Have America's public universities lost sight of their original mission of increasing social mobility? A growing body of research suggests that sharp cuts in public funding during the Great Recession threaten to undermine state schools' historic role as socioeconomic ladders for bright, low-income students – but it also shows how to revive this core function.
Public universities were intended to offer a high-quality education at a reasonable cost to students from families of modest means. Most began as land-grant schools, created by states from federal land-grant funds to propagate practical knowledge, including agricultural science and engineering, alongside the traditional liberal arts. Their founders believed that making college affordable would yield more productive farmers, factory workers, craftsmen and businessmen, while giving promising working-class students a route to professional careers in medicine, law, and accounting. The legislation signed by President Abraham Lincoln to create land-grant trusts in 1862 stated that the schools are intended for the "liberal and practical education of the industrial classes," i.e., students from blue-collar backgrounds.
For years, public universities performed this core mission with great success, fueling unprecedented social mobility in American society in the 20th century, helping millions of low-income students enter the middle class. And we're still reaping the benefits, as demonstrated by the fact seven of the top 10 schools for social mobility in 2014 were in the City University of New York (CUNY) system, according to research by Raj Chetty, who has studied long-term trends in income and education.
But low-income students from low-income families are still far less likely to go to college than their well-off peers: in 2015, 58 percent of recent high school graduates from families in the bottom fifth of incomes (below $20,582) were enrolled in secondary education, compared to 82 percent from the top fifth (above $100,010). And the economic importance of higher education looms ever larger: According to a study from Georgetown University, the proportion of jobs requiring at least some college will increase from 59 percent in 2007 to two-thirds in 2020.
Moreover, data from the last two decades also reveal a troubling trend, as financial woes have forced many public universities to start acting more like their private counterparts, in effect pricing out deserving low-income students.
The Great Recession was difficult for America's public universities: 86 percent of states have cut their spending per student over the last decade, with total state funding for higher education shrinking by $9 billion from 2008-2017, while average spending per student fell by $1,448 or 16 percent over this period.
Meanwhile from 2008-2017 average tuition at state universities jumped by $2,484, or 35 percent – outstripping median household incomes, which grew just 2.1 percent from 2008-2015. As a result, the net cost of attendance for low-income students at four-year public institutions jumped by 12 percent from 2008-2012. By deterring low-income students from enrolling, tuition increases also change the composition of the student body: A 2015 study by researchers at New York University found that each $1,000 increase in undergraduate tuition leads to a 6 percent decrease in campus diversity.
What's more, to offset the budget crunch many state universities are admitting more out-of-state students – who pay tuition comparable to a private institution – to subsidize operations. But courting well-off students from out-of-state also leaves fewer spots for deserving state residents.
Indeed, my new analysis of public university enrollment data shows that, as public universities have begun enrolling more out-of-state students, the proportion of graduating high school seniors who go on to enroll in-state has shrunk. Over the last decade, 41 states have decreased the share of seats held by in-state students, pushing low-income state residents to attend private schools or go out-of-state (if they don't opt out of higher education altogether). Either way, they're paying more for higher education and frequently taking on more debt in loans: From 2008-2015, the average amount of debt incurred by bachelor's candidates at public four-year schools jumped 26 percent to $26,800.
These trends force us to grapple with tough choices as well as answer basic questions about our values. Should public universities be balancing their books on the backs of out-of-state students, as they're currently doing? How many potential students are not attending university because they're being priced out?
In some cases, modest increases in tuition could help reduce the financial pressures that force universities to accept large numbers of out-of-state students. At the same time, it is in the self-interest of state governments to invest in making higher education available to deserving young people at a reasonable price: In addition to the broader economic benefits to the states in GDP and tax base, college education is associated with upward mobility, and public universities largely drive this phenomenon.
Many state governments can afford to spend more on public higher education. In fact while state revenues have largely recovered from the Great Recession, state support for higher education per student remains well below pre-crisis levels. Still, raising spending on higher education will require making some tough choices, which politicians can frame in terms of the need to foster economic mobility. Florida and New York are blazing a trail here with statewide initiatives to defray tuition costs for low-income students. Several public institutions, such as the University of Michigan and Ohio State University, have taken steps to reduce net costs for low-income students – even without additional public subsidies.
In the current national climate, with talk of many people feeling "left behind," public education should be front and center in any budgetary debate. It's also time to have a broader discussion about the goals of public education, and policies that can help return it to its original mission.
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