TIFTON — Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle was in town for a meet and greet at MiLady Bakery on Wednesday, August 23.

The event is one of several around the state where Cagle meets with local constituents.

State Senator Greg Kirk, who is a supporter of Cagle’s bid for the governor’s seat, attended the event as well.

According to Cagle, his big issue is greater economic prosperity for all, which is the umbrella under which the rest of his platform rests.

“In order to do that there are a number of things that we have to be committed to, and I have to be committed to as governor, in order to achieve that,” he said.

He spoke at length about educational reforms and the College and Career Academies as ways to meet industry needs.

According to Cagle, at the moment there are 150,000 open jobs in the state.

“Twenty-five percent of those need a four-year degree,” he said. “But 75 percent need some kind of industry certification or they need a two year degree from a technical college.”

He said that the state needs to “abandon the idea of a one size fits all education system,” citing the college and career academies across the state he championed during his tenure as lieutenant governor.

He said that getting the appropriate education, training and skills and obtaining a good paying job will help industry as well as individual Georgians.

“We’ve got to make sure that we’re able to create springboards for kids to lift themselves out of a life of poverty which would be a life of potential crime or dependency on government and get back to where we celebrate all forms of work,” he said.

When asked what the mechanism would be for incentivizing and enabling adults to obtain skills to fill open jobs, he said that bringing industry to the table is key.

“We want to break down barriers,” he said. “Government… can incentivize things, but throwing money at issues doesn’t always give us the outcome we’re looking for.”

He said that educational institutions, for example, might have to offer services to help draw in adult learners, such as daycare for parents who are trying to get additional education.

Additionally, he said that the ever increasing cost of higher education “needs to be adjusted.”

“People are experiencing way too much college debt that is strapping them on the front end,” he said. “A student that is coming out of college with $200,000 worth of debt, in a job thats making $30,000 a year, that’s not a real good return on your investment.”

He wants to bring 500,000 jobs to the state and putting infrastructure in place to support growth, particularly in rural Georgia.

“That’s where we’re losing population and we need to bring the economic opportunities back,” he said, saying that he wants to put incentives in place to attract jobs to those areas.

Infrastructure, such as high-speed internet and rural hospitals, is key to attracting industry to more rural parts of the state, according to Cagle.

He said that without high speed internet it is difficult to attract businesses to rural areas without access to high speed internet.

He touted his Border to Border Broadband initiative, which will incentivize the private sector to expand internet access throughout the state.

“It’s an expensive process,” he said, “but necessary, much like rural electrification was.”

He also said that he wants to stay committed to his “conservative roots.”

“I’m a proven, consistent conservative leader,” he said. “I don’t hide from that and I’m proud of who we are.”