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There remain significant questions about the ability of the Great Plains to thrive in the informational economy. Fortunately, the region maintains a core competitive advantage: its surplus of highly educated young people. Students in Nebraska, Kansas and the Dakotas, for example, tend to perform better in school as measured by graduation rates, college attendance, or enrollment in upper-level science and education programs than those in more urbanized areas. In this sense many parts of the Plains could serve as a veritable “brain belt” for the 21st century.