Data from the 2022 American Communities Survey show the dollar value of educational attainment. In addition to putting a dollar value on various levels of education, the data also show why community colleges are quickly falling out of favor with those who would take classes.
The chart below shows the difference in per-hour earnings in Washtenaw County based on the highest level of education a person attains. The dollar value difference pertains to the next-lowest level of educational attainment.
For example, a person in Washtenaw County with a high school diploma earns on average $6.40 more per hour than a person without one. A person with some college or an associate degree earns $3.01 more than a person with only a high school diploma. The difference in per-hour earnings between an associate degree/certificate and a bachelor’s degree is $9.65, and someone with a graduate degree earns $11.65 more per hour than someone with a four-year degree.
From the chart, you can see that one of these things is not like the other. Each level of educational attainment translates into some increase in earnings, but associate degrees and non-degree certificates return the lowest increases in income of any level of educational attainment. In other words, an associate degree delivers less bang for the buck than any other educational attainment level.
This is the current status of the associate degree and non-degree certificates, but it doesn’t have to be like this. If community colleges focused on strategies that increased the economic value of an associate degree, more people would look at them as a serious alternative to either a high school diploma or a bachelor’s degree. If you give people a reason to spend two years in a classroom, they’ll show up.
People have to have a reason to improve their educational attainment level
Focusing on high-wage, high demand jobs creates economic opportunity at the individual level, but also at the community level. When employers can be reasonably assured that they can find people with the job skills they’re looking for, they will choose to locate their businesses in that area.
Further, the opportunity to make money and establish market share is greatest when there are fewer competitors in the market. Emerging industries need to move quickly to carve out their piece of the market. They cannot wait for an area to create their workforce. Syracuse, NY and Cleveland, OH demonstrated this by creating semiconductor fabricating programs at their local community colleges. After doing so, these communities landed multi-billion dollar investments from Micron and Intel.
Both of these companies were firmly established, and semiconductor manufacturing isn’t new, but it’s new in the United States. These companies needed to move quickly to take advantage of federal subsidies and tax incentives, as well as state incentives to locate their factories nearby. The US is a long way away from having the domestic capabilities it needs in semiconductor manufacturing, which means there are still opportunities to land these important facilities, but it will become more difficult as more companies build their own fabricating operations. The return on investment will decrease, and building new facilities will become less economically attractive.
Can you imagine an employer coming to Washtenaw County with a multi-billion dollar investment? How would that change our economic fortunes?
Photo Credit: Ryan Adams, via Flickr
