Having these goals in place will ensure bright futures for Manatee County’s students. They will be able to investigate many careers and jobs related to the future of technology and how it can be used in the workplace. The strategic plans and requirements will help SDMC be one of the best counties (educationally) in Florida.
The Future of Manatee County
REACH Manatee program is Manatee County’s local online college, is setting educational goals for 2030, for both children and adults.
For the children of the community, REACH Manatee wants to expand the exploration of careers and trades to middle schoolers and also teaching them how to run a business and teach them financial risks and plans that go along with it. The high schoolers of the community will hopefully be benefited to increase program completion rates and encourage students the increase of high schoolers with a secondary education path, which will help then amount of students from Manatee County attending college. The adults goals mainly include the support of their education with their children or if they don’t have any children, the purse of postsecondary education and the completion of it.
Diving more into youth education goals, the Manatee County School District (SDMC) has shown its goals being put in place for 2026. The school board has shown different statistics for educational programs across the county. For example, currently in Manatee County, there are 64 different schools, including a few schools for secondary education. The goals listed above are starting to be met already; the board members have enforced different standards for their READY TO LERAN and READY FOR LIFE sections of their goals. SDMC has created strategic plans that will help the future of Manatee County’s educational teachings be effective.
Manatee County is implementing $50 million "Waste to Worth" project, a partnership with Nopetro Energy and Johnson Controls, Inc., will convert landfill methane into renewable natural gas at the Lena Road Landfill. Construction begins in 2026, with full operation expected in late 2027. This will make more jobs and power thousands of homes
Additionally, Manatee County is expected to grow economically at a substantial rate. The economy, part of the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton MSA, is anticipated to see sustained growth, with GDP rising from $45.4 billion in 2023 to over $51 billion by 2028. Manatee is the only county in the Tampa Bay region expected to grow by more than 10% through 2030. Population increased nearly 15% since 2020. Manatee County's population is projected to exceed 500,000 residents by 2030, with estimates ranging from approximately 500,000 to over 515,000.
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