Lindsay Midtbo, a UW-Madison senior, is looking for a job — but not in Wisconsin.

"I was born here, I've been here forever," Midtbo, a Milwaukee native, said. "I want something new and different."

Midtbo, an economics major who graduates this month, is hoping for a job in Chicago. The city offers more financial services jobs and a change of pace, she said.

Midtbo isn't alone in wanting to leave the state. Each year, about half of UW-Madison's recent graduates leave Wisconsin for Illinois, Minnesota and other states.

That exodus costs Wisconsin more than $1.5 billion annually in lost tax revenues, according to Dennis Winters, chief economist for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. And it reduces the number of educated people in the state's work force. Only 25 percent of Wisconsin residents have a bachelor's degree or higher, causing the state to lag behind the national average and neighboring Illinois and Minnesota.

Wisconsin's "brain drain" hasn't reached crisis proportions yet, but lawmakers and private groups are concerned.

Gov. Jim Doyle is encouraging more access to higher education. The Wisconsin Covenant, unveiled last year, promises a place in a state public or private college and adequate financial aid to all eighth-graders who take and keep a pledge to be a good citizen and maintain a B average. It will allow more state students to enroll in state colleges and universities, said Doyle spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner.

At the same time, the governor's office is working to keep educated people in the state by increasing the number of jobs. Certain efforts — such as increasing access to venture capital for investment in new businesses and proposed tax credits for increases in research and development spending — aim to create high-end jobs, Sensenbrenner said.

"If you look at where people migrate and why they leave, you're looking at high-end jobs," he said.

Improve economy

Competitive Wisconsin also is working to find and keep these jobs. The group, established in 1981, is a coalition of commerce and labor leaders who are working on long-term improvements in the state's economy.

"Brain drain can be stopped by adding the high-end jobs that college graduates are seeking elsewhere," said executive director Bill McCoshen. And Wisconsin could meet that goal by emulating Minnesota, he said.

Minnesota was in tough shape in the 1970s and '80s, but "20 years later, they're ahead of us," McCoshen said. "They have no distinct advantages other than they invest in technology."

Minnesota aggressively promoted entrepreneurship, innovative education tools like charter schools and the high-tech industry, he said, And that's why Competitive Wisconsin recommends tax credits to retain current state businesses and farms, public policy to encourage startup businesses and touting the state's quality of life as an attraction for educated workers of all ages, McCoshen said.

University research

David Ward, president of economic consulting firm NorthStar Economics, based in Madison, agrees that the state needs to improve job growth to keep graduates in Wisconsin. And he points to the public university system as the key to stemming brain drain and boosting the state's economy.

University research has led to hundreds of commercial licenses. Partnerships offering commercial outlets for university talent have been lucrative, Ward said, and the University Research Park in Madison hosts more than 100 companies with several thousand jobs.

"That's the way we need to go — transfer that intellectual property from the research and lab bench into commercial products, businesses and jobs," Ward said. "And if we're doing that, we need to scale it up more."

Wisconsin could benefit from modeling itself after Dane County, which is one of the top 20 most-educated counties in the nation, thanks to the presence of UW-Madison and other educational and research institutions, Ward said. "It's one of the parts of the state that really has attracted people from outside," Ward said. "And it's a good idea to play to the strengths."

MAGNET

While these public and private efforts focus on job creation and growth, Madison MAGNET has a different approach to ending the state's brain drain.

MAGNET, founded in 2003, tries to attract talent and make the Madison area more vibrant, It offers members a range of opportunities for involvement and networking, including professional development workshops, entrepreneurship-oriented business seminars, public policy events, a collaboration with the University Research Park, and social events,

"That type of dialogue is something that young people especially crave, especially right out of college where you have that kind of dialogue all the time," said executive director Rebecca Thorman. "MAGNET allows people to engage with their peers on important issues."

And now MAGNET is reaching out to recent graduates, Thorman said. "It's really easy to be a college student here and really easy to have a family," she said. "There's an in-between time that's a little rough."

MAGNET may help make Madison "cool" for young professionals, but those efforts aren't enough to stop the state's brain drain, Ward said. Urban vitality is increasing in many cities, making it an insufficient draw for young people, Ward said.

"And you can't make your entire state cool," he said. "It's the jobs that we need to improve."