A) Why are we spending so much money oncollege? And why are we so unhappy about it. We all seem to agree that acollege education is wonderful, and yet strangely we worry when we see families investing so much in this supposedlyessential good. Maybe it’s time to ask a question that seems almost sacrilegious(大不敬的);is allthis investment in college education really worth it?
B)The answer, I fear, is no. For anincreasing number of kids, the extra time and money spent pursuing a collegediploma will leave them worse off than they were before they set foot oncampus.
C)For my entire adult life, a goodeducation has been the most important thing for middle-class households. Myparents spent more educating my sister and me than they spent on their bouse,and they’re not the only ones… and, ofcourse, for an increasing number of families , most of the cost oftheir house is actually the cost oftheir house is actually the cost of living in a good school district.Questioning the value of a college education seems a bit like questioning thevalue of happiness ,or fan.
D)The average price of all goods andservices has risen about 50 percent. Butthe price of a college education has nearly doubled in that time. Is theeducation that today’s students are getting twice as good? Are new workers twice assmart? Have they become somebodymassively more expensive to educate?
E)Perhaps a bit. Richard Vedder , an OhioUniversity economics professor , says, “I look at the data,and I see college costs rising faster than inflation up to the mid-1980s by Ipercent a year. Now I see them rising 3 to 4 percent a year over inflation.What has happened ? The federal government has started dropping money out ofairplanes,”Aid has increased ,subsidized (补贴的)loans have becomeavailable, and “the universities have gotten the money,” EconomistBryan Caplan , who is writing a book about education, agrees. “ It is agiant waste of resources that will continue as long as the subsidies continue.”
F) Promotional literature for colleges andstudent loans often speaks of debt as an “investment inyourself.” But an investment is supposed to generate income to pay off theloans. More than half of all recent graduates are unemployed or in jobs that donot require a degree, and the amount of student-loan debt carried by householdshas more than quintupled since 1999. These graduates were told that a diplomawas all they needed to succeed, but it won’t even get them outof the spare bedroom at Mom and Dad’s. For many, themost tangible result of their four years is the loan payments, which nowaverage hundreds of dollars a month on loan balances in the tens of thousands.
G)It’s true about themoney—sort of. College graduates now make 80 percent more than people whohave only a high-school diploma, and though there are no precise estimates, thewage premium for an elite school seems to be even higher. But that’s not trueof every student. It’s very easy to spend four years majoring in English literature andbeer pong and come out no more employable than you were before you went in.Conversely, chemical engineers straight out of school can easily make triple orquadruple the wages of an entry-level high-school graduate.
H) James Heckman, the Nobel Prize–winningeconomist, has examined how the returns on education break down for individualswith different backgrounds and levels of ability. “Even withthese high prices, you’re still finding a high return for individuals who are bright andmotivated,” he says. On the other hand, “if you’re notcollege ready, then the answer is no, it’s not worth it.” Expertstend to agree that for the average student, college is still worth it today,but they also agree that the rapid increase in price is eating up more and moreof the potential return. For borderline students, tuition hikes can push thosereturns into negative territory.
I)Everyone seems toagree that the government, and parents, should be rethinking how we invest inhigher education—and that employers need to rethink the increasing use of collegedegrees as crude screening tools for jobs that don’t reallyrequire college skills. “Employers seeing a surplus of college graduates and looking to filljobs are just tacking on that requirement,” says Vedder. “De facto, acollege degree becomes a job requirement for becoming a bartender.”
J) We have started tosee some change on the finance side. A law passed in 2007 allows many studentsto cap their loan payment at 10 percent of their income and forgives anybalance after 25 years. But of course, that doesn’t control the costof education; it just shifts it to taxpayers. It also encourages graduates tochoose lower-paying careers, which diminishes the financial return to educationstill further. “You’re subsidizing people to become priests and poets and so forth,” saysHeckman. “You may think that’s a good thing, or you may not.” Either way it willbe expensive for the government.
K)What might be a lotcheaper is putting more kids to work: not necessarily as burger flippers but aspart of an educational effort. Caplan notes that work also builds valuableskills—probably more valuable for kids who don’t naturallylove sitting in a classroom. Heckman agrees wholeheartedly: “People aredifferent, and those abilities can be shaped. That’s what we’ve learned,and public policy should recognize that.”
L) Heckman would liketo see more apprenticeship-style programs, where kids can learn in theworkplace—learn not just specific job skills, but the kind of “soft skills,” likegetting to work on time and getting along with a team, that are crucial forcareer success. “It’s about having mentors and having workplace-based education,” he says. “Time andagain I’ve seen examples of this kind of program working.”
M)Ah, but how do weget there from here? With better public policy, hopefully, but also by makingbetter individual decisions. “Historically markets have been able to handle these things,” saysVedder, “and I think eventually markets will handle this one. If it doesn’t improvesoon, people are going to wake up and ask, ‘Why am I going tocollege?’?”
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