The Kansas City Star had an article in Sunday's paper that suggested that the ongoing battles between intelligent design creationism and evolution were damaging the state's ability to attract businesses involved in scientific and technical fields:
"They want to bring things like intelligent design into classes and downplay the fact of evolution," said Holt, a postdoctoral researcher specializing in plant genetics at the University of North Carolina. "I find it incredibly troubling."Holt's reluctance to include Kansas on his prospect list may be a worrisome sign for a region hoping to spur its economy by attracting more science-oriented workers and new high-tech companies.
Some business leaders and economic development recruiters in the region say they are encountering more candidates with questions like Holt's. Those leaders say the region has acquired an "anti-science" label in some key professions, fueled by the evolution debate in Kansas and efforts in Kansas and Missouri to impose restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research...
"I have no doubt that it has a negative impact," said James L. Spigarelli, president and chief executive officer of the Midwest Research Institute in Kansas City. "When I go to national meetings, people start to buzz about Kansas and 'intelligent design.' When people begin to laugh at you, that is worse than if they disagree with you, and that is what is beginning to happen."
The region already is working to overcome the allure of other areas offering more opportunities in biotechnology.
Stellar public school systems traditionally have been among Kansas' most effective responses to a lack of mountains, beaches or big-city sizzle. Increasingly in recent years, economic developers also are pushing centrality for call centers, cheaper housing than along the coasts and tax incentives as selling points.
That's all well and good, say some civic leaders. But they contend that the evolution flap is an increasingly troublesome turn-off for scientists recruited by area biotech firms and universities.
Thomas Giarla, former president of JRH Biosciences Inc., now known as SAFC Biosciences, has become a fan of the Kansas City area since moving here from the East Coast. He values the quality of life and intends to stay here.
"But I travel all over the world, and it's tiresome for people to keep asking me what's going on in Kansas," Giarla said. "It's a perception thing. People can't believe we'd go backward and lose our standing in the scientific world."
Keep in mind, Giarla said, that "scientists like to be around other scientists. If the feeling they get is that in this community they can't explore, they can't be curious, maybe they won't come here."
The ability to attract and retain highly skilled and well-educated workers is one key to defining the future shape and dynamism of a regional economy that has lagged behind its neighbors in recent years...
Illinois' governor is hoping to capitalize on the uncertainty over embryonic stem cell research in Missouri by possibly poaching a few top-notch scientists for his state. Gov. Rod Blagojevich recently sent letters to 30 Missouri doctors and scientists, encouraging them to consider opportunities in Illinois, where lawmakers committed public funds to stem cell research at a time lawmakers in Missouri were considering restrictions.
All this has left this region's civic and business leaders a bit skittish and defensive.
"We have some evidence that people are reacting to the state board's evolution debates," said Robert Hemenway, chancellor at the University of Kansas. "People are raising questions whether certain kinds of science can be done successfully in Kansas."...
Compiling convincing economic data to prove that the region is suffering because of state school board decisions or proposed stem cell legislation is hard, at least at this point. But the idea is not far-fetched, said Sheldon Stahl, an economist in Kansas City.
Intense competition to become the next high-tech hot spot shows widespread recognition that future prosperity is brightest for the places attracting the best-educated mathematicians, scientists and engineers, Stahl said.
"If you have a state that mandates the teaching of intelligent design, it could well be that the best educated among them would be turned off by that and choose to live elsewhere," Stahl said.
The more this spreads, the more it's going to play out the same way for the nation as a whole.
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There has been relatively recent research from Richard Florida of Carnegie Mellon, that argues economic development hinges, in large part, on the ability of a community to attract creative people, and that means rock bands and gays, in his mind.
In his popular book The Rise of the Creative Class, which just appeared in paperback after going through multiple hardcover editions, Florida argues that cities that attract gays, bohemians, and ethnic minorities are the new economic powerhouses because they are also the places where creative workers--the kind who start and staff innovative, fast-growing companies--want to live. To lure this workforce, Florida argues, cities must dispense with stuffy old theories of economic development--like the notion that low taxes are what draw in companies and workers--and instead must spend heavily on cultural amenities and pursue progressive social legislation.
[link: http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_curse.html}
It would not surprise me at all if the reverse were also true - that those communities that stifle ideas or promote conformity to limited schools of thinking - of which ID communities could be thought a part - would end up with much poorer economic development.
CPT_Doom at October 14, 2005 04:48 PM
Just to point out, Florida's (the researcher, not the state) work has been around for at least 7-8 years. I've been discussing his conclusions on the Internet for at least that long.
And yes, he is exactly correct. Thanks for reminding us of his work.
Can we envision a landscape, based on the evangelical community successfully installing its mission in the Federal Government, getting judges to rule from their quirky originalist positions that states could set up state religions and appropriate curriculums and such?? How would the nation look to economic interests seeking to invest in this or that component of innovation and development? Kansas and Alabama become non-entities then, along with South Carolina and Georgia, Utah and Texas. I can't believe these people don't get it.
This is why public universities advertise their national ranking so much. Better universities means more skilled jobs for your state. And yeah, if I was a biologists and I had the choice of a job in Kansas vs. Alaska, I'm going to Alaska. Sorry Kansas, you'll always have Wilt Chamberlain I guess.