Interesting read on public investment in higher ed.

[LTown Cat]

From the Chronicle:

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Study: MSU gives $1 billion boost to Montana’s economy
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NICK WOLCOTT/CHRONICLE Anna Michel climbs the stairs of the Chemistry Biochemistry Building on the Montana State University campus Wednesday. The building was built with research grant dollars MSU brings in from outside the state.

.Posted: Thursday, January 6, 2011 12:15 am | Updated: 6:16 pm, Wed Jan 5, 2011.

Study: MSU gives $1 billion boost to Montana’s economy By GAIL SCHONTZLER, Chronicle Staff Writer The Bozeman Daily Chronicle | 0 comments

Montana's economy would lose 13,500 jobs and more than $1 billion in personal income if Montana State University didn't exist, says a new economic study.

MSU's four college campuses and the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station together generate $253 million a year in state taxes, according to the report.

That means for every $1 the state invests in MSU, the state gets back $2.60 in taxes.

"The investment the public has made in higher education is paying off," MSU President Waded Cruzado said Wednesday after releasing the economic study to campus leaders at a University Council meeting.

"If an average citizen were seeing this kind of return on their personal investment, they would be thrilled," Cruzado said, adding she was "extremely proud" of the report.

Copies of the 34-page, color report will be delivered to Montana lawmakers, who gathered this week for the start of the 2011 Legislature. They will decide how much the state will spend in the next two years to support the Montana University System, which includes MSU.

The report's main message is that, rather than being a drain on the state, MSU creates jobs and is "a powerful economic engine for the state, improving the quality of life for all Montanans."

"What's on everybody's minds is jobs - job creation, livable wages," said Doug Steele, MSU vice president and chief lobbyist at the Legislature.

Patrick Barkey, head of the University of Montana's Bureau of Business and Economic Research, wrote the report, which was commissioned by MSU at a cost of about $40,000.

MSU's combined campuses make up one of the largest employers in the state, with more than $154 million in payroll and benefits. And MSU is the largest single research enterprise in the state, bringing in $109 million from outside Montana. The report only measured revenue added to the state because of the university, and did not count Montana-based funds, like state support or tuition from Montana students.

Barkey's report last year on UM's economic impact used somewhat different methods, but reached a similar conclusion that the Missoula campus generated 9,700 jobs in the state, $1 billion in personal income and $200 million in state revenues.

One of the main reasons MSU gives such a big boost to the economy, Barkey said, is that it brings in millions of dollars in spending by out-of-state students and federal research grants.

But the biggest reason, he wrote, is that the university creates "an educated workforce that attracts, promotes and retains higher paying jobs in Montana."

A 25-year-old Montanan with a four-year degree earns more over a lifetime -- $569,000 for women and $814,000 for men. The gender difference, Barkey said, arises partly because of career choices and women taking time out of the workforce for childbearing.

The report looked at MSU's four campuses in Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls and Havre, which combined have nearly 22,000 students, plus the Agricultural Experiment Station, which does crop and livestock research.

MSU's Bozeman campus, the largest of the four, had the biggest economic impact -- creating 9,000 total jobs, 6,000 of them in the private sector, boosting personal incomes by $723 million and generating $168 million in state revenue.

It also found that wages across the state are $1,087 a year higher on average because of the MSU campuses and pointed out that spin-off businesses from MSU research range from companies making human vaccines to advanced radar, laser technology and new varieties of barley and wheat.

In recent years, higher-education leaders, like former UM President George Dennison, have decried a trend among lawmakers to see a college education as primarily a benefit to individuals, rather than to society, and therefore something that individuals, not society, should pay for.

Asked if the report's figures on graduates' higher earnings might support that view in Helena, Steele said the report shows the state does benefit economically from higher education, from employees hired to students who become entrepreneurs.

Some lawmakers may feel it's unfair for a truck driver to pay higher taxes so a college student can get a degree and earn more, but, Barkey said, that's forgetting that "Joe Truck Driver may have his job because of the kid who went to the university."

Cruzado said the report shows that, 150 years after America decided to invest in land-grant colleges like MSU to educate ordinary citizens, "There is tangible evidence the investment the public made in higher education is paying off."

[wbtfg]

Thanks for posting.

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