Maybe I am especially sensitive to this subject because – if all goes according to plan – my children will be graduating from college in 2015, 2018 and 2020. But a study from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education crossed my desk the other day – and parts of it are scary.
“Measuring Up 2004, The National Report Card on Higher Education” is the nonprofit center’s effort to track trends in issues of performance and affordability in higher education – to get a sense for whether states are doing a good enough job in preparing students for college and whether they are doing a good job in making college even reasonably affordable for those students.
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Well, there’s good news and bad news.
On the (somewhat) positive side, the report finds that Rhode Island has made improvements over the past decade in preparing students for college. As is the trend nationwide, more students here are taking tougher courses. They are challenging themselves – gearing up for the rigors of college.
Rhode Island gets even higher marks for participation, meaning the state offers more than adequate educational opportunities and training beyond high school. Rhode Island also earns high grades when it comes to completion, which means that students complete the programs they start, whether the result is an undergraduate degree or certificate.
So what’s the bad news?
Rhode Island gets an “F” in one critical area – affordability. In fact, the report states: “Rhode Island has lost ground in making college affordable for students and families.”
In assigning Rhode Island a failing grade, the report noted:
• Compared with best-performing states, families in Rhode Island devote a very large share of family income, even after financial aid, to attend public two- and four-year colleges and universities, as well as private four-year institutions in the state.
• Net college costs for low- and middle-income students to attend community colleges represent 42 percent of their annual family income. For the same students at public four-year colleges and universities, net costs represent 52 percent of their income.
• The state’s investment in need-based financial aid is very low when compared with top-performing states, and Rhode Island does not offer low-priced college opportunities.
As a nation, there is unfortunate irony at play.
We are preparing our children to better themselves – to reach out and grab the American dream. But then we’re putting that dream just out of their reach. Just far enough so that it hurts.
“The good news is that more high school graduates have taken the courses that prepare them to get to college,” said James B. Hunt Jr., the former governor of North Carolina and chairman of the higher education center’s board of directors. “We see big gains in high school preparation over the last decade, but the bad news is that these improvements have not been reflected in significantly higher college enrollment. … For most Americans, college has become less affordable over the last decade. At a time when we should be encouraging eligible students to attend college, we are making it more difficult.”
Hunt goes on to call the report “a wake-up call for the nation, the states and for our colleges and universities.”
The rising cost of a college education is a real problem. In urban communities, it is an epidemic.
The report raises some questions that deserve answers from lawmakers and education officials in Rhode Island, including:
• Can the state develop financial aid programs that more effectively meet the needs of college-qualified students from low-income families?
• Can Rhode Island develop a low-priced option for higher education to better serve low-income families in the state?
Though not addressed directly in the report, it is fair to suggest those Rhode Island families in the middle- and higher-income brackets face the same dilemma of others. That is, when the time comes, will a college education be a viable option for their children?
Already officials at our three state colleges are talking not about whether the next state budget will force them to raise tuition, but by how much?
There is no arguing the fact that we have terrific colleges and universities in this state – both public and private. Whether you aspire to become a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist specializing in biotechnology, a teacher or even a journalist, you can go to school here in Rhode Island and get the education you need.
But that isn’t going to mean a whole lot to a high school student who can’t
afford to go to one of them.
