Palin's Home State Last Frontier For Tech, Too

[Commentary] Gov Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) does not have a technology track record. The Milken Institute's 2008 State Technology and Science Index used 77 indicators to judge how all 50 states rank in terms of technology. The indicators fall into five main categories: human capital investment, research and development funding, risk capital and entrepreneurial infrastructure, technology and science work force, and technology concentration and dynamism. Alaska ranking near rock bottom of the list at number 44. Gov Palin vetoed funding for wireless Internet access for Badger Road Elementary School ($20,000), Taku Elementary School ($27,000), Ticasuk Brown Elementary School ($20,000), North Pole Middle School ($10,000) and North Pole High School ($32,000). The reason in every case given for wireless cuts in the state's supplemental '08 budget: other funding options available. In this season of hyperbole, convenient omission and sincere untruths, such vetoes might easily incite venomous political attacks and indignant outrage. On the other hand, there are federal universal service E-rate and high-cost funds and the private-sector dollars that could possibly bridge the wireless divide for schools left behind because of Gov Palin's line-item vetoes.