Alumni of Virginia’s community colleges added $10.6 billion in personal and business income to the state economy in fiscal year 2022, while operations by the colleges themselves added another $1 billion in economic activity, according to a study set to be released Monday.
The study, commissioned by the Virginia Community College System, makes the case that the benefits of the state’s 23 community colleges far outweigh their costs in large part because higher education leads to graduates and their employers earning more and therefore contributing more to the economy.
The study’s public release comes as VCCS is asking the Virginia General Assembly for $198.3 million in additional funding over the next two years. In fiscal year 2022, state and local government funding for Virginia’s community colleges totaled $605.5 million.
“The vast majority of our graduates stay and remain working in the commonwealth of Virginia,” David Doré, who has been chancellor of the Virginia Community College System since April 1, said in an interview. “So really investing in the system is an investment long term in the commonwealth of Virginia.”
VCCS wants to put the additional money it’s requesting toward expanded programs and equipment to train workers in high-demand sectors such as health care, manufacturing and skilled trades. About $142 million of the $198.3 million would be one-time funding, while the rest would be recurring, Doré said.
“So, these would be things like making sure that our career and technical programs and labs are state of the art,” Doré said. “We don’t need any more buildings. We have enough square footage. But we don’t have the right kinds of spaces for these high-demand programs that we need to scale.”
For example, Doré said, adding an accounting class typically requires essentially a classroom and a professor. But expanding a nursing program requires additional simulation labs, and growing a welding program requires more welding booths where students can work.
The money would also go toward bringing on faculty for such programs, he said.
The state’s community college system is spread across 40 campuses, including in Big Stone Gap, Danville, Lynchburg, Roanoke, the New River Valley and Wytheville. The study focused on the system as a whole rather than breaking down the impacts of individual schools.
Virginia’s community colleges served 196,511 degree-seeking and 26,934 non-credit students during fiscal year 2022, according to the study.
The global analytics firm Lightcast conducted the study using data provided by the Virginia Community College System and from other sources. VCCS paid about $100,000.
Among other findings, the study asserts that the average community college graduate with an associate degree will earn $12,200 more annually than a person with a high school diploma or equivalent, and that for every dollar invested in the state’s community colleges, students gain $5.70 in higher future earnings.
Higher personal income and business earnings will benefit taxpayers with $2.70 in added tax revenue for each dollar invested, the study said.
The study also said that community college education benefits taxpayers because it improves graduates’ lifestyles, reducing their need for government services in the areas of health care, the justice system and income assistance.
The colleges themselves have a significant impact, too, the study said.
Virginia’s community colleges employed 11,838 full-time and part-time faculty and staff with a total annual payroll of $620.9 million, according to the study, and the schools spent $679.6 million that year on daily expenses related to facilities, supplies and services.
When a variety of factors are considered — graduates and their employers earn more, graduates require less social spending, and the colleges themselves spend money — each dollar invested in Virginia community colleges in fiscal year 2022 will yield $8.80 in “social benefits” as long as those students remain employed in Virginia over a 40-year career, the study said.
Lightcast said that data and assumptions used in the study are based on academic and financial reports from VCCS, industry and employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau, Lightcast’s own models and other studies and surveys relating education to social behavior.
“The study applies a conservative methodology and follows standard practice using only the most recognized indicators of economic impact and investment effectiveness,” according to Lightcast’s executive summary.
Lightcast has headquarters in Boston and in Moscow, Idaho. It analyzes labor market data and other statistics to provide information to businesses and educational institutions in more than 30 countries, according to its website.
