College: Worrying About Access

I only recently began watching the HBO drama “The Sopranos” on DVD. Among the story lines about organized crime, I was surprised to find a significant story about the college prospects of Tony Soprano’s daughter, Meadow, and younger son, AJ. If mob bosses are worried about college, then we all must be worried.

Stories about higher education in our society focus on top-tier colleges and universities, the intense and increasing competition to get in, and the ever-rising costs of tuition at private institutions. Most Milton parents, like Tony Soprano, worry about where their children will go to college. For most American families, however, the question is whether their kids will go to college.

Whether America’s youth go to college affects their life chances significantly.
On average, a B.A. holder spends a quarter more of his life employed and has double the lifetime earnings of a person with a high school diploma, a difference of a million dollars. Conversely, gaining only a high school diploma means you are more than twice as likely to live in poverty, five times more likely to use welfare, and seven times more likely to be incarcerated. While these statistics do not dictate the life chances of any individual, increasing education increases social mobility and leads to substantial personal benefits across broad swaths of the population, in every ethnic group.

Whether these students go to college affects taxpayers significantly.
Personal benefits quickly turn into public benefits; personal setbacks quickly turn into public costs. When people work more and earn more, they pay more in taxes. When they depend on social services or are incarcerated, then taxpayers pay. A major study of public expenditures and benefits of higher education has found that for every dollar invested by California taxpayers in getting more students into and through college, taxpayers net a return of $3 on that investment. A 300% ROI is a good deal in any industry. Even if a state broke even on its investment, the benefits that accrue to its citizens would make this a worthwhile investment, but the benefits also accrue to state and public treasuries and taxpayers.

Whether students go to college affects the quality of our workforce and our economic competitiveness.
Occupations requiring college degrees or postsecondary education are growing faster than the workforce as a whole. This is due in part to the rapid growth of industries that need educated workers, such as health care and information technology. It is also due to changes in occupational and educational demands within industries. Layered onto this growth is the anticipated wave of college-educated baby boomer retirement. If the United States fails to meet growth in demand and to replace retirees with an educated workforce, our economic competitiveness will suffer.

Increasing the number of Americans pursuing and completing a college degree translates to substantial personal, public, and economic benefits. The policy debates surrounding this issue are invariably embedded in a number of more basic questions:

• Should everyone go to college or have access to college?
• What is the balance between personal and public responsibility to pay for
college?
• How responsive are private decisions to go to college to public policy decisions?

Americans generally agree that every person who has worked hard at school should have the opportunity to go to college. We generally reject the idea, however, that everyone needs to go to college. The critical point is that every student should finish high school with a level of proficiency that would enable them to go to college or directly into meaningful employment. Each student should know about his or her college and financial aid options, and make an informed decision, rather than simply be moved off the college path.

The personal benefits and the public benefits of higher education are substantial. Many families, though, are unwilling or unable to make the initial investment to pay for higher education, to lose current income for a future return that is likely but uncertain. On balance, the public needs to cover the substantial costs of education to make sure that students are able to pursue the opportunity. The public investment needs to be for public community colleges and universities, but also for financial aid that students can take with them to public or private institutions.

Finally, since the decision to attend college is up to the individual, can state and federal governments do anything to get more people into college? The answer is yes.

A number of states have made significant progress in raising college attendance and college success rates. These efforts range from early intervention in middle schools and high schools, public awareness programs, predictable tuition policies, need-based financial aid programs, to adequate support for enrollment and student services. Community colleges, given their open access design, ability to prepare people for university degrees and specific occupations, as well as their low cost to students and taxpayers, are a critical part of the solution.

In my current work at the Campaign for College Opportunity, we are tackling these questions in California. With a rapidly growing college-age population and increasing ethnic diversity, our ability to provide expanded college opportunity is critical to the state’s future success. Unlikely allies, ranging from the California Business Roundtable to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, reflect a growing consensus about the importance of college opportunity for the economic and social well-being of our state.

Ultimately, Milton families will remain rightfully concerned about where our students will go to college. But we should be just as concerned with whether other people’s children will go to college. If we fail to expand the promise of higher education to an increasing number of Americans, we will all have a lot to worry about.


Abdi Soltani ’91

 

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