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| Front Page | |
| Introduction | |
| Afterword |
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Squeeze Play: How Parents and the
Public Look at Higher Education Today
Over the past decade and a half, Public Agenda and the National Center for Public
Policy and Higher Education have recorded and reported the public’s views of
America’s colleges and universities (see page 54 for a list of reports in this series). In
collecting and analyzing these public perceptions, we have relied upon national and
state public opinion surveys, focus groups, and leadership studies conducted by Public
Agenda. This report, as with its predecessors, describes continuities and changes in
public perceptions over time and identifies current public concerns. This afterword
focuses on four of the report’s key findings and their interrelationships.
First, this survey finds that the broad American consensus about the great
importance of higher education has not changed. The general public continues to
consider education and training beyond high school as crucial in enabling individual
success. However, as the public perception that college is more important than ever
has become more pervasive, so has the concern that college opportunity is declining.
Leadership groups are more likely to consider higher education as important in meeting
broad societal goals, such as improving the nation’s economic competitiveness.
Second, there is also a broad consensus about the importance of college opportunity
for those who are prepared and willing to learn. But the public is not optimistic that
this goal is being reached, and affordability is a major and growing concern. Compared
with previous surveys, a higher percentage of respondents now believe that college is
essential but that many qualified individuals lack opportunity to attend. Most parents
are very worried or somewhat worried about paying for college, even while they expect
to find a way to manage it. African-American and Latino parents, even affluent ones, are
particularly concerned about paying for college.
Third, the public perceives higher education as a high-quality enterprise and is
resistant to policies that might jeopardize or reduce quality. However, most Americans
reject many of academia’s conventional ideas about quality and the relationship of cost
and quality. For example, the public believes:
Fourth, although Americans consider higher education to be very important,
confidence that colleges, universities, and their leaders share and give priority to
public concerns is middling at best. A little over half of respondents believe that
colleges are more focused on their bottom line than on the student educational
experience, and nearly 4 in 10 believe that waste and mismanagement are
driving up cost. Nearly half agree that higher education in their state should be
“completely overhauled.”
These findings send an important, albeit subtle message to higher education
leaders: Public concerns are growing that many colleges and universities are
not addressing America’s most important values for higher education, that is, a
commitment to opportunity and quality, particularly if quality is defined as student
learning. The reasons for this erosion of confidence are most likely complex, but
may spring in part from the cumulative effects of escalating college costs and
prices, particularly the challenges that tuition increases have placed on students
from middle- and lower-income families. As tuition increases routinely exceed
the growth of family income and inflation, colleges are perceived by the public as
exploitation of a “seller’s market”. In addition, the public may be becoming more
aware of current policies regarding higher education, such as: the costs of mission
creep and the expense of the relentless pursuit of status and prestige, as reflected
in rankings such as U.S. News and World Report; the diversion of student financial
aid and tuition discounts from the public purpose of educational opportunity to
the narrow institutional purpose of selective student recruitment; and the excessive
compensation of some athletic directors, coaches, and university presidents. All
of these may be contributing to an erosion of confidence—to a perception that our
colleges and universities are drifting away from traditional values of opportunity
and educational quality.
For America’s public policy leaders, this report signals a public anxiety that
has yet to reach a state of acute public urgency. No elected official is likely to be
defeated in the next election for failing to champion the public concerns reflected
here. On the other hand, there are clear indications that the public is ready to
support leadership that addresses the important issues of higher education access,
affordability, cost, productivity, and quality.
President
National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
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