SSTI Digest

Thirty-six states received failing grades on a biennial report card that reveals the cost of attending college represents a higher portion of American families’ incomes today than it did a decade ago. A separate report from the Pell Institute supports those conclusions by showing students from the lower-income bracket are finding it more difficult than ever to keep pace with rising tuition costs. Measuring Up 2004, issued by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, examines the nation as a whole and each state’s performance in providing higher education and training. The report's affordability measures indicate tuition has increased faster than the incomes of most American families, and generally, none of the increases in financial aid have kept pace with the tuition increases. To determine affordability, states were measured on three levels, including: Family ability to pay: the percent of income needed to pay for college expenses minus financial aid for community colleges, public four-year institutions and private four-year institutions over 1994 and 2004.…

The importance a well educated populace plays in a knowledge-based economy is a given for most tech-based economic development strategies. Ensuring that a larger percentage of the population pursues that education through and beyond high school is another matter -- often the responsibility of other state agencies, organizations and decision makers. The reports highlighted in the article above and demographic trends such as the shrinking middle class and declining median income (in constant dollars) might suggest college access and affordability could become defining challenges for local and regional success in growing a tech-based economy. Drawing from the information included in Measuring Up 2004, SSTI has prepared a table ranking the states based on the change over decade in the percent of family income needed to pay for college expenses, minus financial aid ("net college costs"), for two-year, four-year private and four-year public institutions. Note: Before clicking away to the table, please note the figures require a bit of explanation since a better ranking is based on the lower…

The Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial Network recently selected Lisa Blakely, a former Bank of America executive, as its CEO. Earlier this month, Gov. Ernie Fletcher announced Darrell Brock and Jim Host as new co-chairmen of ConnectKentucky. Brock, commissioner of the governor's Office for Local Development, and Commerce Cabinet Secretary Host joined existing chairman John Hall, retired chairman and CEO of Ashland Inc. The Alaska MEP, a new nonprofit entity formed by the Alaska Native Arts Foundation and the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, has named Robert Pope as the first Interim Director. The Metropolitan Development Association, of Syracuse and Central New York, also recently named a new chairman, John Zawadzki, of its Regional Development Alliance.

Earlier this month, Gov. Ernie Fletcher announced Darrell Brock and Jim Host as new co-chairmen of ConnectKentucky. Brock, commissioner of the governor's Office for Local Development, and Commerce Cabinet Secretary Host joined existing chairman John Hall, retired chairman and CEO of Ashland Inc.

The Alaska MEP, a new nonprofit entity formed by the Alaska Native Arts Foundation and the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, has named Robert Pope as the first Interim Director.

The Metropolitan Development Association, of Syracuse and Central New York, also recently named a new chairman, John Zawadzki, of its Regional Development Alliance.

The Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial Network recently selected Lisa Blakely, a former Bank of America executive, as its CEO.

Both the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) would see budget increases in FY 2005 if the version of the Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations Bill that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee last week survives what is expected to be a contentious conference with the House on an mega-omnibus appropriations bill sometime after the election. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved $112 million for MEP, $6 million more than the House approved and nearly $73 million more than was requested by the Bush Administration. Opposition from the White House to at least the House figures is likely to be muted as President Bush's opponent, Sen. John Kerry, has made doubling the federal funds available to MEP part of his presidential campaign platform. Additionally, the Senate took considerable exception to the Administration's plans for MEP after the program funding level was cut by 63 percent last year. Language from the committee's report on the bill explicitly states, "The Committee also recommends bill language prohibiting the Secretary of Commerce from…

More than half since recession "officially" ended There is little comforting news in a new statistical report for workers in the U.S. information and communication technologies (ICT) sector. Researchers from the University of Illinois-Chicago found the sector lost 403,300 jobs between March 2001 and April 2004. A staggering 200,000 of the high-wage jobs were lost since the recession was officially declared over in November 2001, making the notion of a jobless recovery a significant understatement for the sector. The resilience of the regional ICT sectors and the overall economies of the seven profiled metropolitan areas are being tested with the incredible losses suffered since the bubble burst in March 2001. The following list presents the percentage change in total ICT employment between March 2001 and April 2004 for the seven primary metropolitan statistical areas (PMSA): San Francisco (-49.0%) Boston (-34.1%) San Jose (-33.1%) Dallas (-30.2%) Chicago (-25.9%) Seattle (-10.8%) Washington (-2.5%) For the nation, a reduction of 18.8 percent of the total ICT workforce was lost…

While it appears that federal programs in the U.S. have succeeded in efforts to increase enrollment in higher education, the nation has fallen behind in retaining college graduates, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Education at a Glance 2004 is a comprehensive report on education systems within the organization’s 30 member countries. Statistics in the report provide a basis for policy debate and decisions, according to OECD, and this year’s report highlights factors affecting the future supply of qualified people and the relationship between educational attainment, employment and earnings. U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said the report confirms that in every country, education and earnings are strongly linked and the benefits are not limited to individuals, but include increased workforce productivity and technological progress. Although the U.S. has an above average rate of entry in higher education, the dropout rate from first-degree programs is 34 percent -- higher than the OECD average of 30 percent and almost…

During the recent past, heavy loss of manufacturing jobs has created considerable economic upheaval in several states, particularly the industrial heartland of the country where manufacturing represents more of a state's private payrolls than the national average. Michigan, alone, lost 18 percent of its manufacturing-related jobs from 2000 to 2003, a staggering 163,000 mostly high-wage jobs. Still, the manufacturing sector comprises 17 percent of the total jobs in the Great Lakes state. Stemming the loss of manufacturing operations across the U.S. through improved technological competitiveness and leaner production processes is a goal of many state and federal tax credits, policies and programs, such as the successful NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership and its network of 400 state and regional affiliate centers. A new research paper from the University of Michigan dares to ask whether manufacturing can be a driver for future U.S. economic growth and, if so, if it should be the focus of development policy, based on the economic performance of states with high manufacturing concentrations…

Seekers for evidence of the increasingly global nature of competition on the research and innovation levels need look no further than some recent announcements stemming from Malaysia. As part of its 2005 budget plan, the Malaysian government aims to create a new matching grant program for private R&D in January, triple financial support for its Small and Medium-sized Industry Fund, encourage government-linked companies to investment up to 10 percent of profits into research efforts over the next five years, and increase government support for research through the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations. The economic development component of the Ninth Malaysian Plan, introduced by Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Sept. 10, outlines several significant investments and initiatives. Highlights include: Targeting information and communications technologies (ICT), with a goal of creating 100,000 high value-added jobs in multimedia alone. "Various measures will be implemented to develop new sources of growth in the ICT sector, including training skilled manpower,…