For the second consecutive year, more than 200 leaders gathered recently at the Georgia Forward Forum to examine our state’s challenges and discuss innovative, transformative solutions. What makes this event unique is that it draws a cross-section of the state and a peerless mix of business, government, non-profit, foundation and academic leaders, all eager to think big, collaborate and problem-solve.
The forum is Georgia Forward’s first step in building a sustained, creative conversation among Georgians. The intended result is greater statewide collaboration and bold solutions to our policy challenges. We can no longer afford to let regional or political divides prevent smart, proactive statewide policy. Indeed, the recession has exposed the shortcomings of our education system and transportation infrastructure and the absence of new ideas for our collective prosperity and livability.
By contrast, peer states have tackled the same challenges with more vision and leadership. Moreover, the playing field now includes surging, talented middle classes in Brazil, China and India, among others. We handicap ourselves both when political rhetoric keeps Georgia mired in local and regional squabbles and by not consistently aiming to be among the best globally.
Over the last year, Georgia Forward has engaged leaders, beyond their local or industry focus, to think about Georgia’s future. In the safe space that Georgia Forward has created to discuss critical issues, we have found that we are more similar and interrelated than rhetoric suggests. In Augusta, Albany or Atlanta, we want dramatically better k-12 public education, an integrated statewide transportation system, long-term water solutions and sustainable growth in 21st-century jobs. We have learned that despite our challenges and divides, we have enormous talent to innovate, develop new cross-sector solutions to old problems and rise above petty politics.
Refreshingly, over the last year, the governor, the speaker of the House and mayor of Atlanta have taken the high road on several occasions to cross party and regional lines, from supporting the deepening of the Port of Savannah to cooperating on the 2012 transportation referendum. While political divides will not disappear and we still lack a cohesive, inclusive vision for Georgia, it is encouraging to see political leadership act for everyone’s benefit. To them we say, “Don’t stop! Keep going!”
Over the next few years, Georgia Forward will expand its efforts to engage Georgians to think and act “big.” At this year’s forum, k-12 education and a plan for statewide prosperity were identified as the two most pressing issues facing Georgia. Georgia Forward will engage Georgians to tackle these issues in a transformative way while continuing to address issues such as public health and water. We will bring together people with power and people with ideas to solve our biggest challenges. We will ask leaders to be ambitious in setting goals and pragmatic in problem-solving. We will ask Georgians what they want their state to look like. We are all in this together. Join us.
Amir Farokhi is executive director of Georgia Forward. A. J. Robinson is chair of Georgia Forward’s board and president of Central Atlanta Progress.
