A Promise Scholarship does not necessarily keep a college graduate in West Virginia.

The Associate Director of West Virginia University's Bureau of Business and Economic Research says the numbers prove it.

"Promise grads are actually slightly less likely to remain in the state to work than the average in state grad," Doctor George Hammond said during his presentation on West Virginia's Economic Outlook earlier this week in Charleston.

He's spent the past year analyzing graduate data from the Higher Education Policy Commission.

The numbers show about 62% of Promise Scholars took jobs in West Virginia once they graduated.  Compare that to about 67% of all in state college graduates, those who went to school with or without the Promise, who stayed.

"Even if you control for, basically, all of the demographic characteristics in the data set including age, sex, race, area of concentration which is, like, a major, you still find this basic characteristic that the Promise grads are a little less likely to remain in the state than the average in state graduate," Hammond said.

His conclusion, "That suggests that the Promise Scholarship isn't doing a lot for the state in terms of contributing to its human capital development."

It's an issue because of the aging population in West Virginia.

Baby Boomers will soon be retiring in large numbers and, because they're highly education, there will be a number of jobs in the Mountain State requiring advanced education.

Aside from the retention issue, though, Hammond says the Promise is helping improve student achievement and, he says, there are economic benefits that come from keeping students in West Virginia for their college years.