Ra Ravishankar, "Orange Alert on Education"

Ra Ravishankar, "Orange Alert on Education"

Orange Alert on Education

by Ra Ravishankar

"I am somehow less concerned with the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than I am with the near certainty that people of equal talent lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." -- Stephen Jay Gould

I share the view espoused by Gould, which is why I am concerned about how the working poor in the U.S. are increasingly being priced out of higher education. As students protesting against cutbacks in education and increases in tuition have been saying all along, today's crisis reflects more the misplaced priorities of the ruling class than crude compulsions of economic conditions.

According to a recent report by the College Board, in-state tuition and fees at public four-year institutions have increased, on average, by 6.5% in 2009-10 relative to 2008-09. Among them, about 15% of students attend institutions where tuition and fees have increased by 12% or more, a hefty increase even in the best of times. However, even this pales in comparison with the 32% increase in tuition and fees approved last week by the Regents of the University of California.

A common rationale offered by college administrators is that their hands are tied: Federal funding of education has drastically reduced, and they have to somehow account for the shortfall. And they do have a point. As a percentage of total revenues of public degree-granting institutions, federal government outlays have fallen from 45.6% in 1980-81 to 29.5% in 2005-06. During the same period, the contribution of tuition and fees to total revenues has increased from 12.9% to 17.0%. In fact, tuition and fees at public four-year institutions have been increasing steadily since the late 1970s. From 1979 to 1989, they went up in inflation-adjusted dollars at an annual rate of 3%, increasing to 4% for the next decade and 5% for the current decade (with the rate of increase shooting up to 6.4% and 6.5% in the last two years).

Starting in the late 1970s, even as education costs were on the rise, wages went into decline. Inflation adjusted wages fell by about 12% from 1974 to 2004, and the educational burden became even more onerous for the poorest stratum of the working class. According to a report by the Southern Regional Education Board:

In 2006, the costs of a year at a public university, including room and board, were 8 percent of income for U.S. households in the top fifth of incomes -- 2 percentage points higher than in 1986. Costs for households in the middle fifth, however, were 29 percent of income -- 12 percentage points higher than in 1986. Costs for households in the lowest fifth were a staggering 125 percent of income -- 53 percentage points higher than in 1986.

Another study reports that "nearly one-half of all college-qualified low- and moderate-income high school graduates do not enroll in a four-year program of college study because of financial barriers." Those who do enroll graduate with ever-increasing debts. For instance, in 2007-08, about 61% of students in four-year undergraduate public schools graduated with some debt. The cumulative average of student debt in 2007-08 was $19,839, and it had been rising at a rate of 5.6% since 2003-04. More recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that federal student-loan disbursements in 2008-09 grew about 25% over the previous year to $75.1 billion. Such high levels of indebtedness followed by low wages after graduation could lead to default and financial ruin.

Meanwhile, college administrators continue to regurgitate the same old mantra of cost being no barrier for deserving students. University of California President Mark Yudof, for instance, has been talking up the Blue and Gold program as if it compensates for the 32% tuition hike. This program, he claims, guarantees that "no student with a family income below $60,000 would pay any fees, and this guarantee will continue in 2010." A factsheet on the UC website reveals the program to be much more modest with an annual budget of $3.1 million and only benefiting students receiving other financial aid. According to the UC-AFT, this program pays any difference between the cost of tuition and fees and any scholarship/grant that a student receives. The program also comes with a caveat: it will be evaluated annually "and its continuation beyond 2009-10 for both new and enrolled students will be subject to the University's determination of financial feasibility"!

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