Oct. 26, 2006 - 12:35 MDT

ANSWER IN THE HEADLINE

An article in the Rocky Mountain News this morning by Stephen Ohlemacher of the Associated Press does append words to the headline. Could be that it might help young folks convince themselves that there is truth in the media now and then. In full then:

WHY GO TO COLLEGE ? $23,000 MORE A YEAR

Income gap provides incentive for degree, census data show

WASHINGTON -- "How much is a bachelor's degree worth ? About $23,000 a year, the government said in a report released Thursday."

"That is the average gap in earnings between adults with bachelor's degrees and those with high school diplomas, according to census Bureau data."

"College graduates made an average of $51,554 in 2004, compared with $28,645 for adults with a high school diploma."

"There appear to be strong incentives to get a college degree, given the gaps that we observe," said Lisa Barrow, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago."

"The income gap narrowed slightly from five years earlier, when college graduates made nearly twice as much as high school graduates. But the differences remained significant for men and women of every racial and ethnic group."

"Eighty-five percent of people 25 and older have at least a high school diplopma or the equivalent, compared with 80 percent in 2000 and a little more than half in 1970. Twenty-eight percent have at least a bachelor's degree, compared with about 24 percent in 2000 and 11 percent in 1970."

"I think we've done a very good job of getting individuals into college," said Cecilioia Rouse, professor of economics and public affairy at Princeton University. "But we don't fully understand why we don't do as good a job of graduating them."

"Chester Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington, said too many high school graduates are unprepared to succeed in college."

"If you don't emerge from high school having done at least the equivalent of advanced algebra, you are not going to be ready for college math," Finn said. "You can make similar points about English."

"Among other findings:

## Minnesota, Utah, Montana, New Hampshire and Alaska had the highest proportions of adults with at least a high school diploma -- all about 92 percent.

## Texas had the loweest proportion of adults with at least a high school diploma, about 78 percent. It was followed closely by Kentucky and Mississippi."

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Of course there are always the exceptions, both plus and minus. People who got a bachelor's degree in Cookie Crumb Collecting and so forth and those who got PhDs in Engineering subjects can, I think, look forward to quite different incomes. But basically it does seem to hint that perseverance in education is a very good thing, I hope those of us with youngsters still at home in school can convince them of this.

Short and sweet, is the ANSWER IN THE HEADLINES . . . . . . . . . . . . .