On accountability. (Controversy).

I READ WITH INTEREST the article entitled "Banging the Bucket" that appeared in the July/August issue of University Business [Controversy; anonymous author]. With the statement that "it is not ethical to encourage investment by student, family, and society without some indication of a reasonable return to investors," the author gets to the heart of economic side of the educational accountability issue. This is an issue that we at Bridgeport, CT's Housatonic Community College, located in a five-year-old campus in the heart of the state's largest city, have addressed head-on, with eye-opening results.

In response to the legislature's demand for accountability from the state's community colleges and universities, we began looking for ways to quantify our economic impact. We knew we would need more than data such as enrollment and graduating student statistics that only hint at economic impact. We would need something that gives us a dollars-and-cents picture. Our research into this challenge took us to CCBenefits, a small consulting firm in Moscow, ID, that had been piloting an economic impact model that it developed for the Washington, DC-based Association of Community College Trustees. We discovered that the model could gauge the impact of rural colleges that are dominant players in an economy, as well as colleges like Housatonic that are smaller contributors to a larger, much more complex economic organism. We gave CCBenefits the go-ahead, becoming the third in the nation to complete such a study. The study showed that HCC:

* Contributes more than $60 million in earnings to the regional economy per year.

* Saves the State of Connecticut some $1.4 million per year in improved health and reduced welfare, unemployment, and crime.

* Enables students to enjoy a 27 percent return on their investment of time and money--a return much higher than the long-term return on U.S. stocks and bonds.

* Enables taxpayers to see an ROI of roughly 13 percent in attending the college, and recovery of all investments in two years.

According to the study, the annual wages and salaries HCC pays, along with the capital and operating expenditures, account for $12.8 million in the economy of the region. Added to this is $42.6 million in annual earnings stemming from the skills and knowledge students gained at HCC. Each year, as HCC students leave the college and join the workforce, the knowledge and skills acquired at HCC translate to higher earnings and a larger regional economy. The number can be expected to increase as more students enter the workforce.

And, the report states, for each year they are in the workforce, HCC students will average $87 more per year for every credit hour equivalent completed--an additional $2,093 per year for every year they attend college full time. For every dollar invested in an education at HCC, a student will see a $6.03 return in the form of higher Future earnings. The investment recovery time is 4.9 years.

Because of their higher education, all exiting students will save the state $1.4 million per year in costs stemming from improved health, reduced crime, and reduced welfare and unemployment. For area employees, that translates into 4,664 fewer days lost for health reasons each year, an annual savings of $300,000. The State of Connecticut will benefit from the health-related savings of 272 fewer smokers and 34 fewer alcohol abusers ($364,500 and $111,000 per year, respectively). Among HCC exiting students, 11 fewer people will be incarcerated per year (annual savings of $56,000), yielding a reduction in victim costs ($18,000 per year). People employed who would otherwise be incarcerated also add $327,000 of earnings per year to the economy. Thanks to an HCC education, there will be 203 fewer people on welfare and 22 fewer drawing unemployment benefits, saving the state $466,000 and $69,000 per year. For every dollar society invests in an HCC education today, it will receive $6.30 in benefits over the next 30 years. The payback period is 4.1 years.

Just how reliable are the study's results? We took the study and its results to third parties for their evaluation. Duane Leigh, professor and head of the Department of Economics at Washington State University, said the study does "a credible job of accurately assessing the labor market and the economic effects of community colleges." Michael L. Lahr, an associate professor with the Bloustein School of Urban Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, concurs. "This study represents the state of the art in the measurement of the economic impacts of community colleges," he said. "The results, if anything, are slightly understated." Overall, the study gives Housatonic the data it needs to demonstrate economic accountability. But, more important, it serves as an indicator of how far we have come in realizing our vision of becoming the central educational resource that meets the needs of the many constituencies in our service area.