Economic Benefits Generated by A-B Tech

The Results

All figures quoted are for fiscal year 2003 (July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2003) unless otherwise noted.

Economic Development

A-B Tech had operating expenses of $34 million in FY 2003. The college spent $28 million (84%) in the A-B Tech service area to purchase supplies and pay wages and salaries.

A-B Tech employed 311 full-time and 548 part-time faculty and staff. The college paid faculty and staff wages, salaries and benefits of $21 million in FY 2003.

For every $1 A-B Tech pays in earnings, there is an additional 62 cents in wages and salaries generated off-campus in the service area economy.

A-B Tech activities encourage new business, assist existing business, and create long-term economic growth. The college enhances worker skills and provides customized training to local business and industry. It is estimated that the present-day A-B Tech service area workforce embodies over 1.8 million credit and non-credit hours of past and present A-B Tech training.

A-B Tech skills embodied in the present-day workforce increase the output of industries in the A-B Tech service area economy where the former students are employed by $228 million. Associated multiplier effects (sometimes called indirect effects) in other industries increase sales by $175 million.

Skills from current and former A-B Tech students increase wages and salaries in Buncombe and Madison counties by $90 million directly and by another $69 million indirectly in FY 2003.

Leveraging Taxpayer Dollars

State and local government allocated $24 million in support of A-B Tech. For every dollar appropriated by state and local government, A-B Tech’s spending alone generated $1.37 in wages and salaries in Buncombe and Madison counties.

For every dollar appropriated by the state and local government in FY 2003, student earnings will increase by an average of 70 cents per year, every year through the rest of their working lives. Likewise, for every state dollar appropriated, Buncombe and Madison counties will see social savings of 17 cents per year, every year. This is measured in reduced incarcerations, reduced health care expenditures, reduced unemployment costs, decreased welfare costs, and reduced absenteeism.

Return on Investment

State and local government support for A-B Tech in FY 2003 will be fully recovered in 8.7 years in the form of higher tax receipts from increased student wages and avoided costs such as reduced public expenditures on incarceration.

Accounting for increased tax receipts and avoided costs, state and local government will see a rate of return of 14.3% on their FY 2003 support for A-B Tech.

Increased Earning Potential

A total of 25,298 credit and non-credit students attended the college in FY 2003, 75% of whom were employed full- or part-time while attending.

Over 80% of students stay in the region after they leave the college and contribute to the local economy.

Studies demonstrate that education increases lifetime earnings. The average annual earnings of students with a one-year certificate is $24,035 or 81.6% more than someone without a high school diploma or GED and 15.4% more than a student with a high school diploma. The average earnings of someone with an associate’s degree is $28,110 or 112.4% more than someone without a high school diploma or GED and 35% more than a student with a high school diploma or GED.

After leaving A-B Tech, the average student will spend 30 years in the workforce. Students who leave with a two-year college degree will earn $221,851 more than someone with just a high school diploma or GED.

Over the next 30 years in the workforce, the average A-B Tech student’s discounted lifetime earnings will increase $5.22 for every dollar invested in their A-B Tech education (including tuition, fees, books, and forgone earnings from employment).

A-B Tech students enjoy a 24.8% rate of return on their educational investment and recover all costs (including wages foregone while attending A-B Tech) in 5.7 years.