By Debra Jasper
Columbus Enquirer Bureau

COLUMBUS - If state leaders want to improve the economy, they should launch a major campaign to convince 180,000 more people to go to college by 2015, a task force appointed by Gov. Bob Taft said Thursday.

The Commission on Higher Education and the Economy spent nearly a year and $780,000 formulating nine recommendations for Ohio in a 68-page report. Among them:

• Form an alliance of school, state and business leaders to make sure the state commits enough money to increase enrollment in colleges and universities by 30 percent over last year's fall attendance of 600,000.

• Make it easier for students to apply and transfer credits among Ohio's colleges and universities.

• Attract and retain more world-class researchers who can help create high-tech jobs.

• Increase the number of Ohioans with math and science skills, in part by finding more federal and private grants.

Taft, who appointed the committee in June 2003, praised its work and promised the state would focus on creating a new marketing plan to increase enrollment, "to the extent we can afford to put it together." He said the new campaign should show Ohioans that "higher learning means higher earning."

The governor said university and college officials must also do their part to attract more students. He said schools must work harder to restrain tuition costs - which have been going up in Greater Cincinnati and around the state as much as 9.9 percent a year.

"I would hope ... that universities are willing to commit to higher productivity," Taft said. "We need to educate more students at the same or lower cost per student."

The report, funded with $500,000 in tax money and $280,000 in private donations, said Ohio's college-participation rates increased slightly between 1990 and 2000 but still averaged about 1.4 percentage points below the national rate.

It noted that two-year community and technical colleges in 2002 accounted for just 47 percent of Ohio's enrollment compared with the national average of 60 percent.

The report was praised by college officials, including Anthony Perzigian, senior vice president and provost for baccalaureate and graduate education for the University of Cincinnati.

"This report really throws down the gauntlet for us to address our most pressing need, and that is to increase the participation in higher education," Perzigian said. "The goal is on target, ambitious and visionary."

He said some recommendations in the report could be difficult to pull off. For example, Perzigian said it will be hard for universities to pay world-class researchers and also educate more students for less money.

"World-class researchers wouldn't be teaching four classes each quarter," he said. "If they did, they wouldn't be doing world-class research."

E-mail djasper@enquirer.com