During my 25 years at CVS Health Corp., I watched the same pattern play out over and over: We recruited people to our Woonsocket headquarters, and they chose to live in Massachusetts. I asked them why. The answer was always the same: education for their children and opportunities for themselves if they ever left CVS.
That stung. I’m a lifelong Rhode Islander. I raised my four children here. I believe in this state with everything I have, but I couldn’t argue. We weren’t competing.
Rhode Island has been solving the wrong problem. Our economic development strategy has been built around recruiting companies, tax incentives and negotiated deals. That model made sense in another era. Today, companies go to states that are investing in and supporting their workforces. When Hasbro Inc. decided to leave Pawtucket, the CEO didn’t cite tax rates. He said Boston’s talent and innovation aligned with where the company needed to go. That’s the competition Rhode Island is losing. Those winning that competition doubled down on their talent base first and let the investment follow.
Rhode Island has assets no other state can replicate. That includes 400 miles of coastline, a world-class food and arts scene, and a host of top-notch colleges and universities. The problem is we’ve never backed up these assets with a real strategy.
My strategy starts at home. Rhode Island companies should hire Rhode Island workers. I will ensure that our high schools and colleges teach the skills and trades that companies need, and I’ll set up a pipeline to help those employers hire this talent. Companies that hire graduates of our high schools, colleges, or classroom-to-career and workforce training programs will get the full benefit. When our employers grow and our people fill those jobs, everyone wins.
Rhode Island must become a place where people choose to stay and others want to be. That means we have to make our case to companies and to the people those companies want to hire.
It continues with removing the barriers that drive people away. Rhode Island ranked last in the country in new housing starts last year, adding fewer than 1,500 units while demand climbed. When the median home price is nearly six times the median household income, trying to attract talent without addressing housing costs is wishful thinking. There is no single community in Rhode Island where someone making $100,000 a year can afford to buy a home. My Rhode Home Program will build 20,000 new homes and apartments that Rhode Islanders can afford.
When families decide where to put down roots, two things top the list: schools and childcare. We cannot have a serious conversation about a flourishing Rhode Island economy if it doesn’t address one of the greatest economic challenges. The cost of childcare now exceeds both in-state college tuition and average rent. Less than a third of low-income children are enrolled in Head Start or prekindergarten. I will launch an employer-matched childcare fund, starting with a $20 million pilot, so that businesses and the state share the cost of care, allowing people to go to work even when they have young kids. And I will work to ensure universal access to pre-K.
Career and technical education is another place where Rhode Island has been underinvesting for too long. Good jobs and wages are available for skilled workers such as electricians, machinists and healthcare workers. Our young people can achieve these careers without going into debt while pursuing a four-year college degree. As governor, I will be a champion for the value and dignity of skills training and the careers it leads to. We need real investment in the programs already in place and new capacity at the high school level and beyond. That’s why I am proposing a $100 million bond for capital construction of CTE facilities.
Strong schools, accessible childcare and affordable homes are not separate issues from economic competitiveness.
Rhode Island also has an advantage that no other state can replicate: our coastline. The Port of Providence has played a vital role in offshore wind projects on the East Coast. The University of Rhode Island trains the workforce that the ocean economy depends on. The Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport anchors a defense and marine technology corridor no competitor can copy. Under my administration, the ocean economy stops being an untapped asset and becomes the centerpiece of a deliberate strategy to attract and retain the engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs who want to build something no one else can.
Here’s what 25 years taught me: the incentive package is never why a company chooses a place. The talent always is. Rhode Island has the foundation, but we have to invest in it, grow it and keep it here.
The only thing missing is the decision to compete. It’s time to Believe in Rhode Island.
Helena Buonanno Foulkes is a Democratic candidate for governor.
