One Percentage Point

Posted by Sheila Redick on September 28, 2009

Northeast Ohio's Akron Beacon Journal ran this Sunday Editorial on what the region stands to gain by increasing its percentage of college graduates by just one percentage point: $2.8 billion per year, or "roughly the payroll of the Cleveland Clinic."

The piece points out that while many residents are very vocal about the 75 percent graduation rate from Akron Public Schools, the area's higher education institutions have completion rates of as low as 30 percent - a number citizens should be equally concerned about given the direct link between college graduation and economic success.

Cleveland was one of three stops last week on our 30-city Talent Dividend Tour.