Workforce Development

One of the first sentences in a recently enacted Kansas law explains the rationale for the state’s new, targeted investment in higher education: “Engineering intensive industries represent approximately one-third of the statewide payroll and tax base.”

The Midwest, once the national leader of the industrial economy, is now floundering in the knowledge- and innovation-driven global economy. The way back to economic vitality and growth, says James Duderstadt in a report for The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, will require changes in another traditional strength of the region: “our extraordinary array of colleges and universities.”

Three things are critical to a state if policymakers want to attract bioscience companies—a supportive and creative venture capital system, a stable tax structure and a strong education system from kindergarten through college. That was the opinion of the experts speaking during the “Encouraging American Innovation and Competing in a Global Economy—Health Care” session at The Council of State Governments’ Growth and Prosperity Virtual Summit of the States.

The age of a business may be more telling than its size in the business’s ability to create jobs. That’s according to Dane Stangler, director of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo., using information from the U.S. Census Bureau, who spoke during The Council of State Governments’ Growth and Prosperity Virtual Summit of the States session, “A Culture of Entrepreneurship.”