CHEYENNE -- Gov. Dave Freudenthal said he hoped that Wyoming's huge investment in education and business development now would pay off down the road with a well-educated pool of workers that companies desire.

The state is investing about $1 billion over the next two years into K-12 schools and establishing a $400 million endowment under the new Hathaway Scholarship Program to help students pay tuition at the University of Wyoming and the state community colleges. At the same time the University of Wyoming is establishing a new School of Energy Resources that will lead research into energy-related subjects.

"I think the challenge is going to be whether the Hathaway Scholarship, the School of Energy Resources and the efforts to have the economy broadened, whether we can make those succeed in a time frame that essentially that activity can pick up at the point in time at which ... this construction and drilling begins to die down," Freudenthal said Wednesday during his weekly news conference.

Companies inquiring about labor in the state are not only looking for machinists, but also chemists, he said.

"The hope is that by developing the intellectual capital and having a different labor profile available that the kind of companies who want that labor will be more interested in coming to Wyoming," he said. "Because we have clearly learned that simply having low taxes has not been a sufficient draw for the other kinds of economic activities that we want in the state."

Along with creating a highly educated work force, Freudenthal said, the state needs to provide the technical infrastructure. Toward that end, a center to help entrepreneurs turn their high-tech ideas into thriving businesses is being established on the UW campus with a telecommunications component.

The Democrat, seeking a second term in office, has been criticized by probable Republican challenger Ray Hunkins for not doing enough to diversify the state's economy. Hunkins said he would travel nationally and internationally as governor to sell "this state, our people and our work ethic" to business leaders if he were elected.