Wednesday, February 04, 2015

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on Economic Development

Governor Scott Walker's plan to reform public higher education in Wisconsin will undermine state economic development.

Theme: Eds and meds economy

Subject Article: "A New 'Wisconsin Idea' for Higher Education."

Other Links: 1. "Is Scott Walker getting ready to run for president?"

Postscript: Gov. Walker intends to do a lot more than starve higher education of funding. He wants to redefine its mission:

Walker quietly altered the cherished policy in his budget, striking key parts about outreach to the state, the pursuit of truth and the improvement of the human condition in favor of language that defines the campuses more narrowly as agents of workforce development.

Over the last few months, I've been researching how universities can drive economic restructuring (think Pittsburgh and manufacturing). I learned that talent production (i.e. college graduates) doesn't move the needle on the educational attainment rate of the workforce. What does is R&D expenditures at the university. Furthermore, universities suck at tech transfer. Any success story is certainly the exception, not the rule. Open knowledge production is the cause of Pittsburgh's revitalization. Obviously, Scott Walker doesn't know this. He is poised to screw his own state.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My friend Kevin suggests that it's not just research, but world-class research like that at CMU that drives economic change. If you're legit Nobel prize grade, corps will spend what it takes to come to you. Conversely, workday just good research, particularly when not done at scale, doesn't account for much. Moretti cited similar research when he suggested it was the presence of "superstar" researchers that drove the development of the true biotech hubs.