LPX Op/Ed
Kentucky businesses form the backbone of our economy. When their profits are anchored in purpose, they do more than succeed. They help us compete with other communities for the workforce of the future, by building generational opportunities.
That belief drives us at LPX Group. And it is why we are urging our state leaders to support Canopy KY’s HB 500 budget request to bring their High School Business Education Program into classrooms across Kentucky.
If you’ve traveled on a Kentucky roadway, chances are LPX Group helped make that journey possible. From our Salt River Bridge replacement in Spencer County to our work on US 127 in Franklin County, we have spent nearly a century improving this Commonwealth through our paving, construction, and engineering companies. But our work has never been limited to asphalt and concrete. Our legacy rests on an uncompromising commitment to employee opportunity, safety, sustainability, and growth on and off the road.
That sort of commitment needs to show up down the road as well. Kentucky’s long-term prosperity depends on a new generation of leaders who understand that caring for people and communities is not a distraction from profit. It is the foundation of it. The businesses that endure are the businesses that build trust, invest in their workforce, and understand their responsibility to the communities that sustain them.
That is where Canopy KY and its High School Business Education Unit, “Business Beyond Profit” step in.
Canopy KY offers a zero-cost, turnkey, eight-session high school business unit available to any High School in the Commonwealth. The unit integrates seamlessly into existing business classes and shows students that purpose and profit are not opposing forces but powerful partners. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors connect directly with inspiring Kentucky companies, develop business concepts of their own, strengthen leadership and financial fundamentals, and gain confidence in their ability to shape the future.
Students leave with more than a completed assignment. They leave with a new understanding of what responsible business looks like. They leave believing they can build companies that generate wealth while strengthening the Commonwealth they call home.
By the end of this school year, hundreds of students from nine different schools will be better prepared to be Kentucky’s workforce of the future. The businesses they create and the leadership roles they assume will not only generate income for their families, but will employ other Kentuckians, serve other Kentuckians, and tackle the challenges they see in their own communities.
Canopy KY is not offering theory. It is building the next generation of purpose-driven business leaders and creating a new pipeline to keep our young talent in state, working for Kentucky businesses instead of leaving to build someone else’s economy. By exposing ambitious young people to business principles earlier, we’re not only making them more prepared for work, we’re building their overall leadership skills as well.
Now Canopy KY is ready to expand this success statewide. We have growing bipartisan support to add an allocation for Canopy’s High School Business Education Program in this year’s budget. If we can convince enough legislators to include it in the final bill, it would represent more than funding. It represents a choice about what kind of economy Kentucky intends to build.
Through funding from LPX and others, every public dollar will be matched by private investment. Kentucky businesses are willing to put skin in the game –because we see a long-term return on that investment through talent retention, a stronger workforce, and an improved quality of life for all. We are asking the General Assembly to do the same.
If we want a workforce that stays, builds, and leads here at home, we must invest in programs that shape how students think about business before they ever enter the workforce. Supporting Canopy KY’s HB 500 budget request is not charity. It is strategy.
Hunter Strickler
President, LPX Group
