(MATT BARNARD/Tulsa World)
Danette Howard, senior vice president and chief strategy officer for the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation, speaks at the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s state of education event on Thursday at the Renaissance Hotel.
College might not be for everybody, but post-secondary education is, a leading authority on the subject told the Tulsa Regional Chamber on Thursday.
“There are times when people say, ‘Not everyone needs to go to college,’ ” said Danette Howard, senior vice president and chief strategy officer for the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation. “And there are times when people say, ‘It’s just not worth the cost.’ And I will agree that maybe not everyone needs a bachelor’s degree.
“But everyone actually does need to have some sort of post-high school learning — unless any of us are OK with someone being able to earn only $9,000 a year.”
Howard said Tennessee found that’s the average annual income in that state of those with high school diplomas but no post-secondary education two years after graduation.
A big reason for that is because 99 percent of jobs created since the Great Recession require some sort of post-high school credential, Howard said.
That may also be one reason many sectors of the economy report labor shortages. Howard’s Lumina Foundation says about 48% of Americans ages 25-64 have some form of post-secondary education, whether it be an advanced graduate degree or an industry or skill certification.
Read more at the Tulsa World here.