Tethering Students to Their States

Taken from Tethering Students to Their States:

New state scholarship programs proposed in Indiana and Wisconsin would offer funds to students attending in-state institutions, with strings attached — or, as the man behind the Wisconsin proposal puts it, “tethers.”

“If we can’t lure them here, let’s tether them here,” said Mark O’Connell, executive director of the Wisconsin Counties Association, a lobbying organization, and a member of the Commission on Enhancing the Mission of the Wisconsin Colleges, a group created to advise the network of 13 two-year colleges in the state.The commission, appointed by the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Colleges in August, submitted a report late last month calling for an investment in new scholarships pegged to residency requirements post-graduation. “If we can’t lure people to our state, smart, young people, let’s give them education and then require them to stay here a certain number of years,” O’Connell said.

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For those who do not know, similar schemes exists in Singapore. I have explained the working of such schemes here and also explained why it is a bad idea. The basic idea is that the government pays for some people's university education in return for the condition that they stay and work for a few years. In Singapore's case, the government offers subsidised or fully-sponsored university education to international students in return for a bond which obliges them to stay for 3 to 6 years after graduation in Singapore.

It's suppy-side economics in its purest form.