More College Grads In Teton County
A study by the Center for Rural Strategies at Mississippi State has shown a significant growth in Teton County’s college graduates over the past 40 years. According to Assistant Professor Robert Gallardo, 17.5 percent of those over the age of 25 in Teton County had college degrees in 1970. By 2010, nearly 50% of the adults here had completed college. That’s greater than the national average of 27.9% in 2010 and a statewide rate of 23.6%. However, Judith Stallmann, an economist at the University of Missouri says one of the problems that rural areas face is that in order to get a college education, young people usually have to leave the area – and once they do, it introduces them to opportunities they might not have seen had they not left. Then they don’t return. That’s because there aren’t jobs that demand such education.
