{"id":17475,"date":"2013-03-18T16:46:45","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T20:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=17475"},"modified":"2013-03-18T16:46:46","modified_gmt":"2013-03-18T20:46:46","slug":"study-says-florida-college-system-has-a-27-billion-benefit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/03\/18\/study-says-florida-college-system-has-a-27-billion-benefit\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Says Florida College System Has A $27 Billion Benefit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_17476\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 296px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/03\/18\/study-says-florida-college-system-has-a-27-billion-benefit\/hanna-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17476\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17476\" title=\"Hanna (2)\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/03\/Hanna-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"280\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">LaCrai Mitchell\/StateImpact Florida<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Florida College System Chancellor Randy Hanna says the 28-member system is an important economic development engine for the state.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The 28 institutions that make up the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fldoe.org\/fcs\/\">Florida College System (FCS)<\/a> are doing some bragging.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Florida College System &#8212; which last year awarded almost 106,000 degrees and certificates \u2013 was built, in part, to bolster the economic foundation of our state,\u201d said St. Johns River State College President Joe Pickens at a Capitol news conference.<\/p>\n<p>He said a new study shows how well the system is living up to its mission.<\/p>\n<p>The system\u2019s Council of Presidents hired Economic Modeling Specialists International to conduct <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fldoe.org\/fcs\/economicimpact.asp\">an economic impact study<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The findings show the Florida colleges pump nearly $27 billion a year into the state\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey do this by producing well-educated graduates who are better prepared to become high-income earners,\u201d Pickens said.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The vast majority of Florida College System grads stay in Florida to work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that 93 percent of them stay and contribute to our economy \u2013 that\u2019s the kind of investment we ought to be making,\u201d said David Hart with the Florida Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n<p>Among the study\u2019s findings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>93 percent of FCS students remain in Florida and contribute to the state\u2019s economic growth.<\/li>\n<li>88 percent of FCS graduates find a job or continue their education within one year of graduation.<\/li>\n<li>79 percent of students who receive a bachelor\u2019s degree from a FCS institution find a job.<\/li>\n<li>State government sees a rate of return of 9.4 percent on its investment in the Florida College System.<\/li>\n<li>Students enjoy an attractive 16.8 percent average rate of return on their educational investment, recovering all costs in 9.1 years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cTwo-thirds of high school students who move on to post-secondary education start in the Florida College System,\u201d said FCS Chancellor Randy Hanna.<\/p>\n<p>Hanna said colleges also play a key role in offering programs in careers that have a shortage of skilled workers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn areas ranging from nursing, allied health and bio-medicine, to information technology, business, and <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/03\/18\/will-floridas-push-for-high-tech-degrees-pay-off\/\">the all-important STEM fields<\/a> &#8212; the Florida College System meets those needs,\u201d Hanna said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 28 institutions that make up the Florida College System (FCS) are doing some bragging. \u201cThe Florida College System &#8212; which last year awarded almost 106,000 degrees and certificates \u2013 was built, in part, to bolster the economic foundation of our state,\u201d said St. Johns River State College President Joe Pickens at a Capitol news [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1023,774,1082],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17494,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17475\/revisions\/17494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}