By Dick Miller
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: Not since World War II has college education been so expensive.
At the end of that War, Congress passed the single most significant, productive law ever. GI Bill of Rights permitted every returning soldier to get a college degree courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.
In fact, possessing a good work ethic, the ex-soldier could handle a full-time job and get a degree in four or five years.
What did the taxpayer get in return?
Only the smartest populace, industrialization, progress in medicine, arts and entertainment and countless other benefits that kept the United States as the undisputed ruler of the world for the next 60 years.
In the preceding generation, public universities were for the working and middle class, writes Robert Kuttner, co-editor of “The American Prospect.” Most of the cost was undertaken by the state. Now a majority of state legislatures and governor’s mansions are under Republican rule. The burden of tuition has shifted to students. “Today, the social class of one’s parents determines educational and financial success more,” he writes.
“The Progressive Populist” explains the change in cost of higher education more clearly.
In 1965, Lyndon Johnson’s Higher Education Act expanded National Defense (Perkins) loans. He began Stafford loans guaranteed and subsidized by the government.
Ronald Reagan ended the era of free or very low cost higher education.
As California Governor, he ended free tuition at state colleges and universities. Reagan demanded cuts in higher-ed funding and slashed construction on state campuses. As President, Reagan gutted higher education on the larger stage.
His Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act cut funding for Pell grants, excluding middle-class students from the program. He cut other student loan programs and restricted eligibility for them. As recently as 1981, one-fifth of government student aid came from Social Security survivors’ education benefits.
Reagan signed a law that phased out such SS benefits.
GI benefits still exist but to a much lesser extent. Could less concern for those who defend us have anything to do with the end of the draft? Congress begins to debate whether the US should intercede in Syria. If the crisis should escalate to “boots on the ground” is it comforting to our elected officials that damn few of their children will be pulled into combat?
Editor James M. Cullen’s piece in the August issue of the Progressive Populist compares the cost of getting a degree in the Texas higher education system with the minimum wage.
When Gov. Rick Perry attended Texas A&M in 1970, the state paid 85 per cent of the cost of higher education. In-state tuition and fees for 30 credit hours per year was $208. A student could work 130 hours at the then minimum wage of $1.60 per hour to pay his/her share.
In 2003 Republicans gained control of the Texas legislature, with Perry as Governor. They “deregulated” tuition so that the state now pays less than 20% of the cost of higher education. In 2013 the estimated student cost of undergraduate education at University of Texas is $25,704. A student making $7.75 per hour minimum wage would need to work over 3,300 hours and pay no taxes or other deductions to pay the bill for one year.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities claims states are spending $2,353 less per student on higher education nationwide in 2013 than allocated in 2008.
President Obama and the Democratic Congress in 2009 and 2010 expanded funding for Pell grants and reduced fees to banks that issue government backed loans. With Republicans in charge of the House, federal funding is getting whittled again.
College spending per all students averaged $21,000 last year, down from a peak of $24,000 in 2010, according to the Huffington Post. As parents get downsized, go years without pay hikes or must spend more for health care, there is less for children’s education.
BOTTOM LINE: Recently, Congressional House Republicans took off on vacation rather than deal with a doubling of interest rates for Stafford loans. The legislature in one state government showed concern. HB 3472 directs the Higher Education Coordinating Commission to create a “Pay It Forward” pilot program to put before the 2015 legislature. The program would allow students to attend college tuition-free and debt free. Upon graduation, they would begin paying a small, fixed percentage of their income into a public fund for education.
That happened in Oregon, not Pennsylvania.
