Guest Column
Judge Frank Caprio
Brenda Dann-Messier
Jack R. Warner
A new year brings with it new hope and new challenges. It also brings new opportunity. As 2007 begins, Rhode Island’s public institutions of higher education – the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and the Community College of Rhode Island – are poised to further their significant contributions to the state’s economy and quality of life.
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The opportunity for them to do so was enhanced when Rhode Islanders approved Question 4 on the November ballot. Approval of Question 4 will allow the University of Rhode Island to build a new state-of-the-art facility for its world-class College of Pharmacy, one of the great jewels of our state university.
Voter approval also will allow Rhode Island College to renovate some existing buildings on its campus formerly used by the R.I. Department of Children, Youth and Families. Renovation of these facilities will leverage the investment the state has already made in those buildings, maximize their productivity and provide additional physical space for the college as well.
Many of the challenges Rhode Island faces in 2007 revolve around creating jobs and providing workers who are able to fill those jobs. The R.I. Department of Labor and Training estimates that over the next six years, Rhode Island employers will need to fill more than 178,000 job openings. At least 58,000 of those openings – 33 percent – will require some type of college degree.
A study by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University clearly shows the advantages that college degrees confer on their holders. An individual with an associate’s degree earns approximately $10,000 a year more than a person with just a high school diploma. An individual with a bachelor’s degree earns almost $20,000 a year more than that same high school graduate. Someone who attains a master’s degree earns more than $40,000 a year more than the person whose education ends at high school.
Further study reveals that a Rhode Island high school graduate would earn approximately $958,000 in his or her lifetime. Someone with a bachelor’s degree would earn approximately $1,720,000 during that same lifetime. A person with a master’s degree (or higher) would earn $2,255,000 in his or her lifetime.
Consider that for each 100 additional college graduates who entered the work force in Rhode Island, the state’s economy would benefit by an additional $76.2 million over their lifetimes. If we were able to add 1,000 new graduates, that benefit would climb to $760.2 million.
Not only would this additional income benefit the individuals who earned it, it also would benefit the state, generating additional state income taxes as well as more state sales taxes as a result of these graduates’ greater purchasing power.
Clearly, these numbers underscore the fact that money spent on higher education is a wise investment with a significant return – and one that is essential to Rhode Island’s future.
Why, then, did the R.I. Board of Governors for Higher Education vote to increase tuition at URI, RIC and CCRI for the current academic year? Doesn’t that fly in the face of the board’s mission of providing affordable, accessible higher education?
Although the board did vote to raise tuition, we did so reluctantly. We were left with little choice. Our mission mandates that we do what is necessary to ensure the quality of these public institutions of higher learning. Sharp cuts in state aid to the colleges and university left us no alternative in order to ensure that these institutions have enough money to operate at the necessary level of quality.
The cuts at the state level are the latest representation of a disturbing trend. State money supported 29 percent of the total budget at URI 15 years ago. Today, it accounts for only 18 percent of the budget. The study pointed out that the total amount of Pell Grants – the largest federal program for low-income students – was at its lowest in six years, and the average Pell Grant per recipient was at its lowest in the last decade.
The tuition increases, declining state support and decreased financial aid have placed increasing pressure on many students, especially first-generation college attendees, students from low income families and adults who are attending college after having completed an adult-literacy program. Some of these individuals are being forced to work two and three jobs, while taking classes, in order to pay for college.
There is some cause for optimism. Gov. Donald L. Carcieri has announced plans to boost the amount of grant and scholarship money available to Rhode Island students looking to attend college within the state. That new money is expected to be included in the budget he presents to the General Assembly within the next month.
Although the state is facing a budget deficit, we are hopeful that legislators will embrace the wisdom of providing additional funds in support of public higher education, so we can minimize further increases in tuition. It’s a significant opportunity that underscores the very positive economic impact of higher education and the role it plays in helping to improve our economy. And it represents a return on investment that Rhode Island can ill afford to ignore.
Judge Frank Caprio is chairman of the R.I. Board of Governors for Higher Education; Brenda Dann-Messier is president of Dorcas Place and a member of the Board of Governors; and Jack R. Warner is the state commissioner of higher education.
