NPR College Admissions Story

bclintonk
Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:50:56 +0000

glido:

It has yet to be established that higher participation rates are necessarily better. It is likely that there is a point of diminishing returns re financial investment. It is doubtful that every state in the union would be best served by 100% participation rate.



And that would be . . . because we want some states to be bastions of uneducated and unskilled workers and low-wage jobs? Sorry, I don’t think we’re going to be very good at competing with India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia for that end of the market.

I’m not quite sure I follow your argument here. And anyway, no state in the union is anywhere near a 100% college participation rate. Here in Minnesota we’re pleased that we’re toward the higher end with a college participation rate somewhere north of 70%. We think that gives us a competitive advantage going forward, with a better-educated, higher-skilled workforce. And so far it’s working out pretty well: our unemployment rate is well below the national average, our economic growth rate is well above that of most surrounding states, and our household income is well above the national average, especially in the Twin Cities metro region and in smaller cities like Rochester where the “knowledge jobs” and the highest concentrations of college-educated workers are located. It’s the less-educated parts of the state and the nation that are being left in the dust.

Same in North Carolina, by the way. There’s a pretty sharp bifurcation between highly educated places like the Research Triangle where prospects are generally bright, and the generally less well educated shuttered mill towns where the present is pretty bleak, and the future likely bleaker.