Learning Curve: Is it college or bust?

By Maureen Downey

A faculty member once praised legendary Harvard president Charles William Eliot for transforming the Cambridge campus into a “veritable storehouse of knowledge” during his 40 years at its helm

“What you say is true,” replied Eliot, “but I can claim little credit for it. It is simply that the freshmen bring so much and the seniors take so little away.”

Public policy is now beginning to examine how much knowledge graduates take with them when they leave school and how much their parents pay for it.

Around 18 million students — mostly young people — began another semester of college in the last few weeks. With tuition and board as high as $50,000 a year, a college education has become the equivalent of buying a mortgage without getting a house.

A panel last week sponsored by the Urban Institute and Public Agenda tested the assumption that a college degree is an indispensable credential today.

“As a nation, we prided ourselves in expanding the opportunity to attend college and have held out a college degree, usually a bachelor’s degree, as an appropriate goal for everyone,” said Urban Institute president Robert D. Reischauer, former head of the Congressional Budget Office.

“We haven’t asked many of the more difficult questions, such as should everyone go to college,” said Reischauer. “Are there other training opportunities that might be better for some, better for society and less costly for the individuals and society? We are very good at enrolling students, but how good are we at graduating them?”

Both the Bush and the Obama White Houses have pushed more Americans to attend college, citing the urgency of economic restructuring, job creation and global competitiveness.

“We have seen there is a rising sense that you can’t make it unless you go to college ... that it is the only thing,’’ said Public Agenda executive vice president Jean Johnson.

And that hurts the many young people for whom college is not a good fit, said panelist Robert Lerman, an Urban Institute fellow and an American University economics professor.

“We have evolved into this highly academic-based system for all students,” said Lerman. “We only have a modest number of alternative routes.”

Lerman disputed the notion that all students need to be college-ready and enrolled in the most demanding courses. Empirical evidence contradicts that statement, he argued.

When you ask employers to list the important characteristics for front-line workers, they mention such things as an applicant’s attitude, communications skills and previous work experience, according to Lerman.

An applicant’s grades fall far down the list, he said. Industry-based credentials are valued more than years of schooling. As an example, Lerman said that despite the thrust to require algebra II in high school, only .09 percent of workplaces use it.

Lerman advocates duplicating the sophisticated apprentice programs in Switzerland and Germany. The programs lead to good jobs and meet the needs of students who want relevant and practical skills training alongside their academic classes, he said.

He recalled his conversation with a Texas chamber of commerce official, who in turn cited a big demand for high-quality machinists in advanced aviation. The official couldn’t find any community colleges or Workforce Investment Act programs offering such training.

“These jobs are paying $80,000 a year,” said Lerman. “We are missing the boat.”

But panelist Paul Lingenfelter, president of State Higher Education Executive Officers, described past vocational training programs in the United States as often being dead ends, too focused on moving people into jobs rather than giving them the lifelong skills to adjust to a fast-changing workplace.

“We have had a real focus on getting people in jobs quickly,” he said. “We have not done a good job developing the skills to be a knowledgeable and adaptable worker.”

As evidence of the power of education, Lingenfelter cited the GI Bill, which provided college for World War II veterans. Until then, only America’s elite attended college, and some university presidents opposed the GI Bill out of fear that working-class students would degrade quality.

“And you know, it turned out pretty well,” said Lingenfelter. “We ended up with the best-educated work force in the world in the last half of the 20th century.”

The demand for educated workers is not subsiding in the 21st century, he said, noting that “all the job growth from 1973 to 2007 has been filled by people with some college or a degree.”

In the end, the question of whether all children should go to college will depend a great deal on parents, many of whom may agree — at least in theory — that college is not for everyone.

But when asked about their own families, most parents respond, “My child will still go to college.”