The Social Security Administration illustrates the differences in lifetime earnings this way:
The chart is from 2015 (the most recent data available). Yes, it also shows disparities between men's and women's earnings. That's a conversation for another time.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes weekly earnings in detail. The numbers are updated to 2019, but the message is the same.
There is value in higher education. Employment earning potential is part of it, but post-secondary education yields more than just money. There's also knowing more about the world outside of the employment picture: Its peoples, its societies and communities -- the values, histories and cultures that link those communities, even when they are different, and that define each community, including our own.
"College isn't for everybody." I hear people say that. Fiddlesticks. College is for everybody. It's not required for everybody, and many people have very good lives without going to college. But higher education has something for everybody.
There's a price tag on getting a college education, especially a college degree. It's worth it. I know many people with college degrees, and not a single one says that it wasn't worth the price paid. And that includes some very young college graduates.
Americans have been getting college educations for almost 400 years. That's 200 years longer than public schools -- what we now call K through 12 education -- have been available. Since colonial times, Americans have sought out higher education to acquire expertise and knowledge. What could be more American than that?
The first American institution of higher education was Harvard College. Now known as Harvard University, it was founded in 1636; that was only sixteen years after the ship Mayflower landed the Pilgrim party at a nearby location to start the Plymouth Colony. Among its notable graduates was future president John Adams.
The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia was founded in 1693, making it the second American institution of higher education. Three U.S. presidents studied there: Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler. George Washington, the first U.S. president, received his surveyor's license from the College.
These are private, not public institutions. Such colleges and universities have their own private sources of financial backing. They may also be beneficiaries of government grants and taxation preferences.
Public higher education in the U.S. started only in the 1860's, at about the same time as the founding of public K through 12 education. Its enrollment now eclipses that of private higher education institutions.
Agricultural expertise was the initial focus of those early public "land-grant" colleges. As the nation's economy developed beyond its agricultural foundations, the educational offerings of those colleges changed to keep pace with the changing needs of the local populations.
A land-grant college that once put significant resources into the techniques of animal husbandry might now be allocating much of those resources to the study of cyber security; there's more job growth in technology occupations than in farming. Last year Forbes reported an estimated half-million unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. And with more needed in the future.
In addition, agriculture (and almost every other type of business) benefits from the use of more sophisticated technology and automation. Use of such tools in a farming environment drags along the need for cyber security, just as it would in any other enterprise. Effective use of these tools requires workers with significant amounts of post-secondary education; a high school diploma by itself is not enough to qualify for such a job.
U.S. institutions of public higher education enroll millions of students every year. In California alone, the state's three public higher education systems -- University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges -- enroll almost three million students at about 150 campuses. I have come to know a few of them through volunteer activities at Long Beach City College (LBCC) and California State University Long Beach (CSULB).
Most students in public higher ed pay tuition in one form or another; some finish their college educations with significant amounts of debt, due in part to tuition costs, but also because of the cost of books and materials, lab fees, living expenses, and other things.
Should public higher education in the U.S. be made free of tuition?
There's a solid national economic case in favor of that: Higher-paying employment favors job candidates with college education, especially those with college degrees. Growing the nation's economy depends in large part on increasing the productivity of its goods and services industries, and of its government. Increases in productivity are hard to come by without knowledge and expertise, both of which are readily available at public institutions of higher education.
I favor the idea of putting more tax monies into public higher education. There should be a national standard of tuition affordability so that former students are not saddled with life-altering amounts of education-related debt. At least some of the funding for that should come from the Federal budget so as to avoid the recession-time cutbacks common in state budgeting. Higher unemployment during a recession would seem to be the perfect time to increase the availability of higher education so as to prepare those who are unemployed for future opportunities.
But the tuition issue needs to be parsed: Resident vs. non-resident; bachelor's degree study only? Or also certain post-graduate work? Should some existing debt be canceled? How much money is needed? Should there be judgment calls based on individual and/or family financial need?
Speaking of money (and why not? Nothing happens without funding.) -- Lower or no tuition costs probably means greater demand for higher education. That would be a good thing. But to satisfy that demand would mean more supply is needed: More professors, more classroom space, more labs, more staffing of other types, too. Funding for all those things, and others, would have to be planned and committed.
It's also worth noting that some of the currently-reported student debt is due to education at for-profit colleges and universities. Not all of those enterprises honored post-graduation employment commitments that were made to entice students to sign up for expensive coursework, and some portion of that high-priced tuition was debt-financed. This is a different set of issues and should be handled separately from the subject of tuition-free public higher education.
Public higher education has been more affordable in the past than now. I benefited from that affordability. During my years at UCLA in the early 1970s I paid educational "fees" (I don't believe it was called "tuition"). The amount was so modest, though, that even if those dollars were inflation-adjusted to 2019 prices, it would still be a fraction of today's charges for tuition and fees.
In my case, the affordability of my time at UCLA was also due to qualifying for fee-related loans. Payment was deferred until a year or two after graduation; I've forgotten the details. Once employed, I quickly covered my debt. The experience helped me establish a good credit record, and taught me some fiscal responsibility.
I mentor graduating seniors in the College of Business at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) and participate in awarding scholarships to Long Beach City College (LBCC) students. Both engagements have helped me to learn a lot about today's students in public higher education.
The students at LBCC (a California community college) are early or mid-way in their college educations; often, they are in transition from one career to the next. Many clearly struggle with affordability overall; often they are disadvantaged in some way; a few are homeless. Most are employed, usually part-time in work that pays at the lower end of the pay scale. Those who qualify for it are grateful for the LBCC College Promise program that covers tuition for their education at LBCC.
Scholarships awarded by the LBCC Foundation are provided according to various criteria, some of which are influenced by the student's financial need. In the personal essays I have read from the scholarship applicants, financial needs for living expenses play a bigger role than do such needs for direct educational expenses.
The LBCC student population is composed of thousands of local residents, the great majority of whom intend to learn and gain expertise and use these things to improve themselves and make larger contributions to their families and to the community. Such goals are deserving of community support.
The graduating students at CSULB are earning Bachelor's degrees. Notably, I have yet to hear a single one complain about education-related debt. That's different from saying that they have no such debt, or saying that debt has no influence on their futures. I think what it does say is that they have gained the confidence that comes from committing themselves to a lengthy and challenging process, and seeing it through to a satisfying end.
Each student whom I have mentored, as well as the other students in the mentoring program with whom I have spoken at the various mentoring events, is prepared for a promising and rewarding career. Most will (and have) gone immediately into career-type employment; some will do post-graduate work. In all cases, they are confident of professional success.
And, they know more about the world outside of their immediate culture and community than we did when we graduated from college in the early 1970s. They know a lot more; I speak of this from personal experience.
Public higher education institutions welcome assistance that they can pass directly on to their students. I can recommend the Long Beach City College Foundation by clicking here, and the Student Center for Professional Development at the College of Business, CSULB, by clicking here.
Should public higher education be "tuition free?" I don't know. But I do know this: There is enough value in public higher education that it should be more affordable for the students, and the institutions themselves should have more public money support to meet an increased demand for what they have to offer.
The end result will be a working-age population with better ability to match skills and knowledge with the requirements of an evolving and more complex work environment. And, also, those same people will be better able to understand, work alongside of, and live near other people from entirely different backgrounds and cultures.
What we are talking about here is nothing less than an investment for the future.
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