The Education Writers Association hosted a panel on higher education and its impact on the presidential election, but the focused more on challenges within the system than any plans from presidential candidates.
Terry Hartle of the American Council on Education noted that higher education costs can’t be avoided.
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“Colleges and universities are fundamentally labor intensive,” Hartle said.
Furthermore, human resources can drive 70 percent of a university’s spending. Colleges employ many highly educated people. Human capital drives institutions, and maintaining those facilities, and the faculty and staff that attracts students, can be costly.
As states have spent less per-pupil on higher education since the recession, due, in part, to budget pressure from Medicaid, education, and policing and corrections, higher education receives less funding. When demand and enrollments are high, colleges can rely on higher tuition costs as a funding resource. Students can pay out of pocket or take federal loans.
Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institue noted that “another part that is a big drive of this … is aid itself.” He said that there’s been a recognition that aid increases drive prices higher, thanks to the federal government providing easy access to student loans. McCluskey echoed the Bennett Hypothesis, named for Bill Bennett, the secretary of education under Ronald Reagan.
Hartle strongly disagreed with McCluskey over a relationship between student aid and tuition increases.
Jason Delisle of New America tried to shift the discussion to a question of value.
“One in five people who enrolled in higher education have defaulted on their student loans,” he said.
“If prices went up or down, that’s still a crisis … I think that’s the real issue.”
As higher education functions now, a large proportion struggle with handling the debt that results.
“People are getting ripped off, or they shouldn’t be enrolling,” Delisle said.
How those issues will affect the presidential election remains to be seen. Presidential candidates of both parties haven’t been questioned about higher education. Bernie Sanders has announced his support for free higher education, but Hillary Clinton has only embraced free community college, similar to President Obama’s proposal.
Republicans have criticized art history degrees, or, as Marco Rubio said in the last Republican debate, that America needs more welders, not philosophers, but that has not translated into a plan as of yet.
The Education Writers Association panel was part of a seminar held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
