Dr. Fred McKinney, Ph.D.Carlton Highsmith Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Director, People’s United Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,Quinnipiac University School of Business

The first day of April is a day when practical jokesters tell you things like, " I know the number you play and guess what -you won the lottery last night" or "I saw your car was being towed." These harmless prevarications are followed by "April Fools, I got you." But this first week of April, Ray Dalio, the founder and CEO of Bridgewater Associates and Dalio Philanthropies, announced a $100 million gift to the state of Connecticut - if the state and other philanthropic organizations matched his $100 million pledge, to total $300 million.

This was not an April fools joke. It was the largest private gift in state history. It was a gift based on Mr. Dalio’s firm belief and rigorous economic and political analysis that without some significant changes in A...