CART, HORSE. Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey proposes a City University for Rockford.

Morrissey pointed out only 13 percent of Rockford Residents have a college degree, putting the city at a competitive disadvantage. The Mayor has had numerous discussions about the location for the university, as well as how it would be funded. But Adam Smith, the city's education director, says it could happen. Smith adds, " We are committed to making this happen....we can't sit and wait for the State to come in and offer a State University."

I fear that the mayor is misreading his Richard Florida. Sure, there are vibrant and prosperous urban areas, and those often have a lot of university graduates, or perhaps a university just down the street from the Bloomingdale's, but the objective conditions are not likely to be satisfied simply because somebody has set up a university. Rockford might simply find itself in the position of exporting human capital, something that Wisconsin is attempting to stem, and that has been the reality elsewhere in the Rust Belt for some time. (For instance, after our shootings, one master's degree holder and two presidential merit scholars who had attended Wayne State inquired about things at Northern Illinois. None of them inquired from Michigan.)

The state has already committed some resources to Rockford, including Rock Valley College, a Northern Illinois University outreach center, and the University of Illinois medical school. A different article suggests the mayor would really prefer to work with the cartel, rather than against it.

He wants the city to partner with already-established colleges in town to offer a chance for the 87 percent of Rockford residents who don’t have a college degree to get one. Together, he said, local schools can increase the ease and accessibility of college without hampering any one school’s institution.

“A lot of people are intrigued,” he said. “They want to see what direction we’re going to go with it.”

That's a separate issue. Perhaps the mayor would like to have more Rockfordians equipped to finish college, that is, to not be among the inefficiently many people in institutions pretending to offer higher education. That, however, is a call for stronger common schools, or perhaps stronger commitment to the Habits of Effective People among Rockfordians.