12/11/2010 7:00:00 PMCEO Eugene Sanders to retire

February 13, 2011, 4:35 AM

By The Plain Dealer Editorial Board

Not so long ago, young people in the Cleveland area could finish high school and find solid, middle-class employment in factories that asked little more than endurance and dependability.

No more.

These days, one of the best predictors of a region's economic potential is the educational level of the people who live there. A well-educated populace attracts outside investment. It fuels the growth of local firms.

Here are some of the places on the U.S. Census Bureau's list of major metropolitan areas with the most college graduates: Raleigh (42.2 percent), Minneapolis (37.6), Seattle (37.4).

And here's a sampling from the bottom of the list: Memphis (24.2), Detroit (26.3), Cleveland (26.9). See a pattern?

Today's more sophisticated workplaces -- whether they make things, process information or try to cure disease -- require a better educated work force. Research by the group CEOs for Cities indicates that even a 1 percentage point increase in Northeast Ohio's share of college graduates would add $2.8 billion a year to the region's economy.

If Greater Cleveland is to soar, it needs to get smarter. It needs to adopt a culture of college that begins when children walk into their first classroom, that encourages them at every step to dream big and that prepares them to reach those goals.

Many middle-class families already inculcate those values; even their baby clothes have college logos. But post-secondary education needs to become universal expectation, especially in Cleveland, where nearly half of all children don't even finish high school and only 13 percent of adults have a college degree.

All of that makes last week's announcement that the venerable Cleveland Scholarship Program -- which has spent 45 years helping schoolchildren think big and achieve big -- is expanding its reach, ramping up its mission and changing its name to College Now Greater Cleveland.

College Now CEO Lee Friedman says the rebranding doesn't reflect a change of focus but rather a new commitment -- with new partners and new sources of outreach -- to getting more Cleveland-area kids on the college track early, finding ways to make college affordable for more of them and providing the support to keep them in college through graduation.

College Now already works throughout the metropolitan area and has an enviable track record: It touches roughly 20,000 students a year -- some as early as middle school -- with college and financial aid counseling and with support once they reach campus. This year, more than 10,000 local students who got its help are in college and receiving more than $150 million in financial aid. Better yet, College Now students have a 91 percent retention rate -- that means they not only get into college, they also don't quit during their freshman year.

College Now hopes to help more students and their families by taking its "Cleveland goes to college" message to where they live. That means more workshops in rec centers and libraries and active outreach to churches. It means getting families that have never set foot on a college campus to do so and cutting through the mysteries of the application process for first-generation college students. That's all part of creating a culture of college that will lift this city and this region.

College Now has been building its support system for decades. Leaders in other cities come here to see how it's done. Greater Cleveland needs to embrace College Now's efforts -- and the culture of college it hopes to build.