Pre-College
Program Benefits North Carolina
Sherick Hughes,
a former MSEN Pre-College student, has conducted a cost-benefit analysis
of the MSEN Pre-College Program, comparing the program's costs to the
state to its benefits in increased earnings. This study shows
that the benefits of the Pre-College Program to the state of North Carolina
outweigh its costs.
Sherick Hughes, a former Pre-College student at Elizabeth City State
University who is a recent graduate of the Master of Public Administration
Program and currently a doctoral student at UNC-Chapel Hill, has conducted
a study that determines the costs of sending the 234 African Americans
in the 1998-1999 Pre-College graduating class through the program for
four years. He then estimated the number of these students who
enrolled in college solely because of the MSEN Pre-College Program and
determined the amount of the increased earnings of those students who
were expected to stay and work in North Carolina.
It was determined that, due to higher educational levels, these individuals
would contribute more to the economy of North Carolina in increased
earnings than the state had spent to put them through the program.
Hughes estimated that it would take six to seven years after high school
graduation for the benefits of the Pre-College Program to outweigh its
costs for this group of students and that the net benefits of the program
were likely to increase as long as they stay and work in North Carolina.
In fact, if these students, who attended college solely because of MSEN
and then stayed in North Carolina, lived and worked in the state until
retirement at age 64, the economic benefit from their increased earnings
would exceed $3.86 million and would surpass the entire cost of the
program for the four years they were in it.
This study has been published in the February-March 2002 edition of
The High School Journal. The article is entitled "The MSEN Pre-College
Program: What are the Costs and Benefits Based on Estimates of its Impact
on Black High School Graduates?”
If you would like to receive more information about this study, please
contact the network office at (919) 966-3256.
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