In the South, where only 26 to 44 percent of adults have a college degree, a new report insists the lofty goal of 60 percent by 2025 is attainable.
"We really think that it is realistic. It's a stretch, but these are the types of goals we have to have to move toward," said Alan Richard, spokesman for the Southern Regional Education Board, which wrote the report, "No Time to Waste," released Tuesday.
PDF: Policy Recommendations for Increasing College Completion
Tennessee and Georgia - whose adult population with postsecondary degrees is at 31.3 percent and 36.2 percent, respectively, below the national average of 37.9 percent - have an especially long way to go. So much so that Tennessee officials say they aren't even going to shoot for 60 percent.
Instead, they're hoping for a 4 percent increase every year so the state will be in line with the projected national average by 2025, officials said.
"We're currently ranked 44th in educational attainment so, as a state, we're trying to set a goal that is aspirational and yet attainable," said David Wright, chief policy officer for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.
The key to improving the South's economic future is getting more people through college, the report says. Even jobs such as working on the assembly line at a Kia car plant in West Point, Ga., now require a bachelor's degree, Richard said.
The education report echoes a recent goal set out by the Lumina Foundation for the entire country, and one from President Barack Obama for the U.S. to regain its lead in the number of college graduates by 2020.
In their report, officials at the Southern Regional Education Board set out 10 policy recommendations for governors, higher education boards and other state officials for how to make the 60 percent goal a reality. Among those is setting up a better data-tracking system.
The U.S. Census Bureau now tracks only those who complete two- and four-year college degrees. But for the education board's purposes, its 60 percent goal also will count those who finish a career certificate program that requires at least one year of training.
"It's a bit of a fuzzy goal, because we don't actually know the number of people with career certificates," Richard said.
Another policy recommendation applicable to Georgia in particular, Richard said, is to provide more need-based scholarships to get a greater number of students through school.
Wright said the ideas in the education board's report are closely aligned with what Tennessee education officials already are trying to do. In January, for instance, state lawmakers passed a law that ties higher education funding to college completion rather than enrollment.
Tennessee administrators also will focus on adult degree completion programs, Wright said. He imagines one day that Tennessee will have a statewide online degree completion program.
"Tennessee has a large population of adults with no college degree, so that will be a big part of our solution," he said. "The high school pipeline isn't going to be enough to get that extra 4 percent per year."
Georgia also is looking for ways to make college easier to complete for older, nontraditional students, officials said. In addition, members of the state's Board of Regents said they are working to prevent students who transfer from one school to another from losing credits and having to spend more time in college.
"We've been aggressively going after this whole notion of the importance of postsecondary completion for a year," said Lynne Weisenbach, a vice chancellor for the University System of Georgia. "It means we have to do some things differently, and we're keenly aware of that."
Contact Kelli Gauthier at kgauthier@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/gauthierkelli.