Page 78 - Crisis in Higher Education

52 • Crisis in Higher Education

this link is intuitive and logical. Economics 101 claims that a good or
service that costs more is likely to have fewer buyers, in part, because they
cannot afford it. Over the years, as higher education costs grew faster
than the rate of inflation, access became more limited. A report by Science
Daily claims that in the 1980s financial constraints did not determine
who attended universities, but today family income and parental wealth
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make a big difference. In addition, students are unable to earn enough
money through summer jobs and part-time work during the school year
to pay for their education. This has made it more difficult for students
from middle- and low-income families to earn a university degree even
from a publicly supported university.
Here are some hard numbers to clarify the point. What percentage of
tuition and fee costs could a student who attended a public university earn
by working a minimum wage job in 1966 and today? Assume the student
can work 40 hour per week for 15 weeks in the summer and 16 hours per
week for the rest of the year with 2 weeks of vacation. With these assump-
tions, the student works 1,160 hours per year. In 1966, the student would
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have earned about $1.25 per hour or a total of $1,450. As noted earlier,
tuition and fees in California’s public universities, Ohio University, and the
University of Toledo were $84, $400, and $602 per year, respectively. Taking
the highest cost, $602, students would have earned 2.41 times the cost of the
tuition and fees, which would have made their education affordable. If they
live at home, they could have graduated and put money in the bank. With
dormitory expenses and modest help from parents, it is possible for students
to graduate without any student loans. Today, the student would earn $7.25
per hour or $8,410 for the year, which is 0.89 times the average tuition cost
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for public four-year universities, which is $9,410. These higher costs make it
impossible to pay for their education without significant help. This tuition
data point ($9,410) is taken from Table 1.1 in Chapter 1. 14
A report from Vice President Biden’s Middle Class Task Force offers
statistics to support claims that access and success in higher education
are impacted by its high costs. Family income is an important determi-
nant of college enrollment and graduation. Although 78% of high school
graduates from high-income families enroll in college and 53% gradu-
ate, the numbers for middle-income families are 64% and 25%, respec-
tively. Students from middle-income families start out 14% (78% minus
64%) behind students form high-income families in enrolling, and they
end up 28% (53% minus 25%) behind in graduating. Part of the reason
may be financial. Many low- and some middle-income families routinely