As has been demonstrated, the general migration to Spartanburg is low, indicating that there is little draw to bring new residents to the county. In part, this may be explained by the low educational status of the county populous. Even though Spartanburg high school students are now graduating at higher rates, they do not continue to post-secondary institutions. Therefore, it follows that Spartanburg County does not have a ready work force to entice high wage employers, nor does the county have available jobs to entice individuals seeking high wage employment.

The national college continuation rate for 2007 high school graduates was 67.2%, the second highest rate on record since data began to be collected in 1959, and second only to the peak of 68.6% reached in 2005. This equates to 1,986,000 of 2007 high school graduates enrolling in a degree-granting college in October 2007. Approximately 43.1% of 2007 graduates continuing to college enrolled in four-year colleges, and 24.1% enrolled in two-year colleges. Since 1973 the trend has evidenced strong growth in college continuation; however, growth slowed from an average of .87% per year prior to 1991 to .32% per year after 1991 and slowed further after 1997 to an average of .02% per year (Post-secondary Education OPPORTUNITY, 191).

In 2006, a total of 38,141 S.C. students completed high school. Of those completers, 24,997 (65.5%) entered a college freshman class. Of S.C. students who completed high school, 40.8% entered a four-year college, 3.6% entered a two-year college, and 21.1% entered a technical college degree program. Of the colleges chosen, 90.7% were in-state and 9.3% were out-of-state.

Of the 2006 Spartanburg County high school graduates, 64% enrolled in a college freshman class. Of the 2006 graduates, 39% enrolled in a four-year college, 19% enrolled in a technical college degree program, and 6% enrolled in a two-year college (Figure 2). Of the colleges chosen, 91% were in-state and 9% were out-of-state.

Table 5 illustrates that, within Spartanburg County, only students in Districts 6 and 7 entered college at rates above the state average of 65.5%. Further, only students in Districts 6 and 7 entered four-year colleges at rates above the state average of 40.8% and only students in District 6 entered technical colleges at rates above the state average of 21.1%.

Table 6 demonstrates that, comparatively, students in Greenville, Richland 1, Richland 2, and Charleston entered college at rates above the state average, and they entered four-year colleges and technical colleges at rates above the state average. Below average percentages of students in Spartanburg entered college, four-year colleges, two-year colleges and technical colleges.

Results of a Spring 2008 survey of Spartanburg County high school seniors (n= 3,336) indicated that 57.4% of respondents planed to enroll in a four-year college or university upon graduation, 18.3% planned to enroll in a two-year college in preparation for attending a four-year college or university, and 11.8% planned to enroll in a two-year college or technical school to obtain an associate’s degree or certification.

Taken together, these data suggest that significantly more Spartanburg County high school seniors intend to enroll in four-year and two-year college than actually do. Conversely, significantly more seniors enroll in community / technical college than had planned to do so. Survey data also show that 3.2% of Spartanburg high school seniors plan not to go to college at all and 5.6% of them are still undecided about future plans in spring of their last year.

Longitudinal data indicate that there is a decreasing enrollment in four-year colleges and two-year colleges among Spartanburg County high school graduates, but there is an increasing enrollment in technical degree programs (see Table 7).

Fewer than one-fifth of the nation’s college students today meet the stereotype of an 18-22 year old living on campus and attending college full-time (NCHSSY, 2001). Although a number of reports indicate that economic conditions require more students to work while attending college part-time, the data demonstrate that 35.9% of 2007 college freshmen were employed, compared to 40.2% in 2006 and 43.4% in 2005. In fact, the 2007 freshmen employment rate was the lowest since 1976 and nearly 10 percentage points below the peaks reached in 1998–2000 (Post-secondary Education OPPORTUNITY, 191). Although financial aid dollars have increased, these dollars have not kept pace with escalating prices (Lumina Foundation, 2008). After 1980 there was a shift in longstanding public policy away from broadening opportunity for the citizenry to access post-secondary education to narrowly targeted programs for populations that had no financial need (Post-secondary Education OPPORTUNITY, 191). In fact, the retargeting of financial aid has been accompanied by massive cost shifts from taxpayers to students and their families.