Name: Jack R. Warner
Age: 57
Position: RI Commissioner of Higher Education
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Background: Associate chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth from 2000-2002; vice chancellor in the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education’s office from 1996-2000; dean of student affairs at Bristol Community College from 1979-1996. He also taught for 11 years in Boston College’s graduate program and for 23 years at community colleges throughout New England.
Education: Doctorate in educational administration from Boston College in 1983; master’s degree in education from Springfield College and a bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Vermont.
Residence: Dartmouth, Mass.
PBN: How does Rhode Island measure up in terms of educational attainment, compared to other states?
WARNER: One indicator of a state’s overall levels of education is what percentage of this adult population possesses a bachelor’s degree or higher and on that measure, according to the 2000 Census, about 26 percent of adult Rhode Islanders possess a bachelor’s degree or higher. That ranks us 18 out of the 50 states and ranks us fifth out of the six New England states; Maine ranks behind us. If you’re Mississippi it looks pretty good, but if you’re Massachusetts or Connecticut…lead states are at about between 32 and 34 percent. Part of our problem is that we are located in a region where the educational attainment levels tend to be higher.
Why do you think it’s so important for Rhode Islanders to get a degree and get an education? Why should they be compelled to go to college?
Among the states, Rhode Island has a relatively high cost of living that starts with our housing costs. That’s a good thing, because our housing is worth a lot. To thrive in a state that does have a relatively high cost of living, you need to earn good wages. The kinds of jobs that come with good wages are the jobs that require high levels of education, so that’s why it’s a problem. This is not the Midwest, where you can buy a home very inexpensively, and live inexpensively. So there’s really no going back to a simpler time where people could get by with low-skill jobs that pay low wages because you’re just not going to be able to survive here.
How would you, as commissioner, stress the importance of a college degree to those who would not normally go – whose parents didn’t go to college, or in homes where a college degree is not a priority?
By first of all keeping this message front and center in everything that we do, about the importance of education. And by getting the word out about how. There are three components to the message. One is that to prepare for college, you need to take rigorous courses as early as you can (middle school and especially high school). Preparing early on and getting that message to families, especially families that have not been to college, is a real challenge.
Secondly, the message is how to prepare yourself to finance a college education, and that means appointing people with the sources of financial aid, encouraging them not to get discouraged by sticker shock, because you look at the tuition. … there are lots of scholarship opportunities, there are grants and loans and a wide variety of ways that families can both plan for the financing and if planning isn’t enough, there are plenty of grant opportunities to go after and plenty of other ways to reduce the cost. Then there’s performing well in the courses once you’ve enrolled in them. Even if you don’t do well in those things, we still have ways to get people into our system at a relatively low cost and we can even get them the preparation they may lack.
That’s why we have a system of higher education that has three different tiers or levels. The university has very high admission standards for students who are best prepared. Rhode Island College is a teaching institution focused on students who need to meet admissions standards as well, and then we have the community college that will help prepare students to become college-ready even if they don’t enter as college-ready as they would like. And students who are motivated will find that that sector has the support services to see them through successfully.
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