Graduation rates

As a half million Utah children return to school, parents can take heart in this: Schools here are among the nation's leaders in making sure students earn high school diplomas — a fact that's not much changed since 1940.

But getting them through college is another story.

While 90 percent of Utah residents over the age of 25 have completed high school, only 27.9 percent hold a bachelor's degree and 8.7 percent earn an advanced degree, according to a report released today from the American Community Survey.

"It's a leaky pipeline," said David Doty, assistant commissioner of higher education in Utah. "We need to get the younger generation to see that higher education is important to their future and the economy of our state."

Utah was fifth in the nation with 6.2 percent of its residents being college grads back in 1940 — a time when Washington, D.C., led the pack for the percent of total population over age 25 with a bachelor's degree or higher, according to decade analyses by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Now Utah has slipped to 17th in the nation for bachelor's degree and 27th for advanced degrees, according to the 2005 American Community Survey, also conducted through the Census Bureau.

Washington, D.C., meanwhile, stayed on top for higher education in 2000, with 45.3 percent of its populace holding degrees, the census shows. Once-trailing Massachusetts, with 5.6 percent of residents having college degrees in 1940, grew its college graduates quickly enough to rank second in the country by 2000, with 36.9 percent of its population having degrees.

And while higher education was taking a dive in Utah, the state's public education sector only slipped two spots to No. 5 for the percentage of residents who completed high school on the most recent report.

The dropping percentage of college graduates has caught the attention of higher education leaders, who say the state's lack of degree holders has already cost the state the favor of retailers and businesses who won't move into a community where less than 35 percent of residents graduated from college.

In rural counties especially, Doty said higher education attainment is suffering and hurting small-town economies. According to the survey, 20.9 percent of Washington County residents over 25 years old hold a bachelor's degree, compared to 28.5 percent in Salt Lake County.