California's Brain Drain: Attracting More College Educated Workers

More college educated workers have left California than have moved here in the last five years. This is creating a crisis, as we will soon not have enough educated workers to meet the projected economic demand. The Public Policy Institute just completed a study on the subject.

Demand is rising, due in part to the graying of the baby boomers and the need created when people move out of the state. The high cost of housing is driving people away. California used to get a "large supply of college graduates from other parts of the country", but the baby boomers are now older than the age most people migrate across state borders.

PPIC says that we can only meet the demand by attracting college graduates in unprecedented numbers, but that does not seem likely to happen. The number of immigrants coming to California with a college degree exceed the number of immigrants who were not high school graduates between 2000-2005. This trend could "intensify but the number of highly educated immigrants to California would still need to more than double to meet projected needs." The study points out that it would require changes to U.S. immigration law, which is unlikely to occur. Not only that, but there is more competition internationally these days for highly skilled workers in their own countries.

PPIC concludes that the need is unlikely to be met by increased migration of those with degrees.

However, increases in college participation and graduation among California's residents could help meet these future demands. Such increases will be at least partly induced by the way growth that will occur as highly skilled labor becomes relatively scarce. Public policy in California, a state where the majority of college students are in public institutions, has an important role to play in accommodating and even encouraging such increases.

We need to grow our own college graduates. The rapidly rising cost of tuition makes that much more difficult. We will soon spend more money on our prisons than higher education systems. Talk to any recent graduate here in California and they will tell you about the burden of their loans and wonder how they will ever afford to own a home. The state's future rests on the ability to train and retain the millenials. Public policy must reflect that need. Businesses need this as much as anyone else.