Stopping Vermont’s Alarming
Brain Drain of Students
By Ty Handy, President
Vermont Technical College

Last year, 57% of Vermont high school seniors who attended college chose to go to college out of state. This is the greatest "brain drain" in the country.  

The national average for all states is a mere 19% of high school graduates leaving their home states to attend college. We must find a way to keep bright young Vermonters in Vermont. If we fail at this, we can expect a number of undesirable results, including an increasing tax burden spread among fewer workers and businesses leaving the state because they can’t find a sustainable work force.

We must stem the tide of out-going Vermonters and we can get a great start on that with three compelling changes.

First, we must make sure our public colleges can compete favorably with out-of-state colleges. Tuition and fees at Vermont public colleges are the highest of any state in the country.

The average tuition rate per year in Vermont is $8771, while the national average is just $5038. There are only five states in the country with average yearly tuition rates higher than $7,000.

Vermont needs to be more financially supportive of its public colleges so that needed costs are not passed on in the form of high tuition.

The average per-student funding by the state for Vermont State Colleges is $3,329 compared to a national average of over $5,800. That level of funding covers just 23% of the cost of college, leaving 77% of college costs to be borne by students—also the highest rate in the country. (The second worst state is a full ten percentage points better.) No wonder tuition is so high!

The average debt-load of a Vermont college graduate now exceeds $20,000 upon graduation.

Vermont remains the least financially supportive of its college students in the country. On a per capita basis, Vermont state government spends just $109 per person per year on higher education. The national average is $243.

Last year, Gov. Douglas proposed the Promise Scholarship Program as an important step in reducing the cost of college for many, and the legislatively-appointed Next Generation Commission is currently evaluating what more must be done in Vermont. What they recognize is that a college education is valuable to more than just the student—it is valuable to the community, as well, and deserves greater state investment.

Paying Students To Leave?

A second way to keep Vermont’s youth at home is to cease paying them to leave the state. As of last year, there were only two states in the country that gave students full need-based grants that could be taken to colleges in another state. 

Wisely, the other state, Alaska, woke up and realized how much this practice contributes to the brain drain and has done away with it starting this year. Vermont remains the lone state in the country continuing this practice.

Did you know that 25% of the money given out as grants by VSAC is leaving the state? That’s your tax dollars leaving Vermont to help pay for the facility and operating costs of institutions in other states. 

Those states, even those with reciprocity agreements, aren’t shifting significant funding to Vermont. The over-sold notion of portability was fine in its day, but the impact of paying young Vermonters to leave is having a crippling effect on the demographics of this state.

Time To Reinvest

The third requirement, if we are to successfully stem the youth exodus, is for Vermont to reinvest in the deferred maintenance and infrastructure needs of its public colleges. This necessity is a direct result of many years of under-funding our state colleges.

This year New Hampshire funded more than $100 million in capital appropriations for its public colleges. Vermont’s funding? $3.6 million. As a colleague of mine at another institution likes to say, "We’re in an arms race, and we’re losing."

Today’s college student has a level of expectation regarding a college’s amenities and, quite frankly, Vermont’s public colleges have been so chronically under-funded that it isn’t surprising the majority of college-bound high school grads are attracted to out-of-state institutions.

The brain drain and its crippling effects can be minimized, but only if Vermont decides to significantly modify its practices regarding the level and flow of funding to public higher education. 

Over the next decade, the annual number of Vermont high school graduates will fall by more than 20%. If we are to maintain a sustainable economy, we must begin immediately to intervene and change this alarming trend. One of the strongest intervention tools that this state has is its system of public colleges. Vermonters must recognize that supporting these schools is an investment, not an expense.