Yesterday, the Postsecondary Value Commission – part of the Institute for Higher Education Policy – issued its updated report on the value of higher education. Along with the report, IHEP created an Equitable Value Explorer, which provides performance data for higher education institutions.
Using the tool, you can look up the “value” of a degree that a higher education institution issues. It uses the average earnings of a high school graduate amortized over a ten-year period following graduation to determine how much a degree adds to a person’s income. For example, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan adds about $45,000 to a person’s annual income ten years after graduation. Graduates of Eastern Michigan University can expect a bump of $8,658 from their degrees after a decade in the workforce. Kettering University returns the highest value, adding about $50,500 to a graduate’s annual salary.
Among Michigan’s community colleges, the highest return goes to Lansing Community College, whose degrees add about $9,860 10 years after graduation. Schoolcraft College runs a very close second at $9,200. It’s important to note that no community college returns more than $10,000 to a graduate ten years on. On the other end of the scale, degrees from Mott Community College and Wayne County Community College District actually reduce a person’s salary below that of the average high school graduate ten years down the road. Washtenaw Community College isn’t among this group because it is a certificate school.
Higher education that comes up short
Comparing WCC to other certificate schools in Michigan, the highest return comes from MIAT College of Technology, a private, for-profit school that somehow has managed to make occupational education pay off in a big way. A MIAT certificate adds more than $33,000 to a former student’s salary ten years after completion. MIAT also has a nearly 60% completion rate. The Carnegie Institute comes in second, adding $9,500 to a certificate-holder’s salary. WCC comes in third, adding $8,700 to a certificate-earner’s salary a decade later. WCC has a completion rate of just 24%. Bay Mills Community College is the last positive-value school in this group. BMCC is a tribal community college located in Brimley, in the Upper Peninsula.
The Equitable Value Explorer highlights a number of problems, not the least of which is that – across the board – community college degrees return less than $10,000 in salary ten years after graduation. Further, Schoolcraft College graduates notched the highest average salary at $44,000. Six other Michigan community colleges graduates crested the $40,000 mark (ten years after graduation). The rest were mired in the mid- to high-$30K range. That’s somewhat immaterial, since none of the average returns allow a person to crack the middle class. Alpena Community College recorded the highest completion rate at 40%.
So, Michigan community colleges offer degrees that increase annual earnings by less than $10,000 compared to the average high school graduate; net average salaries of less than $40,000 ten years after graduation; and have completion rates of between 12% and 40%.
No wonder no one wants a free community college education.
Photo Credit: Kieran Lamb, via Flickr
