The district’s $5.8 billion total impact is the equivalent of San Diego hosting the Comic-Con convention 35 times.
“The San Diego Community College District and its four colleges – San Diego City, San Diego Mesa, San Diego Miramar and San Diego Continuing Education – are uplifting individuals and communities across our region,” said SDCCD Chancellor Gregory Smith. “This latest report demonstrates our considerable positive financial impact as we expand access to higher education in collaboration with business, industry, labor, and community partners to ensure our graduates meet the needs of our dynamic local economy.”
Miramar College student Anh Pham is a believer. Pham turned to Miramar College’s Regional Entrepreneurship Center (REC) Innovation Lab that connects budding entrepreneurs with local mentors and which was critical in his founding of the Earth Fan Surf Co., which produces eco-friendly wooden surf and body boards. Since joining the REC Lab, Pham has learned how to build brand recognition and increase production. “There was a huge world of business that I didn’t know about until I joined the REC Lab,” said Pham. “This organization opened so many doors for a 50-year-old first-time college student.”
The latest study was prepared by Lightcast, which has completed more than 3,000 economic impact studies for educational institutions since 2000. Data and assumptions used in the study are based on several sources, including SDCCD academic and financial reports, information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, Lightcast’s Multi-Regional Social Accounting Matrix Model, and a variety of studies and surveys relating education to social behavior.
Among the highlights:
- The district’s total economic impact of $5.8 billion in the 2023-24 fiscal year was enough to support 53,245 jobs, or one out of every 43 jobs in the region.
- The net impact of SDCCD alumni now working in the county reached $4.7 billion in added income to the regional economy in fiscal year 2023-24. That figure is equivalent to supporting 41,101 jobs.
- The approximately 9% of students attending SDCCD colleges who have moved here to pursue their higher education, along with local students who would have left the county for other educational opportunities if not for the SDCCD, generated $378.3 million in added spending.
- The $485.5 million taxpayers invested in the SDCCD in 2023-24 brought a return of $963 million in added tax revenue via students’ higher lifetime earnings and resulting increased business output. A reduction in demand for government-funded services, meanwhile, saved taxpayers an additional $129.3 million.
- For every $1 students invest in their education via tuition, fees and supplies, as well as the opportunity cost of attendance, they will earn $4.40 in higher future earnings.
- The average graduate with an associate degree from the SDCCD will see an earnings boost of $10,400 each year compared to a person with a high school diploma or equivalent. That equates to approximately $450,000 over a working lifetime.
- The SDCCD provides jobs to 4,866 full- and -part-time employees, with total payroll amounting to $391.3 million – much of which is spent locally on everything from groceries to mortgages and rent payments that is fueling the regional economy. In all, SDCCD’s operations budget added $660 million in overall spending in 2023-24.
Mesa College student Anthony Ramirez embodies the district’s impact. Ramirez is on a pathway to fulfilling a childhood dream of becoming a dentist. He’s already landed an internship at a Solana Beach pediatric and orthodontics practice, thanks to the college’s Dental Assisting Program, and he was hired as a dental assistant upon graduating from the program in the spring of 2024. He plans to apply to UCLA for a bachelor’s degree before going to the UCLA School of Dentistry. “Everything I know in dentistry is because of this program,” Ramirez said. “I work with little ones every day; Mesa really taught me how to adapt my communication and patient care toward kids.”