Indiana makes progress on the educational attainment gap.

• Author: Marcus, Morton J.

One area of continuing concern for Hoosiers has been the educational attainment of our citizens. Education is regarded as a key to economic development. In the past, Indiana has lagged the nation in attainment of degrees. In addition, great disparities have existed among the counties within our state. As the data from Census 2000 flow in, we can begin to examine these issues.

Degree Attainment 2000

Census 2000 recorded 3.9 million Hoosiers age 25 and older. Of these, 44.9 percent had some formal education beyond the high school level (see Figure 1). Even without a significant junior college system, 6 percent had an associate degree. Despite widespread opportunities for graduate education, only 7 percent had graduate or professional degrees.

But 20 percent had taken some post-high school education without attaining a degree. Is this a failing of either the schools or the students? It might not reflect any failure at all. In fact, it might indicate wise career decisions and efficient education systems. Degrees are the creation of academic institutions that are supposed to indicate certain levels of achievement. That contention, however, is subject to dispute. Nonetheless, if rewards are assigned to people willing to accept the discipline and dictates of others, then degrees will be a correlate for income.

Indiana and the U.S.

In 2000, Indiana lagged the nation in educational attainment at all levels above high school completion (see Figure 2). Our citizens tend to achieve that high school diploma but fall short on higher levels of educational attainment.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

Of course, we cannot say from these data exactly what this means. Since the data available at the time of this writing do not tell us the education level by age, it may be that our older citizens, who did not have extensive opportunities to further their education, are giving a downward twist to the numbers. (Indiana does have a higher percentage of older residents than the nation as a whole.)

Equally important, we do not know if the people of Indiana today were educated in this state or elsewhere. Nor do we know where the individuals educated in Indiana in the past are living today. We may have a higher percentage of high school graduates than the nation because Indiana offers good jobs for people with such a level of education. This would cause Hoosiers with high school degrees to stay here and would also invite those from other states with high school degrees to migrate...