More college-bound Californians are heading out of state

◼ Fed up with tuition increases and frustrated by rejection at packed California universities, more high school graduates than ever are ditching the state to attend college. - Phillip Reese/Sacramento Bee h/t: MH

Boise State saw its freshmen enrollment from California rise tenfold during the last decade. Arizona State doubled its enrollment of freshmen from California. The University of Oregon has quadrupled it, with freshman enrollment from California growing from 280 in 2000 to 1,100 in 2010.

...The trend, revealed in a Bee review of federal data, comes as the University of California system has stepped up its own efforts to attract out-of-state students. Despite those moves, taken largely to pay the bills, the number of students leaving the state for a four-year college far outpaces the number coming here....

The worst-case scenario for California is that a large number of students who leave the state for college don't return, leading to "brain drain."

...California still retains a higher rate of high school graduates than many other states, including New York. It's fallen from near the top to the middle of the pack.

But California needs all the college graduates it can get, said Thad Domina, assistant professor of education at UC Irvine.

"The creation of human capital," he said, "is a major driver for economic growth."