Time to (Properly) Measure the Economic Impact of NY’s Community Colleges

By: Frank Yunker

Date: 2024-02-05

With most of New York's community colleges well below half the enrollment from their peak a decade ago, local communities are trying hard to find ways to keep their community college viable. Clinton Community College recently announced that it is abandoning its campus and co-locating at SUNY Plattsburgh. Other colleges are hiring consultants to provide economic impact studies. The goal is to convince communities of the economic benefits of the college. One problem is a long-known axiom of higher education. "If you're explaining, you're losing!"

At the January 2024 Board of Trustees meeting at Fulton-Montgomery Community College, a guest presenter from a consulting company was brought in to explain to the Board the economic benefits of the college. Let's imagine what the economic impact might look like.

The greatest economic impact of FMCC to the community is clearly the nursing program. They add 35 new registered nurses â€" often 100% pass rate â€" to the workforce. In a world where everybody wants to work remotely, these new graduates are signing up for a career filled with 12-hour shifts, overnight shifts and holiday shifts. They even go to work on snow days! How does the consultant measure that? He doesn't.

He doesn't mention that nursing salaries are between $60,000 and $100,000. Compare that to the $30,000 paid to a minimum wage worker. FMCC helps 35 students each year make an extra $50,000 per year as compared to if they didn't go to college. By the way, the dozen or so Radiologic Technology students will experience similar economic benefits.

Nope. The consultant took a regional average â€" taken from an unspecified source â€" to determine associate degree workers earn an additional $6000 per year when compared to regional high school students. Hmmm. No source cited? Let's move on.

The consultant claimed 1924 students were served in 2021-22. Since approximately one-third of those students were actually high school students in a high school class getting FMCC credit, those ought to be removed from the analysis. They could be awarded credit from any college and it wouldn't change the "economics" of their situation one bit. Their plan is to transfer credits to the actual institution they plan to attend so it doesn't matter if the credits transfer from FMCC, SUNY Albany or the University of Hard Knocks.

Next in the study was the operating budget of $15.2 million which supports 237 regional jobs. In one sense, that indicates "economic impact," but it doesn't equate to "economic value." The counties could take the $15 million and hire 237 people to implement the "Regional Regulations on Unicorn Hunting." Dozens could work on policies and procedures. There could be teams dedicated to preventing Unicorn Poaching. The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer would ensure unicorn catch and release programs represented a cross-section of America. See, having a budget for 237 employees does not justify the college's existence anywhere near as well as 35 new nurses or a dozen people hired to program computers or fill the ranks of the local police departments.

The consultant also calculated the economic value of the college alumni. It's a fun bit of math but it appears to simply be a salary differential times the number of graduates over the last 20 years. Regardless of the exact formula, it's meaningless. The college is trying to prove it continues to offer economic value to the counties. The number of past graduates is irrelevant to the question of whether or not the college is still adding value to the community. The dorms were more than half empty before the covid pandemic. College enrollment is near an all-time low. Its budget is in deficit, and it just spent money on a worthless economic impact study.

Does the college track recent graduates? Not in any organized, useful way. If the study was to be more than halfway accurate, they would also have to track the non-graduates. Some take the credits and move on to a 4-year school. But what about those who spent semesters at college but never obtained a degree? Has anyone measured the economic impact on their lives? Undoubtedly, no college administrator wants to pay for that study.

Not to worry. When the Board of Trustees was asked for questions and comments, they had none. But it won't take long before the community-at-large starts asking questions. What are we getting for our tuition and tax dollars? Somebody better be prepared with a better answer than phony math. Until then, "caveat emptor!"