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DEL.ICIO.USGeorgia Isn’t Always Last
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We get a lot of studies dropped on our desks over here. Today, Andrea Jones, who covers colleges, got one from the Atlanta Regional Consortium for Higher Education or ARCHE.
Georgia ranks 37th among states for the percent of residents age 18 to 20 enrolled in college with 28 percent. New Jersey leads the nation with almost 40 percent, followed by California, New York, Connecticut and Maryland. Trailing Georgia are Texas, Utah, Alaska and Idaho. Montana (Who knew?) is ranked last with 21.8 percent. The organization’s source is the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2002 - 2004 population studies.
The report goes onto highlight the rather obvious disadvantages for those without high school and college educations. “More than three-fourths of public assistance goes to citizens with a high school diploma or less,” the report says. “Three out of four Georgians living in poverty have a high school diploma or less.”
Other benefits of a college degree: You get to pay more taxes! (“…People with more education contribute more to the state’s tax base…”)
And this oft-cited statistic: “Dropping out of school can lead to big trouble and big bills to pay. More than two-thirds of Georgia prison inmates never finished high school Last year alone, the state spent more than a half billion dollars on their incarceration.”
ARCHE’s mission is, in part, “to inform civic and business leaders and the general public of the direct and indirect ways in which higher education benefits the Atlanta region and the State of Georgia.”
Comments
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By Bill
March 8, 2005 01:21 PM | Link to this
The Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce co-authored a report last year that states many of the same things. Using data compiled by Georgia Southern University, the “Economics of Education” report stresses the importance of education not only to the individual citizen but to Georgia as well. The days of textile and farming jobs that don’t require a high school education are long gone. Young people must clearly understand the consequences they will likely suffer if they choose to leave school early. It may appear to be the easy way out now but they will pay for that decision the rest of their lives. There are many programs to keep kids in school and to get them back in. A new program, Education Go Get It!, was just launched a couple weeks ago. We must reach every young person. Unrealistic? Probably. Worth shooting for? Definitely. A guest commentary in the AJC a couple weeks ago said the most important five words you can say to a child as they grow up are, “When you go to college….” There’s some truth to that.
By Bob Storm
March 8, 2005 02:36 PM | Link to this
Im a produkt of the georga skool systim and theres ain’t nothin wrong with me. I dont no how we cood be ranked so low, with tha grate teechers we have in our skool systims. Obviuosly whoever duz theez rankings has a grudge against us, must be one of them dam yankees
By Cliff Mozelle
March 8, 2005 03:54 PM | Link to this
Northerners are just smarter than Southerners. Not as lazy too.
By Amanda
March 8, 2005 04:33 PM | Link to this
Bill, I agree with your statement about what parents should say to kids. I grew up in North West Georgia, where there are still plenty of jobs in carpet mills if you want them…but I never heard my parents say anything other than “when” when discussing college for my sister or myself. Never an option NOT to go - and kids notice that. It gives them confidence that they need to get through school and make something more of themselves.
But hey, I’m still kinda upset that I have to pay more taxes now that I have a college degree! (Just kidding - I also bring home more money, but I don’t think that anyone enjoys paying taxes, ever)
By Lucas
March 9, 2005 10:33 AM | Link to this
Cliff, that is the most insensitive, bigoted, and ignorant remark I have heard recently. I was raised in Georgia, and had my choice of colleges in the North and South (among them, Brown, Emory, UVa). If Southerners are not as smart as you say they are, then how does someone like myself and many others who are proud to be Southern, have the options of going to the “Great Schools of the North”? If anything, the situation that many southern states find themselves in is a direct result of carpet-baggers and other opportunists that pillaged the South during “Reconstruction”. As for deeming us lazy, evidently you haven;t lived in the South ever or long enough to know the hardworking farmers, laborers and others who supply you with many of the goods or raw materials you use on a daily basis. If I were lazy, I would not have made it to college. I worked for what I have and continue to do so. The gall you have, whether Southern or not, to say the things you have said baffles me. Bless your heart and may you overcome your ignorance by efforts as great as your vision of Northern intellect and work ethic. (BTW, I chose UVa over Brown for many reasons)