Governors are vital to making college affordable
No public official has demonstrated such a solid commitment to education over so long a period of time as Gov. James B. Hunt, Jr. We asked Gov. Hunt, whose Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy is breaking new ground with state leaders across the country, to weigh in on the critical issue of college costs. Here’s his contribution:
The American economy is changing at lightning speed, but our children are not being prepared to change with it. Millions of jobs that once supported families with only one parent working have gone overseas. Exciting new careers are replacing them, but this new work requires rigorous academic preparation, knowledge of complex technology, excellent communication skills, flexible intellect, extensive and wide-ranging content knowledge, and the ability to gather and synthesize the astonishing range of information available through the Internet.
Further, the new world economy requires nimble intellects capable of assimilating broad new bodies of knowledge and skills at multiple points in unfolding careers. To help tomorrow’s adults meet the challenge and achieve these goals, we must provide our children today with an education capable of preparing them for this new economy. This education MUST include the social, intellectual, and financial resources our children require for access to excellent higher education.
These goals for our children are also goals for our states and our nation. As a society, we cannot continue to enjoy the fruits of a strong economy if unacceptably high numbers of our children are not equipped to participate once they reach adulthood. What does this mean for governors? As the primary state leaders, we are responsible for wise guardianship of our states’ human and economic resources. A crucial component of each state’s economic and social infrastructure is its educational system. The strength of the educational system determines the strength of the human resources – the ability of citizens to participate in and contribute to a strong, economically sound society.
Yet as the imperative for access is accelerating, so too are the costs of going to college. As Lumina Foundation for Education explains, tuition and fees are accelerating, states are reducing higher education subsidies, grant aid buys less and less, and student debt is burgeoning. Many who could easily manage rigorous academic demands are unable to manage the rigorous financial demands. Increasing tuition imposes particular burdens on less advantaged families, and many children from poor and minority families face more obstacles in accessing financial support. A four-year commitment to the kind of study necessary to meet the challenges of our new world economy assumes enough funds to replace four or more years of a living wage. For many –especially first-generation college attendees and poor families who do not have the wherewithal to prepare financially — this is an almost insurmountable challenge. Students from these circumstances worry understandably about incurring massive debts, a daunting commitment with no guarantee there will be the high-paying jobs they need to keep their promise to repay the debt.
These families, these children deserve our assistance. Our nation demands our involvement. When we know the economic and social implications of these realities and have the authority and influence to act, we are compelled to do the right thing — make superhuman efforts to pursue every possible policy avenue to provide the finest education possible for our children, including sweeping access to higher education. Providing access to excellent education at every level — including higher education — is absolutely vital, and we as governors are vital to making certain this access is available.
The James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy is a lead partner in the College Costs: Making Opportunity Affordable initiative. Gov. Hunt will moderate a panel discussion at the College Cost invitational summit in Washington D.C.
October 14th, 2005 at 1:29 pm
If one gets over the hyperbole in the comments there is a more fundamental set of questions that needs to be addressed - namely how do we assure that the broadest range of students has the broadest range of opportunities. In the last two decades we have changed the intergenerational bargain that we have traditionally offered to students. We cannot think of price alone - college costs really is a much broader issue. Ultimately students and their families and society are making an investment - we need to think about the cost and price issues in higher education as a set of investments. The more we address this in a single lens of areas like access or price - the less well we will do in serving the needs of this generation of students.
The cost issue is not just an American phenomenom. The recent survey by the Economist on higher education found that a vast majority of the best research universities in the world are located in the United States - for example - among the top twenty - seventeen are in the US. The Economist concluded that the success of the American system is based on the very nature that our collection of colleges and universities is not a system. The more that the discussion of costs tries to solve to one solution the more we will be getting away from the essence that has made us the best.