In Jonathan Glatter’s Sunday New York Times piece about colleges increasing the costs of for certain majors, the Dean of the College of Engineering at Iowa State makes a central point:
Mr. Kushner said he thought society was no longer looking at higher education as a common good but rather as a way for individuals to increase their earning power. “There was a time, not that long ago, 10 to 15 years ago, that the vast majority of the cost of education at public universities was borne by the state, and that was why tuition was so low, he said. That was based on the premise that the education of an individual is a public good, that individuals go out and become schoolteachers and businessmen and doctors and lawyers, that makes society better. That’s no longer the perception.
Yes, but let’s go all the way:
In the mid-1960s, only about 4% of parents sent their little ones to pre-school. Dr. Spock didn’t recommend it, saying they picked up what they needed at home. In those same years, good jobs were available without a college diploma, and most people thought “character” or “work ethic” would determine success.
Now two-thirds of all three- and four-year-olds are in preschool, and Dr. Brazelton says it is critical for school readiness. College has also become essential. Today 97 percent of Americans agree that a college degree is absolutely necessary or helpful to secure a place in the middle class. It isn’t just about engineering versus history, it is about getting to college at all.
Check the numbers: A generation ago, the typical child went to school for twelve years — all at public expense — and was launched into the middle class. Today, preschool and college, which now account for one-third (or more) of the years a typical middle-class kid spends in school, are paid for almost exclusively by the child’s family.
For most middle class families, college and preschool are available only for those who pay. Indeed, I have argued that the same holds true for K-12, with good schools available only to the children of parents who can afford to buy homes in the right zip codes (or who can afford to keep a parent out of the workforce to homeschool the children). The rest can make do with dirty bathrooms, torn textbooks and teachers under seige.
Of all the changes over the past generation, this one may be the most frightening. Educational opportunity is the hallmark of an open society with true mobility. Without it, class lines will become rigid, and fewer people will buy into the American dream. The well-to-do can pass along opportunities to their children that a growing number of middle class and working families must go deeply into debt to try to give their children. On the surface, it will all appear to be a perfect meritocracy in which the well-educated prosper and the uneducated fail.
The next time someone makes a remark about the rising debt load for middle class families, stop to ask about the financial impact of our collective decision that education is a private — not a public — good.
