Whereas, neo-con crepe hangers like Art Woolf would have us believe that Vermont’s cup is half-empty,  according to the 2013 Opportunity Index, Vermont’s glass is way more than half-full.

The 2013 Index ranks Vermont as #1 among all states for providing its citizens with opportunity.

Apparently, it all depends on who one chooses to believe; or perhaps, about whose opportunities you are more concerned.

Ethan Allen Institute hack Art Woolf, Jim Douglas, and every Republican who has run for statewide or national office in the past twenty-five years would probably choose to believe CNBC’s take on who has the top spot in terms of opportunity. CNBC awards the top position to Texas, and places Vermont in thirty-eighth place.

That’s because, CNBC being the stock-market’s mouthpiece; their sole interest in “opportunity” is  in business opportunity, which they rather narrowly interpret as the opportunity to operate a business free of any environmental constraints or financial regulations.

If that is your standard, Texas may be just the ticket!  Of course, wholesale rape and neglect of the environment comes at a huge price to the planet as a whole and to the future of Texas in particular; but if business is happy, CNBC concludes that everybody should be happy.

The Index doesn’t necessarily agree:

The states that do best on the Opportunity Index are the states that have made investing in their people a top priority, with good schools and early childhood education, real efforts to help young people find jobs when they graduate or to keep them from dropping out, and a commitment to improving opportunity for all. Perhaps because of its investments in K-12 education, Vermont has the highest on-time high school graduation rate in the country, and more than 91 percent of its students leave school with a diploma.

Yes, Art Woolf, you read that right, we do rather well by our students here in Vermont.  If they leave to explore opportunities in other places, that is because they are well-prepared to do so.

And, I’ve got news for you: they leave other states, too.  Separation remains an important ritual in the adventure of youth.  

But we can be optimistic that the quality of life here in Vermont will draw many of our young people back home to Vermont to put down roots and raise their children here.

I have only anecdotal experience in the matter, but if my 27-year-old son and many of his friends are anything to judge by, we’re doing all right.

After living in other states and even other countries, they are returning to work hard and think creatively in order to support themselves right here in the place that nurtured them.  

Therein lies the business opportunity that CNBC might overlook, but our kids will not.,