Dayton gets $200K to increase college attainment

Dayton was selected as one of 20 cities across America that will receive $200,000 to support its goal to increase the number of residents with a college degree or certificate that will connect them with a job.

Dayton joins Cincinnati, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Memphis and others as the first cities to receive this backing from the Lumina Foundation, the nation’s largest foundation dedicated to increasing the number of people who receive post-secondary credentials.

Montgomery County’s goals are “aggressive”: to, by the year 2025, increase public high schools graduates who earn a college degree or other credential within six years of leaving high school to 50 percent from its current 36 percent, according to Lumina.

And to raise its working-age adults who hold a degree or credential to 60 percent from its current 36 percent.

“We’re changing the culture in the Dayton region, so young people grow up knowing what they have to do to get good jobs and to succeed in the workplace,” said Lori Ward, superintendent of Dayton Public Schools, in a news release. “Starting with our preschoolers, we have strategies to ensure that our young people get the education they need to compete in a global economy.”

Lumina will support the Montgomery County goals by providing access to technical and planning assistance, data tools, flexible funding and guidance from a network of national thought leaders. Last year, Lumina dedicated an entire issue of its FOCUS magazine to Dayton’s efforts to improve adults receiving either college degrees or post-high school credentials.

Learn to Earn Dayton, a local initiative working to raise the education attainment of the region beginning with students in pre-kindergarten, will be eligible for an allocation of $200,000 over a three-year period as part of the “mobilization effort,” according to Lumina.

“Lumina’s recognition is more validation of the hard work being done in Montgomery County to ensure that the Dayton region has the educated workforce it needs to compete for high quality 21st century jobs,” said Tom Lasley, executive director of Learn to Earn Dayton.

“We’re investing in young people so that they’ll hit every mile-marker that puts them on a path to college or a good job,” he said.

Lumina has a national goal of 60 percent of Americans have degrees and credentials by 2020.

Ohio lags behind the nation in degree attainment with just nearly 36 percent of working-age residents holding at least an associate degree, according to Lumina. Nationwide, nearly 39 percent of adults hold a college degree.

About 63 percent of all jobs will require at least some college by 2018, according to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce.

“Research shows a direct correlation between thriving cities and education beyond high school,” said Jamie Merisotis, president and chief executive officer of Lumina. “Increased attainment delivers stronger local economies, greater individual earning power and better quality of life. Every community in America wants that, and we’ve designed this work to give leaders in the Dayton region and beyond the tools they need to be successful.”

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