In last week's Useful Stats article, we incorrectly reported that South Dakota ranked last among states experiencing a public high school graduation rate less than the national average for the 2002-03 school year; in fact, the state ranked 19th. South Carolina had the lowest graduation rate for that year. We regret the error.

Due to SSTI's annual conference being held in Atlanta next week, the next issues of the Digest and Funding Supplement are slated for Nov. 7, 2005.

Drawing expertise from 53 speakers and panelists from 19 states, SSTI's 9th annual conference - to be held Oct. 19-21 in Atlanta - promises to provide its attendees unparalleled opportunity to learn about the latest and best thinking to encourage state and regional growth through tech-based economic development. Want proof?

Not too surprising. Put the premier professional development opportunity for the tech-based economic development community in a great city and you'll draw hundreds of participants from at least 45 states and several other countries. Offer conference attendees five-star accommodations at prices well below market and we've ended up with the largest room block yet for an SSTI annual conference.

Limited Seating Remaining in Three Preconference Sessions

For more information on the positions below, visit SSTI's online Job Corner at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

The early bird registration and hotel room block for Investing in a Brighter Future: Building Tech-based Economies, SSTI's Ninth Annual Conference, ends on Tuesday, September 20.  To register for the conference, which is October 20 and 21, you can visit the conference website at http://www.ssti.org/conference05.htm and select the registration form.

Whether you use Outlook, Palm, Day-Timer, Filofax, or Post-Its to keep track of the items on your "To Do" list, make sure these two items on your lists to be wrapped up by next Tuesday, Sept. 20:

Increased funding for research centers, a laptop program, and investments in higher education were highlighted in South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds' fiscal year 2007 budget address last month.

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds announced that Jim Hagen will resign as secretary of the Department of Tourism and State Development, effective Jan. 17.

Georgia Tech announced that Dr. Jeffrey Skolnick will join its faculty this spring as the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Computational Systems Biology.

Only 13 days left to register early for SSTI's 9th Annual Conference!

Save $100 by Registering Before Sept. 20, 2005.

Many of the readers are new to the Digest since last year's conference, so we're getting questions about how SSTI's upcoming 9th annual conference, to be held in Atlanta on Oct. 19-21, differs from other events.

The easiest way to answer that is to let the conference speak for itself — through the comments we received from past participants:

Editor's Note: The third installment of SSTI's look at recent speeches and budget proposals to demonstrate the priority governors are placing on tech-based economic development and math & science education.



Georgia

Governor Roy Barnes, FY2002 Budget Address, January 11, 2001

– new and increased funding