Daily Mail Editorial
W.Va. should be equally focused on improving technical training. NATIONALLY, about 55 percent of the people who enroll in college earn degrees within six years. In the southern states, the graduation rate in six years averages 52 percent.
In West Virginia, only 46 percent of those who enroll in one of the state's many colleges and universities come out with a degree six years later.
That's a rough rather than precise measure of what's going on in higher education. As the Daily Mail's Ry Rivard reported this week, students who transfer from one college to another may help the last institution's statistics, but hurt the average of the first college they attended.
Income is one of the challenges facing many West Virginia students.
According to the 2009 fact book of the Southern Regional Education Board, which Gov. Joe Manchin now chairs, West Virginia is 49th in per capita income among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
In 2008, the per capita income here was $30,831. The national average was $39,751.
That's quite a financial hurdle to overcome.
Preparedness to do college-level work has also been an issue with some students. For years, far too many high school graduates have needed to take remedial education classes in college.
That's terribly discouraging for students, and probably plays a role in college dropout rates. Communicating such data to all schools, and having county schools work with colleges to close the readiness gap, can sometimes help.
But the state is considering taking really extraordinary measures - paying colleges more if they graduate more students - to raise college graduation rates.
"The production of degrees will be incentivized," said Chancellor Brian Noland of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.
If an institution that produced an average of 3,300 degrees began graduating 3,800 students, it would get more money.
That seems like an invitation to grade inflation.
Stan Hopkins, assistant state superintendent of technical and adult education, said recently that some colleges and universities struggle with graduation rates because some students might be better served by following a different career path.
He could very well be right.
Just producing more college graduates won't necessarily cause economic development.
Many employers have told the state that what they need are people with advanced technical skills.
Perhaps a fresh look at how well the state is serving students with those interests should be at least of equal concern as college graduation rates.