COMMUNITY COLLEGES: The College's Impact on Local Economy

Abstract

The financing of higher education has become an increasingly important topic in state legislatures and Congress as well as among individual taxpayers, who bear the brunt of taxation at all levels. But what of the other side of the coin, college expenditures? With few exceptions, higher education has successfully avoided measuring the impact of the expenditures of institutions on the economy of their locale, whether that be a city or a state. Tax-supported institutions are usually not accountable for their funds to anyone except a state legislature which evaluates the use of the money only generally. Criteria for accountability have been vague even when stated: the pursuit of idealistic goals and prestige resists objective evaluation. But as the cost of higher education increases, other criteria become increasingly important. We have recently realized that both the utility of education in the world of work and the economic impact of higher education on a community and a state are quite important. States have begun to study follow-up data and at least are focusing on some products of higher education, especially graduates of career education programs at community colleges. The economic impact of an institution can be looked upon in long-range terms that suggest the economic worth of educated individuals, or we can examine the immediate effect of the income and expenditures of an institution on the economy of an area. Such an examination of the economic impact of higher education is a form of accountability which provides information for decision making by various levels of government, information that can be used to decide the best way to fund programs and to choose which programs should be funded. We have completed a study, The Impact of the College on the Local Economy (1973), which deals with the impact of the expenditures of Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Area Community College and the people related to its operation. An American Council on Education publication, Estimating the Impact of a College or University on the Local Economy by J. Caffrey and H. H. Issacs, provided guidelines for the study, but modifications in methodology fit the study to community colleges. The first key decision in such a study is how to define the impact area. The Harrisburg Area Community College is sponsored by twenty-two school districts. The geographic area that the districts cover is almost congruent with three counties which themselves are a