Building Fences

Robert Shireman, the founder and president of The Institute, has been guest-blogging for Higher Ed Watch, a higher education news and policy initiative from the New America Foundation. In his final post, “Building Fences,” Shireman argues that state policies that use college funding as a carrot to keep students in the state after graduation are counterproductive. Here is an excerpt:

But states don’t like to see those graduates leave, so they have been getting more creative in their efforts to keep graduates from jumping the fence. Some states, for example, are considering, proposals that are modeled after the Georgia Hope Scholarship Program, which provides free tuition to top students who stay in state for college. Others are debating plans to award scholarships that would be rescinded if a graduate decided to cross the border for a job.

The current debate in Washington on immigration underscores just how backwards and wasteful these state strategies are. Corporate America is concerned that the immigration bill does not allow for enough visas for immigrants to fill jobs that Americans do not have the skills to fill. This cries out for a domestic policy response that focuses on increasing the number of young people who go on to college and complete degrees. . .

At The Institute for College Access and Success, we believe that Congress, as part of the upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, should create a College Opportunity Incentive Fund to send a strong signal to states about the national imperative to improve college access and success rather than to build fences between states. The Fund would essentially provide a bounty to the state for every student from the lower half of the country’s family income distribution. In addition, the Fund would offer a double bounty for every degree conferred on a lower income student. The states could use the money to provide much-needed financial aid and to implement other strategies to expand access and to improve retention to graduation.