AVIC members significantly expand the educational capacity and choice available to Vermont students and contribute to the state’s future workforce and leaders – citizens who will shape the economic, civic, and cultural life of Vermont.
Investment in the Future
• Almost 2,000 more students come to Vermont to attend college than leave the state, enriching the workforce and taxpayer base.
• People with a bachelor’s degree earn an average of 84% more over their lifetime than high school graduates and will consequently pay more in taxes than someone with only a high-school diploma.
• A 2011 Pew Research Center analysis, using Census Bureau data, estimates that the typical adult with a bachelor’s degree (but no further education) will earn $1.42 million over a 40-year career, compared with $770,000 for a typical high school graduate. That $650,000 difference narrows somewhat, to $550,000, according to the analysis, after factoring in the expense of going to college and the four years of potential earnings that college graduates give up while they are in school. That’s a BIG difference.
• College graduates are two times more likely to be employed than those who graduate from high school and are far more likely to vote, volunteer, and be involved in civic activities.
• Among students seeking a bachelor’s degree, only 22 percent succeed within six years, compared with 65 percent at nonprofit private schools and 55 percent at public institutions.
• Net tuition and fees — after grants and adjusted for inflation — at private institutions have actually fallen 4.1% in the last five years. (Source: NAICU 2012)
