In the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) region, state and local governments spend about 10 percent of their combined annual budgets on colleges and universities. Whether this is the right funding level during a time of growing enrollments, when states are working to boost education participation and close achievement gaps, is a question for state leaders to ponder. But anyway you look at it, state and local spending subsidizes the college educations of millions of students. It is fair to ask, "What do states get for the investment?" Recent data confirm five areas that benefit both states and individuals when residents hold a bachelor's degree compared with a high school diploma or GED certificate alone: (1) Personal income; (2) Employment; (3) Health; (4) Volunteering; and (5) Voting.