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Making College More Affordable: Call for Higher Ed. Reform!

[additional-authors]
October 28, 2012

Is higher education only for the privileged? Over the last few decades, between rising tuition costs, the ongoing economic determinism in admissions, and the impossibility of paying off student loans, the answer increasingly seems to be yes. As Americans and as Jews, we believe this state of affairs is neither necessary nor desirable, and our advocacy can help bring positive change on this issue.


Most members of the UCLA community, where I was teaching for the last two years and “>hundreds of their classmates are homeless. This is but one example of a prominent university where the problem of student poverty pokes its ugly head. University costs have become crippling for so many, and the excessive predatory loans create long-term debt and significantly diminish the potential for social mobility.


Last year, accounting for tuition, fees, and room and board, Sarah Lawrence College cost $59,170, NYU was $56,787, and Columbia University (one of my alma maters) was $56,310. These are on the highest end, but there are many private colleges and universities right behind them. Today, with these frighteningly high principal and high interest rates, the average debt for students graduating from college is $25,250 – this can take decades to pay off. Even more alarming, “>1900, only about 2 percent of eligible adults attended college. Today, about 65 percent enroll in higher education. The biggest boost in college enrollment occurred after World War II, when the GI bill provided incentives that allowed veterans to go back to school rather than be forced into the workforce. “>students who met financial requirements could receive aid from a state-funded Tuition Assistance Program and federal help from Pell Grants and tax credits. These programs continue to enable nearly half of CUNY’s students to attend tuition-free. The challenge is to continue to provide quality, low-cost education for hundreds of thousands of students in the face of increasing state and federal pressure to cut programs that benefit education and aid to the poor.


Our society is no longer a trustworthy system of meritocracy, as financial barriers have become too determinative. When students with high test scores from low-income families are compared to students with high test scores from upper-income families, 80 percent of those in the top quarter of the income distribution go on to get college degrees, compared to only 44 percent of those in the bottom quarter. “>The difference in earnings of a high school graduate compared to a college graduate increased in the 1980s from 50 percent to 80 percent. This trend has not changed: In 2007, those with a high school degree annually earned slightly more than $30,000, compared to those with a bachelor’s degree earning just less than $60,000. The income gap can be seen even within higher education: “>By 2010-2011, however, these percentages had dropped to 62 percent, 36 percent, and 15 percent, respectively.


Anthony Carnevale, the co-author of ““>prevent downward mobility. The trends that indicate rising tuition costs, increased loan burden, and higher earnings for those with advanced degrees must inspire us to solve the challenges of intergenerational mobility. If not, we are heading to a further polarized and unequal society, making it close to impossible to attain the “American Dream.”


The disparity of wealth is one of the most significant problems in America today, correlated with the lack of opportunity for educational growth. We must remove barriers to education by increasing government assistance and putting more restrictions on tuition hikes. The model used by CUNY, coupled with a commitment to attract talented professors and a diverse student body, could help rejuvenate higher education. Finally, we must ensure that Congress acts before the end of the year to avoid the “>Uri L'Tzedek, the Senior Rabbi at Kehilath Israel, and is the author of ““>one of the top 50 rabbis in America!”
 

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