Greenville Business Magazine 2010 February issue : Page 26
INVEST M ore than a year ago, research- ers at The Darla Moore School of Business showed South Carolina how to bring in potentially billions of dollars of revenue. And now higher education is on the state’s front burner. Funds spent on education, the report found, are well worth the investment: each dollar spent on higher education would return $11.20.Over 20 years, a more educated workforce, where at least 30 percent attain a bachelor’s degree, would mean $49.8 billion net to the state and $2.2 billion to Greenville County specifically. The economic benefits of a more educated population come in significant job growth (the report estimates more than 44,000 jobs would be added) and per capita income would rise signifi- cantly, which results in a higher overall tax base for the state. But there are a number of social advantages as well. Individuals with a bachelor’s degree or higher are less likely to need social services, less likely to be unemployed, less likely to smoke and more likely to take care of themselves physically. All in all, resulting in a significant reduction in health and welfare support services. The Moore data served as the bedrock for a six-year action plan released by the state’s Higher Education Study Committee last March. Becom- ing one of the top 15 states in terms
Return on Investment in Education
Laura Haight
More than a year ago, researchers at The Darla Moore School of Business showed South Carolina how to bring in potentially billions of dollars of revenue. And now higher education is on the state’s front burner.
Funds spent on education, the report found, are well worth the investment: each dollar spent on higher education would return $11.20. Over 20 years, a more educated workforce, where at least 30 percent attain a bachelor’s degree, would mean $49.8 billion net to the state and $2.2 billion to Greenville County specifically.
The economic benefits of a more educated population come in significant job growth (the report estimates more than 44,000 jobs would be added) and per capita income would rise significantly, which results in a higher overall tax base for the state. But there are a number of social advantages as well. Individuals with a bachelor’s degree or higher are less likely to need social services, less likely to be unemployed, less likely to smoke and more likely to take care of themselves physically. All in all, resulting in a significant reduction in health and welfare support services.
The Moore data served as the bedrock for a six-year action plan released by the state’s Higher Education Study Committee last March. Becoming one of the top 15 states in terms of educational attainment is only one of the four broad goals of the plan, yet many say it is the keystone for building the other three – increasing research and innovation, increasing workforce training, and realizing the state’s potential in resources and effectiveness.
Cracking the top 15 in 20 years is a lofty goal for a state currently languishing around 40th in percentage of adults holding at least a bachelor’s degree (23 percent). The reality makes the goal seem even more challenging – between now and 2030, 170,000 more South Carolinians would need to attain a college degree.
Nonetheless, a flurry of activity has kicked in this year:
Two bills to provide regulatory relief to the state’s technical colleges that were languishing in state Senate committees since last April, were passed on by a unanimous voice vote in mid-January.
Websites to help students navigate the complexities applying to and paying for college (www.sccango.com) and to learn about transferring their credits from state to state (www.sctrack.org) were launched in January with significant fanfare.
The Commission on Higher Education is closely tracking progress on action items designed to move the state to within striking distance of its “aspirational” education goals within six years.
CHE Chairman Kenneth Wingate says the Moore report has provided a significant incentive for this call to action by showing that “education pays.” “We might quibble about individual assumptions (of the report),” Wing ate says, “but if it is half of that, that is phenomenal success.”
“Higher education in particular has such a positive impact on so many critical measures of success for a state that it has gelled support,” Wingate says. From all corners – education, legislative, community and governmental – there appears to be a more “unified sense of purpose” driven in part by a recognition that, as Wingate says, “education is not an expense; it’s an investment in the future that pays off.”
Complicating the state’s efforts was a report early this year that showed some 86 percent of parents fully expect their children to go to – and graduate from – college. But with fewer than 50 percent of South Carolina’s high school students even graduating, there appears to be a significant disconnect between expectations and reality.
“Parents and students alike are assuming that if they dream of college, then the information and help they need will come to them,” says Wingate.
Michele Brinn, vice president of workforce and education at the Greenville Chamber of Commerce, says accessibility and assistance in navigating the complexities of areas as basic as filing for financial aid are critical. In her own case, she admits, she found the process “daunting.”
And it may be that education has to change to adapt to students needs rather than the other way around. “We need to really understand the customer and who we need to bring into school to understand their roadblocks,” says Brinn.
That may give traction to another track of the CHE’s action plan – a “New Front Door” for adults to come back to school and obtain a degree.
That front door may lead into a different kind of educational institution. A number of non-traditionals like Brown Mackie, where students take only one course at a time, and Virginia College – not to mention online universities – have found a home in Greenville.
By tying education advancement directly to revenue, the Moore study has given education investment what it has lacked – a sense of urgency.
Looking for real world examples of the benefits of success and the risks in failure, South Carolina’s business and education leaders can look to neighboring North Carolina.
In 1960, South Carolina’s per capita income was 48th in the U.S., while North Carolina was 45th. Over the past 50 years, North Carolina has emphasized higher education as a cornerstone of its economic development strategy, the CHE reports. By 2007, North Carolina had risen to 36th. Over that same period South Carolina moved up as well – to
47th. GBM
For more information on the Darla Moore study, visit http://mooreschool.sc.edu/UserFiles/moore/Documents/Division%20of%20Research/EconReturnHigherEdAugust09.pdf
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