I have been lucky recently to have been invited to retreats and conferences at some of our country’s finest resorts. I’ve had a butler and a caddie for a couple days. It is nice to have a team on the road but I’m not getting soft. And don’t worry, like Joe Scarborough, I’m coming home.

These places do make doing business feel like a vacation. I am presently writing from an overwhelmingly beautiful suite at the Lodge at Sea Island as the Packers and Saints slug it out on my very large television. Before dinner I watched President Obama give an almost stemwinding speech to congress in hopes to pass his American Jobs Act with broad reaching business implications.

The President’s speech was timely as I have been able to discuss the macro economic condition for the last couple of days with a group of successful business owners. Even in the midst of the luxury of Sea Island, with private jets thrusting overhead every 15 minutes or so, it is clear to all, it hasn’t been a good couple of years. Growth is non-existent, progress is stymied, Congress enjoys a 6% good/excellent rating, lending isn’t happening despite rock bottom interest rates and Washington seems like a bad reality show cat fight. When a possible future President of the United States calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme, I believe its a good sign we’ve lost our way.

But I found an interesting conversation taking place with each of these business owners. Something every one of them were discussing. Schools. If you want to talk about where America is heading, head down to your local elementary school. Do you like what you see? While I did hear conversations about pricing and service and banking and golf, I also heard about people moving to neighborhoods just for the schools. I heard of Initiatives to support schools by businesses in their community. There is a focus on our future, and one has to wonder if we are looking to our younger generations for glimmers of hope as we lean on the ropes. Sure, its about our kids, our families. But it is also about our business and our economic future. Just today my golf partner today missed the awards dinner to rush home to his daughter’s magnet school open house.

If we can get passed ideological differences and roll up our sleeves and work together to improve our educational infrastructure we will be investing in America, something the President has included in the American Jobs Act. Throw out partisanship rhetoric and talk parenting and cultivating entrepreneurs and an educated workforce.

We’ve got catching up to do with the rest of the world, but more importantly than that we need to be creating jobs with innovation and forging new opportunities for the children of America. I intend to do more and be more involved, and I know I am not the only one.

(TA)