A new airport could spark the economy in a rural part of Florida. Will the workforce be ready?

[sl8]

https://apnews.com/article/workforce-development-adult-education-airport-09db28e6db2ec3ad430581b35012a39a

A new airport could spark the economy in a rural part of Florida. Will the workforce be ready?

BY NICK FOURIEZOS OF OPEN CAMPUS
Updated 4:06 PM EDT, June 17, 2024

LaBELLE, Fla. (AP) — One of Florida’s poorest counties is preparing for the new “Airglades” airport, a $300 million cargo hub that could transform its economy.

Local leaders see the project as a generational opportunity, one that could bring more than 1,400 new, high-skilled jobs to their largely agricultural community at the edge of the Everglades. But to make good on its promise, the region’s educators will have to overcome some harsh realities.

A third of Hendry County’s working-age adults lack a high-school diploma, while almost half speak a language other than English at home, among the highest in Florida. Before local leaders can prepare residents for jobs in engineering and manufacturing, educators must first help them earn their GEDs and learn English.

“We have some of God’s most beautiful country that has never been touched by man,” said Michael Swindle, the county schools superintendent, and yet “by all the metrics you would judge a county on, we’re either No. 1 or No. 2 in the ugly categories.”

[..._]

[snowybirdie]

1. Not happening

That's way too far from any major city to be of use to business. And it takes many many years for any airport to be built. Someone's pipedream to bring prosperity to the orange groves and cattle farms.

[bahboo]

2. have to wonder what the environmental impact would be...

[ga_girl]

3. Sounds like nobody learned after Everglades Jetport

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/everglades-jetport-florida-cmd/index.html

It was supposed to be the world’s largest airport, a glamorous intercontinental hub for supersonic airliners with six runways and high-speed rail links to surrounding cities. But today, it’s little more than an airstrip in the middle of nowhere.

The Everglades Jetport, as it was called when the project launched in 1968, started its life right at the end of the Golden Age of air travel, when plane cabins were filled with the smoke of cigars and the clinking of silverware.
...
Now, that lone runway functions both as a training ground and a nostalgic reminder of a dream that never materialized.