The Conversation about Free College Continues

This NPR piece does a pretty good job of getting on the table the tangle of issues that surrounds the cost of education question.

• If education makes people economically better off, shouldn't they pay for it? 
• Does financial aid create an economic bubble? Are college costs un-disciplined by the market? 
• Is there a public obligation or public interest in paying for higher education? To make a better democracy? To ensure a meritocratic society? 
• Do elite universities merely reproduce privilege? 
• If employers provide education benefits, is there a danger that the US makes the same mistake with education that it made with health care? 
• Or is there a danger that industry will then define what education is? 
• Does "free college" make sense? If it does, what happens to the private non-profit education sector? If MOOCs were/are not the answer, is there something else in the technology realm that is? 
• Are answers possible when so many different powerful actors have so many different interests and ideologies? 

Free College For All: Dream, Promise Or Fantasy?

by ANYA KAMENETZ
June 19, 2014

"Free" is a word with a powerful appeal. And right now it's being tossed around a lot, followed by another word: "college."

A new nonprofit, Redeeming America's Promise, announced this week that it will seek federal support to make public colleges tuition-free. That effort is inspired by "Hope" and "Promise" programs like the one in Kalamazoo, Mich., which pays up to 100 percent of college tuition at state colleges and universities for graduates of the city's public high schools.

Starbucks announced a tuition benefit for its employees that will cover classes taken online from Arizona State University.

And we wrote last week about a Tulsa, Okla., program that pays for two years of community college for county residents.

In reality there's no free college, just as there's no free lunch. The real policy discussion is about how to best distribute the burden of paying for it — between individual families and the public at large — and, secondly, how to hold down the cost of providing it. All while leveraging the power of "free" responsibly.

Read More at NPR.org

Experimenting with Price Cuts in Higher Education

I've long been an advocate of cutting tuition and getting away from the wrong-headed "luxury-price signals quality product" logic so common in lower and middle tier higher education. There are many reasons not to "just do it," but more than a few things in favor of the idea should at least motivate serious discussion:

• honesty in pricing might better reflect institutional values;
• some prospective students never consider a school, knowing sticker price is out of their reach; the current system discriminates against such "humble realists";
• institutions should grapple with the fact that full-pay families might not be willing to participate in the institution's redistribution scheme if they thought (knew) about it;
• it is not clear there is any dis-interested, scientifically valid research on the implications;
• revenue models rarely take into account the cost of administering Byzantine financial aid schemes;
• some institutions are unfairly labeled "elitist" based on sticker price alienating people to whom their mission otherwise would appeal;
• tuition discounting is one of many opacity practices that undermine administrators', board members', and faculty members' capacity to effectively monitor the economics of their institutions.

Read More

See also

• Ry Rivard. Paper (Tuition) Cuts."  Inside Higher Ed September 16, 2013
• Ellen Berman. "Higher education faces tuition disruption: Experimenting with price at a time when higher education is being viewed as a commodity." University Business, November 2013
• Ruth Simon Connect. "Colleges Cut Prices by Providing More Financial Aid." Wall Street Journal May 6, 2013

Lists That Rank Colleges’ Value Are on the Rise

Rankings that privilege affordability and "return on investment" are becoming more common.  They tend to look very different from more conventional lists.  It becomes problematic if one falls into the false dichotomy trap: either you care about ROI or you care about "intellectual, social and civic value of education."  One advantage of a liberal arts education is that it teaches you "both/and" as well as "either/or" thinking.  We need to recognize that paying attention to cost and career value does not mean abandoning other education fundamentals.

From The New York Times

By ARIEL KAMINER
Published: October 27, 2013

Looking out over the quadrangle before him as students dashed from one class to the next, James Muyskens was feeling proud one recent afternoon, and why not?

The college he had led for the past 11 years had just been awarded second place in a new ranking of American higher education — ahead of flagship state universities, ahead of elite liberal arts colleges, even ahead of all eight Ivy League universities.

The college is Queens College, a part of the City University of New York with an annual tuition of $5,730, and a view of the Long Island Expressway.

Catering to working-class students, more than half of whom were born in other countries, Queens does not typically find itself at the top of national rankings. Then again, this was not a typical ranking. It was a list of colleges that offer the “best bang for the buck.”

“Elation,” said Dr. Muyskens, recalling his delight when he learned of the honor. “Thrilled!”

Purists might regard such bottom-line calculations as an insult to the intellectual, social and civic value of education. But dollars-and-cents tabulations like that one (which was compiled by Washington Monthly), are the fastest-growing sector of the college rankings industry, with ever more analyses vying for the attention of high school students and their parents who are anxious about finances.

Read More

Developments in the 10,000 Dollar Degree Movement

From The New York Times 18 October

Low-Cost B.A. Starting Slowly in Two States

By TAMAR LEWIN

Published: October 18, 2013

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — With tuition, student loan debt and default rates all spiraling higher, what’s not to love about a $10,000 bachelor’s degree?

In the last two years, two Republican governors — Rick Perry in Texas and Rick Scott in Florida — have challenged their states’ public colleges to develop bachelor’s degrees costing no more than $10,000, less than a third of the average sticker price for tuition and fees at a four-year public college. Governor Perry said he hoped 10 percent of the state’s degrees would meet that goal with online learning and new efficiencies. Governor Scott sought low-cost degrees in high-demand fields.

READ MORE

Ten Part Washington Post Series on Higher Education (2013)

Dylan Matthew's ten-part series "TUITION'S TOO DAMN HIGH" on the Washington Post's "WonkBLOGS" appeared this summer. Matthews is a young journalist new to the education beat.  Some criticism of the series emphasized its "book report" quality (in contrast to "real reporting"), but it does a decent job of bringing lots of things folks are talking about onto our radar screens in these short pieces. -DR

Tuition's Too Damn HighDylan Matthews, WaPo Wonkblog

1. Part 1 Why is college so damn expensive?
2. Part 2 Why college is still worth it
3. Part 3 The three stories of rising tuition
4. Part 4 How important are state higher ed cuts?
5. Part 5 Is the economy forcing colleges to spend more?
6. Part 6 Why there's no reason for big universities to rein in spending
7. Part 7 Is government aid actually making college more expensive?
8. Part 8 Are rich kids ruining college for everybody else?
9. Part 9 Can MOOCs solve the college cost crisis?
10. Part 10 How can we fix skyrocketing tuition?