Tuition Rates as a Barrier to Higher Education
Obviously the extreme economic downturn is having an effect on higher education, and there are many articles in the press about immediate and future impacts. The Wall Street Journal captured the general issues that have recently been in the press, and concludes that the combination of current and planned enrollment caps and tuition increases “will fall hardest on low-income and minority students whose parents and high schools often have fewer resources to navigate the college-application process.” This story focuses on public colleges and universities. On December 1, the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) issued a report titled “University Tuition, Consumer Choice, and College Affordability.” In its story on the report, Inside Higher Ed quotes David Shulenberger, one of the report’s authors, as saying that “this isn’t a short-term problem and will not get a short-term solution.”
The report is directed at public universities and calls for some interesting things that these schools might consider. For example, unbundling costs rather than bundling together research, teaching and service. The authors are noted as saying that for-profit colleges and universities have figured out how to do this. The report calls for consideration of increased use of online instruction and course redesigns to assure quality while becoming more cost-effective. There is also a suggestion to consider reducing the time required for a baccalaureate degree to three years from the current assumption of four years. I must say that times are changing and it is becoming very clear that the questions about whether learning can occur in online education seem to be behind us, and maybe the idea that higher education quality can be assured while also being cost-effective may be gaining acceptance as well.
Predictably, the report calls for public colleges and universities to “push for a return to the idea of a more meaningful contribution from state coffers.” But what really concerns me is the following quote: “[A] society that tends to view higher education as a consumer good rather than an investment good will tend to perpetuate elites who have themselves had a higher education and will endeavor to afford one for their children. The children of the poor will tend to remain poor as they will get much less higher education.” This statement portrays powerful and deeply concerning societal impacts as a result of the current economic downturn.
What these two articles prompt me to ask is whether it is at all realistic to assume that states will be able to increase funding for higher education in the foreseeable future? Whether the times require a more fundamental re-conceptualization about how higher education should be funded? Can the current approaches to funding hold up in the future? Are we willing to give up on dreams of access and equity and slide back into elitism? Can this problem be resolved state by state? Can the nation afford to sit back and simply see what happens? Is now the time for meaningful, fundamental, bold change? If so, what would it look like?
Please let me know what you think. All suggestions are welcome.
Mike
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Steve Vodhanel Says:
I suggest you begin here in your debate about the price of a college education: Elizabeth Warren at Berkeley – And yet, what’s happening with college? We don’t pay for it collectively. We make families pay for it individually and we make the students load up on debt so that the next generation’s huge division is that the children of well-to-do families, who can afford to pay for the college education for their children, have a leg up. They start their adult lives, if nothing else, at least dead flat broke — right? — at least at even. The children of that huge underclass start with tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. For some it’ll be a good investment, and for some it will be the rock that will sink them. They start the great American race fifty yards behind the starting line, much less the finish line. They’re got all this debt that they’ve got to manage and all this debt they’ve got to pay off. And we’ve written the laws to make it that these debts are non-dischargeable — you can’t get out of these debts. If you get sick you still have to pay these debts, if you don’t have a job you still have to pay these debts. Really tough.
Now, I never had an opportunity to attend college when I was young, but after a back injury at age 44 I had to simply for survival in the workforce. Guess how I paid? No, not student financial aid, but student financial DEBT.
And then I heard about this report coming from the Association of American Community Colleges talking about a ‘critical shortage of leadership personnel’ and when inquiring further I find Capella’s website endorsing that declaration with essentially an ad for their new Leadership for Higher Education program. Well, I’m almost finished now, but funny thing, my research throughout my program has dealt with this topic and I have YET to find anywhere in the U.S. where such a shortage exists. Here in California it is nearly impossible to land a job in the community colleges. Ed Gould doesn’t like to hear it when I say the CCC’s are a good ol’ boys network where it’s virtually impossible to enter.
Now after $120,000 in student financial debt, please comment on your transparency by design as it relates to Capella’s agreement through endorsement that there is a critical shortage of community college leadership personnel. After all, if there is a community college that has a critical need for leadership personnel, please tell me….who they are, where they are…and how may I apply!
I suggest you begin here in your debate about the price of a college education: Elizabeth Warren at Berkeley – And yet, what’s happening with college? We don’t pay for it collectively. We make families pay for it individually and we make the students load up on debt so that the next generation’s huge division is that the children of well-to-do families, who can afford to pay for the college education for their children, have a leg up. They start their adult lives, if nothing else, at least dead flat broke — right? — at least at even. The children of that huge underclass start with tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. For some it’ll be a good investment, and for some it will be the rock that will sink them. They start the great American race fifty yards behind the starting line, much less the finish line. They’re got all this debt that they’ve got to manage and all this debt they’ve got to pay off. And we’ve written the laws to make it that these debts are non-dischargeable — you can’t get out of these debts. If you get sick you still have to pay these debts, if you don’t have a job you still have to pay these debts. Really tough.
Now, I never had an opportunity to attend college when I was young, but after a back injury at age 44 I had to simply for survival in the workforce. Guess how I paid? No, not student financial aid, but student financial DEBT.
And then I heard about this report coming from the Association of American Community Colleges talking about a ‘critical shortage of leadership personnel’ and when inquiring further I find Capella’s website endorsing that declaration with essentially an ad for their new Leadership for Higher Education program. Well, I’m almost finished now, but funny thing, my research throughout my program has dealt with this topic and I have YET to find anywhere in the U.S. where such a shortage exists. Here in California it is nearly impossible to land a job in the community colleges. Ed Gould doesn’t like to hear it when I say the CCC’s are a good ol’ boys network where it’s virtually impossible to enter.
Now after $120,000 in student financial debt, please comment on your transparency by design as it relates to Capella’s agreement through endorsement that there is a critical shortage of community college leadership personnel. After all, if there is a community college that has a critical need for leadership personnel, please tell me….who they are, where they are…and how may I apply!
I lost a fulltime instructor position with the budget cuts of 2001 and in the past 9 years have found nothing more than a few adjunct teaching jobs. For any leadership position application I submitted every single one was returned before any further consideration. But I have become less discouraged over rejection while more resigned of giving up on a community college career after one HR VP told me his greatest problem with hiring for any position at his college was reviewing the huge number of fully qualified applicants.
Well, and this ‘critical shortage’ idea? Funny or tragic that I just spent $60,000 on this dream?
Steve Vodhanel
March 10th, 2009 at 12:15 pm