College enrollments have dropped to lows not seen since the Great Recession. Higher education policy experts from the right-of-center think tank American Enterprise Institute have stated that the declining quality of education, degrees with low return on investment, and almost certain post-graduate student debt are at fault. GOP-led efforts might reverse the decline.
Preston Cooper, AEI’s higher education fellow, told the Washington Examiner, “schools might not offer a strong economic return,” adding that “students at these institutions don’t earn very much relative to how much debt they took on for their education, many of them will not repay their loans in full.”
Recommended Stories
- The Right is winning the culture war, it doesn’t need the FCC
- Did Democrats forget about Disney firing Gina Carano and Roseanne Barr?
- Charlie Kirk understood conservatives need to take back academia
AMERICANS’ SUPPORT FOR COLLEGE HITS AN ALL-TIME LOW
In Cooper’s recent report, Learning with Their Feet: Student Enrollment Trends in Postsecondary Education by College Quality, the veteran policy expert outlined the major factors behind the decline in college enrollment: quality and price.
According to the report, lower quality institutions, which are measured by low degree completion rates, a student’s inability to pay back federal student loans, the student’s choice of major, and their earnings after graduation, have experienced a staggering 47% drop in enrollment since 2010.
Currently, as reported by Bankrate, student earnings after graduation average at around $47,000, compared to the 1990s post-graduation average salary, which is significantly less when adjusted to inflation.
Due to the financial insecurity revolving around a college degree, as stated in the report, more students at the graduate level have continued to pursue certificates in high-wage trades over another university degree.
To counter this enrollment crisis, Cooper’s solution, which mirrors those of lawmakers and the Department of Education, is to increase accountability measures toward institutions, which would ideally enhance the quality of their education.
“The fact that students are already shunning these schools does not negate the need for accountability; rather, it suggests that accountability policy will reinforce rather than counteract the choices students already seem to be making,” Cooper wrote in his report.
As Cooper stated, these record-low statistics about higher education already give soon-to-be high school graduates the wrong idea of a college education.
Fortunately, however, as Cooper suggested, the alarming negative statistics showing that lower-quality institutions are surpassing record lows have prompted lawmakers to roll out accountability programs that can reverse the trend.
As we saw at the beginning of this year, accountability measures such as new accreditation systems, financial regulation, up-to-date performance evaluations, and data analysis, such as Cooper’s report and the Education Department’s College Scorecard, have begun to direct higher education institutions to focus on enhancing their quality.
Other important initiatives that can enhance the quality and enrollment numbers in higher education have begun to appear in Congress.
Sen. Tommy Tubberville (R-AL) and Sen. John Husted (R-OH) recently unveiled a bill to improve transparency and accountability for federal loan borrowers, which will clarify the gray areas revolving enrollment and the borrowing of student loans.
The joint bills from the Senators help students avoid signing a deal they do not understand, which can lead to acquiring crushing debt and possibly having to drop out of college.
DISASTROUS TEST RECORDS SHOW SCHOOLS NEED TO GO BACK TO BASICS
This bill, the Department’s Scorecard, Cooper’s reports, and Trump’s freezing of federal funds are steps in the right direction, but barely scratch the surface.
Higher education still has a long way to go before it can regain its former integrity. However, under this administration, hope remains.