Missing The Point

On Tuesday, the MSJ ran this editorial discussing why Madison is doing better at drawing businesses to its area than Milwaukee.

McBride, of course, misses the gist of the column. As one well-spoken and sensiblecommentator (obviously not one of McBride's students) points out:

Actually, that's not exactly what the article is saying. Rather, the editorial is making a point that many profs, deans, and other higher-ups at UWM have been making for years: Because UW Madison is the state's flagship research university, it is able to attract top notch researchers, lots of big grants,lots of state funding, etc. in a way that UWM or Marquette is not. As a result, more tech and other businesses come to Madison because the research infrastructre there (as a result of UW Madison) is the best in the state. And the more Madison grows as a center of private and university research, the more grants it will attract, the more funding it will receive, and the more businesses will want to move there.

But it is necessary to point out, UW-Madison is smarter that Milwaukee in one sense-They didn't hire McBride.