HD46 - Science and Technology in Virginia


Executive Summary:
In Virginia, as in the rest of the nation, the use of new technology is increasingly the basis of productivity and economic growth. Many traditional heavy industries are declining, and the lost jobs are being replaced by jobs requiring more highly trained workers comfortable with automation and modern information and communications technology. To make the most of these opportunities, and to attract more high-technology businesses, Virginia needs technologically literate workers and managers, a solid base of research and development, and active links among the various public and private institutions that carry out research and put it to work in new as well as existing products and services. Investments in these areas, more and more, are what make one state competitive with others in attracting new businesses and raising the quality of life. Every citizen of the Commonwealth, every teacher, every businessperson and entrepreneur, every parent, every citizen, has something to contribute, for all will benefit.

The Commonwealth has great strengths in its research universities, technology-based industry, federal and nonprofit laboratories, and state-sponsored technology programs. It has raised standards of elementary and secondary education statewide in the past decade. Its 23 community colleges at 38 campuses offer a wealth of training opportunities for industry, and have launched an ambitious program to improve both the content and the accessibility of their offerings. Its Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, established in 1984 to help build science and technology capability in Virginia, ranks among the most successful state technology programs in the South by many measures, and has recently implemented a regional organization, to better tailor its aid to industry. The 1983 Report of the Governor's Task Force on Science and Technology offers citizens a yardstick for measuring progress.

Yet there is far to go before Virginia can be confident of a place in the first rank nationally. School and colleges need better access to computers and communications technology. State support of public universities is at an all-time low (and tuition at an all-time high). Virginia has not attracted as much venture capital as it needs to finance young entrepreneurial companies. Too little reliable and up-to-date data in science and technology in Virginia is available. In general, the various components of the Commonwealth's education and technology base are not well enough understood to be effectively coordinated with one another. These and other deficiencies can be remedied by the measures recommended in this report.

The Virginia General Assembly recognized many of these problems in 1993, when it established the Task Force on Science and Technology. It continued the Task Force for an additional year in the 1995 Session. The Task Force has 23 members, representing the Virginia General Assembly, state and local government, research, universities, and business. The Task Force was initially instructed to:

1. Report on the status of the recommendations of the 1983 Governor's Task Force on Science and Technology.

2. Coordinate the development of a statewide strategic plan for science and technology.

3. Examine whether a permanent council on science and technology should be created.

The 1995 continuing resolution requested the Task Force to consider also recent and ongoing initiatives by various organizations working the related fields. Another 1995 legislative resolution asked the Task Force to study opportunities and incentives for information and communications technology to meet public needs.

The Task Force believes that the following principles should govern Virginia's support of science and technology:

1. The Commonwealth should capitalize on Virginia as a technology leader.

2. The Commonwealth should have a workforce second to none.

3. The Commonwealth should acknowledge that science and technology initiatives and a strong education system are integral parts of Virginia's economic policy.

4. The Commonwealth should make necessary investments in science and technology initiatives.

5. The Commonwealth should make vital investments in education.

With those principles as a foundation, the Task Force commends the following recommendations to the Governor, the General Assembly, and the citizens of Virginia:

Continued Oversight

1. A Joint Commission for Technology and Education, with special emphasis on the implementation of the technology infrastructure, should be established for a period of two years.

2. The Science and Technology Task Force should be continued for the purpose of reviewing the technology dispersion and public policy of science and technology in the Commonwealth.

3. Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology should be considered the Commonwealth's lead Science and Technology mechanism for the purpose of planning and representing the Commonwealth in matters dealing with science and technology and its role in economic development of the Commonwealth.

Education for a New Knowledge-based Economy and World

4. The focus of Virginia's public school system should be examined and modified to reflect the change from an instructional process that is overwhelmingly memory-based, e.g. rote memorization of facts, to one which balances memory with an equal focus upon the acquisition and use of facts and figures to analyze and synthesize novel approaches to real world problems and situations. Instruction must also balance individual orientation with group skills, including leadership, civility, and other knowledge and skills for an information age.

5. Each high school graduate should be required to document minimal competency to function as a worker in a knowledge-based economy. The expectation is that employers need men and women with the ability to read with understanding; the ability to communicate clearly both by the written and spoken word; the ability to think through a problem or situation; the ability to calculate with at least a rudimentary understanding of algebra, geometry, and elementary statistics; and the ability to analyze.

6. The Commonwealth should support the "Virginia Works" initiative proposed by the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) in order to foster a stronger economy for Virginia. Funding is needed to support training and retraining efforts of the VCCS in order to ensure a highly skilled workforce and a globally competitive business community.

7. The Commonwealth should continue to support undergraduate and graduate programs, especially in high-technology disciplines, which encourage part-time continuing education and participation by industry employees across the state. These programs must remain responsive to industry's needs throughout the state.

8. Virginia higher education is closely linked with the economic growth of the Commonwealth. Statewide efforts such as Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, Graduate Engineering, and Old Dominion University's TELETECHNET must be encouraged and supported. Specialized programs, such as those related to the decisions by the American Type Culture Center, Motorola, and IBM/Toshiba to locate in Virginia, should draw on the existing resources of all institutions and be adequately funded.

Planning for the Future

9. The Commonwealth should continue to expand and exploit the capabilities of the state's major research universities in partnership with industry and the CIT. A balanced focus on short- and long-term research and development goals is necessary to keep the Commonwealth competitive in a rapidly changing global economy.

10. The Commonwealth should strengthen support for existing research and technology development capabilities where commercialization potential is very strong in the near term by funding the creation of a new generation of CIT technology centers and fund the creation of new research and technology development centers in emerging technology areas with long-term commercial potential where Virginia has the potential to be globally competitive. The CIT, in cooperation with the research universities, other research facilities, and technology organizations, such as the Virginia Technology Council, should be responsible for identifying these emergent areas and administering funding.

11. The Commonwealth should fund a new technology development center in Health Telematics that will involve the considerable talents of all three medical schools and the public and private health care providers in all regions of the state.

12. In addition to the CIT Technology Development Centers, the state should fund a new generation of Commonwealth Centers to be selected by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).

13. The Commonwealth should not attempt to develop an independent telecommunications infrastructure for the state but should take advantage of the commercial infrastructure already in place.

14. The Virtual Campus project should be funded for implementation in 1996-98 with expansion to include additional institutions and organizations.

Necessary Resources, Both Human and Capital

15. The Board of Education and SCHEV should review, and adjust as necessary, the requirements for re-certification to ensure that all teachers re-certified after 2000 possess and maintain the necessary technical skills and knowledge to effectively use existing and future communication and multimedia educational systems in the classroom. All recertification, after 2000, should meet the same requirements.

16. Virginia should study the feasibility of creating the Virginia Educational Technology Fund to assist schools and parents to acquire and maintain computer and telecommunications equipment necessary to transform the learning environment in all schools. To increase commercial and banking participation in the funding of technology by students and parents, the concept of technology bonds and a "loan-loss reserve" should be examined further.

17. Adequate funding should be provided to public and private institutions to maintain and enhance the quality of instructional programs. Higher education in Virginia cannot be sustained at an acceptable level of quality without additional state support.

18. Funding should be provided to restore average salaries to the 60th percentile of benchmark groups over four years, and funding for the Eminent Scholars Program should be increased to fully match endowment earnings. It is vital that the perception of Virginia's colleges and universities reflects the quality of their faculty.

19. Funding for the Higher Education Equipment Trust Fund should be increased to provide for the replacement of obsolete educational and research equipment and the acquisition of new technology. The program should be expanded, with incremental funding, to include essential telecommunications equipment for campus and statewide networking.

Appropriate Beginnings

20. The Virginia Institute for School Leadership should be created and funded to provide training for school principals on how to plan for, implement, and administer the computer and telecommunications technology that will be critical to the future of our schools and students. In conjunction with the Virginia Institute for School Leadership, Virginia should create an Institute for Teacher Training for Technology Utilization. The institute should be structured similar to a federal research laboratory and Virginia should seek federal, foundation, and corporate funding and participation to establish it as a national source of information and resources for K-12 education through technology.

21. Pilot Projects should be funded to examine how information technology can be most effectively and efficiently used in inner-city schools and to share the results with all school districts. Information technology disparities may be more harmful than fiscal differences to students seeking employment in a knowledge-based economy.

22. Curricular revision and in-service training for faculty should be funded through a competitive grant program administered by SCHEV to maximize the effectiveness of the Commonwealth's investment in infrastructure and technology resources.

23. As the statewide infrastructure network is implemented, the VCCS should plan on functioning as regional nodes for access and services for schools, individuals and organizations unable to access the network directly.

Cost Reduction and Improved Customer Service

24. Our colleges and universities must continue to make substantial changes to their programs and operations as they restructure to meet the evolving needs of the Commonwealth and its citizens. Restructuring is a long-term process that requires constant attention and measurement to gauge changes and results.

25. The Commonwealth should make any necessary regulatory changes to establish competitive pricing for wideband networking access for educational users in all regions of the state.

26. The Commonwealth should make the necessary regulatory changes to allow the state to take advantage of the rapidly changing telecommunications marketplace.

27. Policies on intellectual property rights should be examined periodically by the CIT in cooperation with SCHEV and the research universities. Emerging technologies will require rapid implementation of new products. Revised operating agreements between universities and corporate partners may be necessary to provide this flexibility and efficiency for such projects to succeed.

28. The Commonwealth should foster the development of instructional technologies to improve the quality of instruction and extend the outreach of our colleges and universities. The VCCS Information Technology Infrastructure Plan and its related instructional technology initiatives should be funded and implemented in partnership with Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University in order to develop a broadband, wide area network that will extend across the Commonwealth for use by all institutions as well as local schools.

Competitive Position & Finance

29. CIT should be encouraged in its efforts and the Commonwealth should expand its support so that CIT can further deploy resources to help technology companies be competitive.

30. CIT should continue its practice of identifying emerging technologies and making investments thereto, such as the Technology Development Centers program already in place.

31. A network of entrepreneurship centers should be established across the Commonwealth to spur the technology innovations into the marketplace.

32. The Congress of the United States should be encouraged to sustain federal research and development support.

33. The Commonwealth should market more aggressively present and potential federal R&D facilities located in Virginia [e.g., The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center and Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF)] as critical Virginia assets.

34. The Commission on State & Local Responsibility & Taxing Authority, chaired by Lt. Governor Beyer, should examine carefully the benefits of removing business, professional, and occupational license (BPOL) tax from venture capital companies.

35. Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) should confer with the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) to consider investment in venture capital firms that will invest in Virginia technology companies.

36. The Virginia General Assembly should study tax credits to encourage private investors to do venture capital business in Virginia.

37. The Virginia General Assembly should make funds available and allocated to CIT to establish a seed-stage capital fund for a public-private debt or equity fund for technology start-up companies.