Thesis
Community colleges and employment growth in rural counties
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2010
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102211
Abstract
In the decades following World War II, policymakers dedicated a considerable amount of resources toward the expansion of community colleges throughout the United States. Community colleges were designed to fulfill a variety of social needs and provide education opportunities to segments of the American population who previously lacked the ability to attend institutions of higher education. The laudability of these goals was not enough to sustain the high levels political support for community colleges. Policymakers shifted their focus away from education towards a new agenda of stiffening penalties for crime which lead to the rapid expansion of prisons throughout the United States. This rapid expansion of prisons led many economically ailing rural communities to actively lobby decision makers to construct prisons within their communities in order to stimulate job growth. Several studies (Hooks et al. forthcoming; Hooks et al. 2004; Genter 2008) empirically tested the assumption that prisons positively impact employment growth in rural counties. These studies found that prisons had no effect on rural employment and in some contexts were negatively correlated to employment growth. Paralleling the aforementioned prison studies, this study incorporates data from several sources, including the US Census Bureau, into a panel design and uses two stage least squares regression (2SLS) to measure the employment effects community colleges have had on rural counties. In shifting the focus to community colleges, this study finds that community colleges have had a positive impact on rural employment growth in certain timeframes.
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Details
- Title
- Community colleges and employment growth in rural counties
- Creators
- Andrew J. Crookston
- Contributors
- Gregory Hooks (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Sociology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525064401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis