Rising Costs of College (Outline and Research Paper)

Cost of College

OUTLINE

I. College costs are rising.

a. Statistics on the cost of college versus average income over time.

II. Why are college costs rising.

a. There is a popular impression that there is a need for a college education.

i. Chicken and egg. But the end result is that this has increased the social value of the commodity, which has enabled colleges to raise the price.

ii. Is it related to poorer quality of secondary education? (Is quality even poorer).

b. Higher education has turned toward profit-based business models in structuring their universities.

i. Rarely hear administrators include students in their lists of considerations.

c. Banks cultivated a crop of reliable borrower, which in turn enabled colleges to raise the cost.

i. Heavy debt became "typical", and people scoff at the idea of having only $20,000 in debt.

III. How to fix the rising cost of college?

a. Develop a correct evaluation of the need for college through better career counseling in the secondary schools.

i. Give more respect for manual and technical labor.

ii. Provide better pay for manual and technical labor.

iii. Improve secondary education so that colleges are not having to teach English 098, at their and student expense.

b. Curb the love affair with the profit-seeking business model.

i. Consider social services models again, governmental structures and other successful, historical models of education.

c. Change the expectation that heavy debt is acceptable.

i. What was debt at graduation previously?

1. How did that compare to annual income.

ii. Consider more legislation in relations to costs of state universities and interest rates.

1. Consider the new direct lending legislation.

2. Consider other regulations or changes at the federal level.

IV. Conclusion.

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RESEARCH PAPER

The cost of going to college is rising however you measure it, and everyone agrees that costs must be brought down. By all accounts, the degree of change in cost is extreme, but too much of the discussion relies on anecdotal information that supports the writers' specific claims. While searching for information on the subject, a search of Expanded Academic ASAP found that there were 854 articles in academic journals with the keyword pairing "college costs", reduced to peer-reviewed journals, the number dwindled to 259. Of those 259, most were letters to editor, commentary, book reviews, or were from abroad. In other words, people have a lot to say about tuition costs in the United States, but it may not be reliable or thoroughly evidence based. For that reason, it is important to lay out and examine the facts.

Some people respond to the rising cost of college by saying that people get paid more than they used to, that salaries are higher and so college being more expensive makes sense. However, the increases in the average costs for college have outstripped pay increases for individuals and families. In the last twenty-five years, college has quadrupled in cost, while family income has increased by only fifty percent (Cauthen & Orozco, 2009). That means that in order to pay for college, families have to set aside more money, for an even longer period time, Some claim that Pell and other grants help with the increased cost. However, over the same twenty-five years, the average need based federal grants went from covering 75% of the total cost of college to covering only about 33% (Cauthen & Orozco, 2009). This means that families went from paying 25 cents of every dollar, to paying 67 cents, more than two and a half times as much. All of this means that students and their parents are not just paying more, they are borrowing more in order to pay for their educations.

At the same time, we have made a B.A. seem like the minimum effort one should put forth to be a professional, degrading the value of both choices, and that devaluation is both cultural and financial. In 1960, the average salary in the U.S. was $4743, and the average teacher's salary was $5174 (Hurley, 2010). This makes sense in that teachers worked long hours than average and also had four-year degrees. Now however the average salary in the U.S. is in about $55 thousand (HHS), and the average teacher salary is somewhere between $40 and $45 thousand (Payscale.com). This is an important rubric to consider because it shows how the devaluation of education is a loop that feeds back onto itself. In any case, there are endless examples that the education that has become more expensive, has at the same time become worth less to the degree holder.

There is a popular impression that there is a need for a college education. It is axiomatic in popular culture that everyone should want to go to college, and that college is the only path to a successful life. That someone might value intelligence and hard work, yet still reject a four-year degree is anathema. Yet there are communities throughout the country where a college education has considerably less value. For them and those ill suited to or disinterested in advancing their educations, the culture in general has no common discussion about the opportunities available. Rather creating a culture that encourages education, we have created a culture that shames and hides other options. Few people fresh out of high have a clear plan, for many, continuing their educations is a socially acceptable, even admirable, way to delay difficult and confusing decisions. Research is also showing that among students under 24 who attend a community college, only about 40% receive any credentialing (Cauthen & Orozco, 2009). This could be a result of the "everyone must attend college" culture that encourages young people with few skills to accumulate large amounts of debt in the hopes of a "better" job. Of course, the social value and perceived necessity of advanced education makes it more "valuable" in a capitalist market, so the price of the item can be raised with worrying that too fewer people will buy.

Higher education has turned toward profit-based business models in structuring their universities. When one hears administrators speak of managing their institutions, they are quick to mention the boards and the parents, the truly concerned will mention teachers and staff, but rarely are students mentioned. It is not that they are willfully and personally disinterested in students, but more, it seems, that language and culture of business have taken over a model in which suppliers and consumers and shareholders are the interested parties. When overlaid on the university system, somehow parents become the consumers, though most students are paying for their own educations (through debt) to at least some degree. Lenders too are enjoying the ever-growing crop of reliable borrowers, since students are considered a good risk, and college debt cannot be forgiven in a bankruptcy.

Some may say that debt is not so bad, that it is simply how things work, and the ever popular, "Well, what would you do about it?" A question asked not to consider the answers, but to stifle debate. Heavy debt is now thought of as typical, and people scoff at those who only owe $20 thousand in loans. Some scholars even refer to the pedagogy of debt, and suggest that debt encourages the belief that higher education is a consumer service, (Williams, 2006) rather than professional training. Williams goes on to site the propensity of students to announce to their professors that they pay their salaries, or demand higher grades because they "showed up" and "did everything". More worrisome, of course, is that debt discourages certain career choices, including teachers, nurses, even general practitioners, as medical specialists make far more money that those who treat people generally. Baum (2007, 20) also talks about the need for a shift in attitude, away from aid programs that are intent on encouraging enrollment rather than education.

Some people have noticed that faith-based colleges and two-year institutions have done a good job of keeping costs low, as have other not-for-profit higher education institutions (Krigman, 2009). Some even went so far as to lower fees, and advertise the fact, and they found themselves with a noteworthy jump in enrollment, as were other public schools which were twice as likely as private schools to have higher enrollment (ibid). These models need to be taken into consideration more and more, rather than seeing administrators who look to the lending industries for a model of how to function.

Better career counseling in secondary school would go a long way to making sure that those who go to college have a real use for it. One administrator compared private education to the housing bubble, and warned of a similar fate (Krigman, 2009). To avoid this, American education needs to stop artificially inflating their enrollment with students whom they will never truly serve. Giving more respect to manual and technical careers, in both social and financial terms, is another way of encouraging young people who are interested in trades to pursue. How often have we heard some official speak as if the only career choices were barrister or barista, always in a manner that makes it clear that barista is not really a respectable choice. Not only is food service valuable work, there are countless careers besides that which can be the basis of happy, full life. There is much less of a pay gap between work that requires a bachelor's degree and that which requires a high school degree than there used to be. This is not because manual labor is more valued, but because a college degree has become devalued. Some jobs that require apprenticeships or extensive training pay very well, carpenters, plumbers, and other technical trades can offer excellent pay and benfits.

Along the same lines, it would be useful to improve the quality of secondary education. Too many students arrive at college with sub-par literacy and math skills. Colleges then provide, at students' expense, courses that teach high school level math and English skills. Add to that, these courses often cannot be applied toward graduation, and you have still more reasons why so few who enter college achieve graduation or certification.

Change the expectation that heavy debt is acceptable. Include finance courses in high school that include ways to eliminate or reduce debt. Many have pointed out the futility of trying to work your way through school, since the cost is so high and the pay for entry-level jobs is so poor. However, students can start at local colleges, stock up on AP level courses, apply for college credit, and take the time to consider trade work, technical colleges, and other jobs that may interest them. If more students start choosing the colleges that offer them the best deal, more schools will be forced to consider whether their costs are too inflated to maintain a healthy institution.

Some of the regulatory changes suggested by scholars like Sandy Baum (2007) in the past have been adopted by the Obama administration (Newswire, 2010). This includes increasing Pell Grants and direct lending from the government, rather than through banks. This allows the taxpayers to benefit from the interest paid by students, and also saves money in government subsidies to lenders. It also includes investment in community colleges, which are generally more responsive to their communities than larger institutions. Baum however went further with her suggestions, insisting that the entire system be streamlined, rather so many boutique programs, in order to make easier for students and cheaper to administer (20). Baum also recommends structuring most aid on strictly need-based criteria.

There are many things we can do to improve the cost ratio for college. There is a tendency when facing large problems to complain about how a problem is simply too large to handle. The truth, however, is that what larger problems afford are even more opportunities to make meaningful improvements. It is important though, not to mistake changes, or even growth, for improvements. As more people warn that higher education could go the way of the housing market, we would do well to act swiftly but also intelligently, and by whatever means available. We can no longer live in a nation that devalues its laborers skilled and unskilled. We need the good work of all the people of the nation to be valued. We need plumbers, doctors, teachers, cooks, chefs, entrepreneurs, and more. We cannot continue on a path that requires intellectually gifted young people from poor backgrounds to mortgage decades of their future to attain he skills we need them to have to thrive as a society and a nation.

References

Baum, Sandy. "It's Time for Serious Reform of the Student-Aid System. Change. 39.2: 14-20.

Cauthen, Nancy K. and Viany Orozco. "The High Cost of Working Hard" The American Prospect. 20.9: A20-A23. Expanded Academic ASAP.

Health and Human Servies (HHS). "Estimated Median Income for 2009." PDF

Hurley, Ed. "Teacher Pay 1940-2000: Losing Ground, Losing Status." NEA. 2010. Web.

Krigman, Eliza. "Tuition and Fees Can Be Lowered." National Journal.

Newswire. "President Obama Signs Historic Health Care and Education Legilation." States News Service.

"Median Salary by Job." Payscale. 2010. Web.

Williams, Jeffrey. "The Pedagogy of Debt." College Literature. 33.4: 155-15. Expanded Academic ASAP.