The personal website of Paul A. Hawkins.
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phawkins.com
The personal website of Paul A. Hawkins. |
Politics • EssaysThe Skyrocketing Cost of Higher Education04-17-2009 We need to fix the problem of colleges sending graduates out into the world with mountains of debt and degrees that are increasingly deflated because everyone gets one. The sources of this problem are the three-fold: 1) college prices are high because everyone wants in (supply and demand), 2) degrees are worth less because universities grant them with increasing rapidity while holding students to increasingly low academic standards, and 3) government has the misplaced idea that it is somehow democratic to fund college education based on economic standards and not student merit. Government policy toward education should be to assist our best and brightest, to reward their academic excellence and hard work in high school, and to assist them in the pursuit of a career that will enable them to contribute to the work, thought, and culture that are the strengths of the USA while also enriching their own lives. Instead, government is using higher education as a tool to rectify “economic injustice” – that is, taxpayers are funding students primarily on the basis of economic means tests and not merit. We are told it is our duty to spend tax dollars to send the economically disadvantaged to college in order to redress years of under-representation among key demographic groups, so as to open the door to a brighter future for them and enable them to climb the economic ladder. There can be no doubt that the American dream ought to be open to everyone and that all ethnicities and religious groups have skills and insights and talents that must be nurtured to fruition so that they in turn will some day strengthen American culture. However, admission to college must be merit-based – college must be for people who have an aptitude for advanced studies. Likewise, most financial help must be given to those who, after demonstrating academic prowess in high school, have a legitimate financial need for assistance in order to follow up on the promise they have shown. These are the people who belong in college. Unfortunately, since it became a “right,” colleges have been letting in people who probably belong in a trade school, vo-tech program, or other venue. By letting almost everybody into a college someplace, our society has let demand outpace supply and has given colleges carte blanche to charge students, their parents, and taxpayers as much as they see fit. The American dream does NOT hinge on every young man and woman getting a BA. Instead, it hinges on challenging them in high school to learn and achieve at least to the academic standards our parents and grandparents did – to master fundamental reading and writing skills, to acquire a knowledge of history and culture, to establish a broad foundation in physics, chemistry, and biology. And, after high school, we must test and assess these students' needs and aptitudes. College must not be four more years to postpone responsibility – to party, to take first flight outside their parents’ eyes while colleges subject them to diversity training and nurture lifestyles. Instead, colleges must be places where a student can support him/herself through hard work AND achieve great things academically. I admire no group more than those students who work to support themselves through college. They are the unsung heroes of their age group. They deserve every ounce of our respect and their work ethic presages many future successes. What I do disrespect is the exploitation of our college students by universities through never-ending tuition increases. These are done out of greed – make no mistake. Colleges are businesses, they know the demand that exists for their diplomas, and they know to the penny how much many federal dollars they will reap per warm body in a classroom. So they expand – so they let in people who shouldn’t be there – so they raise tuition because they know some faceless nameless taxpayer would rather pay than be browbeaten with the accusation that “you don’t support the best interests of our children.” The truth is, those of us who DO support the best interests of our children want the universities to do a better job. We want them to stop plundering our kids’ futures and saddling them with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt before they even matriculate. We want them to stop stealing parents’ life savings. We want college administrators to stop parading around Greco-roman campuses like minor deities and courting unmerited sanctimony. We want colleges to do a better job of being institutes of higher learning. With this in mind, I suggest these avenues of reform:
Until we address the dual issues of federal funding and degree deflation, nothing will change. That is why I was chagrined to learn that Oklahoma Fourth District Representative Tom Cole voted in favor of the 2008 College Opportunity and Affordability Act, which added $169 billion in new higher-education spending and created at least 50 new federal programs, in spite of the fact that federal outlays for higher education had already nearly tripled since 2001. Such a reaction to the education crisis demonstrates absurd logic - it is like trying to put out a fire by throwing bags of money into it. The problem of high-cost college education has been caused by the federal government and exploited by colleges. States must rein in the latter while Congressmen must demand accountability, increased standards for students, a merit basis for financial assistance, and an end to the idea that a BA is the only avenue to prosperity. Throwing extra money at a fire will never resolve a problem that extra money caused in the first place. If we are to remove the burden of debt from students and parents, we must get colleges back to their core purpose of educating the best and brightest for promising careers. Students and parents deserve better than the system is currently giving them. Resources: "The Declining Value Of Your College Degree" - JULY 17, 2008
"It's time to study the value of college"
America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor's Degree
"College Costs Rising at Double the Inflation Rate"
"Rep. Cole Votes for Legislation to Expand College Access"
"The Higher-Education Bill: The Unnoticed Budget Buster"
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