Retaining Baltimore?s college graduates is key to expanding the economy. A wealth of research shows that fact.
And a vigorous economy offering opportunity and quality of life here is key to keeping them.
Unfortunately, many of the area?s 100,000 students have viewed the city as a stopover.
But a recent study says students? attitudes may be changing.
The Collegetown Network, a group of 16 local public and private colleges and universities, surveyed more than 3,000 students to discern their views on Baltimore. The results are encouraging.
It found that 31.5 percent of students who attend school locally plan to stay or are likely to stay in Baltimore after graduation ? a 65 percent increase from results in 2003, when the group last surveyed local students.
Seventy-three percent of those surveyed also said they would recommend Baltimore as a good place to go to school.
After the 2003 survey the Collegetown Network spent $750,000 on a public relations campaign showing the benefits of going to school in Baltimore and staying here afterward.
It?s difficult to measure how much of an impact the campaign made in the 2006 survey results, but its effects will fade in time.
Ultimately, it?s the availability of quality jobs that will retain graduates.
That?s why it?s imperative that the General Assembly help to make Maryland open for business.
Its track record in that area stinks.
Legislation that forces Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. customers accept a one-size-fits-all rate stabilization plan is one example of its penchant to meddle in how a company runs its business.
The so-called Wal-Mart bill that would have coerced companies with 10,000 or more employees to spend 8 percent or more of their payroll on health insurance or send the difference to Annapolis is another.
A court will ultimately decide the outcome of that law.
But both pieces of legislation say, “Enter at your own risk” to businesses considering moving to or expanding in the state.
If the perception that Baltimore and the state are good places to live and work is to last, it needs economic proof.
The General Assembly owes it to Maryland students ? and all of its residents ? to focus its efforts on legislation that reduces the hurdles to doing business in the state.
