Yet another topic addressed by World Conference on Higher Education attendees was the trend of decreasing government contributions to higher education as a percentage of the overall cost of higher education.  This trend is especially pronounced in Europe, which has a tradition of providing free public higher education.  But the trend also is pronounced in West Virginia.  At the beginning of the millennium, the State paid about 60% of a four-year student’s cost of education (not cost of attendance, which includes room and board, etc. and is another matter); nine years later students are being assessed almost 60% of the cost.  A dramatic shift.  Having said that, please realize that this analysis ignores student financial aid, which increased dramatically over that same period at the state level, so West Virginia higher education – especially baccalaureate institutions, which benefitted disproportionately from the PROMISE scholarship – is not quite as poor as some claim.

Despite what you might hear in the hallowed halls of academe, there is a reasonably good argument for having students pay for their own higher education, even if they have to take out student loans to do so.  In 2006 the average male with a high school diploma earned $37,030, while the average male with a bachelor’s degree earned $60,910. A rather substantial loan payment could be made with that $23,880 in extra income.  If the average college graduate is going to see that kind of benefit, why shouldn’t he or she pay for it?  Furthermore, why should that high school graduate earning $23,880 less than the college graduate subsidize the college graduate’s education with his or her taxes?

There are two reasonably good responses to these points.  The first relates to fairness and equity.  Research tells us that students from poorer families, particularly with no history of college attendance, too often make the wrong decision from a purely economic perspective not to attend college.  Do we really want the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer?  The second relates to the larger public benefits that accrue to an educated society – stronger economic development, greater civic engagement, etc.  The rising tide of education lifts all boats.