Talent Dividend - Washington, DC

If Washington, DC increased its college attainment rate from 47.3 to 48.3 percent, the city would capture a $450 million Talent Dividend. On May 4, 2010, CEOs for Cities and the Washington, DC Economic Partnership co-hosted the Talent Dividend Tour in the nation's capital to set forth strategies for adding just 4,012 college graduates to its population and thus achieving the local Talent Dividend.

Three big ideas emerged:

(1) Lifting of student enrollment caps at DC-based universities to accommodate local students (or changing regulations so that DC residents don't count against them)
(2) Focusing on a single distressed neighborhood to increase the rate of college completion
(3) Broadening the framework of economic development in the District to include talent (as the city has done with its creative economy initiatives)

The DC Talent Dividend meeting was generously underwritten by DeVry Inc.