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Monday, June 15, 2009
Study: Ohio losing its future as grads flee
Well-educated young people may be the key to Ohio’s economic future but unless things change, they’ll continue to flee the state.
That’s the conclusion of a new survey, released Monday, June 15, by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has an Ohio office in Dayton.
The study, based on online interviews with 811 college students, is titled “Losing Ohio’s Future: Why college graduates flee the Buckeye state and what might be done about it”.
Key findings include:
*88 percent of native Ohioans say they are proud of Ohio but 51 percent plan to leave after graduation.
*Overall, 89 percent say good jobs will be very important in deciding where to live after graduation, but just 11 percent give Ohio excellent prospects.
*60 percent like the idea of a state cash grant for a down payment on a home as an incentive to stay in Ohio.
*More than half - 59 percent - are interested in local business internships while 53 percent like co-op programs.
*65 percent like a state income tax credit for those staying in Ohio for 10 years.
Release of the survey comes with Gov. Ted Strickland and legislators trying to fill a $3.2 billion shortfall in the new state budget without cutting support for higher education. The Senate version of the state budget already cut out a $94 million internship program aimed at keeping bright college students in Ohio.
“The survey shows that the young people are interested in things like co-ops and internships,” said Terry Ryan, Fordham Institute vice president for Ohio programs and policy. “They want to understand how what they’re learning in schools ties into real work.”
The FDR Group, a non-partisan New York city based research group, used Facebook and random samples provided by seven Ohio colleges to do the survey with sophomores, juniors and seniors. The colleges were: University of Dayton; Miami University; Oberlin College: Ohio State University; Ohio University; Case Western Reserve University and Kent State University.
The survey cost about $75,000, said Ryan.
