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COVER
STORY - January
2000
Forward Thinking
Kentuckians EDITOR'S NOTE: Our first issue in the year 2000, The Lane Report commissioned a consortium of leaders across the Commonwealth and asked them to write, in their own words, what they felt the future had in store as it relates to their particular business, political, social or educational sector. The following piece offers interesting, thought-provoking insights into the future of the Commonwealth of Kentucky as a whole manifested in the words of these Forward Thinking Kentuckians.
There is no finer
place on earth to grow up, to start a business, to live and raise a
family. The quality of life in Warren County and our region is the best. The people are special;
a great work ethic and strong family values have contributed to the
success of a growing, diverse business and industrial base. Certainly,
the people were a factor in the decisions of 82 new and expanded corporate
facilities in the past 10 years. Warren County's
population of nearly 90,000 people is experiencing considerable growth.
About half of our population resides in Bowling Green, the largest of
our five incorporated cities. Bowling Green is,
without dispute, the retail-shopping hub of our entire region of more
than 350,000 people. An educated and
trained workforce, geographic location and transportation accessibility
are primary factors in our past success, which earned us this No. 1
nationwide designation. Our public elementary
and secondary schools rank among the top in the state and, along with
several fine private schools, have produced many National Merit Scholars. Western Kentucky
University and its more than 15,000 students offers undergraduate and
graduate students the finest education and multiple degree programs.
Western has introduced this region to excellent students from all parts
of the world, many who remain in this region to pursue their careers
and raise their families. Western's prominence in higher education
is growing and it remains a regional asset for economic development.
Along with Kentucky Tech vocational school and the Kentucky Advanced
Technology Institute, where computers, robotics and other occupational
skills are being taught and developed, corporate demands for trained
and educated employees are easily met. Warren County is
located within 600 miles (one day's drive) of 75 percent of the
population of the United States. We are midway between Louisville and
Nashville, the crossroads of north-south I-65 at east-west Natcher and
Cumberland Parkways. The mainline of
the CSX Railroad and the R.J. Corman Shortline Railroad provide us with
direct access by rail to major markets in more than 22 states. In addition,
there are major motor-freight operations in Warren County with 34 carriers,
16 terminals and charter and passenger bus services. Bowling Green-Warren
County Regional Airport is a general aviation airport serving our region
with commercial air freight and charter services. It is also a fixed
base for several privately owned aircraft. It has two runways and has
the capacity to serve a number of large aircraft. Warren County offers
a wonderful transportation infrastructure, an essential reason for plants
to locate in the Bowling Green area. Plans also call for further enhancement
of these resources. We are working on
other transportation projects that will allow our region to continue
to prosper. The Kentucky Tri-Modal Transpark, a regional intermodal
transportation and business park, is the centerpiece of these plans. It will enable business
to cut their overall cost of doing business and provide a much faster
process to get a facility up and running. This is due to its having
ample land for long-term future expansion, extensive infrastructure,
including fiber optics and digital switching and other sophisticated
telecommunications infrastructure on demand. When the Kentucky
Tri-Modal Transpark comes to fruition, it will include a new airport,
access to rail and trucking operations and will represent a public and
private investment of more than $50 million. This facility will
allow us to build further on our industrial base, which hosts several
Fortune 500 players. It also will allow our region to expand our technology-based
industries and to take full advantage of our local higher education
facilities and programs. Likewise, we are determined to position ourselves as players in today's global market, which Wall Street drives more than Main Street.
One challenge in
recreating education is not just focusing on today's problems,
but anticipating what learning needs to look like tomorrow. In a marketplace
driven by technology, students will need a real understanding of mathematics
and science. To accomplish this, we must move away from students listening
to teachers and repeating what they have learned and towards hands-on
problem solving where students apply concepts to work out real life
problems on their own. This "discovery learning" has consistently
placed Japan, Korea and Hong Kong among the top five in international
science and math testing. Though the United States usually ranks around
twentieth, when a consortium of Chicago suburban schools adopted this
method, their students test as well as their Far Eastern counterparts. But mastery is not
enough. In today's workplace where job dissatisfaction and burn
out are common, we must guide our students toward meaningful careers.
We know that when individuals discover their unique abilities and interests
and are supported in building careers around them, they make more valuable
contributions to the economy and enjoy more satisfying careers. If Kentucky plans
to continue to gain national recognition for educational reform, we
must focus our educational strategies on producing individuals who know
how to think, have the ability to access information, present ideas,
quickly master concepts and understand that every aspect of life is
a learning tool. A synergy must exist
within the Commonwealth that uses all our natural and human resources
as part of the educational experience. Academic turf issues and governmental
beauraucricies must give way to combining energies to create a living
laboratory that allows teachers to become mentors and state park directories
to be our coaches. Imagine the wonderful one-week educational institutes
that could emerge at all our state parks, making the State Department
of Tourism a major partner with the Department of Education. Or, on
college campuses across the state, the math department partnering with
the philosophy department to create a living laboratory available to
all who wanted to explore knowledge from a new perspective. All educational institutions are threatened and at the same time have the possibility for liberation. At Georgetown College, we see the new era as the latter and understand that our ability to lead educationally depends on how creative we choose to be.
The days of an inbox
overflowing with paper are a thing of the past, as more and more information
is shared electronically in organizations and among consumers. But paper
companies say their sales are still growing and demand for computer
printers is on the rise. What's happening? Simple. The Internet
and the increase in electronic communication has increased the velocity
at which we communicate and it's changed what we print and the
way we print. But, what will printing look like a few years from now? Not too long ago,
documents were printed and then distributed to people in paper format.
This inefficient and costly model has now evolved to a distribute-then-print
process, whereby reports and other documents are distributed via the
Web or e-mail, then recipients print what they need, when they need
it. And it's all happening at the speed of "e." But this e-world
demands printing solutions that can transform electronic ideas, in the
form of documents, into physical form so that information is more useful,
more meaningful and more accessible to employees, family and friends.
What's true is that no matter how much electronic communication
increases, people still want that piece of paper to connect with –
to make it real and official – and to bring their electronic ideas
to life in a tangible way. These digital appliances,
such as personal design assistants (PDAs), cell phones, pagers, etc.
will increase demand for printing solutions. Soon enough, these devices
will have a "print" feature or a universal connector for printers
that will make it easy to print out your calendar, address book, a stock
quote, a recipe from the Internet, an e-mail message- perhaps from a
printing kiosk on a street corner anywhere in the world. What's
more, color, which has taken the home-printing environment by storm,
will soon impact the business environment in a much more meaningful
way. Just as today's generation wouldn't watch black and white
TV, tomorrow's businesses will gravitate to more and more color
output. And they'll want to print even more than today. Printing will also
continue to play an important role in the home. Technology devices that
don't require a PC will become ubiquitous. Today, for example,
Lexmark offers the Kodak Personal Picture Maker, a $149 printer that
allows digital camera users to crop, personalize, print or store photos
without using a PC. What's next? How about a refrigerator that
keeps an inventory of its contents and prints out a grocery list or
even coupons. Or, consider a printer specifically for your web-enabled
TV that allows you to print program information, concert tickets, weather
reports and more. Even a printer that makes its own paper. The speed of "e"
is impacting more than just the technology sector. Alan Greenspan, chairman
of the Federal Reserve Bank, says information is transforming the US
economy. "As this century comes to an end, the defining characteristic
of the current wave of technology is the role of information. Prior
to the advent of…IT innovations, most of twentieth-century business
decision-making…was made from information that was hours, days
or even weeks old." Today, the best and most useful information is seconds old. The "speed of e" now presents companies with the challenge of managing the proliferation of information throughout their organizations in ways that shorten business cycles, optimize business-to-business communication and reduce costs. Even as "the speed of e" hastens, the printer will continue to bring electronic ideas to life on paper- helping put the personal in personal technology. I can't predict for certain which digital devices will prevail, but I will forecast that printers, connected to all sorts of digital devices, printing all sorts of electronic ideas, will continue to be a critical part of the "e-conomy", even into the next millennium.
As the president
of Kentucky's only college for women, I am profoundly aware of
the challenges and opportunities inherent in educating Kentucky women
to appropriately assume positions of leadership and influence within
the Commonwealth. Despite recent gains in the representation of women
within many administrative and professional fields, Kentucky continues
to be ranked among the lowest of the fifty states with respect to women
in elected office and women in positions of corporate leadership. Education holds
the power to transform lives. The most exciting and rewarding aspect
of my role at Midway College is the opportunity to witness the dramatic
transformations that occur when young women and adult men and women
are "empowered as leaders through a liberal arts education."
Increasingly, across the nation, women represent the majority in terms
of full and part-time students attending degree-granting institutions
of higher education. However, as long as women continue to be underrepresented
in leadership roles, on public and private boards and in positions of
power, we must question prevailing standards for both curricula and
pedagogy. I am honored to
serve at an institution that is dedicated to developing the leadership
potential of women and adult students. In particular, the potential
contributions of women must not be limited by lack of education, tradition,
practice or prejudice. Increasingly in Kentucky, women are advancing
in areas that were traditionally dominated by men. Recently, the University
of Kentucky Law School received national recognition for its "women
friendly" academic programs. However, much remains to be accomplished
throughout the Commonwealth to ensure that women are appropriately represented
across all professional, governmental and corporate arenas. We are fortunate
to have a second-term governor who has admirably demonstrated his commitment
to education as the singular most important agent of change in securing
the economic future of all Kentuckians. Increased levels of aspiration
inherently accompany increased academic attainment. Our experiences
and our societal role models also influence levels of aspiration. For
example, in a state where there are so few women in elected office,
it is not surprising that even fewer young women demonstrate an interest
in pursuing opportunities to run for elected office within Kentucky.
On a more personal level, as one of only two women presidents of twenty
private higher education institutions in Kentucky, I would be remiss
if I did not draw attention to the paucity of female leadership at public
and private colleges and universities within the Commonwealth. Certainly as a new
president in Kentucky, I was disappointed to learn that Dr. Charles
T. Wethington Jr. would be stepping down in 2001 from the presidency
of the University of Kentucky. His efforts to significantly advance
the academic and financial foundation of the University of Kentucky
have directly or indirectly benefited all Kentuckians by raising the
bar for all higher education students within the Commonwealth. However,
given his pending departure, an unprecedented opportunity exists to
change the gender and thereby the future of higher education in Kentucky.
I urge the presidential search committee at the University of Kentucky
to assure that qualified female candidates and candidates of color are
included within the pool of final contenders. My vision of the
future of education in the Commonwealth includes a rich tapestry of
public/private collaboration, advanced academic technology and enhanced
scholastic innovation and reputation. Most importantly, my vision includes
educational leadership that is characterized by diversity of gender,
race and ethnicity.
Since adoption of
the Judicial Article of Kentucky's Constitution in 1976, the Kentucky
Court of Justice has undergone many positive changes. Under the former
constitutional provisions relating to the judicial branch of state government,
a system of disconnected county courts existed. There were many problems
with this system such as lack of uniformity in the system, non-lawyers
serving as judges and only one appellate court which routinely experienced
a major backlog. However, in the years since adoption of the Judicial
Article which unified our court system, the Kentucky Court of Justice
has come to be viewed as a model for this nation. Kentucky's
judicial branch now consists of four levels of court. The District Court,
often called the people's court, hears, among other things, misdemeanor
criminal cases, small claims cases and juvenile cases. The Circuit Court
decides appeals from decisions of the District Court, and is the trial
court of general jurisdiction. It hears all cases, civil and criminal,
unless those cases are specifically assigned by statute to the District
Court. Major civil litigation and all felony criminal cases are heard
in Circuit Court. The Court of Appeals
of Kentucky decides appeals from the Circuit Court. The Supreme Court
of Kentucky, our highest court, has the discretion to hear only those
cases which it determines to have a significant impact to our Commonwealth.
In addition, however, the Kentucky Constitution provides that all appeals
from criminal convictions with sentences of 20 years or more, or where
the death penalty has been imposed, must be reviewed by the Supreme
Court. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the executive head
of Kentucky's court system, and the Administrative Office of the
Courts serves as staff for the Chief Justice. With the firmly
established foundation of a unified court system, the Kentucky Court
of Justice is poised to face the challenges ahead. As Chief Justice
David Brock of Vermont has said, we have entered the age of "therapeutic
justice." No longer are the solutions for many of society's
problems provided in homes, churches and schools. The court system is
now called upon to deal with families in crisis, issues of juvenile
delinquency and substance abuse. Unfortunately, many of today's
children have little guidance at home and will be unable to be productive
members of society without outside help. Incidents of violent crime
reported in the media are deplorable, and our nation's drug problem
continues to increase, affecting more than the individuals who are addicted. I am moving forward
with "Family Courts" in Kentucky. Kentucky's Family Courts
operate under the idea of "one family, one judge." Recognizing
that problems within a family do not exist in a vacuum, we are working
to have all issues, or cases, involving one family presented to one
judge. Without Family Court, members of a family may appear before numerous
judges in one judicial circuit or district. With Family Court now implemented
in ten circuits across the state, those families in crisis are being
served in a uniform manner. Because Family Court combines the jurisdiction
of Circuit Court with family matters from District Court, I have proposed
a constitutional amendment authorizing Family Courts throughout Kentucky.
This proposed constitutional amendment will be introduced to the General
Assembly and, upon passage, placed on the ballot for approval by the
voters in November 2000. A new initiative
I am working to expand statewide is Drug Courts. Drug Court starts with
the proposition that not everyone arrested for a drug offense should
go to prison. Since over 97 percent of those sent to prison eventually
return to society, returning to prison is likely for those who do not
receive treatment for their drug problems. Drug Court imposes a strict
regimen of tests, treatment and counseling upon drug offenders. A vast
majority of our citizens who are incarcerated for other offenses also
have a drug problem. By requiring intensive supervision and testing,
gainful employment, education and job training, payment of child support
and support of one's family, we are attempting to treat the addiction,
and protect the community from further criminal behavior. Kentucky is also
leading this nation with advances in computer technology. A new computer
system called KYCourts has been installed in Franklin and Jefferson
Counties, and will be rolled out statewide in the next few months. This
system will allow all offices in the Court of Justice, in all 120 counties,
to be connected and share information. In the planning stage is BenchPro,
a system that will work with KYCourts to allow judges, prosecutors and
clerks to access and control information from the bench or counsel tables
while a matter is being heard in court. Communication with the Transportation
Cabinet and law enforcement officials will allow accurate and complete
information to be in the hands of the judge while a case is before the
court. In the next millennium, I see Kentucky courts with a broader role in society. We no longer have the luxury of limiting our scope to traditional matters. To fulfill this broader role, we must make extensive use of technology and utilize other non-traditional resources to solve the problems of this society.
As executive director
and CEO of The Center for Rural Development, a national model for economic
development located in Somerset, I know that we Kentuckians are facing
a challenge because of a changing economy. The coal and tobacco industries,
so significant to rural Kentucky, face uncertain futures. And while
Kentucky manufacturing earnings were $12.4 billion in 1997, accounting
for nearly 30 percent of the state's real gross product, we face
the same worries as other states in seeing these jobs move outside our
borders. The world is changing
and in order to change with it, Kentucky must take a pragmatic approach
to economic development. First, we must stop the flow of out migration.
For years now, Kentucky's number one export may very well have
been its young people. We at the Center want to keep our brightest and
our best. But we must give them reasons to stay; jobs, vibrant communities,
technological advances and access to the rest of the world. One of the economic
development problems we face is the lack of continuity of philosophy.
Local development groups have a tendency to think only in the short-term.
The mindset is "just build the industrial park, get the factories
in here and create the jobs." To an extent, that philosophy has
worked. The difficulty comes when the group has no medium to long-term
objectives. Communities need to recognize their limitations, address
the negatives, accentuate the positives, plan for the long-term and
take responsibility for their futures. Traditional manufacturing
jobs will remain an important segment, however, as we seek to attract
technology industries and develop a "technology literate"
workforce. Our educational system must move to develop curriculum that
will promote critical thinking skills. Cutting-edge technological jobs
change rapidly. The workforce must be able to think and adapt, to take
what they have learned and apply it to a broader base. While building Kentucky's
economy through industrial recruiting, I believe we should devote equal
importance to building our state from within, by promoting entrepreneurship
and small business development. Small businesses, those with fewer than
20 employees, represent 85 percent of all firms in Kentucky and employ
26 percent of its workforce. Creating and supporting entrepreneurs must
be a high priority of our economic development strategy. A technology infrastructure
is important for recruiting industry and for promoting those homegrown
small business firms. As we head into
the next one thousand years, we strive to find even more effective ways
to exchange information and communicate with one another. Kentucky is
far ahead of most states when it comes to its telecommunications infrastructure.
The Kentucky Information Highway (KIH) provides a statewide communications
network with an "access ramp" in every one of our 120 counties.
In our past it was rivers, rails, and roads that provided access to
the world for local communities, now it's voice, video and virtual
reality. In Business at
the Speed of Thought, Bill Gates says, "If the 1980's
were about quality and the 1990's were about reengineering, then
the 2000's will be about velocity, about how quickly business itself
will be transacted." We are wired in Kentucky. Business can be
conducted with the click of a mouse. Now, we must strive
to make the technology we have accessible to everyone. We must guard
against the technology-age "haves" and "have nots."
At The Center for Rural Development we are working to bring access to
technology to every person in the 40-counties we serve, through our
CenterNet network, which features high quality videoconferencing and
Internet services. This is part of what I call the three A's of
technology. We make our constituents aware of the latest technology.
We give them access to it. They will use their creative and practical
genius to discover applications for this technology. Whether an elderly
patient in a rural community discusses symptoms with a doctor at a regional
medical center in a large city, or a young college students takes classes
from a university across the state, or a business holds a meeting with
its headquarters in another state, the applications are limitless and
will contribute to economic development in hundreds of ways. Kentucky's economic future has the potential to be bright, given the hard work that has been exemplified by our people, and the technological groundwork that has been laid by many forward thinking Kentuckians. But, we must move forward, accentuating education, entrepreneurship and technology, realizing the potential for our future lies within each of us.
In the year 2000,
Kentucky's farmers leave behind a century that saw great changes
come to agriculture, threatening their livelihoods and the state's
very economy. Ironically, many of those challenges have presented themselves
within the last few years. In addition to one of the state's worst
droughts, farmers in 1999 faced low commodity prices, low crop yields,
uncertainty about the future of tobacco and premature sales or liquidation
of cowherds. In most years, Kentucky farmers realize almost $4 billion
in cash receipts for their products. 1999 was not like most years. The Commonwealth
is the world's leader in burley tobacco production, but quotas
have drastically declined over the last two years, and producer organizations
are scrambling to avoid further cuts. The dairy industry has been particularly
hard hit as the formula price for milk was sliced by one-third last
winter, wiping out profitability. Simultaneously, cattle, hog and grain
prices have been stagnant. In the future, the trend will likely continue
toward larger farms and fewer farms. There is an increased concentration
in agribusiness with the mergers of many one-time corporate competitors
into mega industries. Ever-encroaching development reduces available
farmland every year. And, in some parts of the world, products resulting
from strides in biotechnology are being scrutinized. Surviving the challenges
of the present and planning for the risks of the future are strategies
that can make or break a business. Agriculture has proven to be adept
at both practices. Farming now finds itself in transition, requiring
new markets, investments and opportunities for tomorrow's producers.
That is why agricultural leaders of this state have devised a comprehensive
blueprint for the future structure of agriculture in Kentucky, an eight-part
unified plan using the investment of $85 million a year from Phase I
tobacco settlement funds. The interwoven items
of this unified proposal, coming before the 2000 General Assembly, include
these investments to be made annually for 25 years: the environment,
$17 million; livestock and forages, $15 million; access to capital,
$15 million; biotechnology and bioprocessing, $12 million; research,
education and infrastructure, $10 million; marketing and promotion,
$6 million; horticulture, $5 million and agricultural entrepreneurship
and rural development, $5 million. If Kentucky lawmakers
adopt the proposal, the state's aquaculture and horticulture industries
will have the opportunity to reach their potentials. Cattle farmers
will have the resources to upgrade operations and the marketing tools
to get more for their products. Kentucky will be on the cutting edge
of biotechnology. Agricultural entrepreneurship will result in the creation
of many new agribusinesses, providing assistance to farmers, organizations
and others to start or expand locally-owned, value-added agricultural
ventures. Numerous scholarships and research opportunities will be created. Kentucky's
Department of Agriculture is working hard to increase profits and growth
opportunities for Kentucky farmers. Our value-added divisions are developing
new markets for such mainstays as beef and dairy cattle, poultry, forage
crops and wood products. Markets are also being developed for endeavors
such as fruits and vegetables, sheep, goats, sod, Christmas trees, pasteurized
apple cider, sweet sorghum, honey and table grapes. Other new products
and new markets are constantly being evaluated, and developed when appropriate. At home, we work
to strengthen the farmers' market distribution system; a Kentucky
trade office in Mexico positions the Commonwealth's agricultural
industries internationally. We even help farmers stake a claim on cyberspace
by setting up free World Wide Web pages that help sell products grown
or processed in Kentucky. We want state producers to have every advantage
in every market possible. As we greet a new millennium, agriculture remains strong and goes into the 21st century as the largest industry in Kentucky. I am confident that Kentucky's farmers will not only survive the current transition in agriculture but will thrive in the years to come.
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South
Central Kentucky: An even brighter future in the 21st Century
Creating
a living laboratory
Printing
at the speed of "e"
Education:The
power to transform lives
The
age of "therapeutic justice"
Technology:The
future of economic development
Farming
finding itself in transition