While the editorial in the Aug. 31 Asheville Citizen-Times doesn't mention the upcoming sales-tax-increase referendum, it argues the reasons it should be supported.
Middle-skills jobs, those that require training but not necessarily a college degree, are the forgotten third of North Carolina’s workforce. Actually, they are the forgotten half.

Middle-skills workers include computer support technicians, practical nurses, electricians, law enforcement officers and auto mechanics. They make up 51 percent of the state workforce, but only 43 percent of job seekers possess the necessary skills ... according to the National Skills Coalition. ...

The remedy won’t be cheap. “Training just another 5 percent of North Carolina’s workforce for middle-skills jobs would require a new investment … of at least $1.05 billion,” the skills coalition says. ...

Much of this already is being done at our community colleges. Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, for instance, has a Workforce Development Department. But the numbers show that we must do more. ...

Click link to read the editorial. And for more information about the National Skills Coalition, visit their website.