Study finds mandatory education boosted economy, workforce

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-07/uok-csl072715.php

Public Release: 27-Jul-2015
University of Kansas

Providing two years of free community college to qualifying students is expected to be a hot topic during the 2016 presidential campaign.

President Barack Obama introduced the plan earlier this year, aimed at boosting educational attainment and workforce opportunities of thousands of students -- especially those from low-income families. Support for expanded education is not the purview of one party, however; President George W. Bush also frequently referenced the significance of two-year colleges. Tennessee and Oregon are offering free community college to qualifying students.

A University of Kansas researcher has found -- as part of a recent study published in the journal Social Forces -- that educational expansion worked once before in creating better jobs and upgrading the opportunities of the American workforce.

Emily Rauscher, a KU assistant professor of sociology, examined state-level data from 1850 to 1930, when states began instituting compulsory schooling laws requiring students to attend school up to a certain age. She found that compulsory schooling laws significantly increased school attendance rates, especially among lower-class children, and also shifted the occupational distribution toward skilled and non-manual occupations.

"These findings suggest that building a more educated workforce helped create more skilled jobs and raised the occupational distribution," Rauscher said.

Even though the findings of her study centered on data that is decades old, it could provide useful insights today regarding economic development and the potential benefits of creating a skilled workforce, she said. As states adopted compulsory schooling laws, those most affected were students of lower socio-economic status, whose parents worked in mostly non-skilled and manual labor jobs.

Access to more education gave these students broader opportunities to pursue careers that weren't limited to non-skilled and manual labor. Importantly, Rauscher noted that the benefits were not limited to the students affected by the laws. The types of jobs available changed for everyone.

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