Illinois has seen the largest increase in venture capital of any state over the past year, rising nearly 800 percent from first quarter 1999 to first quarter 2000. Just across the Ohio River from southern Illinois is Kentucky, a mostly rural state with an economy long bound to tobacco and coal mining. We have to move down the road toward the knowledge economy. Statistics indicate it won't be easy for Kentucky. Realizing the state has far to go, Gov. Paul Patton has launched a number of initiatives to jump start the state's economy, including the creation of a new cabinet-level commissioner of the New Economy.
Workforce development is also a top priority in Kentucky.
The state wants to boost the University of Kentucky's ranking in National Science Foundation funding from its current 42nd position into the top 20 by 2020. At the same time, the state is emphasizing high-tech training and education at its community colleges and technical schools to provide new companies with a steady source of educated workers, especially in the Louisville and Lexington areas. The goal, said Valicenti, is to make Kentucky attractive enough so that its college students remain in the state after they graduate. Kentucky has also invested heavily in infrastructure development, partnering with 18 different telecommunications companies to develop a statewide network that serves the executive branches of state government and is available to companies that move to Kentucky at rates lower than is available in the private-sector marketplace. How well Kentucky and other states like it succeed remains to be seen.