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July 22, 2010

Report ranks area low in education

The writer of the study sees an outflow of well-educated young people as significant.

By Matt Hughes mhughes@timesleader.com
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Greater Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is among the least educated of America’s 100 largest cities, a report released in May indicates.

The area, defined as all of Lackawanna, Luzerne and Wyoming counties, ranked 91st in bachelor’s degree attainment, at 21 percent of the population older than 25, and 90th in graduate degree attainment, at 7.4 percent. Data from a 2000 study rank the area in the same positions. Population percentages accompanying each rank are also statistically comparable.

The data were included in a larger study titled, “The State of Metropolitan America” conducted by the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

The area ranked higher in the proportion of the population attaining at least a high school diploma, at 56th, and percentage of the population holding an associate’s degree, at 42nd. Both are single-digit improvements on 2000 Census data.

The study used data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the largest survey conducted by the bureau other than the census it conducts every 10 years. The survey gathers the same information that was collected on the census “long-form” questionnaire in former census years, but on a continual basis. The long-form questionnaire was eliminated from this year’s census.

The American Community Survey collects information from 3 million households, or about two and one-half percent of American households, annually. A Brookings Institution representative said it represents the most up-to-date data available.

Alan Berube, the Brookings Institution researcher who wrote the study’s education chapter, said “brain drain,” college graduates leaving the area to work in larger metropolitan areas, plays a definite role in the area’s low ranking.

“There is no question that some of what accounts for Scranton’s low ranking is the fact that it’s not able to hold on to younger people […] taking those degrees and moving on to more vibrant labor markets,” Berube said.

Berube also named “the overhang of the economy that didn’t require a college degree for a good job with a good wage,” as partly responsible for the area’s position.

“The rate of educational attainment is a reflection of the kind of economy you have,” Berube said, adding that “you can’t transform that overnight.”

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