College Education In Wyoming Is Panned

Officials from the University of Wyoming dispute a recent report from the Institute For Competitive Workforce that pans college education in the state. The ICW is the nonprofit affiliation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The report says that unemployment and wage gap numbers show no real advantage to having a two year degree from community colleges in the state compared to a high school diploma. It also says schools aren’t giving enough information to consumers so they can make sound decisions, and that it costs nearly $20-thousand dollars more per degree at UW compared to national figures.  UW Communications Director Chad Baldwin says those numbers and statistics are misleading.

"I’m not disputing the numbers, it probably does cost more to educate students at the university of Wyoming then many other schools. Some of that has to do with, again, our small population, and some of that has to do with the fact that the state has made big investments and we have low class sizes. We could become more efficient by having fewer faculty and relying more on part time teachers. We’ve elected not to do that because for us, the quality of education is more important."

Baldwin also says that the report fails to take into account other factors like the states workforce situation: where high wage jobs don’t require a college degree which skews the reports data.

The reports authors question the efficiency of the states two and four year institutions.