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Americans value higher education, survey shows
Most Americans believe the American higher education system works well, although the federal government must combat a lack of equal opportunity and the rising cost of college, according to a new Educational Testing Service (ETS) report.
The survey of 1,003 adults shows a marked disconnect in evaluations of K-12 schooling versus higher education: only 50 percent of respondents believe the K-12 system is working well or needs few changes, whereas 72 percent say the same for higher education. A subsample of business leaders agrees more fervently, with 88 percent praising higher education. Reflecting those numbers, the poll found that 62 percent of adults believe the nation's K-12 system has not adequately prepared college applicants to succeed.
The public does have its concerns, however, about colleges and universities--based on "lowering the ladder, not the standards," the pollsters explain. Majorities of adult respondents answered that the higher education system neither offers young people from all backgrounds a chance to go to college (52 percent) nor provides the financial help needed (51 percent). They also believe the problem lies with rising college tuition (52 percent) and not with decreasing government aid (20 percent).
Nevertheless, the federal government should not back away from higher education, say the respondents; 76 percent of adults support the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, and 37 percent want its funding levels to increase.
In fact, respondents look to the federal government to keep higher education affordable. Nearly three-quarters of respondents want the government to limit tuition increases to keep in line with inflation, and a nearly equal percentage favors tax credits for families of college students as well as increasing taxes to expand financial assistance to students and to colleges and universities. The respondents also prefer to base aid on need rather than on achievement, 58 percent to 28 percent.
Also, a majority of Americans believe it more important for higher education institutions to be held accountable for the quality of education offered than for how they spend their federal dollars (52 percent to 24 percent). Many Americans believe that the government already is doing just that: Forty-six percent of respondents say the government is holding the institutions accountable enough.
The entirety of the report, entitled "Quality, Affordability, and Access: Americans Speak on Higher Education," can be read at www.ets.org/news/03061801. html.
--Mark Henson
Colleges pay more to wealthier students
Over the past decade, the growth in institutional financial aid at four-year colleges has benefited affluent students more than needy students, a new report shows. This has occurred as institutions gradually have shifted emphasis from need-based to merit-based aid.Institutions are free to set aid policies to benefit whomever they choose, of course. But as Congress looks at reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, the law that defines federal financial aid programs, a primary concern is ensuring that lower-income students have the opportunity to go to college.
"What Colleges Contribute," a report from the U.S. Department of Education, shows colleges--especially in the private sector--skewing institutional aid toward wealthy students. The report suggests that institutions of higher education now distribute a greater proportion of their aid budget based on merit instead of need, affecting access for low-income students.
Comparing aid data collected from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study from three different academic years, researchers found increases both in the number of full-time students at public universities receiving institutional aid and in the average amount of aid granted. This finding holds across all income groups.
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In 1992-93, 17 percent of undergraduates at public institutions received institutional aid averaging $2,200 (in 1999 dollars). In 1999-2000, 23 percent received this aid, averaging $2,700.
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At private, nonprofit institutions, 47 percent received aid averaging $5,900 in 1992-93, compared to 58 percent in 1999-2000, averaging $7,000.
Yet the data show an alarming trend: The increases have been greater at the upper end of the income spectrum. -
In public institutions, the percentage of undergraduates in the lowest-income quartile who received institutional aid rose from 24 percent in 1992-93 to 29 percent in 1999-2000. Their average award during the same period rose from $1,900 to $2,300. For undergraduates in the highest-income quartile, the percentage receiving aid grew from 12 percent to 18 percent over that period, and the average aid award grew from $2,400 to $3,200.
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In private institutions, during the same period and within the same income quartiles, the percentage of low-income undergraduates receiving institutional aid rose from 53 percent in 1992-93 to 56 percent in 1999-2000, and the aid award rose from an average of $5,500 to $6,200. For the upper-income quartile, the percentage receiving aid increased from 35 percent to 51 percent in that period, and the average award increased from $5,500 to $6,800.
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Middle-income students at private institutions were the biggest beneficiaries of institutional aid. In 1992-93, some 58 percent of undergraduates in this income group received on average $6,400; seven years later, 63 percent received aid averaging $7,500.
The study also found that institutional aid does affect retention: "full-time undergraduates who received institutional grant aid in public institutions were more likely than their unaided counterparts to earn a degree from or still be enrolled at the awarding institution six years after first enrollment," says the report.
The full report can be found at nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/2003157.pdf.
Title IX will be left alone
This summer, the U.S. Department of Education reaffirmed the standards of Title IX, the 30-year-old law banning discrimination against women in high school and college athletics, by declining to advance harmful recommendations from a national commission. The department did discourage the practice of dropping men's sports teams to improve compliance, a source of lawsuits over Title IX enforcement.
This decision follows a long period of suspense over Title IX's future (see April 2003 issue). In February, the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics--created to study Title IX enforcement--issued recommendations that would dilute the law's standards, allowing "interest surveys" or other gimmicks to replace gender percentages as the basis for providing athletic opportunities and scholarships.
The AFT opposed the recommendations, fearing women would lose access and aid in athletics. "We should uphold the advances that have fostered generations of athletes and students--men and women, boys and girls alike," said AFT president Sandra Feldman.
