Education Quote by John Hoeven

The line is a neat piece of politician’s alchemy: it turns a messy economic bet into a feel-good inevitability. Hoeven pairs two technocratic levers - “targeting higher paying jobs” and “closer cooperation with higher education” - then seals the package with the old maritime charm of “a rising tide that lifts all boats.” That last clause isn’t just a metaphor; it’s a permission slip. It asks listeners to treat growth as morally self-justifying, so you don’t have to interrogate who’s steering the ship, who’s stuck below deck, or whether some boats have holes.

The intent is coalition-building. “Growth areas” is deliberately vague, a placeholder that can mean energy, tech, defense, advanced manufacturing - whatever plays well in the room and in a press release. “Higher paying jobs” signals upward mobility without naming tradeoffs: tax incentives, deregulation, land use fights, or the possibility that the best jobs go to imported talent rather than displaced locals. The nod to higher education is equally strategic. It flatters universities as engines of workforce development while quietly recasting them as partners in an economic pipeline, not as independent institutions with broader civic missions.

Context matters: a governor or senator talking jobs is often really talking about competitiveness, keeping graduates in-state, and legitimizing public-private deals. The subtext is reassurance to business leaders and anxious voters alike: we have a plan, it’s modern, it’s collaborative, and it won’t require choosing winners and losers - even though, in practice, it always will.