OP-ED | Punting on Higher Education
by Susan Bigelow | Feb 22, 2013 11:00am
(7) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Economics, Education, Opinion, State Budget
There’s nothing more American than punting. Why suffer through pain today if you can just kick it away and make it someone else’s problem tomorrow?
There’s a lot of hand-wringing lately about government pushing problems off to the future, and, as the growing national debt illustrates, there’s absolutely something to that. But we’ve managed to back ourselves into such a tight corner on debt, deficits, and taxes that many of the actions we’re willing take to help fix the immediate financial crunch would mean we passed the buck in other areas, often with even worse consequences.
Here’s the thing about government debt and budget deficits: both are scary, but not as potentially damaging as some of the things that will end up happening — and have happened already — if we keep on underfunding higher education to close budget gaps.
Higher education funding is a mass of contradictions lately. On the one hand, the governor wants to build up the University of Connecticut by investing $1.5 billion, largely on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). That, combined with investments in biomedical research companies near the UConn Health Center, seems like a real boost for the state’s flagship university. But on the other hand, the state university system and community colleges are often targets of rescissions and budget cuts. Tuition may rise by as much as 5 percent at the state university system next year — just the latest in a worrisome trend of budget cuts and tuition hikes.
The students who can manage to get past the rising financial barrier are coming to college with fewer and fewer skills. If you ever talk with college and university faculty you’ll probably end up talking about students and all of their woeful lacks at some point. This is normal. But the current decline in writing and critical thinking skills has a lot of faculty scratching their heads even more than usual, wondering what is going on in high schools these days. A piece published on a Washington Post blog recently suggested a culprit: No Child Left Behind. This cumbersome law is an expression of a culture that demands a focus on testing above all else, and this is part of the problem. Some of the things that the Malloy administration tried to target last year, such as deadbeat teachers, are a small piece of the problem as well. But the real problems have to do with culture, the low value we place on education, small-minded local boards, and a constant lack of resources, materials, and morale. We don’t want to address any of that, we kick it on down the road, and so students enter college unable to write.
All of this is happening in a world where college is becoming more and more of a necessity. Apparently some basic entry-level jobs, like receptionists and file clerks, now require a college degree. The BA has largely taken the place of the high school diploma, with one crucial difference: you have to pay for a BA. Higher education is not free. Budget cuts and our refusal to move past a push-button, test-based approach to education fixes means that to get any kind of useful education, students have to come up with tuition money. Student debt is practically mandatory. The buck has neatly been passed, then, to the very people we’re hoping will revive the economy with their entrepreneurial spirit and energy: young college grads.
There’s an obvious solution to all of this, but I suspect if we ever really decide to support our students we’ll try to take the money out of the salaries of their professors first. This is a bad idea. World-class faculty don’t work for peanuts, nor should they. Cutting the money available for salaries means fewer faculty, which means larger class sizes, less individual help, fewer other support mechanisms . . . and suddenly we have students going into grad school who can’t write a coherent sentence. Great.
At some point we’re going to have to make a choice. We can take the pain now, raise taxes, and try to ease the actual debt burden on the young by making college more accessible, or we can focus on lower taxes, let higher education wither on the vine, and hope the economy makes up the rest.
Or we could punt, and hope future generations are braver than we are.
Susan Bigelow is an award-winning columnist and the founder of CTLocalPolitics. She lives in Enfield with her wife and their cats.
Tags: Higher Education, funding, taxes, Dan Malloy, No Child Left Behind, Susan Bigelow, dh
(7) Comments
posted by: TVanStone | February 22, 2013 2:17pm
“But we’ve managed to back ourselves into such a tight corner on debt, deficits, and taxes that many of the actions we’re willing take to help fix the immediate financial crunch would mean we passed the buck in other areas”
Because we willfully ignore the idiotic legislation occurring today that adds to our deficits in the future. You can’t have everything you want despite its cost…
posted by: TVanStone | February 22, 2013 2:18pm
Today it’s education, tomorrow it’s Social Security, the next it’s Medicare.
How long is this magical list of things we can’t afford in their current state but we can’t afford to reform?
posted by: ocoandasoc | February 22, 2013 10:56pm
I agree that education is underfunded. But… the funding it does receive is not efficiently and effectively spent.
We’ve gotten to the point in CT where what NEEDS to be done is not politically expedient…. Or even politically feasible in the current environment. So instead we do things that sound good, but only give the ILLUSION of progress. (For example, take the problem of our high school grads needing remedial classes at the college level which can’t be fully covered by student loans. Our legislature understands that overhauling our local primary and secondary education system to ensure that our students are prepared for college work when they finish 12 years of public education would pit them against the teachers unions, local Boards of Education, municipal employees, etc. So instead they just eliminated the remedial classes and told the State colleges to work the remedial stuff into the regular coursework. In other words, dumb it all down. End of problem? Hardly. But it’s off their desk!)
Taxpayers in CT are starting to realize, though, that they are being swindled. They see UConn middle management employees getting pensions that are bigger than their highest annual earnings. They see elementary school janitors costing out at $55 per hour when folks doing the same work in the private sector are lucky to make $14. And they see 18year olds that are less ready to lead productive lives and professional careers than high school graduates 25 or 50 years ago, even though taxpayer costs per pupil are rising faster than the rate of inflation.
Having “world class professors” is much closer to the least of our problems than the most urgent need. And until we turn around the alarming statistic of the % of UConn’s top grads who leave the State before the ink on their diplomas are dry, I question borrowing a billion dollars or more just so we can turn out more desirable entry level workers for other States.
And we haven’t even started to confront the cultural, societal and technological changes that our education system has failed to keep pace with. (If someone from the year 1963 time traveled to CT today they would be shocked to see the transformation of familiar places… the supermarket, the factory, the auto repair shop, etc. But they’d be surprised to find that aside from computer work stations replacing the electric typewriters, our public schools haven’t changed at all. (Except, perhaps, that it’s harder now to tell the teachers from the students!)
CT needs a complete overhaul of our educational system from the ground up. But we’re not going to get it from our public sector administrators and lawmakers. There is a real opportunity for private sector entrepreneurs to begin meeting the needs of parents who want to ensure their children’s futures. I just hope our legislators get out of the way and let them do it. But, at the same time, I bemoan the erosion of the American public education system that was once the envy of the world.
posted by: Terry D. Cowgill | February 24, 2013 1:42pm
Susan, I’m sure there are some areas in our higher education system that are underfunded. But you seem to be working on the mistaken assumption that any cuts would necessarily come at the expense of professors’ salaries. As has been well documented, UConn is top-heavy with administration. Indeed, administration nationwide has grown at a far faster pace than enrollment.
Secondly, why does everyone need to go to college? As I’m sure you would concede, it’s not for everyone. We also need plumbers, electricians, carpenters and HVAC technicians. I know many people who hold those kinds of jobs. They’re community-minded, happy people who, in some cases, make more money than the well educated.
Thirdly, why has the cost of a college education risen at 2.5 times the rate of inflation since the late 80s? That simple question must be asked in any examination of higher education budgets—private and public.
posted by: Reasonable | February 24, 2013 5:31pm
Our problem with education comes down to union involvement. No other country has so much union control of their education system as United States. The negative result is that our production of engineers qnd other professionals is third-rate to other countries. We aren’t producing the college graduates we need to succeed in our manufacturing base - and as a result—our manufacturing industry has gone overseas. The unions are systematically exporting are jobs—but our elected leaders win elections only with union backing, so nothing will change. Pres. Barack Obama and Gov Dannel Malloy are both UNION MADE. So nothing will change, as long as we keep electing UNION MADE politicians to office. Unions have and continue to lead our once great country TO DECLINE.
posted by: RJEastHartford | February 24, 2013 6:12pm
There are a lot of corporate employees that would like to have some protections for collectively bargained compensation contracts, much like CEO’s have. While earnings and profits rise, compensation to employees are seen as costs to be jettisoned. How would you enjoy getting laid off in your prime earning years with kids in college?
Should business be unchecked? There is room and a need for both. By the way with the DJIA at 14,000 my 401k is still inadequate. Some are reaping these gains
posted by: ALD | February 24, 2013 8:51pm
“The BA has largely taken the place of the high school diploma, with one crucial difference: you have to pay for a BA. Higher education is not free.”
Nor is a grade or high school education free. If it were free, my property taxes would be a small fraction of what they are.
In no way am I suggesting my taxes should not be spent on education. I am simply pointing out that most of my taxes are spent on paying for what many call a free education!!
By the way did you happen to notice that the highest paid state employees work for UConn, in the athletic programs, and NOT the science, medical, or engineering programs?
There is already more than enough money being thrown at UConn, unfortunately we seem to place more value on basketball than anything else in CT.
We don’t have to take a dime out of the pockets of any professor to start to fix what is so wrong. Just get our prioritizes right.