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ATE project and center PIs and staff understand first hand the reach and impact of community colleges and a recent report from the American Association of Community Colleges helps provide compelling evidence of the breadth and depth of community college’s positive effects on both the US economy and individual students.  

The eighty-eight page report (Where Value Meets Values) is chock full of useful data and analysis and provides an overview of public community colleges’ impact on the national economy and the return on investment for students, society at large, and individual taxpayers.

Community colleges contributed $809 billion to the United States economy in 2012. This number is equal to 5.4 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Or the entire GDP of the Netherlands. Or more than twice the net worth of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The authors also estimate that for every dollar community college students spend on tuition, they stand to gain $4.80 in increased future wages. This translates into a rate of return of 17.8% - a far cry from bank account interest rates.

Taken from a social perspective, community college graduates will contribute an extra $1.1 trillion to the economy during their working lives, including $46.4 billion in "social savings," such as reduced crime, lower unemployment, and increased health and well-being. In other words, for every dollar that U.S. taxpayers spend on community colleges, the report says, they stand to save $25.90 in the long run.

The report also examines taxpayer investment in community colleges more directly. In 2012, taxpayers invested $44.9 billion in community colleges. Over the course of a working lifetime, these same students will contribute $285.7 billion in benefits to tax payers - or a long-term savings of $19.2 billion in benefits. The cost-benefit ratio comes out to a whopping 6.8 to 1, or a net return of $5.80 for every dollar taxpayers invest in community colleges. That's an annual rate of return of 14.3 percent.

The information provided in the report can benefit those of us in the ATE community in a number of ways. It will be extremely useful in helping provide context for grant writing – showcasing the economic impact of community colleges at a larger level. It may also be a useful source of data for presentations or reporting, allowing us to draw parallels between our individual work and the larger efforts of community college educators nationwide.   

As the report concludes, "America’s community colleges create value from multiple perspectives." They benefit businesses, they benefit taxpayers, they benefit social services - but, most importantly, they benefit the students we all serve.