Measuring Up 2008 has just been released. For the uninitiated, Measuring Up evaluates higher education every year, and this year the results are dismal. No one who is currently in school, or who has graduated any time recently (read: is still paying off educational debt), needs to be told that college is more expensive than ever before. Over the past 25 years, the cost of college has typically risen at four times the rate of the median household income. Numbers like these obviously spell disaster for the average family who desires to send its children on to higher education after high school. As it is, a majority of families already finance college through debt in some form or fashion, thus jeopardizing future financial security. To put it in the starkest possible terms: an education at a four-year private university now accounts for 76 percent of the median family income. In the final analysis, who can actually afford college anymore?
Well, I'll tell you who. The wealthy can afford college. Like it or not, the wealthy have always had and will always have advantages over those of lesser means. Higher education can be counted among their perks. Is it fair? Life isn't fair. Who else can go to college? The smart kids. The kids who work really hard in school. The kids who realize from a very early age that if they don't perform in school, that if they don't make the grades, and join the right extracurriculars, and take the extra year of Physics ("but, Mom, it's not required for me to graduate!") that there will be no college for them. Hence, they set college as an early goal, and they strive to achieve it. Colleges will always have money for such kids. So who else gets to go? Kids who work hard - kids who value college for the edge that it can give them, and who are willing to trade the "college experience", whatever that is, for hard work. That may mean working in the dorm kitchen, keeping their high school job through college, or tutoring in the Biology lab. Again, though, there will always be a place in college for kids who are genuinely willing to work for it.
For everyone else, I would have to say that a private university is probably completely out of reach. Some public universities may well be out of reach for some students as well. If what you are looking forward to most about college is the parties, the girls (the guys), the football games, etc., then perhaps the times have changed to the point where you may want to make alternate plans. I may be odd, but I don't consider college a rite of passage or a necessary part of growing up. I understand full well that a college degree is now considered essential for competition in the job market, but I also understand that there are still plenty of professions that don't require a college degree. Thus, I offer my own proposal for combating the terrible increase in the cost of education: revive the tradition of apprenticeships.
Tradespeople are still needed. In fact, with the explosion of electronics in our lives, they are needed more than ever. Therefore, instead of raising every child with the idea of, "You most certainly will go to college, Mister!", parents should keep an open mind, and allow for the possibility that Junior may not need any more book learnin'. He may do quite well at Technical School. In order to assess his aptitude and interest, he could be apprenticed short-term to a (insert job choice here). The apprenticeship could be tied to high school credit, thus obviating the question of payment for services.
I realize it's practically anti-American to suggest that not all high school graduates should aspire to college, but I also happen to routinely argue the point that not all Americans need to own their own homes. The latter notion has gotten this country where it is today. The former notion could well be the next big financial crisis, unless we change our basic approach and ideology regarding higher education.
