Good intentions often have unintended consequences, and such is the fate of the federal government’s push to make higher education universally accessible.
For the average student, higher education is a good investment. Graduates earn more than non-graduates, their social mobility is better, and most graduates use college as the first step in their career. However, student loan debt, low-paying majors, and prolonged time outside the labor force can lessen those benefits.
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As Mohamed A. El-Erian, the chairman of President Obama’s Global Development council, put it in a recent op-ed for Project Syndicate, “What policymakers must determine is how to invest in education in ways that maximize these benefits, without creating new risks.”
Without a change in the approach to higher education accessibility, El-Erian is concerned about college becoming the next bubble.
To avoid that fate, he calls for politicians to focus on boosting economic growth, reforming college to be more responsive to the economy, rein in college costs, and a general move toward increased household savings.
While that’s a platform for consensus, the devil is in the details. Boosting economic growth is difficult not because few people desire it, but because few people agree on how to create economic growth. The goal of college is also wildly debated. Commissions are constantly created to develop “the future of higher education,” and faculty and administrators alike argue about the purpose of higher education in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. Small Christian colleges or large research universities would strongly oppose a move toward higher education as career preparation.
Similarly, controlling college costs can be tricky. The root cause of higher costs is debated, as some blame federal government funds for it, while others think more funds will be the only cure.
Persuading more households to save, as difficult as it might be, could be the most pragmatic of El-Erian’s suggestions. While the rest require an ideological shift, increasing household savings requires a shift in behavior.
Whether Americans will skip going to restaurants on the weekend or grabbing a cup of coffee in the mornings in an effort to reform higher education and spur economic growth is another question entirely.
