Transcript Slide 1

COLLEGE FOR ALL?
George Farkas
Department of Education
UC, Irvine
• “Tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year
or more of higher education or career training. This can be
community college or a four-year school; vocational training
or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be,
every American will need to get more than a high school
diploma.”
• “…This country needs and values the talents of every
American. That is why we will provide the support necessary
for you to complete college and meet a new goal: by 2020,
America will once again have the highest proportion of college
graduates in the world.”
•
President Barack Obama, Address to Congress, February 25, 2009
• President Obama joined the push for universal higher
education
• 85% of U.S. 10th graders say they plan to earn a bachelor’s
degree or higher
• A dramatic increase from 30 years ago
• This year, 800,000 AA degrees awarded
• 1.7 million B.A.s
• 660,000 master’s
• 96,000 first-professional degrees
• 70,000 doctor’s degrees
• Total
College Enrollment 2010-11:
•19.1 million students
•Public 2-year: 6.7 million students
•Public 4-year: 7.5 million
•Private 4-year: 4.6 million
•Private 2-year: 0.3 million
•Cost of annual tuition, room, and
board:
•Public: $12, 283 with in-state
tuition
•Private: $31,233
•College grads earn a lot more than
high school grads over their
careers, and also have lower
unemployment
•Increasingly, employers are
looking for a college degree
•Most parents want their children
to go to college
Synthetic Work-Life Earnings Estimates for Full-Time, YearRound Workers by Educational Attainment Based on 19971999 Work Experience
(In millions of 1999 dollars)
Doctoral degree
$3.4
Professional degree
$4.4
Master's
degree
$2.5
Bachelor's degree
$2.1
Associate's degree
$1.6
Some college
High school graduate
Not high school graduate
$1.5
$1.2
$1.0
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Surveys, March 1998, 1999 and 2000
• But are students’ B.A. expectations realistic?
• Can all students, even with GPAs and test scores in the bottom
half, earn a 4 year degree?
• Benefits and costs of encouraging them to try?
• Perhaps it’s a disservice to push them towards college?
Benefits:
•
Access to newly professionalized jobs and occupations in
expanding industries (e.g. health care, information
processing)
• Earnings and employment gains also apply for students who
attend college but do not graduate (although gains are
smaller)
• High school students with college plans enroll in more
challenging courses and work harder in high school
• Effects go beyond employment and earnings to include
marriage and parenting
Costs:
• Relatively high drop out rates from college
• Graduation rates depend on who you count as enrolled (vs
“trying it out”) and how long you give them to graduate
• Among those ever enrolled in a 4-year college, about 60%
earn a B.A.; for 2-year colleges, 24% earn an A.A.
• These rates depend crucially on high school GPA and family
social class background
Costs, continued
• Many of these students never attain credits toward a college
degree, since the courses they enroll in are remedial
• Many take out relatively large loans to attend college, and end
up with high levels of debt and nothing to show for it
• These students often forego full-time employment, earnings
and OJT that is provided by full time work experience.
Costs, continued
• Under “College for All,” many school districts are reducing or
dismantling their vocational education programs
• Yet, these programs may provide the best opportunity for
students with mechanical but not scholastic aptitude
What is to be done?
• One possibility: move away from college for all. Instead, build
up high school vocational education programs.
• Make them more like those in Germany and Japan, where
high school teachers have strong linkages with employers, and
place voc students into good jobs.
• This would be a complete policy change. High school
vocational education has been substantially dismantled.
• Many successful training programs beyond high school: auto
mechanics at Folsom Prison, SoCal Connected diver training at
a prison, OCC airplane mechanics program
What is to be done? (continued)
• A second possibility is to better inform high school students
about the academic requirements of college, so they can
avoid mistakes such as taking only remedial courses while
piling up debt.
• Improve advising. Provide better advice for, and linkages to,
later employment.
Policy Issues
• Change high school advising? Vocational versus academic
coursework: no-college, 2-year, or 4-year college?
• How important is the open access provided by low-cost
community colleges?
• How much should we raise community college tuition and
how much should we reduce community college course
offerings?
• The same questions apply to the Cal State and UC Systems