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a game-changing argument for students and their parents to consider. Ford Motor
Company is moving to West Tennessee, and the job market is predicted to change
rapidly and dramatically.
In September 2021, Ford and South Korean partner SK Innovations announced
plans to invest $5.6 billion in a new manufacturing facility at the Memphis Regional
Megasite. The advanced manufacturing complex will produce Ford Lightning
electric trucks and the batteries to power them. This industrial mega campus, called
Dr. Dorrie Powell, Blue Oval City, is projected to bring approximately 5,800 highly skilled jobs to
a member of Beta the area (Tennessee Office of the Governor, 2021). According to the Tennessee
Sigma Chapter in Department of Economic and Community Development, the total number of jobs
Tennessee State
Organization, retired related to the megasite could be as high as 27,000, resulting in $1.02 billion in annual
after 45 years as a income (Royer, 2021).
high school English This megasite, a 4,100-acre area bordering Interstate 40 and located approximately
and journalism 40 miles from downtown Memphis, had courted suitable advanced manufacturing
teacher, high school tenants since 2009, when the state of Tennessee first bought farmland to attract
librarian, and manufacturing jobs to West Tennessee, much as they had done in other parts of the
college and career
coordinator. She state (Butkovich, 2021). Despite its proximity to Memphis, a major distribution hub
was Tennessee for air, rail, river, and road traffic (Townsend, 2021), two issues repeatedly eliminated
State Organization the Memphis Regional Megasite from manufacturing competition: missing but
president (2015– essential utilities and transportation infrastructure and a perceived lack of highly
2017), member of skilled workers in the area (Butkovich, 2021). In June 2021, Tennessee governor
the International Bill Lee announced a further investment in the megasite’s infrastructure—$52
Scholarship
Committee (2018– million to provide a waste-water pipeline from the megasite to the Mississippi River
2020), and now (Diprizio, 2021). That only left the stumbling block of the workforce educational/
serves as a member training component, which Ford and SK Innovations evidently believed Tennessee
of the Editorial Board was committed to provide (Airy, 2021).
for the Delta Kappa Blue Oval City has been in local and state news since Ford’s initial announcement;
Gamma Bulletin however, most stories have centered on the state’s incentives to attract Ford (Royer,
(2020–2024).
2021), the economic benefits of the new manufacturing facility (Shields, 2021), or
powell.dorrie@gmail. the challenges and changes that such growth will bring to small-town life in the area
com (Coleman, 2022). Much less news has developed about the impact that such a large
manufacturing facility may have on K–16 education in an area that has, over the
last several decades, seen a loss in both population and job opportunities (Aldrich,
2021).
With a planned operational date of 2025, Blue Oval City has an anticipated
workforce capacity of 5,800 skilled workers. Projections estimate up to seven
additional jobs in support industries for every single Blue Oval City employee
(Shields, 2021). Although many of these workers will commute from denser
population centers such as Memphis, many will move into or already live in the
rural counties that surround the megasite. To meet the workforce needs of Blue Oval
City, the rural K–12 school systems and area postsecondary institutions have only
3 years to prepare the first workers for the projected opening of Blue Oval City.
What changes will this new economic engine bring to secondary and postsecondary
education in this area? What must area school systems and postsecondary institutions
do to meet the workforce expectations of Blue Oval City? I emailed colleagues from
several area school systems and postsecondary institutions to get their perspectives
(See Appendix for questions).
According to Troy Grant, Executive Director for College Access and Success
with the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, West Tennessee has a wide

56 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators