We believe our region should strive to look toward the future honestly and realistically.We believe our region should strive to anticipate what will foster sustainable growth and prosperity in our communities.

One aspect of our region’s future we feel this approach is particularly important is education and workforce development.

In Tuesday’s edition of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, we reported that our lawmakers have secured another $25,000 in state funding for Lycoming Career and Technology Center.

We are grateful for the leadership of state Rep. Jamie Flick, R-South Williamsport and state Rep. Joe Hamm, R-Hepburn Township, in lining up this funding.

And we are grateful, of course, for the service Lycoming Career and Technology Center and other vocationally minded programs in our school districts provide.

As we have noted before, we believe the future vitality of our region and our nation will rest in large part in fostering a diverse workforce, capable of filling an ever-growing variety of jobs and careers.

We must move past the idea, popular just a couple of decades ago, that one track — an education at a liberal arts college — will fit the needs of every or almost every young person as they prepare to enter the workforce.

It doesn’t meet the needs or talents of all of our future workers and it doesn’t meet the needs of employers as they create jobs.

As is often the case, a decentralized approach that offers communities an array of choices to best suit their needs and their situations is far more likely to serve our neighborhoods and communities than a one-size-fits-all mentality.

Schools like Lycoming Career and Technology Center are a critical part in ensuring that our future workforce is ready for that variety. This school’s success is a harbinger for our own communities’ future successes.