I played football in Georgia, and lost two season of playoffs to Colquitt & Valdosta. Their programs were huge, their players were huge, and their attitudes were outright vicious. The towns are small. Prospects for sticking around after school are small. Prospects for coming back after college are practically non-existent. Winning a state football championship means something to these communities. These communities don't see STEM as a benefit because they don't see the capital available to them to invest locally in STEM careers & residual jobs, so a lot of their bright STEM kids leave to find the jobs after college (going off of my facebook profile, small sample size as that is...).
From Georgia Football I learned work ethic, dedication, and how to speak up or lead as an introvert in a group of loud people. I think that's the approach the superintendent means to take - find a leader who can teach those things as values to people who may not be on a track to use their full potential. Given the lack of broad opportunity or drive for STEM from a jobs-based perspective, I bet he feels he's doing the best he can for the locals who stay local after school.
I don't mean to imply I like what the superintendent is saying (or paying) - yet what he says isn't surprising. The Atlantic has long-running stories backed by some data about trends in STEM-related fields and how that's leading to wage disparities in the country with respect to where STEM-based industries actually takes root. Data shows that often the best and brightest from (e.g.) small town Georgia want to go where the other best and brightest are, which is
not small town Georgia. The same happens with companies locating to where the best and brightest already live.
This is the culture that is, at its core, hard to change. IMO it takes something 'crazy' like what Michigan's governor did to change it on a large & public scale. In the meantime we 'in the know' need to continue to create the infrastructure (proper curriculum, sharing of STEM teaching, ways around roadblocks, alternative programs which may better fit a community, etc). I don't think we should harbor enmity for the superintendent either.
Edit -
Full article is 7 pages long, with some more interesting tidbits that include a break down in pay stipends for some districts.