DC’s $450 Million “Talent Dividend”

WDCEP recently hosted a gathering of Washington’s business and civic leaders in a push to increase the city’s college attainment rate as part of the national CEOs for Cities Talent Dividend Tour.

“If you want to know how well your city is doing when it comes to economic development, there is only one figure you need to know: the percentage of your population who have four-year degrees,” said Carol Coletta, President and CEO of CEOs for Cities. “The research on this is unassailable. The more talented your city is, the better off it will be. Developing talent from within is an imperative for urban leaders who want their cities to thrive in the knowledge economy.”

Washington would see an additional $450 million pumped into its economy annually simply by increasing the percentage of people with four-year degrees by just one percentage point – from 47.3 percent to 48.3 percent – according to analysis by CEOs for Cities, a national network of urban leaders.

The Talent Dividend Tour is a national tour underwritten by the Lumina Foundation for Education with additional support from DeVry Inc., a global provider of educational services.

The research behind the Talent Dividend is part of a larger body of work by CEOs for Cities called The City Dividends, which calculates the monetary value of: increasing college attainment rates by one percentage point (Talent Dividend); decreasing vehicle miles traveled per person per day by one mile (Green Dividend); and decreasing poverty rates by one percentage point (Opportunity Dividend).

For more information, please visit www.ceosforcities.org.