Maureen Lane

Its College not Chanel: colleges are raising tuition to look hotter

Tuesday's New York Times reports two stories of note on education. On the front-page there was an article about the marketing aspects of college education and tuition pricing. In the Metro section there was a notice on the closing of more public high schools.

Public Highs schools in Brooklyn and the Bronx, like the ones being closed, are often the ones from which WRI's students graduate. They are too often overcrowded, under funded and under staffed. These schools are in economically challenged neighborhoods. As the schools struggle, government and public policy loses its power to provide a way out of poverty for the poor and low-income students who attend the schools. Government policy, in turn fails us all in not expanding the base of people educated in the tools and skills necessary to be the leaders that our collective brighter future requires.

The New York Times reports, "The large schools will be replaced by collections of small schools with about 400 or 500 students each, a signature strategy of the Bloomberg administration, which has closed or is in the process of closing 17 other large schools across the city."

The front-page article in the NYT brings to light some discussions that as background for the continuing rise in college tuition.

The article states, "Many administrators say that without raising prices, they could not maintain or expand economic diversity among the student body. In other words, making college more expensive for some enables less well off students to go. But Brian Zucker, president of the Human Capital Research Corporation, a consulting firm that works with colleges, is suspicious of that argument, particularly given the growth of merit aid. He points out that many middle-class students borrow tens of thousands of dollars to attend liberal arts colleges and that at some, they may be helping defray the cost of a merit scholarship to a wealthier applicant." We have made this point before.

What can we do if private colleges want to raise tuition as a marketing ploy? There aren't nearly enough resources out there like WRI that would help low income students in high school even learn that there are scholarship opportunities they could use to help offset some of the prices (not enough scholarship money even then of course and these are students who aren't even hearing about public education options let alone private). How do we get lower income students the information they need so they can find out that scholarships exist to offset the cost (not enough but some) But clearly, government has a role in public higher education and education policy along the learning continuum. From early childhood education, to public school through to college we have to think through constructive public policy that grows the next generation of Americans in a mindful way. Not just markets to a select few.

Maureen Lane: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 6:41 AM, Dec 14, 2006 in
Permalink | Email to Friend