Business School Lauded |
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Leaders Outline Plan for Education Innovation
Jan. 7, 2005 -- Wyoming's top state and legislative elected leaders called Friday for a new type of investment in Wyoming's education future, one that will reap not only financial returns but also make significant positive impacts on opportunities for Wyoming's young people far into the future.
The proposal's two sponsors, Wyoming Senate President Grant Larson and Wyoming Speaker of the House Randall Luthi, were joined Friday morning at a press conference by Governor Dave Freudenthal, Secretary of State Joe Meyer, State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis, State Auditor Max Maxfield and Superintendent of Public Instruction Trent Blankenship.
Senator Larson and Representative Luthi will introduce legislation next week that will establish a framework for a premier, internationally recognized graduate school of business and executive training center, partnering with the University of Wyoming or other preeminent schools of excellence.
In order to greater leverage the ability of Wyoming to attract such world class attention, the proposal sites the school in Wyoming's tourism and internationally known locale, Teton County. The location also allows the use of the state's intellectual capital by taking advantage of some of the nation's top current and former Fortune 500 CEOs who have homes in Wyoming near Grand Teton National Park.
"What is at the heart of this plan is a vision for trying to make the kinds of investment in the future of Wyoming that are going to reap true benefits * lasting benefits in the future * for our families, Main Street and our youth," Luthi said.
"What more important legacy could be accomplished from our revenues than a nationally recognized school of business, training this state's and our country's next generation of leaders," Larson said. "Sometimes you have to turn a new page to achieve something great," Larson said.
"This is Wyoming taking care of Wyoming," Luthi said. "We have the unique opportunity of accomplishing something special with the blessing of our revenues, and rather than seeing our youth bleed off to other areas and forced to move to different places away from home, we can leverage our assets today for the future."
Larson said, "We can't allow this to follow a familiar path of the past * to talk more about the opportunity of doing something and not acting or to just relegate to a shelved study. Instead we have the power to enact a long-term investment strategy that touches our youth and every person who wants to see our state succeed."
"Our assurance is not to lessen what the university does, or to siphon resources away from our crown educational jewel * in fact it is to do just the opposite * to greatly enhance what we have," Larson added.
Lummis said, "The truth is we have untapped assets in Wyoming that, if invested wisely, can bring a new level of success in towns and counties in Wyoming. We need to put these assets to work now for the next generations. The world's business leaders, state land, the nation's top national parks, the Tetons * all of which can be harnessed intelligently for Wyoming's future."
Blankenship said that this is a continuum of education that is needed in the state. "Thirty years down the road, we will look back on this proposal as one of the best visions for the future."
Meyer said in a statement, the proposal is "an innovative ideal that will finally utilize some of Wyoming's most extraordinary assets. We need to do everything we can to attract the best and the brightest educators so that we may offer our youth the finest education possible. Establishing such a premier institution, in partnership with the University of Wyoming, would bring would class leaders to Wyoming and help to produce the business leaders that Wyoming deserves." Posted on Friday, January 07, 2005
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