STEM is More Than an Acronym; It’s Key to Our Potential

 

Battelle’s Rich Rosen cited a national statistic twenty years ago:  80% of parents discourage their kids from science and technology careers.  

Even if that stat was only half true in Ohio, Rosen’s stat was scary for industry who depends on engineering- and technician-level talent with science, technology, engineering, and math skills.  

It was a wake-up call.  The message?  Get busy with connecting parents and kids with industry needing STEM skills. Inspire the next generation to engage in technology careers or lose opportunity. 

STEM skills can unlock a future in higher-paying jobs. 

One in every seven jobs in Ohio is a manufacturing job.  Manufacturing jobs bring Ohio’s largest payroll.  They average over $76,000 a year according to a U.S. Department of Labor stat.  Many of those jobs require STEM skill credentials, but they don’t require a college degree. 

STEM is more than an acronym; it’s key to realizing our state’s economic potential. 

Imagine workforce challenges without STEM learning attentiveness.

When the class of ’65 turned 65, the demographics of workforce got worse, fast.  Ohio saw the population reaching retirement age grow a whopping 500% in one two-year period.  Meanwhile, the population entering the workforce didn’t match that pace.   That was the onset of the workforce availability crunch that still is being felt today.

Imagine if, on top of that, STEM learning hadn’t gained priority in Central Ohio like it did after that Battelle wake up call.  The crunch would have been far worse.  Industry leaders would have feared a ceiling on their growth potential.  The cost could have been unfilled jobs resulting in opportunity lost.  

STEM talent is the biggest inducement to retaining jobs and attracting new job-creating investments.  STEM learning needs to remain a priority. 

Industry engagement is crucial.

Boeing technicians in Central Ohio can boast accuracy for its aerospace guidance systems to the equivalent of a pencil point on a football field.  DuPont’s thin film materials made in the region can withstand extreme temperature and demanding environments.  Ariel’s compressors require tolerance within multiple zeroes after the decimal point.  This kind of work demands strong science, technology, engineering, and math skills.

That’s why science museums like COSI in Columbus and The Works in Newark crave hands-on demonstrations from industry leaders.  Boeing, THK, and Covestro are among the stalwarts at community STEM learning events for a good reason-- STEM learning and manufacturing are intertwined.

Industry engagement in STEM learning needs to keep its momentum. 

Parents’ influence is also crucial.

Back to that Battelle statistic.  Many are optimistic that the number of parents discouraging science and technology careers is much lower today than it used to be.  Parents have heard the facts about higher paying jobs and recognize STEM learning is the key to those opportunities.

That doesn’t mean the task of reaching parents and kids ends.

Our call to action?  All of us have a job to do—make sure our youth get exposed to locally-relevant, real-World experiences where STEM skills translate to a future career in Central Ohio.

Our economy depends on it.

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This column is a regular column in The Dispatch.

Three Thoughts: Data Center Backlash

 

Nationally, data center bashing is a bipartisan issue.  The backlash is not going away either.

The first time I heard about a data center, it could fit in the space of a couple tractor trailer parking spaces.  They looked the part too—windowless boxes with a door for the occasional tender to visit and a vent for the excess heat.  There were some parked just outside the Brewery District twenty years ago.

Today, even though semiconductors allow more storage to fit in less spaces, data centers have evolved to become land-, water-, and electric-consuming massive concrete buildings.  Ohio, aided by strong electric infrastructure thanks to our long legacy of manufacturing and a lack of hurricanes, has been an attractive place to locate.  Today, there are reportedly 40 of them in New Albany alone. 

Far be it for me to pile on the backlash, but here I go.

ONE THOUGHT: Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?

The biggest reason for the national backlash is a basic fact: The economic impact of data centers is truly weak.  

All the think tank studies claiming supply chain and spillover impact I’ve looked at never survive a couple questions deep.  Benefits to a few.  Pain to many others.  Not much juice for all the squeeze.

There’s no reason to incentivize them to come.  New Albany has one part of the data center equation right.  They impose a payment in lieu of payroll tax that brings in the equivalent from the machines that it would if there were people in those buildings paying wage taxes instead. 

 

SECOND THOUGHT: Electricity Demand Disrupted

The Ohio Manufacturers Association is right to point out that data centers, though certainly bringing a larger demand than manufacturers do, are not the ones to blame for the rising power rates.

OMA points the fingers at utilities.  The electric rate bidding system favors reporting higher electricity demand than can be proven.  The systems to hold monopoly utilities accountable are seemingly broken.

To be fair, there are risks.  Technology improvements could cut the electricity needs of AI and future data needs.  Thus, electric infrastructure investments based on data centers alone as a customer is a risky move to make.

The worst thing that could happen?  Put the risk of electric growth on stranded customers.  Ohio’s move to deregulate electricity 20 years ago was the right move.  Reversing that would be a huge mistake.  Mom and pop electricity rate payers shouldn’t bear the brunt of risky business decisions.

 

THIRD THOUGHT: Opportunity Cost is The Biggest Issue

To me, the biggest issue is one that isn’t at the center of the backlash but ought to be.  It’s opportunity cost.  It’s asking the question: What alternative opportunity could happen with a data center site, in the long run, that has more economic impact?

Without naming names, here’s one example that proves my point:  One large data center company sits on 350 acres with 70 jobs paying an average of $75,000 a year.  Just 15 miles away that same 350 acres hosts an industrial park with 20 diverse manufacturers employing 2,070 people.  The average pay is the same.

The difference is 2,000 families with jobs and a community with a more stable, growing tax base.  That’s the definition of opportunity cost.

It’s smart for communities to make informed decisions with future opportunity in mind.

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This column is a regular column in The Dispatch.

Three Thoughts: Watching Foreign Investment, Energy, and Reindustrialization

It’s my job to keep my ear to the ground in industrial development.  Columbus and Central Ohio are at the heart of one of the best places to be listening with that ear to the ground.

ONE THOUGHT: OHIO POISED FOR FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

The national panelists at the recent NAIOP Midwest Industrial Conference predicted investment from overseas to be an increased trend in 2026. Foreign direct investment is by no means a scary thing.  In fact, just the opposite is true. 

If you want to sell to the U.S., you’ve got to come to the U.S. is the message.  Gaining foreign-headquartered investment is what the aim is if we are going to see manufacturing pick up its pace in Ohio and the country.

Central Ohio’s best economic years have been when manufacturing came to our shores. In fact, it’s hard to imagine our economy thriving without it.

There are 1,800+ people working to make solar panels on one side of our region and thousands of people working to make automobiles on the other side.  The supply chains for a wide variety of household products and business-to-business sales have, for decades, been based on foreign investment. 

SECOND THOUGHT: ELECTRIC WILL BE A TOP ISSUE OF 2026

While mom and pop are seeing their electric bills skyrocket, so are the biggest users of electricity--manufacturers. And that hurts in more ways than one.

Threats of rolling blackouts. Political backlash in other states over the proliferation of data centers. The lack of transparency about electric supply and demand. For these reasons and more, energy is an issue to watch and will remain so in 2026.

This isn’t just an Ohio issue, but since the country is economically dependent on Ohio’s manufacturing prowess, negative impacts in Ohio ripple across the globe.  We all have a reason to watch this issue, not just those of us in industrial development.

There’s hope that moderation is coming.  The headlines earned from predictions of “Manhattan” size usage by 2030 are already being back pedaled.  One expert who tracks data centers told me that the real number may be as low as 1/10^th of that scary usage prediction. 

Sadly, though, those predictions likely have found their way into demand prediction models and unfairly could impact pricing for a while.

THIRD THOUGHT: REINDUSTRIALIZATION IS THE NEW BUZZWORD

Now, more and more, the buzzword is "reindustrialization." I'm not totally on board with this word as the "re" part implies industrialization wasn't already happening and it was, in Ohio.

Ohio’s GDP for manufacturing grew more than 20% in the last three years in years which, frankly, were not the nation’s strongest economically.  Ohio has preserved its position as the third largest state in generating manufacturing jobs.

Whatever the word, reindustrialization or reshoring, it’s been happening and the potential exists to keep it going in 2026.  Uncertainty about interest rates and tariffs, for example, have left some in a wait and see approach, but I sense the activity is coming.

These are my three issues to watch in 2026 while I keep my ear to the ground.

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This column is a regular column in The Dispatch.