Recession and Education in America

US Education Recession

INTRODUCTION

Recession in any country, is a period of time when the economy declines as reflected by the reduction in the GDP for at least two consecutive quarterly reports. When this takes place, there will be rise in the rate of unemployment, food prices, failures in the housing market, reduction in the education budget, as well as changes in people's attitude towards educating themselves among other factors.

Reductions in the federal education budget, will negatively impact several levels of the schooling system, even to the extent of causing people to stay in school longer than they originally intended, to get more qualified, so that they can enhance their employment prospects.

An alternate response may emanate, whereby some students will drop out of school because of a lack of financing, due to the impact of unemployment within the family, or the company that was financing their education went into bankruptcy or have terminated their services.

A third aspect of how a recessionary period can negatively affect education, is the response of students who were initially planning to attend colleges or universities. They may look at the state of the economy, the high costs of their education, as well as their parent's financial limitations, and draw long term conclusions that things are not going to change, so they might as well abort future education plans.

EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION

The United States Educational Department had an excellent boost to its program, when (a) the Morrill Acts of 1860, (b) The GI Bill of Rights in 1944, following the end of 2nd World War (c) The National Defense Education Act of 1957, after the Russian landed the Sputnik in space, were passed.

The Morrill Act of 1862, allowed states to acquire 30, 000 acres of land for the establishment of colleges and other training institutions, majoring in Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, according to Britannica Encyclopedia Inc.. States were able, based on the number of districts they had, to sell portions of their lands and establish these institutions, or contribute the money towards their overall education budget (Britannica Encyclopedia Inc.).

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Americans in general, made relatively good use of these opportunities for educational advancements, with high school graduation rate reaching 30%. This no doubt would have increased, but then came the great Depression of 1932, causing massive job losses everywhere. Poverty permeated the entire country and destroyed the economic and educational prospects of many promising students, as well as companies that would have offered employment to these future graduates.

According to Total Bankruptcy, it changed the way Americans viewed education. Many students, who could afford to stay in school, extended their studies to ensure that they will be able to living at higher standards.

Education was seen as the only viable option to lift the country out of the horrible recession it was facing, and soon the high school graduation rates began to climb and reached 40%.

The New York Times saw the irony of the situation, and remarked that it had to take an economic disaster in the form of a recession, for many Americans to form better long term attitudes towards education (Total Bankruptcy).

ECONOMIC BENEFITS

The economic benefits for the nation from this change in attitude, was that the high levels of graduates began entering the job markets , and provided the technological, innovative, business, and other skills necessary for America to become the greatest economic force in the 20th century. Great companies like IBM, USA Steel, General Motors, and RCA prospered tremendously from these educational outputs.

However, as the nation prospered and the demands for jobs were greater than supplies, the 2nd World War arrived to shift the equilibrium considerable to the left, back to the recessionary period the country had climbed out of, using mass education springboard strategy.

THE GI BILL OF RIGHTS

The US Government at the end of the war in1944, seemed to have realized that the large vacuum created by the loss of millions of human resources on the battlefield, had to be filled rapidly; if the nation was going to survive, when it introduced the GI Bill of Rights.

The GI Bill Act, according to The Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, was one of the greatest participatory educational act the federal government has ever been involved.

This GI Bill was also called the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, and was designed to provide greater opportunities to returning war veterans of the 2nd World War. Needs in areas such as hospitalization expenses, purchasing of homes, business, lands, and in particular educational advancement were made available.

Educationally, the package included provisions for tuition, books, supplies, equipment, and counseling services both at the high school as well as college levels.

CHANGE

Over a seven year period, America began to experience change, according to The Ontario Institute of Studies in Education. Approximately 8 million American war veterans took up the offer made by the government, and received benefits. Nearly 2.3 million of these attended colleges and universities, while 3.5million received on the job training in different skills at an overall cost of $1.85b to the government (The Ontario Institute of Studies in Education).

ECONOMIC FOUNDATION

Education was therefore given a big boost, as enrollment increased increase significantly across college and university campuses. Higher graduation rates in the future would ensure that businesses were adequately empowered to increase productivity, employ more people, raise the national GDP, and generate millions of dollars in profits at home and abroad.

The economy was flourishing again with education being the main engine of growth, as well as a safety valve for the psychologically damaged veterans returning home. This as an outlet to release the years of trauma and stress that had been built up.

Engineers, analyst and technicians who were militaristically aligned in the past, were retrained and released into the economy, to make significant contributions, which no doubt served to satisfy and motivate them, compare to the destruction experienced on the battlefields of Normandy and elsewhere.

STRATEGIC INVOLVEMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT

The government and educational leaders across the country seemed to have been well organized strategically, in that they increase the age of admittance to these higher educational institutions beyond the 18-23 range, to cater for the influx of several thousand students.

Training were also provided perhaps for the first time in mining, fisheries, agriculture, and caused the myth that education of the highest level was only for the privileged few, to begin to disappearing.

ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION ACT

It was in this kind of atmosphere that President Lyndon Johnson, on April 11, signed The Elementary and Secondary School Education Act in Stonewall Texas; the place where he attended school as a young boy.

His presence no doubt was politically as well as motivationally inspiring to educators and children across the nation, especially when he remarked that he believed that no other piece of legislation he would sign in the future , would be as important as that one he had just inked.

However, he might not have been cognizant of what lies ahead within the next two decades.

ECONOMIC RECESSION OF THE 1980'S

Nearly two decades after the speech, an economic recession hit the country like it has never experienced since The Great Depression, and caused Education to take center stage once more, with many calling for reforms to more adequately cope with the national and global trends that were emerging, and negatively impacting on the country.

There were avalanches of reports from educational commissions, task forces, individual scholars, study groups and conference gatherings, sincerely urging the government to make adjustments in the educational methodologies, in order to halt the economic recession and rescue the nation from the brink of collapse.

The recessions of the past were bad, but the one prevailing in the 1980's seems more than the government could manage, in that technological development externally and internally left more Americans out of work, than at any other time in the history of the country, since The Great Depression.

The high level of the recession caused many who were educated and unemployed, to begin to wonder what was the value of their education, and how they were going to pay for the mountain of student debt that was accumulating before them on a monthly basis?

The reformers were finding it hard to be silent, when they were witnessing qualified students working for very low wages at places like McDonalds and Burger King, in addition to others who were either dropping out of schools or staying longer to more effectively qualify themselves for the job market.

Either way, the government's lack of action was sustaining the recession, because the reductions in those graduating were affected by of the high levels of those staying in school, and this meant less human resource skills were being released for the job market.

The trend was reminiscent of the past and should have necessitated immediate attention.

BRAIN DRAIN

Snyder puts it well, when he said that the recession was causing a brain drain on the economy (Snyder. M.E.).

Americans were also fast becoming noncompetitive on the global market as a result of the recession, because countries like China, India and Japan to a lesser extent, had their educational priorities more appropriately established, and were rapidly climbing the technological and productivity ladder at rates that may eventually displace the once mighty economic giant of the 1960's.

Ironically, as the number of Americans that are graduating during this period were diminishing, despite having one of the highest enrollment rate in the world, students from countries like China, India, Brazil, Israel, and other countries were entering American institutions, and were graduating, and returning to their individual countries to aid in economic developments, that may impede the development and growth of American export market.

NAFTA AND WARS

The recession can also be traced to the legislative Act in 1995 that made NAFTA a reality for The USA, Canada and Mexico. Allowing free trade across all three countries, meant US companies can transfer their operations to Mexico, where the labor rates are highly inferior. This resulted in over 3 million American jobs being lost, a budget deficit of approximately $74b , and a fast rising unemployment rate.

These jobs, because of their low cost to the American manufacturers, were not coming back, and thousands of students graduating from high schools, colleges, and universities, would eventually find it difficult to gain meaningful employment.

The engagement of the government in two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) at the same time, has forced the diversion of much needed educational development funds, like what was available at the end of the 2nd World War, to fight these battles. As a result, education budget cuts have become the norm rather than the exception, as the economy plunged into deeper recession.

The Department of Homeland Security for example, had its budget by 7% over; the Defense Department $515.4b budget was 7.5% higher than the previous year, while the Education Department had only a meager $69.4 b in financing during the same period, to help lift the nation out of recession .

Children entering the K-14 grade in California found it difficult to have the benefits the veterans returning from the 2nd World War had, because Governor Scharwneggar was forced to cut his budget by a whopping $4.8b.

CONCLUSIONS

Recession and education therefore, are symbiotically linked throughout the history of the United States, and the lack of this appreciation by the leadership of the country, will always lead to the prevention of the vital human resource assets of the country to be nurtured continually at institution like high schools, colleges and universities, so that they can provide the kinds of leadership the country will need to successfully compete on the global market.

During economic prosperity, the educational skills that have been ingrained within employees over years of training in various institutions will bear fruit, and cause the nation and its industries to prosper concurrently. However, whenever the situation is reversed, due to untenable events, the investment in education and training should not be removed, as this will only exacerbate the recessionary situation.

References

Britannica Encyclopedia Online. The Morrill Act of 1862.

College Tuition Cost and Rewards. Web. freestudenthelp.com/college-degree

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. The University of Toronto History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century.

Snyder, M.E. Recession Leading USA to Education Decline.

Total Bankruptcy (ND) Recession and its impact on education in America.