CEOs for Cities Talent Dividend

A Degree of Difference

 When does a 1% increase translate into 2.8 billion dollars?

When you're talking about educational attainment.

On September 23, 2009, NOCHE, the Fund for Our Economic Future, and Forest City Enterprises hosted CEOs for Cities in a presentation which demonstrated the direct link – or "talent dividend" – between increasing educational attainment in the region and economic growth. Inspired by opening remarks from NOCHE board chairman Bob Reffner – who pointed out that just one degree is the difference between making tea at 212 degrees and running a battleship at 213 degrees – the group heard from Carol Coletta, CEO of CEOs for Cities, about the difference a one percentage point increase in college-educated adults in the region would make in the region’s economy. According to CEOs for Cities, an increase from Northeast Ohio's current 25.2% level of adult bachelor's degree attainment to 26.2% would mean another $2.8 billion in annual personal income in the region.

About 645,000 people in Northeast Ohio have a four-year degree. To get to 26.2%, another 25,600 people would have to attain that level of education. Attendees at the September 23 Talent Dividend Summit engaged in discussion about the possibilities of achieving this increase. Once strategies are developed to increase degree attainment even one percentage point, those initiatives could continue to push the needle upward—all to the benefit of Northeast Ohio.

The group discussed CEOs for Cities' "Strategy Buckets" of opportunity on which to focus efforts, including re-engaging adults with some college but no 4-year degree; increasing the transfer rate from 2-year to 4-year institutions; improving timely graduation rates; and increasing college readiness of high school students. Northeast Ohio has a clear opportunity to seize this attainable challenge!

Talent Dividend Tour Overview
 

CEOs for Cities Presentation - Northeast Ohio

Executive Summary and Preliminary Action Plan