Economic Vitality and Education in the South - Part II - Projections for a Post-Pandemic South

Oct 15, 2026

Nearly six years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the report previews post-pandemic educational and workforce projections for the South, focusing on whether the U.S. can meet national workforce and social needs. Using projective data across 17 SEF-region states, it evaluates how pandemic disruptions intensified disparities across early care and education, K-12, postsecondary education, and the workforce. It applies a Social Determinants of Education lens to identify pathways for improving access and outcomes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Executive Summary

Introduction

Workforce Preparation and National Needs

Projecting Access and Opportunity in ECE, K-12, and Postsecondary Education

Economic Vitality and Education in the South Part II: Projections for a Post-Pandemic South Executive Summary Nearly six years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, data raise increasing concerns about the United States’ ability to meet our national workforce and social needs without substantial improvements to students’ educational access and opportunity. With the pandemic as both a clear inflection point and an opportunity for change, where do we go from here? This executive summary offers a preview of SEF’s forthcoming report, which explores key post-pandemic trends and outlines a roadmap for the South’s educational future . Introduction Projections for a Post-Pandemic South, the forthcoming second report in the EVES series from the Southern Education Foundation (SEF), uses postpandemic and projective data to outline potential and currently anticipated outcomes in the educationto-workforce pipeline over the next decade.Thereport features projections across the 17 states in the SEF region:Alabama,Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,Virginia, and West Virginia. EVES II explores the pandemic-era disruptions to many of the systems in place in the United States and across the SEF region. Particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation must take stock of current economic and educational projections for the next decade to determine whether we are on track to meet our national needs. Data show that the pandemic exacerbated existing disparities in early care and education, K-12 education, postsecondary education, and the workforce. Since 2020, the proportion of Americans living in the SEF region has grown at a rate far higher than any other region—nearly three times the rate of the next-fastest-growing U.S. region.The South is also the only Census region in which K-12 student enrollment increased between 2013 and 2023, and the region is now home to more than two of every five U.S. public school students.Together with a history of disinvestment in the South, this rapid growth only increases the urgent need to understand and address these challenges in the region, which are likely to have a significant impact on the workforce and economy in the South and nationally. The nation’s education and workforce systems are deeply interconnected with one another and with other systems that affect students and their families in the U.S. and the South. To account for this interconnectedness, EVES II draws on the Social Determinants of Education, a framework that identifies socioeconomic, environmental, health, and sociocultural factors that affect students’school access, opportunities, and success.These factors affect students’ lives inside and outside the classroom, and they provide a lens for understanding the relationship between student opportunity, academic outcomes, and workforce development. Economic Vitality and Education in the South 2 Part II: Projections for a Post-Pandemic South Workforce Preparation and National Needs The latest job and industry growth projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipate increased demand in key industries like health, information, business services, and community and social services—all of which help to keep ourselves, our families, and our communities safe and healthy and ensure the U.S. will remain domestically strong and internationally competitive. Yet current data show that disparities in educational access and outcomes associated with student characteristics like race, family income, and disability status are needlessly shrinking the pool of students who will have the chance to take on these roles. If current trends continue, the U.S.—and especially the South—runs a serious risk of failing to address these needs. While current data show clear links between family income and wealth and students’ education and workforce outcomes,

FAQs

What core concern does the executive summary raise after the COVID-19 pandemic?

It highlights growing concerns that the U.S. may fail to meet workforce and social needs without substantial improvements in students’ educational access and opportunity.

Which states are covered in the SEF projections for the South?

The report presents projections across 17 SEF-region states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

How does the report connect education outcomes to workforce needs?

It explains that limited opportunities in early care and education, K-12, and postsecondary education can shrink the pool of well-trained candidates needed for future workforce roles.

Oct 15, 2026

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