Even though defense spending has been fueling high tech here for years, the big spurt of growth is actually fairly recent. If anything that trend is likely to continue. Our dynamic indicators found that when it comes to research and development, the Old Dominion is a bit of a dullard. This flies in the fast of its growing reputation as a high tech haven. Nor is this the only evidence of schizophrenia we found.
Education is another.
While Virginia has plenty of people with college degrees, at the same time a lot of Virginians can't get past high school. We are a fairly low No.33 in the country in the number of people with high school degrees or less. The Navy, NASA and cigarette maker Philip Morris garnered roughly five times the number of patents as these university research centers over five years from 1995. Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia are far behind such nationally ranked schools as those in the University of California university system and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in terms of patents, as well. Nationally, the state ranks a depressing 36th among the states in the number of utility patents per 10,000 employees.