Half Measure

Higher Education is taking a "budget cut" this biennium no matter who prevails at the end.  Even Governor Dayton's budget would have cut $ 100-200 million, maybe more if he actually had to make his budget balance.  The Republicans proposals cut about twice that, about one dollar in seven.  That's a serious cut to be sure, almost scary if you cast that as closing 15% of the many campuses in the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State College system (MnSCU).  But the more I think about it, that's not enough.

Tell me why we shouldn't cut Higher Education funding in half.  That doesn't mean half the output, as there are many private providers, which is actually part of my reasoning.  It certainly means pain for many in the system now, as in fewer locations, fewer programs, fewer jobs, and higher tuition.  But correlating recent news, observations, events, research, and a little insider information increasingly suggests to me that Minnesota would be the better for it.

Reality #1: There is a glut, a significant oversupply of post secondary options, public and private.  These institutions are agressively competing for students.  Media and online ads are everywhere.  Boiler room operations exist to agressively recruit students, turning over every rock to find financing.  None of this illegal per se, but for the State to offer discounted public competition to the private providers is at least morally questionable.

Reality #2: Too many high school graduates are going to college.  It's all high school students hear, that you're nothing without post secondary education.  Trade apprenticeships, entry level jobs in a chosen field, and of course, military service are not acceptable these days. 

Reality #3: Too many high school graduates aren't even ready for college.  As I've noted several times, a third of Minnesota public high school graduates arrive at our public colleges needing remedial work in English and Mathematics.  With the basics questionable, everything else on their transcripts is questionable as well.

Reality #4: Too many college students aren't learning very much.  A recent study shows that after two years, far too many sophomores show no progress in developing their critical thinking, complex reasoning, and written communication skills.  I'm more apt to blame the students here, more evidence that they shouldn't be here in the first place.

Reality #5: Too many college students are pursuing majors of little or no use landing a job other than teaching it.  Perhaps you've seen one of many recent stories on this, including some surprises like that Chemistry made some of these lists.

Reality #6: Too many colleges are offering too many classes and programs bereft of career or intellectual value.  I suppose there have always been basket weaving and jock courses, but again, numerous articles are finding some absolutely nutty offerings these days.  Often the course title ends with "studies" and starts with some demographic group.

Reality #7: Too many graduates are leaving college with debt loads unthinkable even a generation ago.  Easy money is in fact fueling the rampant growth in education expenses, often growing even faster than health care.  Again, thinning the herd keeps marginal students from wasting their money and forces the colleges to finally do some serious expense control.

Higher Education has become a futile exercise in diminishing returns.  Decades ago, fewer went to college, took serious courses, and yes, were markedly more successful than the rest.  Our social planners figured if they could just get a sheepskin in more hands, they, too would be as successful.  It's the old Certification Myth, overlooking the benefits of the healthy competition that used to be required of both students and institutions.  Easy money ended that, leading to overbuilding and over-admissions.

We need to stop deceiving our children, working instead case by case to find the best fit among all choices, not just college.  At a national level we also need to stop spending their future earnings by borrowing against them today.

Cut it in half, 15% each of the next three bienniums.

 

Comments

[anonymous]

You know, at some level I don't disagree entirely. There are below average students, average students, and above average students. A generation ago, the first two categories could go off and learn a trade and raise a family. Now, though, there are just a fraction of the blue collar, low-skill jobs, and most of them have fewer union benefit and are less desirable than they were 30 years ago. And so ALL the students are striving to get what they need to be a "have" rather than a "have not".

The real issue here isn't education, it's economic. It's that our society is a donut where there are low-skill, low-paying jobs (try raising a family on $10/hr) and high-skill, high-paying jobs. And the middle-class jobs--the ones you long for in this post, where a HS diploma could support a family, are disappearing and going abroad. Manufacturing in particular, but also skilled labor, administrative, etc--you have to go big or go home, so to speak. If I were an 18 year old of middling academic prowess but some ambition, you better believe I'd take that bet and the associated loans and try to make that leap into the upper eschelon--you wouldn't?!.

The real problem is that you *can't* have a decent life without a college degree, so everyone takes their best shot at getting one. In nations with a real safety net, people can be great custodians, retail clerks, bus drivers, groundskeepers, because they don't have to figure out how to buy insurance on a below-poverty wage.

One glaring hole in your realities--or perhaps a correlary of #6 and #7--is that the number-one-with-a-bullet category for new student loans and student loan defaults are for-profit secondary schools. For obvious reasons, they'll sell a student a bill of goods to get them to enroll (high paying jobs as a computer animator!), and bear no responsibility after the fact for that student's future unemployment or loan default.

But on a higher level, how on earth do we grow our nation when we choose to cut educational funding and make it less available to our children? We will regress as a culture, weaken as a world power, and crumble as a economic force. This is just baffling to me.

--Annie

[Speed Gibson]

You'll notice I didn't say anything about not helping the students. I'm just tired of writing checks to the public providers who aren't held accountable for the results.

[The Big Stink]

The profs at these schools have a vested interest in seeing to it the cash spigot is wide open. In my estimation, the ROI of a college education has never been more suspect. Technical degree? - great. Humanities degree? - go to trade school and learn how to decorate a cake - it's where you're going to end up, anyway.

Too bad the schools don't tell the kids this before they lay down their future chasing rainbows.