of our grandchildren who will have to leave Tucson to raise their children where the educational support is adequate.
33	Our public schools leave a great deal to be desired compared to other large municipalities.
34	Our sub par commitment to public education at all levels leaves us with a work force that is not up to standard to attract new business
36	People with education leave when they might stay here and feel passionately about making Arizona great
37	People would choose Tucson to raise their families, to retire, go to school, etc. Tucson would grow for the benefit of all, instead of just maintaining and for every 2000 people who move here each month, 2000 leave for example.
39	Reductions in education at all levels and the declining quality due to increases in class sizes, reductions in course offerings, reductions in arts education, loss of qualified faculty at all levels creates a gap for our community which will be difficult to fill. Not investing in the future means we have no future. I have lived in AZ for 36 years. I want to remain but may follow my adult children to leave and never return because the short-sightedness of the priorities in our community may leave me no choice.
40	Service industries are neccessary for support of the population but are not a good measure of economic growth and can be a liability as seen in the last economic downturn. Manufacturing products, research and technoligical innovation are stong measures of our economic condition and the city and county should go overboard to embrace these industries. However, no bright CEO is going to allow expansion into Tucson and have his employees settle for the third world education. Clearly this is another liability with this city. Why do most, if not all the doctors and professors at U of A and UMC have their children attend private schools or District 16? Education is important to them. Even Greg Byrne, in his short understanding of Tucson knew enough to stay away from TUSD.
41	Sincere effort to educate the community about large employeer provide to the City of Tucson. Example: Davis Monthan does not just plane flying over our heads, Jobs, soldiers expending their money here by buying our products and eventually staying in Tucson.
42	Students leave because there are no jobs, companies don't come because the students leave. This Catch-22 has to be broken.
43	Students leave school and even graduate with very low literacy rates. They want to go to college but either can't keep up and leave, or are destined to 'waste' their PELL grants on full loads of developmental courses that don't count towards their degree/certificate program. Students just aren't prepared for college level work. We need to bridge high school and adult education programs to get people into college who will succeed!
44	Support teachers so they stay
45	Teachers must be valued and education a priority. The economy will not improve if people leave to be where there are better schools, and government officials (like mayors and governors) who make education a priority
46	The UofA is doing a lot of important research and drawing in a lot of intelligent students to Tucson - both grad and undergrad. Those students go on to stay and be brilliant within the city itself - or go without and help build Tucson and the UofA's reputation countrywide - and the university itself offers so much to the community and Tucson culture.
47	The need to provide employment goes hand and hand with improving the region and state. It would also give the young graduates from the U of A and etc. a reason to stay and improve our community, not take their education and ideas somewhere else because there's nothing for them here.
48	The region has so much to offer, but the government seems to reject the most important concept. In order to support a million people, there have to be jobs. There needs to be creative thinking in attracting corporate headquarters. I want my children to stay & work in Tucson!
49	Tucson is a lovely town where our families have lived since the late 40's/early 50's. We grew up here and raised our children here. We would not encourage our well-educated children to relocate and raise their families here because the job opportunities are so limited; the public educational system is so ill-funded; the community is so fractured. This is a shame! We have three generations of history in and years of service to Tucson yet our children, who were born and raised in Tucson, must find their lives and careers elsewhere because the economy is so limited and the public educational system for their children is so poor. A community cannot flourish if its children must leave to make a life. In-migrants have a positive riole, but when there is a constant bleed of the people who grew up in a place, something is lost!
50	Unfortunately, my children will have to leave the region to find good opportunities to begin and advance their careers. We are losing our greatest asset to other Cities who see economic growth as a benefit.
51	We can't fix the transportation system without affecting other things. We need to develop higher paying jobs or kids can't stay. Need balance, but we can't sacrifice the environment to create jobs. Finding that balance between all of this is a true challenge
52	We continue to lose the intellectual leaders at our university because of the pay and lack of support from the legislature. We're also losing the youth who do not see Tucson as a place to stay for their careers.
53	We have an enormous 'brain drain' from our University. There must be a business structure that keeps this talent hear in our region. We need a higher quantity of professional jobs.
54	We have problems in our community with brain drain. People leave Tucson because they have little options educationally
55	We need graduates to stay in order to improve the culture and sense of community
56	We need to increase the number of free or reduced price recreational programs for youth. We need more centers where youth can hang out after school. The facilities need to stay open late. The facilities need to provide the following resources: jobs, educational activities, sports, sex and health education.
57	We want to keep Tucson a place that offers good jobs so we don't lose talent. If we offer good jobs, good school a vibrant downtown and acces to teh art, Tucson can be a great place to stay.
58	When the best and the brightest start to leave the community, you have a brain drain