Friday, February 27, 2009

Earth To Ohio: What Brain Drain?

I've been thinking about the numbers that Rick Batyko of Cleveland Plus posted here:

For bachelor’s degrees, university main campuses in NEO range from 79-83% (state average is 76%). For bachelor’s degrees at private colleges, there is a bigger range in this report: from 37% for Oberlin to 53% for Case to 83% for Ursuline. Most are in the 70%-80% range (state average is 72%).

The above is the retention of undergraduates. Not considered are the bachelor's degrees that migrate to Ohio from other states. Also missing are where the graduates go when they do leave the state. How many migrate to neighboring states such as Pennsylvania or Michigan? Are the numbers leaving the Rust Belt altogether really worth the concern?

Vexing me is the in-migration of non-Rust Belt graduates. We're splitting hairs when we roll out one brain drain initiative after another. Without a doubt, the issue is getting on the map for the talent coming out of UCLA, Stanford, or Berkeley (to get California-centric). On that score, how is your shrinking city doing?

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