The Brain-Drain Plug
If we want everyone in Connecticut to prosper, to flourish, to grow up to be successful and avoid being something pathetic like a newspaper columnist, do we have to build and subsidize and coddle local colleges and universities and culinary institutes?
The knee-jerk answer for decades has been “yes-yes-yes,” because without our “well-trained work force” we would be at a competitive disadvantage against states with lower taxes, wine in grocery stores, and no laws against kissing on Sundays.
Connecticut, like many dull, over-regulated states, suffers from a “brain drain,” which occurs when the local kids go off to an out-of-state college and never come back; or when Cohen the Columnist goes on vacation.
Connecticut’s technique of choice to plug the drain is, again, shiny new colleges and zillion-dollar additions to existing colleges and occasional chamber-of-commerce-inspired cocktail parties in Hartford to convince liquored-up young professionals that the city is way-cool.
Left unclear in all this is whether the strategy is effective — or, for that matter, whether the “problem” is really a problem. The power elite in Connecticut is hard-pressed to argue that one must attend Local State University in order to remain in Connecticut and become arrogant and powerful.
They Came Back
Former Gov. John Rowland didn’t attend college in Connecticut. Former First District Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly attended college in Washington; Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal went out-of-state, as did state Treasurer Denise Nappier and U.S. Reps. Chris Murphy and Chris Shays and … well … the list goes on and on.
If, after attending Harvard, Dick Blumenthal had peddled himself to a fancy Manhattan law firm, and lived happily ever after in midtown, culminating in his decision not to run for governor of New York, would his New York address have been considered a sign of failure?
We have constructed a weird fantasy in a fast moving, increasingly borderless world that Connecticut can’t “attract” a quality work force unless the kids are tricked or subsidized or otherwise convinced to stay home. If Pratt & Whitney Aircraft needs an aerospace guy, and the candidate happens to live in Manchester, N.H., instead of Manchester, Conn., Pratt will him hunt down and hire him.
Much of the college-loving behavior among Connecticut politicians is more about real estate values than educational opportunities. Hartford was hot to attract the Connecticut Culinary Institute to the defunct Hastings Hotel, because it was hard to imagine what else might ever choose to locate there.
The state is lavishing gifts on the private Goodwin College in East Hartford, to compete against not only other private colleges, but also to compete against public community colleges and universities. Why? Goodwin’s location along the Connecticut River looks a bit better than if we put a steel mill or power plant on the site.
Meanwhile, the state universities are preparing to absorb their billion-dollar bonding bonanza from a General Assembly that asked very few questions about what the money was for. Economist Richard Vedder of Ohio University compared the most generous states to public higher education, to the stingiest — and he found that the stingy states do better on almost every economic measure.
I’ve been teaching at colleges and universities in Connecticut for 30 years, which means at least some Connecticut students have had a God for a professor. Has that been “good for Connecticut?” The presumption is, yes. The evidence is less clear.
Laurence D. Cohen is a freelance writer.
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