Report suggests how to boost number of S.C. college grads

A new report suggests increasing the number of college graduates in South Carolina by boosting financial aid for lower- and middle-class students, offering rebates for graduates in high-demand fields and raising state funding to schools that hold down tuition.

The report – released Tuesday by a group of state political, business and academic leaders – aims to drive more cooperation among state universities as well as get businesses involved in improving higher education, including addressing the high cost of going to college, said former Gov. Jim Hodges, who is helping shepherd the effort.

“We have got to step up our game,” Hodges said. “We have to get more people through college.”

The report, developed by a coalition known as Competing Through Knowledge, is based on a University of South Carolina study that found the state will have a shortage of 114,550 workers with two-year and four-year college degrees through 2030. Its recommendations also were based on a survey of registered voters’ opinions about colleges and months of discussions among coalition leaders.

Competing Through Knowledge hopes legislative and college leaders will use the report as a blueprint to determine funding for schools statewide, rather than just individual universities, Hodges said.

The report’s suggestions include: creating more collaboration and partnerships between colleges and businesses; giving performance incentives to colleges; offering more online courses and degrees; and graduating more students in the health care, math, technology, engineering and science fields.

“We don’t want to make judgments about liberal arts education,” Hodges said. “We need to educate more colleges graduates, period.”

The report does not offer specific suggestions and does not include any cost estimates for its proposals.

“Too often higher education is viewed as an expense, when it’s an investment,” said Ken Wingate, a former interim state treasurer who sits on the Competing Through Knowledge council.

But giving more state money to colleges would clash with other legislative priorities, including fixing roads and improving K-12 education, required under a state Supreme Court ruling.

“You’re always competing against the crisis of the day,” said former S.C. House Speaker David Wilkins, a coalition council member who is chairman of the Clemson University board of trustees. “We’re talking about job creation here.”

Hodges said he is not expecting lawmakers to take up any suggestions from the report until 2016 at the earliest.

The coalition includes former Gov. David Beasley, Francis Marion University President Fred Carter, Duke Energy Vice President George Acker, Comporium Chief Executive Bryant Barnes and David Pankau, chief executive of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina.

This story was originally published March 23, 2015 at 9:25 PM with the headline "Report suggests how to boost number of S.C. college grads."