Across the region a host of high school graduations marked the end of an era for hundreds of young men and women, and soon many will take the first step into the “real” world.

That “real” world can equate to a variety of different jobs and ambitions but what is crucial for our region is the search to find a way to keep our youth in the area.

Eastern Oregon has a long history of exporting its youth, in common with many rural areas.

That has to change.

The reason is simple. Our youth, our graduating seniors, are the future and if the future moves down the interstate after their senior year that means talent and ability goes with it.

We can’t sustain that.

Of course, the easy answer to this lingering problem is the mantra of “economic development” or “good jobs.” Those are answers, to an extent, but where do those jobs come from?

The economic development slogan is another one of those concepts that should be easy to decipher but isn’t. Millions of taxpayer dollars are poured into economic development in the state every year and Eastern Oregon doesn’t have a whole lot to show for it.

Officials — elected and otherwise — may point to modest economic development success in the region or paint an illustration of rapid growth in areas such as Hermiston. That’s all well and good but hardly answers the lingering question of providing top-notch jobs to keep our youth from fading into the future on the horizon.

For decades the region has seen one end-all economic development scheme after another and still we export our youth like Ireland at the height of the Great Famine.

Meetings, seminars and sweet talk from officials about economic development are legion but, in the end, we always seem to be right back where we started.

Attempts to leverage our region’s natural resources are a good step but hardly the one-size-fits-all panacea often dangled in front of voters.

If the answer is, as it seems to be, to continue to advertise wide-sweeping, nice-sounding proclamations and to pour millions of taxpayers’ dollars into economic development that never materializes, then the governor and other officials across the region need to be transparent about it.

Such a circumstance would be depressing but at least it would be truthful.

The region can’t continue to export its youth and watch the future slide away. We need to see real progress, real jobs that pay well and our attention firmly fixed on the future.