Gov. Scott Walker needs to take advantage of the opportunity to potentially ignite Wisconsin’s job growth in the wake of discriminatory legislation that has been passed in southern states.

North Carolina’s state Legislature passed a bill in March, which mandated a statewide anti-discrimination policy instead of allowing local municipalities to create their own. This policy fails to protect members of the LGBTQ+ community. The state now forces transgender people by law to use only public bathrooms and locker rooms that correlate to the gender on their birth certificate.

Madison mayor says city ‘not going to be part of’ North Carolina’s LGBTQ+ legislation

It’s not surprising that this legislative debacle received some pushback from various sources throughout the country. The city of Madison and Dane County have banned employee travel to North Carolina in opposition to this discriminatory way of thinking.

PayPal has actually cancelled their North Carolina expansion plan, which would have brought 400 jobs to the state. It’s not unreasonable to think that these 400 jobs are going to be looking for a new home soon.

Last time I checked, Walker and the state of Wisconsin could use a few extra jobs to come our way.

Just as Dane County Executive Joe Parisi suggested, Wisconsin should be trying to appeal to companies like PayPal to hopefully bring jobs into the state that controversial happenings elsewhere may have uprooted.

Wisconsin already has legislation that guarantees religious freedom and prohibits discrimination, but Walker should make a statement directly referring to the events in North Carolina to get people’s attention.

It can’t be too crazy to think that what has happened in North Carolina must have caught the attention of more businesses than just PayPal. Making a statement to separate our state from the likes of North Carolina could be pretty beneficial when it comes to future job growth.

The fact that Walker has yet to address these happenings is a little concerning. It seems like the conversation of job creation is always at bat. To let an opportunity like this slip through his fingers is quite disappointing.

This lack of action brings about questions surrounding Walker’s overall motives and priorities. It’s 2016, discrimination of any type really should be addressed no matter where it occurs.

Phil Michaelson ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in biomedical engineering.