They ate barbecue for lunch and statistics for dessert, and amid the numbing numbers presented Friday during the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce 2015 State of Education conference, approximately 60 local business and education leaders heard alternately daunting and encouraging words from the chief of an organization dedicated to boosting Georgia's student performance and, as a result, workforce development.

The overall message from Steve Dollinger, president of the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, was that businesses must help bridge the achievement gap by closing the opportunity gap -- because, he asserted throughout his presentation, schools can't fix the problem by themselves.

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