As the nation emerges from the recession that has plagued our economy, we must reinvest in higher education. In recent days, several news reports have described how poorer students and families have faced the brunt of college price increases. If achieving a college degree is no longer affordable for all students, it should concern us all.
The cost of higher education is a difficult issue to understand because the price a student pays is only part of the equation. The amount of money that a college spends to educate a student changes relatively little. Yet, the price that a student pays can vary tremendous.
Here is the simple equation for figuring out how much students will pay:
Cost of College – Government Funding – Institutional Support = How Much Students Pay
Colleges and universities spend their own resources to help pay for the cost of operating the institution. In reality, donations, research grants, and other revenues remain pretty constant. What can change is the funding colleges receive from the state and federal government.
This is true for both public and private colleges. Every college relies on federal grants and loans to help students pay their portion of tuition. Public institutions are particularly vulnerable to public funding changes as they rely heavily on state appropriations to fund their operations. Changes in how governments support higher education impact tuition, student debt, and the overall affordability of college.
It is fashionable to criticize colleges and universities for price increases. However, the most significant variable is public financing. As government funding increases, students pay less. As government funding decreases, students pay more.
The equation is really that simple.
The real question is if our leaders are going to reverse course and reinvest in higher education. The social and economic benefits of higher education are well known. College graduates vote in greater numbers, give more to charitable causes, and earn more income during their lives.
The broader economic benefits of higher education are compelling. There is no way the United States will continue as a dominant global power without more students from all backgrounds attending and graduating from college. A 2013 study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce analyzed the U.S. economy. They found that 65% of all jobs in 2020 would need some form of higher education.
There are other ways besides funding that government leaders can invest in higher education. Colleges and universities are rewarded for bringing in valedictorians, increasing their U.S. News ranking, and graduating more students. President Obama, many governors, and lawmakers from both parties have pushed for accountability measures that mostly seek to punish or shame universities.
Policy makers should provide incentives for increasing the number of low-income students or those that are the first in their family to go to college. Public policy should reward colleges that provide an opportunity for a single mom to go back to school as much as those that bring in a straight-A student from a wealthy high school.
To be sure, colleges and universities have an important role to play here. Higher education must keep costs per student as low as possible without compromising quality. Institutional financial aid budgets should focus more on providing low-income student access.
Higher education develops our next generation of leaders in business, government, schools, and churches. Despite the benefits of higher education to us all, we shifted the burden of paying for higher education from government to students. We cannot protect the American dream without access to higher education for all students. An investment in more resources for higher education now will lead to benefits for our students, state, and nation for years to come. Can we afford not to?
