Stories about universities opening up and shutting down, relegating instruction to online courses or a combination of online and in-person classes, some not having any in-person instruction, about COVID-19 protocols at college dorms being ignored by off-campus students and parties, etc., etc. have suggested an breakdown of our entire post-secondary educational system. Indeed, especially at the trade school level where hands-on experience and instruction are essential, there have been some degrees and certifications that have been difficult or even impossible to implement during the pandemic, particularly during periods of dramatically escalating infection rates.
We have watched as arguments over how much tuition is justified when instruction moves from physical classrooms to online substitutes. Or as those facing massive tuition debt struggle to make payments after they have lost jobs due to the pandemic. The undercurrent might have seemed to be an unraveling of post-secondary education. Clearly, in the for-profit trade school sector, where bankruptcy and fraud (including Trump University) reign, the financial stresses may have reached beyond the breaking point, and for a few less-endowed private colleges and universities, the grim reaper may be around the corner. But something very strange has happened.
College applications, especially to affordable state and municipal colleges and universities, have risen to new levels even as overall college attendance has taken a hit. My state, California, is no exception. As blue-collar labor, including those well-paid skilled and semi-skilled jobs in construction and technology, have faced massive layoffs, and as replacement work has been difficult to find, earning a degree in the downtime has gained in popularity. As artificial intelligence is also wreaking havoc in some sectors, workers are seeing a college degree as a bit more insurance towards job security in a world where shedding employees is likely to continue even after the pandemic is contained.
“This fall, [laid-off Los Angeles construction worker, Vincent] Aguayo enrolled at California State University, Sacramento, one of thousands of students who pushed the Cal State system to record high enrollment, despite predictions that the pandemic and shift to virtual learning would prompt students to leave in droves. The 23 campuses of the university collectively enrolled 485,549 students in fall 2020, about a 0.75% increase over last fall.
“‘It’s the opposite of what I was expecting,’ said Andrea Venezia, executive director of the Education Insights Center, an education policy research organization based at the Sacramento campus. Venezia, along with many higher education researchers and administrators nationwide, had braced for predicted dramatic drops.
“A number of factors probably contributed to the Cal State system’s counterintuitive numbers, university officials and other experts said… The state universities’ bold decision last spring to decide to keep students online in the fall provided certainty during the early tumultuous months of the pandemic. The university’s years-long initiative to increase graduation rates has built momentum that students did not want to stop. And the relative affordability of the university — and a push for more financial aid during the pandemic — also helped to keep students enrolled.
“Nationally, undergraduate enrollment is down by 4% across all sectors, but public four-year institutions such as the Cal States saw the smallest declines, according to preliminary data from the National Student Clearinghouse. Across the country, enrollment among first-time students fell the most precipitously, by 16%, but continuing and transfer students moving from community colleges into universities held steady or ticked up — trends also reflected at the Cal States, where a record share, 85.5%, of first-time freshmen continued on to their second year.
“‘The enrollment numbers this year clearly reflect the resilience and determination of our students in staying the course to earn a CSU degree,” Chancellor Timothy White said in a statement.” Nina Agrawal writing for the November 10th Los Angeles Times. The problem isn’t demand, it’s costs. With 4-year graduates facing an average of $39 thousand dollars in student debt and professional schools hitting students far harder – average law school debt is $150 thousand according to the American Bar Assn – something is seriously wrong with that job-creating educational path.
“The average cost of attending a four-year college or university in the United States rose by 497% between the 1985-86 and 2017-18 academic years, more than twice the rate of inflation… The cost of attending a traditional four-year university has been rising more than twice as fast as inflation, and two-year community colleges a third faster… Few students [were] on campus this fall, as online Zoom rooms are already replacing classrooms. The tuition bills, though, haven’t stopped coming.” Forbes, August 31st.
The staggering student debt has risen to become one of the President-elect Biden’s key platform planks. Assuming any sympathy in a gridlocked Congress, we should see some support for students and former students in federal assistance, a direct reversal of the US Department of Education’s policies under billionaire heiress, Secretary Betsy DeVos.
In the past two decades, perhaps because there is a direct correlation between higher levels of education and pro-Democratic Party voting preferences, Republican governors, legislatures and even Congress (when under GOP control) have been very parsimonious over allocating more money to education at every level. That reality needs to change if we are indeed anxious to recapture a strong economy within a reasonable time.
I’m Peter Dekom, and it is time to focus on the needs of individual Americans, as opposed to relying on the false prophet of funneling money to big corporations – so-called supply-side economics that just plain do not work – in the misplaced hope that they will simply hire mobs and masses of new workers.
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