Governors Use Innovation America Initiative to Address Higher Education Challenges

Note from the Council: At the National Governors Association (NGA) winter meeting, Douglas J. McCarron, vice chair of the Council on Competitiveness and president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, joined Governor Janet Napolitano (D-AZ), chair of the NGA, to sign a memorandum of understanding between the two groups. The agreement is a key component of Innovation America, Napolitano's NGA Chair's Initiative. NGA and the Council agreed to advise the nation's governors on activities such as improving science and math education, enhancing worker training and promoting regional innovation.

As a part of the initiative, governors and educators recently convened in Kansas City, MO, to discuss how to strengthen higher education and how to prepare students for competition in the global economy.

Blunt, Sebelius lead charge on higher education

The United States is losing ground in having a higher education system that is the envy of the world. American students need to improve in math and science, and colleges and universities need to graduate more engineers and scientists if this country is to stay competitive in a global economy.

Educators and governors from 29 states pondered those problems in Kansas City as part of the Innovation America Initiative of the National Governors Association. The officials, including Missouri Governor Matt Blunt and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, are attending a two-day meeting at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Innovation America is a yearlong initiative to promote aligning higher education with government and the business community to meet the economic needs of each state.

The initiative includes a three-part plan:

• Improve the rigor and relevance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in grades K-12 to prepare high school graduates to succeed in a 21st century work force;
• Funnel university innovations to the local economies they serve and align degree programs and university research and development efforts with the needs of high-growth industries in each state;
• Work with the private sector to develop an environment that fosters research and development, innovation and entrepreneurship.

“In Missouri, we are making strategic investments that focus on programs and reforms that will prepare Missouri students to be innovative and competitive in a global economy,” Blunt said. He and Sebelius are part of a six-member task force charged with getting states to think about higher education as crucial to the country’s economic health. As an example, Blunt cited Missouri Senate Bill 389, sweeping education legislation that increases the state’s merit-based scholarships, encourages bright students to teach in failing schools, caps tuition increases to the rate of inflation and funds some research and technology facilities on campuses around the state.

Innovation America suggests that states increase higher education funding and that colleges and universities communicate with industry to find out what skills and knowledge are needed in the work force. Academic programs should be adjusted to meet that need. Sebelius said universities that are not in touch with skills needed in the work world may be preparing students for jobs that no longer exist. She admitted, however, that until becoming part of the task force she had not been focused on higher education in Kansas. “I am guilty of governance by abstention,” Sebelius said. “I have not done a good job of articulating goals for universities in Kansas.” But she said she now is shifting focus.

“My analysis of our system is that we need to ramp it up,” she said. “We have a great platform, but we are light years away from where we need to be.”