From OnMilwaukee.com

Posted: February 24, 2010

It's a simple hypothesis. More education equals higher incomes. More highly skilled people equal more innovation and productivity for greater Milwaukee.

Education makes a huge difference in the income averages for a community. And, sadly, in greater Milwaukee we're not doing as well as we should.

But, a one percent shift upward in the college graduation rate could add more than $1.2 billion to our area's economy, according to a new study spearheaded by the Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC), of which I'm a former member, and CEO for Cities.

Yesterday, Forbes.com had a piece by Carol Coletta and Beth Wnuk that highlights Milwaukee and this opportunity. Colettta, whom I've met a few times, was in Milwaukee recently to talk to the GMC and others.

She wrote, "Increasing college attainment reliably leads to greater personal income. While Americans with four-year degrees earn an average of $58,292 annually, those with some college or a two-year degree average annual earnings of $38,220."

Milwaukee, the Forbes article notes, "could boost its college attainment rate metro area by just one percentage point, it would put an additional $1.2 billion in personal income into its metro economy."

Coletta's research says that if the Milwaukee 7 region were to raise its college attainment rate from 28.7 percent to 29.7 percent (just 13,146 new grads) that $1.5 billion could be pumped into our annual economy.

How does our region do this? CEO for Cities offers four ideas:

• Re-engage adults with some college, but no four-year degree.
• Increase transfer rate of students in two-year institutions to four-year institutions.
• Retain current students for timely completion.
• Increase college-going behavior of high school students.

Not a small task, but one that everyone has a stake in. Step up, Milwaukee. One percent could mean $1 billion.