The value of an institution

Value.
These days, everyone thinks of value. How valuable is our dollar? How valuable is our portfolio? How valuable is our time? How valuable are our jobs? How valuable are those must-have holiday gifts? Value is evaluated unlike any time in recent history simply because it has to be. Each of us establishes a value baseline-what we will pay for goods or services, what we need in return for our time or talents. Value is vital.
As businesses and industries assess the value of their products, their employees and their shareholders, we begin to look for value within our own lives.
Sometimes it's obvious. Others times, it's subtle.
Anchoring the county's far eastern end, past the Wilderness, past any future Wal-Marts, past Lake of the Woods is an institution of great value to Virginia and to Orange County-Germanna Community College.
Germanna has three campuses-the Locust Grove campus, a Fredericksburg campus and the Culpeper Technology Center--serving seven counties, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Culpeper, Orange, King George, Caroline and Madison, plus the City of Fredericksburg.
Combined, that region receives roughly $12.8 million in regional income annually due to Germanna operations and capital spending.
Meanwhile, Germanna's 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 Germanna Service Area workforce embodies about 886,100 credit hours of past and present Germanna training.
GCC skills embodied in the regional workforce where former students are employed increase local income by $193.6 million. Associated indirect effects increase income by another $34.7 million.
Altogether, the Germanna service area economy annually receives roughly $241.2 million in income due to past and present efforts of the college.
In addition to generating value in terms of revenue, the college also leverages taxpayer dollars for direct local benefit.
The state and local community will avoid anticipated social costs amounting to $14 per year for every credit earned by GCC students, including savings associated with improved health, lower crime costs, and reduced welfare and unemployment. This translates to $1.4 million in avoided costs to the state of Virginia each year as long as students are in the workforce.
Students benefit from higher earnings, thereby expanding the tax base and reducing the burden on state and local taxpayers. In the aggregate, Germanna students generate about $15.4 million annually in higher earnings due to their education.
Germanna yields a return on government investment. State and local government allocated around $12.8 million in support of Germanna in fiscal year 2008. For every $1 of this support, taxpayers see a cumulative return of $3.70 over the course of students' working careers (in the form of higher tax receipts and avoided social costs).
State and local government see a rate of return of 16 percent on their support for Germanna, which compares favorably with private sector rates of return on similar long-term investments.
At a time when the value of value is at an all-time high, it's good to know we have such an asset within our community.