College Isn't Worth The Cost

I've heard it in the news. College costs too much for what you get out of it. The average student loan debt burden for young people graduating from college in 4 years is $23,000 dollars. Young people graduating in 6 years (much more in line with the average time spent in school) can expect upwards of $40,000 in student loan debt. And to top it off, students aren't getting what they're paying for: rigorous, intellectual, and inspiring education. The Pew Research Center recently conducted a national survey of college presidents, college graduates, and college students. The results of the survey indicate that, in many cases, the costs versus the benefits of the education just don't line up. There's a lot of good information in the research that addresses student loan debt, college costs, and lifetime earnings. All good stuff.

But I'm not writing about the survey. I'm writing about how I know this. I turn on the local news channel and there it is: "College isn't worth the cost." I read the New York Times and it's made it onto the front page. While I don't disagree with or value the Pew research, it, like all research, needs to be taken in context.

College isn't worth the cost to who? I read the news, listen to the radio, and talk to people who know stuff. I haven't heard many argue that college isn't expensive. It's expensive because it's valuable. And, I've heard very few comments that suggest a college education isn't valuable. It's what we value and how we value it that makes or breaks. But this messaging that "college isn't worth the cost" might be further widening and extending a higher education gap.

Does the cost of college override the reality that middle earners in America are the most at risk of economic collapse? Young people whose parents earn between $65,000 and $100,000 per year are doomed. Their parents earn too much for them to qualify for federal and state grant aid. Their parents make too little to cover the gap between the costs of attendance and their estimated family contribution. What are these young people to do? The message that they're receiving is that they are destined to borrow themselves into a state of frustration and desperation. The message is that they are going to graduate from college with no clear path to economic stability. Do we think that our kids are not hearing this message? They are hearing it and it scares the hell out of them. What's to suggest that they also won't dis-engage as they stare into the abyss that is their future? If the middle of our economy can't "afford" the opportunity to move forward intellectually and economically, what about the poor?

We know that the primary pathway out of poverty is education. We also know that fewer students from low income families continue education after high school than any other demographic group. There is plenty of data out there suggesting that this is the case because poor families believe that college is too expensive, so they don't explore higher education as an option.They've received the message that college is expensive and therefore out of reach. Since it's not seen as a viable financial option, youth from poor communities are more likely to disengage during their k-12 education than are their more affluent peers.

So whether it's a matter of reality or belief, we are communicating to young people that their efforts to learn more about the world won't be worth the cost of that knowledge. It's concerning the way this research is being communicated and how it's being heard. The messaging is strengthening misinformed and under-informed beliefs about opportunity that I work daily to disspell. The reality is that youth from communities characterised by low-incomes have more access to financial aid than any other group. Middle income youth have access to private, liberal arts and sciences colleges and universities that have higher financial thresholds. And youth from wealthy families will continue to have access (sometimes in spite of low academic achievement.) The power that youth have lies in their understanding and belief that they are in control of their choices and opportunities for higher education. They control their own currency - GPA. If they understood and believed that there was something valuable to them after high school, they would likely engage more diligently in earning the capital to buy those choices.

Young people don't passively accept life conditions unless they don't see their role in changing those conditions. If they hear that college isn't a choice, why work to make it a choice? Young people armed with information and the ability to synthesize that information can be a powerful force for change. If they knew that being poor or being male, black, southern, etcetera could be viewed as an asset with regard to post-secondary opportunity, they might engage more emphatically in the academics. I tell young people all of the time, "GPA is currency. It's the one thing you can control and it's the one thing you can spend." That combined with all of the assets that they bring to the table and have no control over are their capital. They need to know that what they can spend it on is worth the effort.

What we don't need is more information out there that cuts the legs out from our youth as they try to run.

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