2. Presenter’s Contract
Is there a higher education crisis?
Why do we have more degrees and less social and economic
mobility?
Tweet me, quote me, question me, argue with me
vehemently
4. Shifting Higher Ed
Landscape
More college students than ever before
1990–2000, total college enrollment grew by 11 percent
2000-2010, total college enrollment grew by 41 percent
Over 5 million more college students in 10 years
Tuition increases across all sectors of higher education
Financial “aid” shifted from grants to student loans = $1
TRILLION in student loan debt
Economy replaced “good” jobs with McJobs
Increasing inequality = Mo’ Degrees, Mo’ Problems
9. Where are Minority Students?
Hing, Julianne. July 2012. “Here’s How Students of Color Fit Into Higher Ed’s Shifting Ecosystem”
Colorlines.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/07/the_shifting_higher_education_ecosystem_and_how_students_of_col
10. WHO’S LEARNING WHO?
Although only one in 20 students who attend degree
granting institutions attend for-profits, 1 in 10 black
students, 1 in 14 Latino students, and 1 in 14 first generation
college students is enrolled at a for-profit college
For-profit students do not just come from families with
lower average income, they are also more likely to come
from families that are quite poor
16 percent of for-profit students came from families receiving
support from the welfare system (in comparison just 2.6% of
public and 1.6% of private not-for-profit students )
11. So What?
B.A. from Harvard in 2010 = $145,220 in 2010
B.A. from ITT Technical Institute = $110,848
The Price-Prestige Index has been broken
Students from all walks of life borrow a lot of money for a shot at
a good job.
Especially true for women, mothers who are already at or below
the poverty line.
If we care about the cycle of poverty we must care about how and
where women are being educated and for what ends.
12. How Did We Get Here?
Decrease in state subsidies of public education
Neo-liberal education policy = more loans, fewer grants
Private sector shifts human capital development to
individuals
Traditional colleges abandoned any pretense of egalitarian
service
Labor market: expansion of service economy
There are fewer good jobs and fewer avenues to get there
13. Solutions?
Massive Open Online Courses
Coursera, 2Tor, Private-public partnerships
More for-profit colleges
More job-focused degrees
14. IT’S THE
ECONOMY, STUPID
Degrees don’t create jobs. JOBS CREATE JOBS!
www.tressiemc.com
@tressiemcphd
tcottom@emory.edu
Editor's Notes
If you hadn’t heard: higher education is in crisis. Bloated, expensive, out of touch, not innovative, not practical, for god’s sake people take ART HISTORY. Have you heard about the one about the janitor with a PhD?? I’m going to argue that higher education is not failing. It’s doing exactly what it is supposed to do. But our public and social policy is failing millions of students, their families and the society who invests in them. Higher education isn’t failing. It’s still producing elites. It’s the market morality that promotes equal opportunity instead of equality of access that has failed.
----- Meeting Notes (11/15/12 20:07) -----President calls for everyone to have some college in 2010. One problem? Where are they supposed to go? Manufactures a supply problem in higher education: traditional colleges don't or won't expand because they’re not supposed to: their job is to be SELECTIVE, we’ve built it into the entire college process. As Victor Borden said to me once, a college that isn’t selective – where everyone graduates- is called a diploma mill. We penalize colleges that serve everyone. , private sector will, government encourages by shifting aid, labor market is all too happy to shift human capital development to the individual. Public and social policies that created lower systems of education rather than more opportunity across higher education
Pew Charitable Trusts’ Economic Mobility Project and other studies that found that 42% of American men with fathers who were in the bottom fifth of the earning curve stay there. Meanwhile, only a quarter of Danes and Swedes and 30% of Britons born into the lower-income bracket will die in that same bracket.
A fundamental, intentional misconstrue of today’s college student. This is who we make policy for. It’s who traditional colleges compete with each other to serve.
But the expansion in the higher education market in the past 5 years has been highest among adults ages 24 and older. – note, not traditional – student is a black, latina, working, mom. And increasingly she is attending the most expensive, least prestigious, most risky sectors of higher education. And we? We built that through a web of social, public, and economic policies that constrained the practical job and education opportunities available to those who need them most. Although only one in 20 students who attend degree granting institutions attend for-profits, 1 in 10 black students, 1 in 14 Latino students, and 1 in 14 first generation college students is enrolled at a for-profit college
The typical college student by 2025 is projected to be black and/or hispanic. With what we know about statistical discrimination that means they are also likely to be working class if not poor. They are more likely to have attended or graduated from an underfunded k-12 school system and less likely to have the social capital to navigate a complex higher education landscape. Basically, the typical student today is the traditional student of the not so distant future. And a series of public policies, college sector choices and economic pressures is funneling them into expensive colleges with risky outcomes. Their college choices are constrained by economic and policy forces that commodifies their aspiration to the benefit of corporations. A lot of people get rich in this new higher ed landscape but it’s not exactly the students.
The result is that no group wants more education than black people. But that aspiration is commodified by for profit colleges and high student loan debt. Today the number one producer of black bachelor’s degree holders is a for-profit college. The 10 has
----- Meeting Notes (11/15/12 20:07) -----So what? They’re getting an education. You’re right. But let’s talk a bit about why that’s problematic and how it is indicative of how our higher education landscape is traps women, mothers, and africanamericans$34,372 tuition difference but a world of social distance between themFor-profitPublicBachelor's$62,702.00$52,522.00Associate's$34,988.00$8,313.00Certificate$19,806.00$4,249.00six years after they enter college, for-profit students are more likely to be unemployed--and to be unemployed for periods longer than three months. And, further, if they are able to find a job, students who attend for-profits make, on average, between $1,800 and $2,000 less annually than their peers who attended other institutions. (deming, goldin, katz)this is how we create more degrees, more credentials, more inequality
Nature abhors a vaccum; for-profits offer what ----- Meeting Notes (11/15/12 20:07) -----Pensions for 401kshealth insurance to managed HMOsyou look around for fat, and you see corporate training -- new hires were once trained, now you must arrive trained and you must pay for that yourself. you go shop the market yourself At the same time cultural narrative "go to college" is increasing supported by some social policy, public policy is undercutting avenues of college available to most people. So we incentivized college going while simultaneously constricting college access, deregulated for-profit sector in this area, guaranteed profit through federal student loans and we can't figure out why we have mo degrees, mo problems
----- Meeting Notes (11/15/12 20:07) -----MOOCs, no credential -- anyone ever been hired for a job after they tested what you actually know?private partnerships: we're learning of these tools from those trying to sell usmore for-profits - both pres candidates agreed to thisjob-focused degrees -- well ok maybe, but only if labor market is a meritocracy
Degrees don’t create jobs. Jobs create jobs. Inequality acts on K-12 disparities which is driven by economic inequality and it’s just pushed up to higher education which resists by producing new, lower levels of credentials for a high individual and social cost
