Yes, Financial Investment in College Completion Pays Off By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

Often, we assume that increasing college graduate rates is worth the investment needed to spur that growth. The American Academy of Arts & Sciences decided to put an economist on the job of figuring out whether that's true. In a report titled, "The Economic Impact of Increasing College Completion," a team of analysts from Moody's Analytics attempted to lay out the costs and benefits of a sustained investment program aimed at boosting program completion rates, especially for disadvantaged students. The bottom line: The investment would hurt in the beginning but pay off in big ways down the road. The analysts likened the venture to the building of the interstate highway system in the 1950s and 1960s, which "imposed considerable costs on the American economy as well as creating significant disruptions and dislocations during the construction period." Over time, however, "the speed and reliability of travel" increased dramatically, "yielding economic benefits that far outweighed the costs." https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/11/02/yes-financial-investment-in-college-completion-pays-off.aspx