Leading Long Island into the future

The 2012 Long Island Innovation Index is chock full of useful information. The index, created by the Rauch Foundation, is an annual report that takes stock of how things are on the Island and makes recommendations for the future. And this year’s data confirm what we already know: 83 percent of people who responded to an LIII poll say they are happy with their lives.

But 48 percent of the respondents said they think things on Long Island are going in the wrong direction. In other words, life here is good, but it’s not great.

The main point the new index makes is that the Island is brimming with potential. We’re on the path to becoming a powerhouse in innovation and design. Federal research-and-development funding here far exceeds the national average. Biomedical and health-services jobs have grown more than almost every other field.

Despite all that potential, however, Long Island has its share of serious problems. There are things that need to change in order for the region to continue to grow and prosper. We hope these changes can be made, because if they’re not, Long Island may not remain the place we love for very long.

Education
For most children on the Island, education is excellent, but for some it leaves much to be desired. About 90 percent of the students in schools in lower-income areas are black or Hispanic, and these schools don’t prepare their students for college nearly as well as schools in higher-income areas. This de facto segregation helps no one. Long Island needs a diverse base of well-educated people to fill the technical — and high-paying — jobs we want to bring to the area.

One way to ameliorate the problem, the index suggests, is with magnet schools, which are open to anyone, regardless of what school district they live in, and focus on specialized curriculums such as science, math or the arts. A magnet school that focused on science and engineering would give Nassau County students more opportunities to expand their education in the direction they want. It would also help prepare them for high-tech jobs.