The College (Soon-to-be) Dropouts
By Dylan Matthews - Nov 17th, 2008 at 3:03 pmVia Jason Zengerle, Drake Bennett at The Boston Globe has a long, soul-crushingly dark account of what a 21st century depression would (will?) look like. There are a lot of depressing tidbits there, from long ER lines to sharp increases in crime to lower iPhone sales, but this one seems worth highlighting:
Higher education, another big expense, would probably take a hit as well. Students unable to afford private universities would opt for public universities, students unable to afford four-year colleges would opt for community colleges, and students unable to afford community college wouldn’t go at all. With fewer applicants, admissions standards would drop, with spots that once would have been filled by more qualified, poorer students going instead to wealthier applicants who before would not have made the cut. Some universities would simply shrink. In Boston, a city almost uniquely dependent on higher education, the results - fewer students renting apartments, going to restaurants and bars, opening bank accounts, buying books, taking taxis - would be particularly acute.
This, suffice it to say, is a big problem. Even though there’s been a leveling off of the benefits of a college education relative to a high school one, the gains to workers are still substantial, economically and otherwise.
What’s more, it’s going to be hard for private institutions to provide financial aid in a recession. When Harvard’s endowment will drop 30 percent in the current fiscal year, for instance, it’s going to be difficult to sustain generous aid programs like the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative. When household incomes are less able to support college educations, and private institutions can’t make up the difference, the only way to prevent a drop in college attendance is through an expansion of government aid.
College assistance hasn’t gotten a lot of love in proposed stimulus packages, which tend to focus on expanding unemployment insurance, food stamps, and infrastructure investment. This is as it should be; programs like food stamps, which disproportionately benefit the poor, should take priority over middle-class aid like college assistance. But a significant dip in college enrollment today could mean a shortage of skilled workers 20 years from now. If we want to make sure the current recession doesn’t hamper our economy over the long-term, increasing federal aid to college students as part of the stimulus package is essential.
Post a Comment