Thursday, December 10, 2009
Graduate Gold
Posted by Mary Cashiola on Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Graduates aren't the only ones who get a little extra cash after they finish college. So do the cities where they live and work.
According to Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, "If you want to know how well Memphis is doing when it comes to economic development, there is only one figure you need to know: the percentage of the population who have four-year degrees."
Yesterday, Leadership Memphis and CEOs for Cities announced the Memphis Talent Dividend's College Attainment Initiative. The goal of the program is to increase the college attainment rate in Memphis by just one percent, thus resulting in a $1 billion talent dividend for the metro area.
Memphis currently ranks 48th out of the nation's 51 largest cities in terms of the percentage of the population who have a college degree.
The $1 billion talent dividend represents the increase in personal income as a result of raising the college attainment rate in the area by one percent, or 8,000 new degrees.
Leadership Memphis members suggested the goal could be met in part by more one-on-one support for first-time freshman, a culture of college prep at area high schools, tuition reimbursement from local companies, and helping the 132,000 Memphians who started college but did not finish go back to school.
"Developing talent from within is imperative for Memphis' leaders if they want the city to thrive in the knowledge economy," Coletta said. "If talent isn't the number one priority on the economic development agenda in Memphis, then Memphis doesn't have an economic development agenda."
Twenty-eight other cities across the country are participating in the college attainment initiative. If the college attainment rate was increased by one percent in the nation's largest 51 cities, the talent dividend would be $124 billion each year.
Comments (9)
Showing 1-9 of 9
Lets think through what it would mean to Memphis if we got 8,000 more college graduates. It would mean another St. Jude set up shop here. That would be cool and would mean at least a $1 billion investment. But I don't think that is going to happen, because of a couple things. 1) Healthcare takes up 15% of GDP. No wonder it seems like it is the only growth industry. That's because it is. That is unstainable. So continued growth in healthcare industry will not continue. 2) Lets say we encourage our high school graduates to go to college at higher rates. Because of stagnant wages, ridiculous education costs, and no jobs, what you are actually doing is putting your younger people into lower standards of living for their lifetimes. What's the point of getting $30,000 in debt by the age of 24 to make $10 an hour. It is a fallacy that higher education equals higher pay and a higher standard of living. Sorry to break that to you Gen Y's. Generation X was concerned we might have a lower standard of living than our parents. Gen Y's, you're going to a lower standard of living than Xer's. Plus in Memphis you have a complicating factor. MCS system is so bad, most graduates have to take remedial classes that don't count towards their degrees. Those remedial classes still cost a lot and contribute to people having to drop out. So now they are in debt and don't have a degree.
Questions I would like to have asked are what is a "knowledge economy"? What shape does it take? How do you address inequality? I believe a more accurate term than "knowledge economy" is a plutocracy. Economies that abandoned their manufacturing base have high rates of economic stratification and inequality. Their jobs are also easily outsourced. Did you know in 2008 22,000 "green jobs" were outsourced to India and China? Those are supposed to be the drivers of new economic growth are they not? White collar jobs are also rapidly being outsourced.
Here's the truth, unless trade policies are modified and there is a more redistributive tax structure. The only thing a knowledge economy does is disproportionally benefit the upper classes.
PS- Every economic development plan and initiative for Memphis since the 1890's has said we need to increase the educational attainment of our city to attract better jobs. Statistically, we actually have since the 1980's but our city is poorer and the tax base has narrowed.
like
dislike
Everybody else can listen to "Doubting Thomas", but we're preparing our kid for college.
College has worked out pretty well for me. None of the employers I've worked for so far (I'm still pretty young) would have hired me without my degree.
Where does one even start?
Yes, I agree it is foolish to push everyone towards college. It's just not the place for everyone, especially at 18 years old. Having said that, to say that having a degree does not increase one's potential and realized earnings is about as false a statement as one can make. And what exactly do you mean by a redistributive tax system? And how will that help anything? I think a better solution is to increase vocational training enabling more HS grads to enter the work force directly as apprentices or trained in a trade. And just in case you weren't aware of it, there has always been social stratification along economic lines.
Higher education is one part of an answer, but it isn't the answer.
Specific to the workforce realities in Memphis, will all the warehouse jobs here start paying more if the percentage of college graduates approaches that of say, Atlanta or Seattle?
Or will the forklift jobs suddenly turn into an abundance of barrista and bookseller careers?
I'd suggest that an educated populace is an indicator that a city's other problems are under better control, but I dont see making a push to lay paper on as many people as possible, to be much more than a political bandaid.
"Developing talent from within is imperative for Memphis' leaders if they want the city to thrive in the knowledge economy," Coletta said. "If talent isn't the number one priority on the economic development agenda in Memphis, then Memphis doesn't have an economic development agenda."
The problem, as I see it, is retaining that talent, otherwise it's a waste of money. The talent goes to Nashville or Houston or any other attractive city (I can name several, mostly out of the South). A large part of that comes down to livability. If you want young graduates you need to get rid of crime, establish functional and widespread public transportation, create and protect green spaces, and cultivate the arts. Until then, the idea of moving to Memphis is mostly charity or sentimentality.
The paradox is crime is connected to education and money. Maybe what Coletta suggests is a short term means of helping with this, but if you want long term attraction of graduates, you're going to have to more than ensure more people get big pieces of paper with their names on them.
@voluntary_exile, you are exactly right, and retaining any newly developed talent through improved quality of place and improved quality of opportunity must be strategies that are considered as this moves forward. But first things first, let's fully develop the talent we have by any means necessary and make Memphis a city of opportunity while also working on improving the lifestyle factors that influence where people choose to live once they gain the mobility that comes with a college degree.
Perhaps I'm just being an old hippy, but my four nephews ask the same questions as me. Two have graduated, two have not, but they all ended up with the same question...Isn't "education" supposed to be about something more than:
"economic development agenda"
I give it it's own line...maybe you want to place flowers and sacrifice animals at it's altar.
Here is an excerpt from an article that I found this morning...thought I'd add it as an adjunct:
"A long list of school critics from Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, John Holt, Paul Goodman, Jonathan Kozol, Alfie Kohn, Ivan Illich, and John Taylor Gatto have pointed out that a school is nothing less than a miniature society: what young people experience in schools is the chief means of creating our future society. Schools are routinely places where kids -- through fear -- learn to comply to authorities for whom they often have no respect, and to regurgitate material they often find meaningless. These are great ways of breaking someone.
Today, U.S. colleges and universities have increasingly become places where young people are merely acquiring degree credentials -- badges of compliance for corporate employers -- in exchange for learning to accept bureaucratic domination and enslaving debt."
Perhaps Memphis kids are smarter than you think. I have always thought so...
THIS WEEK'S ISSUE
SPECIAL ISSUES
