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CQ Researcher

College Costs

Report

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Author: Lorna Collier

Pub. Date: 2019

Product: CQ Researcher

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/cqresrre20191025

Topics: Consumer Behavior, Business and Economics, Consumer Protection and Product Liability,

Regulation and Deregulation, College Financing and Funding, Education, Cost of Education and School

Funding, Education Policy, Online Education, Undergraduate and Graduate Education, Vocational and Adult

Education, General Employment and Labor, Employment and Labor, Work and the Family, Personal and

Family Relations, Student Movements, Social Movements, Veterans' Services, Social Services and

Disabilities, Party Politics, U.S. Presidency, World War II, War and Conflict

Access Date: November 21, 2023

Publishing Company: CQ Press

City: Thousand Oaks

© 2019 CQ Press All Rights Reserved.

Introduction

A record 35 percent of Americans had attended at least four years of college in 2018 — up from 4.6 percent

in 1940. But with tuition rising as much as four times faster than inflation, many graduates are facing high

amounts of college debt — almost $30,000 on average — and more than 40 percent are underemployed in

their first jobs. These trends raise questions about whether a college degree today is worth the time and mon-

ey. Studies continue to show a four-year degree boosts lifetime earnings over those of high school graduates,

but new research shows that not all graduates will see a strong return on investment, depending on gender,

race, family income and type of degree. Employers, meanwhile, complain they cannot find skilled workers

to fill good-paying jobs that do not require a college degree. Some experts recommend expanding low-cost

alternative training programs, such as vocational education and skills-based “boot camps.” Consumer advo-

cates raise concerns that some for-profit training programs require oversight to prevent inadequate learning

or fraud, yet the Trump administration has been deregulating the industry.

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A student at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, Calif., wears a lei made of dollar bills to

her commencement in June. While college graduates will earn more on average than people

with only a high school degree, tuition costs have been rising faster than inflation, raising

questions about the worth of a college degree.

(AFP/Getty Images/Robyn Beck)

Overview

When Kyle Wilnewic graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2010, he hoped his bachelor of arts degree

in audio arts and acoustics would help him land a music industry job, and dreamed of someday running his

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own recording studio. But he quickly learned that audio jobs were hard to come by.

Until last year, he could find only sporadic and part-time positions, working for bands or music venues in

Chicago and New Jersey. Now he has a full-time job in his field, working nights mixing music for live bands

at a San Diego music club — a job he says he could have gotten without a degree. The 32-year-old also is

working full-time during the days as service adviser at an auto shop. He says he needs both jobs to pay off

his $70,000 college loan, which costs him $600 monthly in payments.

A Northeastern University graduate's mortarboard displays a common anxiety about the

burden of college debt. Graduates earning a bachelor's degree in 2019 left college, on aver-

age, nearly $30,000 in debt.

(Getty Images/The Boston Globe/Suzanne Kreiter)

“If I didn't have that [debt], I wouldn't have to work so many hours. If I had to do it again, I would not go to

college. Costs seem to far outweigh the benefit,” he says. “Someone, somewhere, is making way too much

money off kids looking to improve their lives.”

As Wilnewic's experience demonstrates, with college costs growing three to four times faster than inflation in

recent decades, many students are graduating with high college debt — and many are questioning whether a

bachelor's degree is worth the time and money. And like Wilnewic, about 40 percent of today's graduates end

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up underemployed in their first jobs — working in positions that do not use their degrees — even as good-

paying jobs that require only a high school diploma go unfilled.1

This has sparked a debate among experts, with some calling for expansion of quick, low-cost alternative

job training methods, such as apprenticeships or certification programs, while others say a four-year degree

boosts lifetime earnings over those with less education and provides invaluable nonfinancial benefits.2

According to the Census Bureau, a record 35 percent of Americans had attended four years of college or

more in 2018 — up from 4.6 percent in 1940. But the average tuition at a public four-year school has risen

more than threefold in 30 years — from $3,200 in the 1987-88 academic year to $10,000 in 2017-18, adjust-

ing for inflation.3

Despite the rising costs, studies show that most students with bachelor's degrees will earn significantly more

over their lifetimes than those with only a high school diploma, say defenders of undergraduate education.

But critics of escalating college costs say that while degree-holders earn more, their debt makes it harder for

them to save, build wealth, buy a home or start a family.4

According to a recent study by economists Jaison R. Abel and Richard Deitz of the Federal Reserve Bank of

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New York, the average bachelor's degree-holder earns $78,000 a year, compared with $45,000 for someone

with a high school diploma. The lifetime return on investment of a bachelor's degree is about 14 percent, they

calculate, down slightly in recent years but still better than investments such as stocks (7 percent) and bonds

(3 percent).5

However, for about 25 percent of graduates — those making the lowest wages — “college does not appear

to have paid off,” they said. For one thing, they pointed out, rosy earnings projections usually are based on

graduates finishing in four years. Only 41 percent of first-time, full-time students finish in four years, according

to the federal government's National Center for Education Statistics.6

This drops the return on investment to 11 percent for those taking five years to graduate and 8 percent for

those taking six years, said Abel and Dietz. The decline is due to the additional tuition required and the lost

“opportunity cost” of delaying employment.7

Factors such as a student's major, race, gender and family income can play a role in how much return they

get on their bachelor's degree investment.8

For example, graduates from low-income families tend to make less than those raised in middle- or upper-

class families, according to economists Tim Bartik and Brad Hershbein from the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Em-

ployment Research in Kalamazoo, Mich. Their 2018 study found that college students raised in low-income

families typically receive only slightly more pay than middle-class high school graduates, while college grad-

uates from middle-class families earned 162 percent more.9

“Individuals from poorer backgrounds may be encountering a glass ceiling that even a bachelor's degree does

not break,” concluded Bartik and Hershbein.10

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In addition, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reported in 2019 that financial benefits from college de-

grees “appear to be lower among people born in the 1980s, and they remain unequal across racial and ethnic

groups.”11

Researchers also have found that students graduating with degrees in science, technology, engineering and

math (STEM) get higher-paying jobs initially when compared to those with liberal arts degrees, but those dif-

ferences often narrow substantially within a decade.12

Job earnings aren't the only benefit to bachelor's degrees, researchers say. Bachelor's degree-holders enjoy

greater health, happiness and even a longer life than high school graduates, according to the Lumina Founda-

tion, a private educational advocacy organization. People with college degrees also contribute more in taxes,

use fewer social services and tend to commit fewer crimes, producing a cumulative positive societal benefit

over their lifetimes worth about $355,000 per person, Lumina found.13

Employers give mixed messages on whether prospective employees should get a degree, depending on the

job market. For instance, in a 2018 survey more than three-quarters of employers said finishing a degree

shows perseverance and self-direction, and more than half said a college degree is a fairly reliable marker

of skills and knowledge. According to a different survey, however, half of employers today say they are hiring

more employees with no formal college education — partly due to today's tight job market — and 69 percent

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said their organizations were prioritizing skills over formal education and degrees.14

When unemployment is low, employers often drop degree requirements so more people will apply. Converse-

ly, when joblessness is high, employers often weed out excess applicants by resorting to so-called degree

inflation — requiring higher degrees than are actually needed for the job.

Meanwhile, technological changes are creating “a steady upward trend in skills” employers require, says Her-

shbein, and college STEM courses are not always teaching students those skills. Some 2 million STEM jobs

are expected to go unfilled because candidates are not being properly prepared in college, according to re-

searchers, who said the United States will need to fill 3.5 million STEM jobs by 2025.15 Universities were

spending too much time on lectures instead of hands-on learning in undergraduate STEM courses, according

to a study published in Science magazine.16

Recently, companies such as Apple, Google, Netflix, IBM and Houghton Mifflin have eliminated requirements

that applicants have four-year degrees, and some employers, particularly in the tech sector, are more open

to accepting some of the 475,000 alternative credentials now available, such as “digital badges.” These are

credentials that can be posted online showing that someone has mastered a particular skill.17

The number of apprenticeships also is up 56 percent over 2013, and are being offered in white-collar fields

such as finance, insurance and information technology in addition to traditional skilled trades such as carpen-

try and metalworking.18

Online learning continues to grow as well, with fully online enrollments at public institutions up 7.2 percent

in 2017 over 2016, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Employers increasingly are ac-

cepting degrees earned online, if they are from a recognized, credible institution. Online classes may better

suit today's undergraduates, 40 percent of whom are 25 or older and often are working and raising families.

Due to declining birthrates, the number of 18- to 24-year-old students is expected to fall, reducing college

enrollment by 15 percent between 2025 and 2029.19

Enrollment at four-year institutions has already begun to decline, according to the National Student Clear-

inghouse Research Center, the research arm of a nonprofit organization that provides educational reporting,

data exchange and degree and enrollment verification. Some economists say the decline may be due to the

strong economy keeping more people in the job market rather than attending school.20 Declining enrollments

may be a factor in escalating tuitions, according to experts, as is the falling number of international students,

who usually pay higher out-of-state tuition. Foreign enrollments were down 6.6 percent in 2017-18 and 3.3

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percent the previous academic year. Some education experts attribute the decline to the Trump administra-

tion's restrictive visa policies and the stronger U.S. dollar, which can raise tuition costs for foreigners.21

Cuts in state aid to public universities also drive up college costs. And, in an effort to attract new students,

some colleges are spending heavily on fancy buildings and amenities such as climbing walls, lazy rivers and

enormous hot tubs.22

As students, parents, employers and educators question the value of a four-year college degree and con-

template the challenges facing universities and college-age youths, here are some of the questions they are

debating:

Should colleges and universities focus more on job training?

Even with today's strong job market, 43 percent of bachelor's degree-holders are underemployed in their first

jobs — meaning they are doing work that does not require their degrees — and earn, on average, $10,000

less than the typical bachelor's degree starting salary of $46,000.23

Meanwhile, employers say many applicants lack the skills and competencies needed. Fifty-two percent of hu-

man resource professionals report that the skills shortage has worsened in the past two years, particularly

in fields such as data analysis, science, engineering and medicine, according to the Society for Human Re-

source Management, an organization of human resource specialists. Yet at the same time, computer science

programs report more students than classes due to a shortage of qualified faculty to meet the demand.24

“There's a huge disconnect between higher ed and employers,” says Courtney Brown, vice president of

strategic impact at the Lumina Foundation. “Higher ed thinks they're delivering; employers say they're not get-

ting what they want…. They're speaking past each other oftentimes, and as a result, students are getting left

behind, because they're getting a credential, and then employers are saying you don't have what we need.”

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Professor Bruce Van Dyke, left, works with Xilena Alexander at a biotech lab at Quincy Col-

lege in Quincy, Mass., in July. The two-year community college has restructured its curricu-

lum to focus on tech-based classes to appeal to students seeking job training.

(Getty Images/The Boston Globe/David L. Ryan)

Employers and higher education officials should form a better partnership, Brown says, and schools should

provide better career counseling for students to help them choose which degrees to pursue. “I don't know if

higher ed is focused enough on the career,” she says. “They focus a lot on the love of learning and whatnot

— but really, people are spending the money and the time to get a job at the end of the day.”

To better match graduates with available jobs, experts say, colleges and universities should offer a more job-

focused curriculum for bachelor's degree seekers, so students can obtain the skills employers need. And

many campuses are setting up special STEM education centers to help improve teaching and retention of

STEM students, especially minority students, who drop out of such courses at higher rates than their white

peers.25

Public opinion surveys reveal a partisan split in attitudes about the role of a college education: A recent Pew

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Research Center survey found that 58 percent of self-identified Republicans believed colleges should first

teach specific skills and knowledge that could be used in the workplace compared with 43 percent of Democ-

rats. Democrats were more likely to say the chief purpose of college was to help an individual grow personally

and intellectually, with 42 percent picking this option, compared to 28 percent of Republicans.26

Only 3 percent of all respondents said higher education's chief purpose should be to promote an engaged

citizenry, and only 11 percent thought it should be to help students with their personal and intellectual growth,

according to a recent survey of 2,000 American adults by New America, a left-leaning public policy think tank

in Washington. The majority chose options related to career preparation.27

However, employers often give conflicting signals, with many saying they prize “soft” skills, such as critical

thinking and verbal communication, taught in a liberal arts curriculum. For example, 80 percent of business

executives and hiring managers surveyed recently by the Association of American Colleges and Universities

said they believed all students should have a broad liberal arts foundation. Practical experience also was im-

portant, though, with respondents valuing candidates who have had internships or apprenticeships.28

Robert Newman, director of the National Humanities Center near Raleigh, N.C. — a private organization that

studies and promotes the humanities — says a singular focus on STEM does not provide the skills for com-

munication, critical thinking, creative thinking and problem-solving “that many employers, even in technologi-

cal fields, indicate they are looking for.” (See Short Feature.)

Over the long term, Newman says, while students in tech fields such as engineering may have higher salaries

than humanities graduates at first, that gap narrows over time, and humanities degree-holders often even-

tually make similar salaries. That's because, in part, humanities graduates' foundational skills allow them to

adapt to changing job demands, he says, while technical skills can expire with each new technological shift.

Research bears this out. For example, a study by Harvard University public policy professor David J. Deming

and Harvard Ph.D. candidate Kadeem Noray found that “the initially high economic return” experienced by

STEM degree-holders is cut in half in the first 10 years of working life. The researchers noted that “STEM jobs

change especially quickly over time,” rendering skills obsolete.29

“STEM is overrated,” says Caitlin Zaloom, an economic anthropologist at New York University and the author

of Indebted, a book about middle-class struggles to afford undergraduate education. “We need to be looking

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at college to train students to continuously cultivate their talents and skills” so they can be ready for the jobs

of the future, she says, as well as to prepare them for civic life in a democratic society.

Deming advocates a balanced approach. “All education is a trade-off between providing a kind of foundational

set of skills that are broadly applicable in a wide range of jobs and providing something very specific that a

specific employer needs today,” he says. “And a good education would do a little of both.”

Should vocational alternatives to college get more funding?

Many well-paying trade jobs are going unfilled, and shortages are expected to worsen in coming years. For

instance, about 70 percent of construction companies nationwide are struggling to find workers, while 2.4 mil-

lion manufacturing jobs are projected to be unfilled between 2018 and 2028. Employers also say they cannot

find enough workers for “middle-skills” jobs, such as cybersecurity specialist and medical lab technologist.30

None of those jobs requires a bachelor's degree, although many require training through an apprenticeship,

two-year degree, trade school or skills “boot camp.” (See Short Feature.) Government programs exist, or have

been proposed, to help pay for such training. The Trump administration is seeking $1.3 billion for vocational

education programs in fiscal 2019 — up by $12.6 million from fiscal 2018 — plus $60 million to expand ap-

prenticeships.31

Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, and Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, introduced the Jumpstart

Our Businesses by Supporting Students (Jobs) Act, in 2017 and again this March. It would provide each

trainee a subsidy of about $3,000 through the federal Pell Grant program for short-term job training at com-

munity colleges or other accredited institutions.32

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Lineman Todd Moore, left, with Hooper Corp., supervises apprentice Mike Limas as he fixes

a power pole damaged in heavy snow in Lakewood, Colo., in March 2016. Apprenticeship

programs offer practical, on-the-job training without the high costs of a college degree.

(Getty Images/The Denver Post/Joe Amon)

The bill prohibits grants to for-profit companies, following complaints from consumer groups that doing so

could result in taxpayers subsidizing low-quality programs. Some legislators, such as Senate Education Com-

mittee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., oppose laws that exclude for-profit companies. But an aide to

Portman said eliminating for-profit providers reduces the cost of the bill by about $423 million over 10 years.33

Others question using Pell Grants for short-term, certificate programs that may not lead to good jobs. “Study

after study shows that many such programs are, in fact, failing,” wrote Kevin Carey, director of education pol-

icy at New America, citing research showing that some certificate programs provide no more benefit than a

high school degree.34

Kermit Kaleba, managing director of policy at the National Skills Coalition, a public policy research and ad-

vocacy organization in Washington, disagrees. For instance, he said, older working adults who did not attend

traditional college could benefit from improving their skills. “We are leaving out a lot of lower-skill, low-wage

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workers for whom moving from $10 an hour to $15 an hour makes a real life difference.”35

The Senate Education Committee is expected to consider the measure as part of a reauthorization of the

Higher Education Act later this year.36

Another program, the five-year pilot VET TEC program established by the 2017 Forever GI Bill, kicked off this

spring, with $15 million a year in funding for veterans to get tech training from noncollege providers such as

for-profit online sites. To discourage potential fraud, the program pays providers 25 percent at enrollment, 25

percent at completion and the balance upon employment.37

Shernaz Daver, former chief marketing officer at Udacity, an unaccredited, for-profit online training provider,

said in 2017 that the program was much-needed and would help both veterans and the economy. “There are

450,000 vets in the U.S. today who are unemployed, and half a million tech jobs, if not more, to be filled,” she

said.38

An earlier five-year, $75 million pilot program created by the Obama administration also aimed to provide fed-

eral funds to unaccredited providers. But the Educational Quality Through Innovative Partnerships, or Equip,

program, did not come together as hoped, said Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire Univer-

sity. Bethany Little, an education consultant, said it was difficult for quality assurance organizations to develop

evaluation frameworks.39

One successful Equip program, a collaboration between Northeastern University in Boston and General Elec-

tric, offers an accelerated, three-year bachelor of science degree in advanced manufacturing systems that

gives credit for hands-on learning.40

Some programs, including apprenticeships, begin as early as high school. For example, Alabama announced

a new apprenticeship program this year that aims to create 10,000 high school apprenticeships by the end of

2025. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, about 26 states have offices of apprenticeship that encour-

age middle school teachers to introduce youths to the idea of apprenticeships.41

But some sociologists worry that such programs could lead to “tracking,” or assigning students to a specific

vocational path, essentially creating a two-tiered educational system. The primary objective of youth voca-

tional programs is “to segregate poor and minority students into occupational training programs in order to

preserve the academic curriculum for middle- and upper-middle-class students,” said Jeannie Oakes, profes-

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sor emeritus in educational equity at UCLA.42

Carrie Warick, director of policy and advocacy for the National College Access Network, a nonprofit organiza-

tion that supports underrepresented students, has similar worries. “I'm very nervous about the idea of low-in-

come students getting sent to middle-skills jobs and high-income students getting sent to a four-year college

to find themselves,” she said.43

However, Juan Salgado, chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago — a group of community colleges that

places students in white-collar apprenticeships in finance — said apprenticeship programs do not have to limit

students. “They can take these degrees they're earning and go off to four-year universities,” Salgado said.44

Too often, students go to four-year schools because it is expected of them, but without any career goals and

without considering vocational education, said Patricia Hsieh, president of the Hartnell Community College

District in Salinas, Calif. “It is considered a second choice, second-class,” she said. “We really need to change

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how people see vocational and technical education.”45

Brown of the Lumina Foundation agrees. “We have to dispel the myth that getting a certification or a technical

credential is somehow bad. It leads to good jobs, lifelong jobs, well-paying jobs,” she says. “For some reason,

we think that the smart, able people should get college degrees and other people go into this other track —

and that's ridiculous.”

Should colleges and universities repay a portion of defaulted student loans?

Currently, higher education institutions only suffer repercussions when students default on their federal loans

if 30 percent or more of their former students default for three consecutive years or if their default rate hits 40

percent in a single year. Both situations could cause an institution to lose its federal funding, but this penalty

is rarely assessed.46

Some Democratic and Republican legislators have proposed incentives designed to give colleges and uni-

versities a financial stake in a student's success, arguing that institutions then would be more motivated to

ensure students graduate, perhaps earlier than they do now, and obtain good-paying jobs. These incentives

— called “risk-sharing” or “skin in the game” measures — differ in details, but have similar objectives: to limit

defaults, improve student outcomes and ultimately bring down costs.

“If colleges and universities have this incentive, it may not only help students make wiser decisions about bor-

rowing, it could help reduce the cost of college — thereby reducing debt,” Sen. Alexander said at a hearing in

2015, adding that it also might prod colleges to encourage students “to complete their education more quick-

ly.”47

Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island expressed similar views in April. “We think it's time for univer-

sities to step up and take some responsibility when it comes to student loan defaults,” he said. While univer-

sities provide “tremendous benefit to students, our economy and our culture,” Reed said, they often “charge

staggering amounts for tuition which leads to heavy student debt.”48

On the other hand, critics worry that risk-sharing could backfire, causing colleges to cut back on admissions

for students seen as risky bets: low-income students and those aiming to major in potentially less lucrative

degrees such as fine arts. College admissions offices “would cream-skip” and pick the “most-prepared” candi-

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dates, while rejecting those perceived as least prepared, challenging the goals of universal or near-universal

education, says Harvard's Deming.

“What's going to happen — and this is what's intended — is that colleges are going to say that some students

are too big of a risk and not admit them,” Deming says. “And so as a society, we have to ask ourselves, are

we OK with a local community college that in its charter claims to be open access turning a student away be-

cause they're worried that student is going to end up as a financial drain? Because that would happen under

risk-sharing.”

At a U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee meeting in March, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., told Education

Secretary Betsy DeVos that risk-sharing proposals could harm minority students. DeVos said her department

is concerned about any possible negative effects on low-income and minority students.49

Despite these concerns, legislators of both parties have introduced risk-sharing proposals, and the Trump ad-

ministration has called for risk-sharing in its education budget proposal, though without specifics.50

Reed introduced the Protect Student Borrowers Act in April, along with several Democratic co-sponsors, in-

cluding Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. The measure

would charge schools with default rates of 15 percent or higher penalties ranging from 5 to 20 percent of the

loan's cost. To prevent schools from denying admission to students seen as likely to default, the bill would

allow the secretary of Education to waive or reduce payments for institutions serving low-income and minority

students, such as community colleges, historically black institutions and Hispanic-serving institutions.51

In July, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri filed a competing risk-sharing proposal, the Skin in the

Game Act. It would make colleges and universities responsible for half the cost of every defaulted loan, and

schools could not raise tuition to cover the penalties.52

Alexander, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, may include some form of risk-sharing in a reautho-

rization of the Higher Education Act, possibly by the end of the year.53 “We think it is still on the table,” says

Lindsay Ahlman, associate director of research and knowledge management for The Institute for College Ac-

cess & Success, a nonprofit educational research and policy organization with offices in Oakland, Calif., and

Washington. However, she says it is “unclear how important it is in terms of priority.”

Kate Padgett Walsh, an associate professor of philosophy at Iowa State University, said if implemented cor-

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rectly, risk-sharing could motivate institutions to work harder to raise graduation rates. She also recommend-

ed that risk-sharing programs avoid — as the Reed bill does — unfairly penalizing community colleges and

historically black colleges and universities, which tend to have lower completion rates. And she warned that

risk-sharing could even result in tuition hikes, as colleges try to recoup costs (something Hawley's bill pro-

hibits).54

A student advocacy group, the Young Invincibles, has suggested that the government use revenues from risk-

sharing to provide tuition relief. “Students already face the most risk in higher education, so a real ’risk-shar-

ing’ program should provide students a portion of the benefit created to mitigate that risk,” the group wrote in

a 2018 white paper.55

Similarly, Adam Looney and Tara Watson, economists at the Brookings Institution, a centrist Washington think

tank, suggested giving risk-sharing revenues to colleges and universities that do a good job serving low-in-

come students, to be used to “promote access to high quality institutions for those who cannot afford to attend

on their own.”56

Background

College for the Elites

Conflicts over the purpose of higher education — to provide practical skills or educate in the liberal arts —

and struggles over access have existed almost since the first college opened in America.

Early education in the American colonies was reserved for wealthy white males, with only about 1 percent of

18- to 21-year-olds attending college. Few families could afford tuition or to have able-bodied men leave their

farms or businesses.57

The nation's first college was Harvard, established in 1636 as New College. Other future Ivy League institu-

tions followed, including Yale in 1701, Princeton in 1746 and Dartmouth in 1769. They modeled themselves

on English colleges, training clergy and scholars in theology and the classics.58

Not all agreed with this approach. In 1749, Benjamin Franklin helped found the Publik Academy of Philadel-

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phia (later called the University of Pennsylvania), which taught skills needed to make a living as well as an

appreciation for the arts.59

At that time, elementary and high school systems had not yet been established, so the students at early col-

leges often were boys as young as 14 or 15, who would first take preparatory courses with a tutor or local

schoolmaster before moving on to college-level work. Often students attended for a year or two and then left

without getting a degree.60

The American Revolution (1775-83) disrupted college life as students left to take up arms and some campus-

es were damaged in the fighting or served as barracks or hospitals; others lost funding from England after

the colonies declared independence. But the newly independent nation included a call for public education,

declaring in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 that schools and education “shall forever be encouraged” be-

cause knowledge was “necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind.”61

Early American colleges taught a “broad liberal arts perspective — that one needed to have an understanding

of the classics and of a broad-based humanistic education — so that one could be a philanthropic, generous,

broad-minded and thoughtful leader,” says the National Humanities Center's Newman. “The idea was to edu-

cate the elite, particularly young men, so they could take leadership positions in government and industry.”

A college building boom began in the 19th century, with the number of U.S. institutions rising from 25 in 1800

to 241 by 1860. And some colleges began encouraging diversity. The first black students were admitted at

a predominantly white university — Ohio's Oberlin College (then known as Oberlin Collegiate Institute) — in

1835. Two years later, in 1837, Oberlin was the first to admit women, though they were segregated in a “ladies

course.”62

In the mid- to late 19th century, educators began adopting the more scientifically based German research

university model, increasing the number of disciplines and majors and adding sciences and social sciences,

says Newman. After the Morrill Land Grant Act became law in 1862, states began building so-called land-

grant colleges on land provided by the federal government. The colleges were to teach “agriculture and the

mechanical arts,” hence A&M in the names of some of these colleges.63

In 1890, a second Morrill Act opened state college doors to African Americans, and appropriated federal funds

to support colleges. While the act forbade racial discrimination in admissions, it allowed racially separate in-

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stitutions if the funds were divided in a “just” manner, leading to the establishment of 17 historically black

colleges and universities.64

Though higher education was thriving, with 560 colleges by 1870, many craftsmen remained unconvinced of

its value. They had been trained through apprenticeships and distrusted academics and scientists. College

degrees were seen as a status symbol, rather than sign of practical knowledge. Most people did not complete

a bachelor's degree, which was not required to get most jobs, and some earned two-year “license of instruc-

tion” certificates to teach school.65

Distance learning also began in the 19th century, with so-called correspondence schools connecting students

and instructors by mail. The first such school opened in Boston in 1873. One of the largest was the for-profit

International Correspondence Schools in Pennsylvania, which trained immigrant coal miners. By 1895 it en-

rolled 72,000 new students.66

The number of disciplines, fields and majors began increasing in the late 19th century. “We had the entrance

of not just the sciences and not just the humanities, but also the social sciences and then professional de-

grees in law and business and medicine and engineering,” says Newman.

Early 20th Century

In the early 20th century, fewer than 10 percent of U.S. workers had graduated from high school. About 5

percent of males ages 18 to 21 attended college (256,000 students), up from 1 percent in 1800 (1,237 stu-

dents).67

The nation's economy, however, was shifting from an agrarian to an industrial model, forcing universities to

change in order to meet new employer needs. By 1914, more Americans worked in manufacturing and relat-

ed jobs than in farming — 14 million vs. 12 million, according to census data.68

After a commission appointed by President Woodrow Wilson found in 1914 that less than 1 percent of em-

ployees were prepared for industrial jobs, the federal government got more involved in funding education and

job training. In 1917, Congress passed the Smith-Hughes Act, providing federal funds for high school voca-

tional education. From 1920 to 1945, high schools expanded, resulting in a rise in college enrollment. How-

ever, white males were four times likelier than black men to attend college. Women represented 40 percent

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of college students, although their educations were largely limited to female-dominated professions, such as

teaching.69

During the Great Depression, the government provided more funds for higher education: $93 million between

1935 and 1943 to send 620,000 students to college. To increase the pool of skilled workers, Congress passed

the National Apprenticeship Act in 1937, authorizing the Department of Labor to oversee apprenticeships and

ensure workers' health, safety and welfare.70

As World War II was winding down, Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's

Readjustment Act of 1944, the so-called GI Bill of Rights, which, among other things, paid stipends for tuition

and other college costs for veterans attending college or trade school. By 1949, college enrollment had

reached 2.7 million — nearly double the level in 1939.71

World War II veterans take notes with other college students during a University of Iowa lec-

ture in the spring of 1947. College enrollment nearly doubled from 1939 to 1949 after Con-

gress passed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, the so-called GI Bill of Rights, in 1944,

providing, among other things, stipends for tuition and other college costs for veterans at-

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tending college or trade school.

(Getty Images/The LIFE Picture Collection/Margaret Bourke-White)

In 1947 the President's Commission on Higher Education, known as the Truman Commission after Democ-

ratic President Harry S. Truman, called for establishing a network of public community colleges that would

charge little to no tuition. And the Korean War (1950-53) created a new pool of vets using GI Bill benefits to

attend community colleges, swelling their ranks even further.72

Broadening Access

The push for greater college enrollment, especially in the sciences, got a boost in 1957, when the Soviet

Union launched its Sputnik satellite, triggering a Cold War-era space race. The federal government in 1961

began giving colleges about $600 million a year for scientific research.73

By the 1960s, high school attendance was near universal and college attendance was growing rapidly. The

number of college students more than doubled between 1960 and 1970, from 3.6 million to 7.9 million. The

Vietnam War also ramped up during this period, with the first soldiers sent there in 1965. The draft allowed

young men attending college to get a deferment from military service, which researchers say is likely why

college enrollment spiked during the war.74

Also in the 1960s, the administration of Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson wanted to expand access

to education, but banks were reluctant to lend to poor and minority students. So the Higher Education Act of

1965 established a system that provided student loans backed by the federal government, but administered

by banks. In 1972, amendments to the law established the Pell Grant program, which provides grants to low-

income students to help pay for college.75

The loan options changed student borrowing. In the 1975-76 school year, 75 percent of college students re-

ceived grants and 21 percent received loans. Within 10 years that ratio had flipped, with 29 percent receiving

grants and 66 percent taking out loans in the 1984-85 academic year.76

The number of community colleges and technical institutes also grew, with the student population of those

schools increasing from 82,000 to 1.3 million between 1950 and 1980.77

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Meanwhile, Title IX of the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1972 outlawed discrimination by educational

institutions on the basis of gender, opening more college doors to women, and affirmative action policies re-

sulted in more students of color attending college. By 1975, just over 11 million Americans were attending

college full-time, up from 2.4 million in 1959, and a college degree increasingly was viewed as the ticket to

the middle class.78

However, government-backed loan programs operated with little oversight, so colleges had little incentive to

keep tuition costs down. Most students who wanted loans got them. Colleges raised rates and some lowered

admissions standards, bringing in more students and revenue. Little thought was given to student debt loads,

or how students who dropped out or couldn't find jobs could afford to pay.79

Soaring Costs and Debt

States have been cutting funds for colleges and universities since the 1990s due to economic downturns, es-

pecially during the 2007-09 recession. “States have to balance their budgets every year … and higher ed is

usually the largest discretionary item on their budgets,” says Harvard's Deming. “So … when times are tough,

the higher ed budget gets cut.”

In 1988, states paid 76 percent of the funding for full-time public college students; in 2007, during the reces-

sion, the state share fell to less than 40 percent. Since then, states have gradually been paying more, but

still are not at pre-recession levels in most states. State funding for two- and four-year universities in 2018

was down more than $7 billion from 2008, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research

and policy institute in Washington. To make up for the loss in state funding, colleges have raised tuitions, on

average by 36 percent since 2008, although seven states have raised them by 60 percent or more.80

Low-income families can apply for Pell Grants to cover tuition and some costs, but those grants only cover

about 29 percent of the cost of a public undergraduate education today, compared to 92 percent in 1965.81

All of these factors have contributed to a rise in the percentage of students borrowing to pay for college —

now about 65 percent, with the overwhelming majority from federal loans.82

In 2009, Democratic President Barack Obama instituted several policies aimed at achieving his goal of having

America lead the world in its number of college graduates by 2020. After the recession, banks struggled to

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provide student loans, so in 2010 Obama shifted federal student lending from banks to a direct lending pro-

gram created in 1993 during the administration of Democratic President Bill Clinton.83

Meanwhile, the for-profit education industry was growing again. The industry had been beset by scandals

and complaints in the 1980s, with allegations that some companies inflated promises of future jobs and used

hard-sell sales tactics, leaving low-income, vulnerable students burdened with debt and useless credentials.

Republican President George H.W. Bush had signed accountability and oversight measures governing the

industry into law, and more than 1,200 for-profits eventually closed. After Congress relaxed some of those

regulations in 1998, and with Republican President George W. Bush favoring less oversight, the industry grew

rapidly — including in online courses. For-profits expanded from 5 percent of the online education market in

2000 to nearly 70 percent in 2010.84

However, problems re-emerged. In 2014, the Obama administration issued a key regulation that penalized

for-profit colleges for their graduates' poor job outcomes. The “gainful employment” rule stripped federal stu-

dent aid eligibility from institutions whose graduates could not find good jobs. The administration also en-

forced a “borrower defense” rule, which rebated student loan payments if the student's school went bankrupt.

Another Obama action in 2016 shuttered an accrediting agency — the Accrediting Council for Independent

Colleges and Schools (ACICS) — that approved many for-profit schools that later were accused of fraudulent

practices and closed.85

In 2017, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the federal government would rake in about $114

billion over 10 years from Obama's direct loan program. A year later, it said the program would provide only

$8.7 billion over that period. By this May, the office had revised its projections, saying the program will cost

taxpayers $31 billion over the next decade.86

The government is collecting less on outstanding loans, the CBO said, in part because more borrowers than

anticipated are enrolling in income-driven repayment plans. Such plans, created by Congress in 2012, allow

borrowers to pay a percentage of their discretionary income for a period of years, after which the remainder

of the loan is forgiven.87

And some loans are not being collected at all. About 5.2 million federal borrowers are in default, while another

6.1 million have postponed their payments, according to Nerdwallet, a personal finance company that offers

financial advice to online users. As with income-based repayment, interest continues to pile up when a loan is

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paused, and the loans balloon. Due in part to the high number of students deferring repayment, the average

household with student debt in 2018 owed $47,671, much of it in the form of direct loans held by the federal

government.88

The greatest number of loan defaults are among students who have attended or earned degrees from for-

profit institutions, which make up 10 percent of students but 50 percent of defaults, according to Brookings.89

However, the Trump administration brought a new, deregulatory emphasis to the for-profit sector. Education

Secretary DeVos announced in June that the gainful employment rule would formally end in July 2020, though

the department had already stopped enforcing it. DeVos argued that it unfairly targeted for-profits. Instead,

the Education Department says it will hold schools accountable by providing information to consumers about

graduation rates and average salaries earned by graduates. This information is available through a website,

College Scorecard, started by the Obama administration but expanded under Trump to include information

based on degrees.90

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Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education

(Getty Images/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service/Amy Beth Bennett)

The Department of Education estimates that rescinding the gainful employment rule means that for-profits will

receive about $5.3 billion in federal funds, such as Pell Grants, over the next decade, which they otherwise

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would have been ineligible to receive.91

An amended version of the borrower defense rule, with the automatic student loan forgiveness removed, goes

into effect July 1, 2020. DeVos also gave ACICS, the accrediting agency, a temporary reprieve, though in July

opened an investigation into its financial health.92

In addition, the department has largely phased out an investigative team created during the Obama adminis-

tration that examined abuses by the for-profit industry. The team's staff has been reduced from about a dozen

to three, and its focus has shifted to less aggressive tasks, such as evaluating loan forgiveness requests. The

new head of the team, Julian Schmoke, is a former dean at DeVry, a for-profit university investigated under

Obama. Other for-profit executives also have found new jobs in the Education Department.93

Bob Shireman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank, said the Trump adminis-

tration's moves give a “not-so-implicit stamp of approval on predatory colleges, while simultaneously stripping

what few protections students have to protect themselves against abuse.” But Sen. Alexander said eliminat-

ing the gainful employment regulation will “end a clumsy rule that consumed 945 pages to define two words

in the higher education law and targeted just one segment of our 6,000 colleges and universities.” Instead, he

added, Congress can now “create a more effective measure of accountability for student debt and quality of

institutions.”94

While many of the large for-profit chains — such as ITT Tech, Corinthian and Argosy — have closed their

doors, others have converted to nonprofit status, partnered with nonprofit universities or are still active, serv-

ing tens of thousands of students.95

Chronology

1600s–1890s

Early colleges serve primarily wealthy, white males.

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1636

New College is first college in the American colonies; it later becomes Harvard Universi-

ty.

1775–83

Revolutionary War results in colleges emptying out as students take up arms.

1800

Only 1 percent of males ages 18 to 21 attend college (1,237 students), and few earn

degrees.

1835

Oberlin becomes the first U.S. college to admit black students.

1837

First female students are admitted to college, also at Oberlin.

1862

Morrill Land Grant Act gives states federal land to start public “agriculture and mechani-

cal arts” colleges.

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1900s–1950s

Number of community colleges grows; GI Bill boosts college enrollment.

1873

Distance learning begins, with first correspondence school established in Boston.

1890

Second Morrill Act provides federal funding to colleges and bans racial discrimination in

admissions.

1900

About 5 percent of males ages 18 to 21 attend college.

1901

First community college is founded: Joliet Junior College in Joliet, Ill., with six students.

1937

National Apprenticeship Act authorizes Labor Department to establish health and safety

standards for apprenticeship programs.

1940

Percentage of Americans with bachelor's degrees reaches 4.6 percent.

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1960s–1980s

Access to college broadens to diverse populations.

1944

GI Bill goes into effect, funding college for veterans and causing enrollment to soar.

1947

The President's Commission on Higher Education, known as the Truman Commission,

issues its six-volume report calling for, among other things, the doubling of college atten-

dance by 1960 and the establishment of a network of free or low-cost public community

colleges.

1949

Number of college students hits 2.7 million.

1950

Community colleges grow to 330 institutions with 82,000 students.

1960

Number of college students stands at 3.6 million.

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1990s–Present

For-profit colleges and online courses proliferate; college tuition soars, as does student debt.

1965

Congress passes Higher Education Act, setting up government-backed student loan

system.

1970

College enrollment reaches 7.9 million.

1972

Title IX bars gender discrimination in college admissions.

1984

About 66 percent of college students take out loans, up from 21 percent in 1975.

1987

Average annual tuition at public four-year college is $3,200.

1990

One-fifth of Americans 25 and older have at least a bachelor's degree.

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1991

Majority of high school graduates (63 percent) attend a four-year college.

1998

Reauthorization of Higher Education Act loosens some restrictions on for-profit colleges.

2007

As recession strikes, states cut funding for higher education, and banks pull back on stu-

dent loans.

2010

Democratic President Barack Obama shifts federal student loan program from private

banks to the federal government, aiming to use savings from bank fees to expand Pell

Grants.

2012

Senate report reveals that 13 percent of the nation's college students are enrolled in for-

profit colleges, but they account for 47 percent of student loan defaults.

2014

Obama administration enacts “gainful employment” rule, targeting for-profit colleges with

sanctions if their graduates are not properly prepared for jobs.

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Current Situation

Boosting Affordability

The dramatic rise in college costs, especially in the past two decades, has institutions of higher learning and

the government trying a variety of measures to provide relief to students.

Colleges have cut costs by replacing faculty with lower-paid adjuncts, consolidating campuses and teaming

up with other institutions to share resources. A growing number also have lowered tuition rates, with about 18

2015

The for-profit Corinthian College chain closes, amid allegations of falsified job placement

records and graduation rates, part of an ongoing wave of for-profit closures.

2018

The percentage of Americans with four years of college reaches 35 percent.

2019

Average in-state tuition and fees at public universities for 2019-20 reaches $11,260….

Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) introduce a bill allow-

ing student debt to be discharged in bankruptcy (May)…. National student debt (private

and federal) tops $1.6 trillion (August)…. Trump administration announces gainful em-

ployment regulation will officially end July 1, 2020 (June)…. California announces free

tuition for state residents at state two-year colleges (August)…. New Mexico governor

proposes free tuition at four-year state colleges (September).

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mostly small, private schools reducing rates in 2018 and Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., dropping its price by

25 percent for the 2019-20 academic year.96

Some experts suggest boosting federal spending. Ahlman, of The Institute for College Access & Success,

says, “The most important way to increase [college] affordability is to increase funding for Pell Grants.” Some

analysts say more federal spending on student aid only puts upward pressure on prices, but studies have

been inconclusive.97

Democrats in Congress proposed the College Affordability Act in mid-October, which would increase Pell

Grants, among other measures aimed at making college more accessible. If approved, the legislation is esti-

mated to cost $400 billion over the next 10 years.98

Some states are getting rid of tuition altogether. New York led the way in 2017 by providing free tuition for

two- and four-year state schools to families making less than $125,000.99 About 10 other states enacted or

are proposing similar programs, including:

• New Mexico announced a plan in September to provide free tuition and fees for recent high school

graduates at four-year or two-year public colleges, regardless of income, funded through a combi-

nation of state lottery winnings and federal grants. The plan also would pay for community college

tuition and fees for returning adult learners. The Democratic-majority Legislature plans to vote on the

proposal next year.100

• California enacted legislation providing free tuition for two years of community college to first-time,

full-time resident students in August.

• In Texas, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will begin providing free tuition for students with

household incomes under $75,000 — more than half its 21,459 undergraduates — in the 2020-21

academic year. A similar program will start in 2020 at the University of Texas at Austin for families

earning up to $65,000 a year.101

The idea of free tuition or debt-free college has become a key issue in the run-up to the 2020 presidential

election, with many Democratic candidates calling for a range of proposals to ease college costs. Sen. Bernie

Sanders of Vermont has announced a plan to make two- and four-year public colleges tuition-free and to wipe

out $1.6 trillion in student debt, funded by a tax on Wall Street, for a combined cost of $2.2 trillion over 10

years. His rivals, Sens. Warren, Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, are co-spon-

soring the Debt-Free College Act, a bill sponsored by Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, which would establish a

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federal-state match to help pay for college expenses as well as tuition.102

Other Democratic candidates have more limited proposals. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg — who

says he owes more than $130,000 in student loans — would expand Pell Grants for low-income students

and provide free tuition to lower- and middle-income families. Former Vice President Joseph Biden backs free

community college.103

Harvard's Deming supports free college for all students, even those with the means to pay their own tuition.

“I'm not excited about the idea of paying for rich kids to go to college,” but the alternative — programs that re-

quire colleges to document students' ability to pay — tend to be prohibitively complicated, he says. He likens

free college to free public high school. “We think on balance, if you want something to be universally avail-

able, the easiest way to do that is to universally provide it,” he says. He also argues that providing free tuition

“is not as expensive as you might think,” especially when you factor in the taxes that graduates are likely to

pay over their lifetimes.104

Ryan Craig, a co-founder of University Ventures, an educational investment firm, opposes tuition-free college.

“It does nothing to address student outcomes,” he argues. “You're subsidizing schools to keep doing what

they've been doing and not incentivizing them to better align their programs with employer needs. There's no

performance-based funding whatsoever, so we think it's absolutely the wrong way to do it.”

Kay Coles James, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, also said in a commen-

tary that free college for all would be “a suffocating financial burden on every taxpayer, but especially on mid-

dle- and lower-income citizens…. ’Free’ college tuition would only make things worse, creating an inflationary

spiral: As more taxpayer dollars were funneled to schools with even less discretion than exists today, schools

would keep raising costs.”105

Administrative Actions

In June, more than 150,000 former students of failed for-profit colleges sued the Department of Education for

failing to refund their student loans under the Obama-era borrower defense rule.

“The law is clear: Students who experienced fraud should not be required to pay back federal loans that

should never have been made by the department in the first place,” said Toby Merrill, director of Harvard Law

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School's Project on Predatory Student Lending, which filed the suit on the students' behalf.106

In September, the department announced it would discharge $95 million in loans owed by about 7,000 stu-

dents who said they were defrauded by the defunct ITT Tech. The action followed complaints from Sen. Dick

Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and other legislators, who demanded that the department, which had not

made any borrower defense payments since June 2018, take action.107

Steve Balloch, left, helps fellow teacher Jaime McDonald load her car at Everest College in

Industry, Calif. Everest, part of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain, closed in 2015 after

allegations of falsifying graduation records and job placement rates.

(Getty Images/Los Angeles Times/Al Seib)

The department also has continued to collect loan payments — including by garnishing wages or tax refunds

— from about 1,800 former students of the bankrupt Corinthian Colleges and sent “payment due” notices to

about 15,000 borrowers, despite a May 2018 court order to stop collecting payments from the students. In

an October hearing, Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco said she was

“deeply disturbed” by the department's lack of compliance with her earlier injunction and with “the sheer scale

of violations.” Kim said she is considering fines or contempt charges against the department.108

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The department's new rules for borrower defense went into effect in September. Critics charge they are weak-

er than the previous rules and make it more difficult for defrauded students to get debt relief. The department

says the rules are fair and estimate they will save taxpayers $11 billion over the next decade.109

In other administrative action, the Department of Labor in July, acting on recommendations from a workforce

advisory board headed by the president's daughter Ivanka Trump, proposed a new type of apprenticeship

designed to cut red tape and make it easier for businesses to start apprenticeship programs, especially in

sectors that had never used them before.

The Labor Department has authorized more than $180 million in grants for the new programs, called Industry

Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs). The grants would be awarded to 23 community colleges and

state colleges and universities in 18 states and matched by participating companies. Initially limited to the

health care, information technology and advanced manufacturing industries, the apprenticeships are expect-

ed to train 85,000 people in those fields.110

But unlike the Labor Department's existing apprenticeship program, IRAPs would not be regulated by the

department, but by certified industry groups, unions, educational institutions or trade associations. And the

IRAPs would have fewer restrictions on such things as how many hours an apprentice might work.111

The workplace advisory board “recognized that the process of becoming a registered apprenticeship program

was so difficult and time-consuming that new industries could never go to scale as registered apprentice-

ships,” says Sheree Speakman, CEO of the Council on Integrity in Results Reporting, a nonprofit that mon-

itors computer coding boot camps. The IRAPs program — which would co-exist with the current apprentice-

ship program and not replace it — “is revolutionary and it's exciting,” she says. “Ivanka deserves a mountain

of credit.”

However, critics such as Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the ranking member of the Senate Education and Labor

Committee, say the lack of government oversight amounts to “a giveaway to private corporations and for-

profit colleges without any guarantee that apprentices are getting quality training opportunities, are being paid

fairly for the work they do or are working in safe conditions.”112

In addition, labor unions — especially those representing construction workers, which are not eligible for

IRAPs — decry what they perceive as an attempt to undermine standards protecting their industry, calling

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the approach “like the fox guarding the henhouse,” according to a United Steelworkers blog post.113 About

175,000 comments flooded the government's comments section for the proposal.

Short Features

Supporters Say ’Boot Camps’ Offer Quick Path to Good Jobs

The industry is expanding into nontechnical fields.

Herman Kayy, a software engineer in Santa Monica, Calif., makes between $100,000 and $140,000 a year

— a position he landed without a bachelor's degree. Instead, the 26-year-old learned computer coding at a

three-month, $10,000 “boot camp” in 2018, which led within months to his current job.

Kayy did have some college under his belt when he enrolled: three years at the University of Nevada, Las

Vegas, where he studied biology and then business before dropping out to “find out what I love and want

to do.” After spending time in architecture and real estate, he took a $5 online course in computer app de-

velopment — and discovered his passion.

“I got instantly hooked and just loved every second of it and knew this is what I want,” he says. In March

2018, he enrolled at the DevMountain boot camp in Salt Lake City and lined up a contract software devel-

opment job before even graduating. By that August he had a full-time software engineer job.

Coding boot camps are intensive, full-time training programs offered by either for-profit or nonprofit com-

panies that can be taken in person or online. In-person camps last about 15 weeks, on average, and cost

$13,584, while online camps take about 24 weeks and cost $12,900, according to Course Report, an orga-

nization that provides research and information about the industry.1

The field is experiencing strong growth, with on-site boot camps expected to graduate 17,524 developers

in 2019, up from 13,407 in 2018. Online camps were growing even more rapidly, up from 2,022 graduates

last year to 5,519 projected for this year.2

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The industry, which started in 2012, provides about 150 comprehensive career preparation programs, says

Sheree Speakman, CEO of Council on Integrity in Results Reporting. The nonprofit membership and stan-

dards organization aims to provide accountability and credibility to the boot camp industry, which has been

criticized in the past for overpromising job outcomes for students taking their short-term, unaccredited train-

ing programs.3

For instance, the attorney general of New York in October 2017 fined the Flatiron School, a coding acade-

my with 10 U.S. locations and campuses in London and Australia, $375,000 for touting job placement rates

as high as 98.5 percent on its website, while burying details that some “jobs” were as freelancers, contract

employees or apprentices.4

“Coding boot camps have been in this wild-west territory of new schools,” said Robert Shireman, a former

Department of Education official and now a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a liberal think tank.

They're founded by “entrepreneurs who are excited about providing training [but] do not have a lot of expe-

rience in how to provide accurate information to people,” he added.5

Surveys of graduates of about 100 boot camps by Course Report found that 79 percent reported finding

jobs within six months in jobs related to what they had studied, with an average starting salary of $64,528.6

Salaries on the East and West Coasts are often higher, Speakman points out, but the average reflects low-

er salaries in the Midwest.

The majority of boot camp enrollees — 56 percent — have four-year degrees and 15 percent have ad-

vanced degrees, though not necessarily in computer science. However, a bachelor's — or any other de-

gree — is not required for admission. About 6 percent of students start with only a high school diploma.7

Coding boot camps are not just about coding but also teach soft skills, says Liz Eggleston, co-founder of

Course Report. “In most boot camps, you'll learn about collaboration and team-building skills and commu-

nication,” which she says will help graduates work effectively with others in their future workplaces.

Some coding boot camps focus on groups that are underrepresented in the technology field. For example,

the Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy in New York City and Chicago is a 17-week software en-

gineering course for women (with four weeks online and 13 in person) that charges tuition only after grad-

uates get a job. The Turing School of Software & Design in Denver is a nonprofit boot camp that focuses

on enrolling women and minorities.8 Other camps offer scholarships to underrepresented groups.9

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The online learning company edX tapes a biology lecture by Professor Eric Lander at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. Online course providers

such as edX offer low-cost or free classes as an alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar

learning.

(Getty Images/The Christian Science Monitor/Melanie Stetson Freeman)

Now the boot camp model is expanding into other fields, according to Eggleston, such as cybersecurity,

client management and other vocational training. Speakman agrees. “For every program that opens in cod-

ing, I think we're going to see new programs in sales, management preparation and commercial driver's

licenses,” she says.

Boot camps are not the only alternative to bachelor's degrees. Online course providers such as Udemy,

edX and Coursera offer classes — often free or at low cost — for students seeking to learn or update skills.

Often these are in the form of massive open online courses (MOOCs).

Certificate schools, both for-profit and nonprofit, offer skills training and provide “microcredentials” — such

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as digital badges — that employers are increasingly willing to accept as proof of competency.10

However, a joint investigation of certificate schools by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit education news

website, and NBC News in July found that “shortfalls in oversight enable companies with questionable

track records to continue to recruit vulnerable students and profit off taxpayer money.”11 Premier Schools,

a leading for-profit provider of certificate programs at nine East Coast schools, agreed to shutter its Mass-

achusetts operations in 2020, after it was charged with misleading students over job placement and grad-

uation rates. As part of a settlement announced in July with the state's attorney general, the company will

pay $1.6 million in student debt relief.12

Community colleges also offer vocational and career training. IBM, for example, has been offering Next

Gen IT courses at community colleges as part of what it calls a “New Collar” career path.13 Most colleges

and universities offer online certificates and short programs as well.

Apprenticeships, too, have been growing in popularity in recent years, and expanding into fields such as

health care, consulting and insurance.14

Students are finding out that there is “more than one way to the middle class other than a four-year degree,”

said Eric M. Seleznow, a senior adviser at Jobs for the Future, a workforce-development organization in

Boston.15

—

• Lorna Collier

1.

Liz Eggleston, “2019 Coding Bootcamp Market Size Study,” Course Report, Aug. 1, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/yyrvm6pl.

2.

Ibid.

3.

Rebecca Koenig, “Coding Bootcamps Offer Opportunity, But Not Always Transparency,” US News & World

Report, May 28, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yyextzat.

4.

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Jillian Berman, “Coding bootcamp's $375,000 settlement highlights challenges for new industry,” Market-

Watch, Oct. 17, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/yxrpky8k.

5.

Ibid.

6.

Liz Eggleston, “2018 Coding Bootcamp Alumni Outcomes & Demographics Report,” Course Report, Dec.

19, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y5q74tff.

7.

Ibid.

8.

Goldie Blumenstyk, “As Coding Bootcamps Grow, One Tries a Nonprofit Model,” The Chronicle of Higher

Education, Aug. 2, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/y2v96777.

9.

Liz Eggleston, “Coding Bootcamp Scholarships,” Course Report, March 11, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

y2n7upa4.

10.

Sarah Butrymowicz and Meredith Kolodner, “’They just saw me as a dollar sign’: How some certificate

schools profit from vulnerable students,” The Hechinger Report, July 11, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y2bty7a9.

11.

Paul Fain, “The Degree Rules, for Now,” Inside Higher Ed, Dec. 14, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yy22wmdt.

12.

Butrymowicz and Kolodner, op. cit.

13.

Rhea Kelly, “IBM Community College Partnerships Support Next-Gen IT Training,” Campus Technology,

June 7, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y6bf97z3.

14.

Steven Johnson, “There's a New Pipeline to White-Collar Jobs. It Starts With Apprenticeships,” The Chron-

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icle of Higher Education, June 21, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y4cy34a3.

15.

Ibid.

Humanities Degrees Are Losing Their Appeal

Some students fear such diplomas will make them unemployable.

Administrators at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point triggered a fierce backlash when they an-

nounced in 2018 that the university planned to cut 13 undergraduate majors due to low enrollment, includ-

ing such humanities stalwarts as English, philosophy and history.

After complaints from students, faculty and alumni, the university backed down, saying it would eliminate

only six majors — including history, French, German and art — which would be replaced by “growth pro-

grams” in fields such as aquaculture and environmental engineering.16

But the protests continued. “Universities are supposed to be preparing people to participate in a democra-

cy, besides participate in the workforce, although that's certainly important,” said Ed Miller, a political sci-

ence professor at the university.17 Finally, this past April, the university abandoned the plan, at least for

the time being.

However, the reason for the cuts — a persistent lack of student interest in humanities majors and an in-

creased interest in the sciences — is not unique to Wisconsin Stevens Point. As the number of students

receiving bachelor's degrees rose steadily between 1970 and 2016, the number of humanities majors

dropped from 36 percent of all degrees to 23 percent, according to researchers at Strada Education Net-

work, which promotes education that prepares students for better jobs, and Emsi, a labor market analytics

firm. Meanwhile, the number of majors in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields grew

from 64 percent to 77 percent.18

“The humanities are struggling,” Michael T. Neitzel, president emeritus of Missouri State University, wrote

in a recent Forbes editorial. “Whether these declines reflect student concerns about employability, a lack of

clear purpose or direction for these majors or the malaise that has gripped the humanities for years is not

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clear, but the student flight from these fields is unmistakable.”19

In a survey last spring asking 248,000 college graduates whether they regretted the major they had chosen,

12.2 percent said yes. Of those, humanities was the most regretted field of study, at 21 percent, while only

4.3 percent of computer science majors and 7.8 percent of engineering students regretted those choic-

es.20

Part of that regret may be salary related. When Robert Newman travels the country promoting the human-

ities, he says he is often dogged with comparisons to supposedly more lucrative hard sciences or busi-

ness-related fields. Newman, the director of the nonprofit National Humanities Center, which promotes the

humanities, acknowledges that “entry level salaries and the ability to get entry-level jobs is usually better in

the STEM fields.” Studies show humanities majors typically earn about $10,000 to $30,000 per year less

upon graduation than those who majored in engineering and the sciences.21

However, Newman says, “if one looks at mid- or late career salaries, there is very little distinction” between

what humanities graduates and STEM graduates make.

In addition, according to a survey by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, humanities graduates

report being just as satisfied with their careers later in life as STEM grads, with most saying they are

“deeply interested” in their jobs and are in positions of authority.22

That finding does not surprise Newman, who says humanities grads have broad, adaptable skills such as

creative thinking, which employers value, rather than knowledge of technical skills — such as mastery of

a specific computer language — that can become obsolete. And indeed, hiring managers and resource

professionals say they are having difficulty finding applicants with the most sought-after skills: the ability to

listen, communicate and think critically.23

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Robert Newman, Director, National Humanities Center

(Courtesy National Humanities Center)

Sometimes humanities students don't realize they have learned these so-called soft skills, and therefore fail

to list them on job applications, educators say. To remedy this, some colleges and universities are awarding

students “digital badges” — a validated credential that students can post on resumes or employment sites,

which links to information about the skills they've learned.24

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Education Design Lab, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit, has designed badges showing that a student has

mastered eight “21st-century skills,” such as communication and problem-solving — abilities often called

soft skills.25 About 800 institutions, including many colleges and universities, receive badges from the or-

ganization as part of a toolkit it developed a year ago.

“I don't like to use the phrase ’soft skills’ because that makes them sound less important,” said Kathleen

deLaski, founder and president of Education Design Lab. “In fact, they are the most important skills cited

by employers” today.26

And to continue teaching students such skills, Neitzel recommends that universities retain humanities pro-

grams. “We don't need more engineers who know nothing about the Civil War, police officers who believe

Churchill was a fictional character or nurses who have never been moved by a great novel,” he wrote.27

—

• Lorna Collier

16.

Colleen Flaherty, “Cuts Reversed at Stevens Point,” Inside Higher Ed, April 11, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

yxwhkkko; Valerie Strauss, “After backlash over plan to cut 13 humanities majors, U-Wisconsin campus

drawing up second proposal,” The Washington Post, March 28, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yyc2exau.

17.

Adam Harris, “The Liberal Arts May Not Survive the 21st Century,” The Atlantic, Dec. 13, 2018,

https://tinyurl.com/y2z3n4r4.

18.

Sydney Johnson, “As Tech Companies Hire More Liberal Arts Majors, More Students Are Choosing STEM

Degrees,” EdSurge, Nov. 13, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y8tlw5cg.

19.

Michael T. Nietzel, “Whither the Humanities: The Ten-Year Trend in College Majors,” Forbes, Jan. 7, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y5c7686p.

20.

“Biggest College Regrets,” PayScale, June 25, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y2f6opk9.

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21.

Scott Carlson, “Over Time, Humanities Grads Close the Pay Gap with Professional Peers,” The Chronicle

of Higher Education, Feb. 7, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yc3xc79g.

22.

Scott Jaschik, “Shocker: Humanities Grads Gainfully Employed and Happy,” Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 7,

2018, https://tinyurl.com/y7nn6s7p.

23.

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, “Survey: Employers Want ’Soft Skills’ From Graduates,” Inside Higher Ed, Jan. 17,

2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5twtfnw.

24.

Elisabeth Rees-Johnstone, “How Everyone Benefits from Badging: A Guide to Mainstreaming Digital Cre-

dentials,” The Evolllution, May 18, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y5yko676.

25.

Shailaja Neelakantan, “With badges, colleges take a hard look at teaching soft skills,” Education Dive, July

26, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5ebvysv.

26.

Ibid.

27.

Nietzel, op. cit.

Pro/Con

Is a four-year college degree worth the cost?

Pro

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Matt Giani

Director of Research and Data Science, Office of Strategy and Policy, and Assistant Professor of Prac-

tice, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Texas, Austin. Written for CQ Re-

searcher, October 2019

Alternative education pathways, such as career and technical education, industry-based certifications, ap-

prenticeships and innovative approaches to postsecondary education such as “boot camps” are growing in

popularity.

These alternatives are viable mechanisms to upward mobility for many students and workers. But recog-

nizing the value of these pathways should not cause us to forget an important point: A bachelor's degree is

still the surest ticket to the middle class and beyond.

From 1980 to 2017, the share of U.S. adults with bachelor's degrees or higher doubled, from 17.0 percent

to 34.2 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Despite this significant increase

and concerns about the possible overproduction of bachelor's degrees, the wage premium of bachelor's

degrees also grew during this time frame. In 1982, males with a bachelor's degree earned on average 25

percent more than those with a high school diploma, and females earned 41 percent more, according to

analyses by the Urban Institute. By 2012, males with a bachelor's degree earned 70 percent more than

those with a high school diploma, and females were earning 82 percent more. This suggests the increase

in the production of bachelor's degrees has not kept pace with the increase in demand for such graduates.

Some question the value of a bachelor's degree, given the growing costs of college and mounting student

debt, which now exceeds credit card debt in the United States. Federal, state and institutional policy must

continue to address the high costs of college, particularly for low-income and middle-class students. How-

ever, average student loan debt among bachelor's degree recipients who have borrowed money is roughly

$30,000. Additionally, students with smaller loan debt who do not complete a bachelor's degree are more

likely to default. While $30,000 is not trivial, this is still a sound investment, given that over their lifetimes

bachelor degree-holders will earn roughly $1,000,000 more than their peers with a high school diploma or

less.

While in some instances associate's degrees, certificates and certifications can provide greater boosts in

short-term earnings than certain bachelor's degrees, a university education provides several additional so-

cial, psychological, health and educational benefits, including the ability to obtain a graduate education.

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Alternative educational pathways should continue to be developed and strengthened. But that should not

come at the expense of increasing access to and completion of a university education, particularly for stu-

dents of color, low-income students and first-generation students.

Con

Ryan Craig and Corinne Spears

Author, College Disrupted and A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College, and Managing Di-

rector, University Ventures; and and Associate, University Ventures. Written for CQ Researcher, Octo-

ber 2019

Amid a student loan crisis and a tight labor market, many are skeptical of the return-on-investment (ROI)

on a college-degree. Breaking down that equation produces outcomes and cost.

Outcomes:

For decades, employers relied on four-year degrees to indicate a job applicant's qualifications, but they

were “macro” signals that did not address specific skills. With the rise of big data and “micro” signals such

as digital credentials, ePortfolios and competency-based assessments, hiring managers now have tools

to identify discrete skills and capabilities. So employers now place more weight on an applicant's techni-

cal and interpersonal skills than on whether the candidate has a degree or where it was earned. In a new

study, 74 percent of information technology managers say technical skills are more important for the first

job than all other skills combined.

That is a major reason why 45 percent of new college graduates are not getting good first jobs and are

underemployed. Moreover, two-thirds of underemployed grads find themselves underemployed five years

later, and half are still underemployed 10 years later.

Meanwhile, degrees awarded in many fast-growing fields are not keeping up with demand. There were

more than 3.7 million new tech job postings in 2018, while only 70,000 students graduated with a computer

science degree. As a result, employers increasingly are removing degree requirements and even hiding an

applicant's educational background from hiring managers. While a four-year degree used to guarantee a

good first job and a pathway to a viable career, there are other viable paths now.

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Cost:

Student loans now account for the second-largest form of debt in the United States, behind only home

mortgages. Tuition has doubled (adjusted for inflation) in the last 25 years, while annual wages grew only

about 25 percent — one-eighth the rate of tuition growth. In addition, spending four years in a classroom

carries an opportunity cost (unearned salaries), and low-income individuals who most need the socioeco-

nomic mobility college is supposed to provide are least likely to complete a degree.

College can be a really great thing. But a four-year degree is definitely not worth the cost for everyone, and

— with college cost continuing to rise as employment outcomes stagnate — probably not for the majority

who undertake a degree program. While college is a great pathway for many, it is certainly not the answer

for all.

Outlook

A ’Watershed Moment’

If current trends continue, more colleges will close due to declining enrollment, costs will continue to rise and

student debt likely will hit $2 trillion by 2021 and $3 trillion by the end of the next decade.114

“I think we are at a watershed moment,” says New York University's Zaloom, who has written about student

debt and its impact on the middle class. States and national politicians are recognizing the depths of the prob-

lem and starting to enact solutions, such as tuition-free college, she says.

“We still have a long way to go to make these policies work,” she says, “but I think we've turned a corner.”

Harvard's Deming agrees that free-college initiatives likely will continue. But the federal government will need

to fund these efforts, with states handling the administration of the programs, because state budgets are too

uncertain for states to do this alone, he says. Programs that provide federal matching grants to states that

want free college “is the future of educational expansion,” Deming says. “That is a trend I would watch.”

As technology continues to change, so will the skills employees need, says the Upjohn Institute's Hershbein.

“What's becoming increasingly important is for people to have lifelong learning,” he says. “There's a greater

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need for everyone to be able to update and keep relevant their skill set and have continuing education for

that. Right now, our system is not set up for that at all.”

Brown, at the Lumina Foundation, agrees, predicting more of a “back-and-forth between the workforce and

education” in the future. College no longer will be “a one-stop shop,” she says. Instead, bachelor's degree-

holders — to keep their degrees current and valuable — will likely have to return periodically for additional

training, perhaps adding certificates or certifications.

That could provide a new market for colleges to replace declining enrollments, says Brown. “When they think

about their business model and how they want to continue to stay open, they are going to focus a lot more on

adults and these other types of credentials,” she says.

More alternatives to bachelor's degrees also are likely to be developed, such as massive open online courses,

digital badges and boot camps, Brown says.

New degrees likely will be offered, says Newman at the National Humanities Center. “The kinds of majors that

we currently have are going to continue to morph,” he says. “Those changes are often in the direction of mul-

tidisciplinary perspectives,” which can marry soft-skills degrees with more hard science or technical training.

Matt Giani, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin's Office of Strategy and Policy, remains

optimistic about higher education's future. “Higher education institutions have been some of the longest last-

ing through history, outlasting governments in some cases. There's something persistent about the value of

higher education.”

Of course, as inevitable changes occur, universities and colleges need to continue to provide students skills

that “are valuable to them both personally in society,” he says. “But I still think the bachelor's degree is going

to be the surest way to ensure a middle-class lifestyle moving forward.”

Bibliography

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Books

Caplan, Bryan, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money,

Princeton University Press, 2018. An economics professor at George Mason University argues that most stu-

dents do not benefit from four-year degree programs.

Craig, Ryan, A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College, BenBella Books, 2018. A higher education

investor and author critiques higher education while exploring alternatives to the bachelor's degree.

Grawe, Nathan D., Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education, Johns Hopkins University Press,

2018. An economist and professor of social sciences at Carleton College in Minnesota analyzes upcoming

demographic shifts and discusses what these might mean for higher education.

Zaloom, Caitlin, Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost, Princeton University Press, 2019. A

New York University professor of social and cultural analysis examines positive middle-class attitudes toward

the bachelor's degree.

Articles

Abel, Jaison R., and RichardDeitz, “Despite Rising Costs, College Is Still a Good Investment,”Liberty Street

Economics blog, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, June5,2019, https://tinyurl.com/y3s8wmby. Federal Re-

serve Bank economists estimate a bachelor's degree produces an average rate of return of 14 percent.

Akers, Beth, “Should College Come With a Money-Back Guarantee?”Manhattan Institute, July9,2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y2ydc5x4. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, finds that

about 120 undergraduate campuses offer loan-repayment guarantees, but many students who could benefit

from them do not know they exist.

Deming, David J., “The Economics of Free College,”Economics for Inclusive Prosperity, June2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y6m83cuk. A Harvard professor of public policy lays out the case for free college, arguing

that the long-term benefits will outweigh the short-term costs of expanding access.

Hess, Frederick M., and J. GrantAddison, “Busting the College-Industrial Complex,”National Affairs, Fall2019,

https://tinyurl.com/yyu7p9sy. The director of education policy (Hess) at the conservative American Enterprise

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Institute and the deputy editor for the Washington Examiner (Addison) argue that employers should not be

allowed to use college degrees as barriers to entry for jobs that do not require degree-level skills.

Marcus, Jon, “Can For-Profit Colleges Rebound?”EducationNext, Winter2019, https://tinyurl.com/y2wbyn8o.

The for-profit college industry is celebrating deregulation under the Trump administration but is struggling with

declining enrollment, according to the higher education editor at The Hechinger Report, a foundation-support-

ed news organization.

Mitchell, Josh, “The Long Road to the Student Debt Crisis,”The Wall Street Journal, June7,2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y42fwwkw. An economics reporter places the student debt crisis in historical context and

explores remedies for fixing the problem.

Ruppel Shell, Ellen, “College May Not Be Worth It Anymore,”The New York Times, May16,2018,

https://tinyurl.com/y8lwqypz. A Boston University journalism professor looks at inequalities in bachelor's de-

gree outcomes.

Worthen, Molly, “The Anti-College Is on the Rise,”The New York Times, June8,2019, https://tinyurl.com/yy-

bkhzx6. An assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill discusses new

types of colleges that attempt to help students “find their callings.”

Reports and Studies

Gallagher, Sean R., “Educational Credentials Come of Age: A Survey on the Use and Value of Educational

Credentials in Hiring,”Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy, Northeastern University,

December2018, https://tinyurl.com/y5zt8k5g. A survey finds that a majority of human resource leaders either

have or are actively exploring de-emphasizing degrees in favor of skills-based or competency-based hiring,

as demand for higher skills grows.

Giani, Matt S., PaulAttewell and DavidWalling, “The Value of an Incomplete Degree: Heterogeneity in

the Labor Market Benefits of College Non-Completion,”Journal of Higher Education, Aug.20,2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y6ae5qw8. Researchers at the University of Texas and City University of New York find that

even one semester of college attendance carries economic benefits.

Ma, Jennifer, MateaPender and MeredithWelch, “Education Pays 2016: The Benefits of Higher Education

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for Individuals and Society,”College Board, https://tinyurl.com/y4qu6z98. Researchers examine the economic

and nonfinancial benefits of a college degree.

Parker, Kim, “The Growing Partisan Divide in Views of Higher Education,”Pew Research Center,

Aug.19,2019, https://tinyurl.com/y32aza95. An analysis by a Washington research organization finds that

public perceptions of higher education increasingly split along partisan lines.

The Next Step

For-Profit Schools

“For-Profit Schools Target the Black Community. Here's How You Can Avoid the Scam,”BET, Sept.18,2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y4gwdxgk. For-profit schools often target people of color with their advertising, but their

graduates end up with more debt and fewer job prospects on average than those who attend other institutions.

Rosza, Matthew, “Judge threatens Betsy DeVos with jail for not adhering to court order on student loan

debts,”Salon, Oct.9,2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6a4jgqk. A California judge threatened Secretary of Education

Betsy DeVos with jail time if her department continued to ignore applications for loan forgiveness from former

students of a for-profit college that went bankrupt after facing investigations and lawsuits charging the college

with fraud.

Whistle, Wesley, “Why For-Profit Colleges Are Nervous About A President Elizabeth Warren,”Forbes,

Oct.4,2019, https://tinyurl.com/yygckvwl. Stock prices of for-profit colleges are sliding as Sen. Elizabeth War-

ren, D-Mass., who wants to end federal funding of for-profit schools, rises in Democratic presidential polling.

Rising College Costs

Carrns, Ann, “Two-Thirds of College Students Take On Debt, but Amount Is Rising More Slowly,”The New

York Times, Sept.27,2019, https://tinyurl.com/y53eexyw. The average burden for an indebted college gradu-

ate is nearly $30,000, but that is rising more slowly than in the past, in part because state and local funding

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for public colleges is increasing.

Marcus, Jon, “Colleges provide misleading information about their costs,”The Hechinger Report,

Sept.16,2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5zjm23x. Some colleges are omitting information and providing old data

about tuition to the federal higher education consumer website called College Scorecard.

Nova, Annie, “Tuition discounting grows at private colleges and universities,”CNBC, May22,2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y6x2h5bx. Private colleges increasingly are discounting tuition by offering more needs-

based grants to prospective students.

Underemployment

Bregu, Klajdi, “Students Increasingly Are Pursuing Degrees with Better Job Prospects, Data Show,”Founda-

tion for Economic Education, June5,2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5jkbvkr. An economist provides evidence that

one of the main causes of graduates' underemployment — working in a job that does not require a college

degree — is a surplus of students choosing degrees with limited job prospects. However, students may be

beginning to turn away from these degrees.

Leifer, Kalani, “Overlooking underemployment,”Salon, May11,2019, https://tinyurl.com/y3dgcwaf. Most col-

lege graduates who are underemployed shortly after graduation remain underemployed for five more years,

according to a 2018 study.

Nunn, Ryan, JanaParsons and JayShambaugh, “Race and underemployment in the US labor market,”Brook-

ings Institution, Aug.1,2019, https://tinyurl.com/y4mum5pd. Black and Hispanic workers are more likely to be

underemployed than white workers.

Vocational Alternatives

Connin, Kaitlin, “More and more students encouraged to choose trade school instead of college,”WSBT,

https://tinyurl.com/yyofgb2x. An Indiana high school is urging more students to consider vocational training

instead of a bachelor's degree by providing them with technical experience in various fields.

Tedeschi, Bruno, “Monmouth County Vocational students learn about advanced manufacturing in unique lo-

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cation,”ROI-NJ, Oct.8,2019, https://tinyurl.com/yydho635. A partnership between a New Jersey electronics

company and a community college has led to the creation of a unique workshop for high school and postsec-

ondary students to gain manufacturing skills.

Trickey, Erick, “How Vocational Education Got a 21st Century Reboot,”Politico, Sept.12,2019,

https://tinyurl.com/yxdzshh8. After a decades-long slump, vocational education is growing in popularity again,

with high school technology courses helping students prepare for good-paying technical jobs.

Contacts

College Scorecard, 202-401-2000; http://collegescorecard.ed.gov Online tool provided by the U.S. Depart-

ment of Education that allows consumers to research information about colleges and degree programs.

Credential Engine, http://credentialengine.org Organization that supports a cloud-based library listing infor-

mation about all types of educational credentials, including nontraditional alternatives.

Institute for College Access & Success, 1212 Broadway, Suite 1100OaklandCA94612;510-318-7900;

http://ticas.org Research and advocacy organization promoting affordability, accountability and equity in high-

er education.

National College Access Network, 202-347-4848; http://collegeaccess.org Nonprofit focusing on closing eq-

uity gaps in postsecondary education.

National Student Clearinghouse, 2300 Dulles Station Blvd., Suite 220HerndonVA20171;703-742-4200;

http://studentclearinghouse.org Organization that provides educational reporting, data exchange, degree and

enrollment verification along with research services.

New America, 202-986-2700; http://newamerica.org Nonpartisan think tank that focuses on public policy is-

sues, including education.

Postsecondary Value Commission, 900 Fifth Ave. NorthSeattleWA98109;206-709-3100; http://postsec-

ondaryvalue.org Commission set up by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to examine the value of a college

degree and provide information to the public.

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Footnotes

1. Briana Boyington and Emma Kerr, “20 Years of Tuition Growth at National Universities,” US News, Sept.

19, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/ybhsen8a; Teddy Nykiel, “2019 Student Loan Debt Statistics,” Nerdwallet, Sept.

20, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y7nvp76x; Mark Kantrowitz, “Average Student Loan Debt at Graduation,” Saving-

forcollege.com, July 23, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y3ofvb4d; and “Pomp and Circumstances: New Study Finds

Most College Graduates Who Start Out Underemployed, Stay There,” Burning Glass Technologies, May 23,

2018, https://tinyurl.com/yxgtmwu4.

2. Ashley Gross and Jon Marcus, “High-Paying Trade Jobs Sit Empty, While High School Grads Line Up

For University,” NPR, April 25, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ybas5kyo; Zachary Michael Jack, “Gen-Ed Revision

Could Be Ged-Ed Reduction,” Inside Higher Ed, April 5, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y3jfletx.

3. “CPS Historical Time Series Tables,” Table A-1, U.S. Census Bureau, https://tinyurl.com/y5caocdd; Hillary

Hoffower, “College is more expensive than it's ever been and the 5 reasons why suggest it's only going to get

worse,” Business Insider, June 26, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6wza5jy. (Note: private four-year school tuition

increased more slowly during that period, from $15,200 to $34,700.)

4. Andy Kiersz and Allana Akhtar, “College grads still earn more than workers with no university degree.

This map shows the states with the widest salary gaps,” Business Insider, July 15, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

y3u5tt7u; Ellen Ruppel Shell, “College May Not Be Worth It Anymore,” The New York Times, May 16, 2018,

https://tinyurl.com/y8lwqypz.

5. Jaison R. Abel and Richard Deitz, “Despite Rising Costs, College Is Still a Good Investment,” Liberty Street

Economics (New York Federal Reserve blog), June 5, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y3s8wmby.

6.Ibid.; Abigail Hess, “Graduating in 4 years or less helps keep college costs down — but just 41% of students

do,” CNBC, June 19, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6cslo64.

7. Jaison R. Abel and Richard Deitz, “Staying in College Longer Than Four years Costs More Than You

Might Think,” Liberty Street Economics (New York Federal Reserve blog), Sept. 3, 2014, https://tinyurl.com/

y5y29raf.

8. Anthony P. Carnevale, Ban Cheah and Andrew R. Hanson, “The Economic Value of College Majors”

(overview), Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/ljap9vr;

Sage

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Jillian Berman, “Women and black college graduates are paid less right out of the gate,” MarketWatch, Aug.

7, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yy3bv9lp.

9. Shell, op. cit.

10.Ibid.

11. Josh Mitchell, “The Long Road to the Student Debt Crisis,” The Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y42fwwkw.

12. David Deming, “In the Salary Race, Engineers Sprint but English Majors Endure,” The New York Times,

Sept. 20, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5fzqsfq; Ryan Nelson, “What's the Difference Between a Bachelor of Arts

(BA) and a Bachelor of Science (BS)?” GradLime, Aug. 10, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y5b5kwvt.

13. “Humanities vs. Sciences: Who Earns More?” Emolument, https://tinyurl.com/y2kus33f; Philip Trostel, “It's

Not Just The Money: The Benefits of College Education to Individuals and Society,” Lumina Foundation, Oct.

14, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/y2sat8tr.

14. Sean R. Gallagher, “Educational Credentials Come of Age,” Center for the Future of Higher Education

and Talent Strategy, Northeastern University, December 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y5zt8k5g; Jingcong Zhao,

“Employers are downgrading their hiring criteria in this tight labor market,” Payscale, Jan. 18, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y8ksfold.

15. Ben Weiner, “Why the U.S. has a STEM shortage and how we fix it (Part 1),” Recruiting Daily, Nov. 6,

2018, https://tinyurl.com/ybxaaaa8.

16. Scott Jaschik, “Lecture Instruction: Alive and Not So Well,” Inside Higher Ed, April 2, 2018,

https://tinyurl.com/y2y9og98.

17. Nate Swanner, “No STEM Degree Necessary to Land Great Jobs at Tech Giants,” Dice Insights, Aug.

22, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y5dwy3tz; “Counting U.S. Postsecondary and Secondary Credentials,” Creden-

tial Engine, September 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y38n35sv.

18. Alex Chediak, “What's Happening With Apprenticeships? Good things,” The Stream, June 26, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y3e2jmw9.

19. Doug Lederman, “Online Education Ascends,” Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 7, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/

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y95ydthh; “Today's College Students,” Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, https://tinyurl.com/y5fg6wah; Jill Bar-

shay, “College students predicted to fall by more than 15% after the year 2025,” The Hechinger Report, Sept.

10, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y7y23ske; and Linsay Knerl, “What Employers Really Think About Your Online

Degree,” Northeastern University, Feb. 12, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6t62v4n.

20. Paul Fain, “College Enrollment Declines Continue,” Inside Higher Ed, May 30, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

y37k2b86.

21. Yeganeh Torbati, “Fewer foreign students coming to United States for second year in row: survey,”

Reuters, Nov. 12, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y6dsmz6k.

22. Richard Pallardy, “Are Lavish Facilities Responsible for Tuition Inflation?” Saving For College, May 16,

2019, https://tinyurl.com/y4mmod5b.

23. Melissa Korn, “Some 43% of College Grads Are Underemployed in First Job,” The Wall Street Journal,

Oct. 26, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y96hnthm.

24. Kaye McGarry, “The Skills Gap: Employers Expect More Than What College Grads Offer,” The James G.

Martin Center for Academic Renewal, April 3, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yy268om6; “The Skills Gap 2019,” So-

ciety for Human Resource Management, Feb. 5, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y499laa6; and Natasha Singer, “The

Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting Into Class,” The New York Times, Jan. 24, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

yatnb77a.

25. Deborah L. Carlisle and Gabriela C. Weaver, “STEM education centers: catalyzing the improvement of

undergraduate STEM education,” International Journal of STEM Education, Nov. 12, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/

yyef7bj2; Morgan Smith, “The science divide: Why do Latino and black students leave STEM majors at higher

rates?” The Washington Post, May 3, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y63gomaw.

26. Kim Parker, “The Growing Partisan Divide in Views of Higher Education,” Pew Research Center, Aug. 19,

2019, https://tinyurl.com/y32aza95.

27. Michael T. Nietzel, “Three Changes To Higher Education That Both Republicans and Democrats Endorse,”

Forbes, Sept. 13, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y4zneehb.

28. Lynn Pasquerella, “Yes, Employers Do Value Liberal Arts Degrees,” Harvard Business Review, Sept. 19,

2019, https://tinyurl.com/y4bpecx3.

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29. David J. Deming and Kadeem L. Noray, “STEM Careers and the Changing Skill Requirements of Work,”

National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 25065, revised June 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

y699xq6p.

30. “2018 skills gap in manufacturing study,” Deloitte, https://tinyurl.com/yxtfzv5f; Ashley Gross and Jon Mar-

cus, “High-Paying Trade Jobs Sit Empty, While High School Grads Line Up For University,” NPR, April 25,

2018, https://tinyurl.com/ybas5kyo; and David Cantor, “The ’Middle Skills’ Gap: Half of America's Jobs Re-

quire More Than High School Diplomas but Less Than 4-Year Degrees. So Why Are They Under So Many

Students' Radars?,” The74million.org, Dec. 10, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y6qmmcdx.

31. Moriah Balingit and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, “Trump seeks to slash $8.5 billion from Education Depart-

ment budget,” The Washington Post, March 11, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yxjve863.

32. Katie Brown, “Update: JOBS Act momentum continues with House introduction,” National Skills Coalition,

June 26, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y52d9ej7; Kerri Anne Renzulli, “The JOBS Act would offer some workers

more than $3,000 to learn new skills: here's how it works,” CNBC, updated March 11, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/yxq8cr9j.

33. Andrew Kreighbaum, “Could For-Profit Question Impede Short-Term Pell?” Inside Higher Ed, Aug. 15,

2019, https://tinyurl.com/y4wgqt4m.

34. Kevin Carey, “A Well-Meaning Job Training Bill That May Hurt More Than Help,” The New York Times,

March 1, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yyf3ttny.

35. Andrew Kreighbaum, “Brewing Battle Over Pell Grants,” Inside Higher Ed, July 8, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

y6cg2knm.

36. Kreighbaum, “Could For-Profit Question Impede Short-Term Pell?” op. cit.

37. Lindsay McKenzie, “Military Victory for Alternative Providers,” Inside Higher Ed, Aug. 24, 2017,

https://tinyurl.com/y6447y87.

38.Ibid.

39. Lindsay McKenzie, “A Federal Experiment Flounders,” Inside Higher Ed, April 18, 2018,

https://tinyurl.com/y2ypxgh8.

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40.Ibid.; “Bachelor of Science in Advanced Manufacturing Systems,” Northeastern University,

https://tinyurl.com/y4gaso3x.

41. Will Robinson-Smith, “Skilled to Work: Alabama legislation aims to grow apprenticeship program,” WAAY

31, June 6, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y52xyevg; “High School and Middle School Educators,” U.S. Department

of Labor, https://tinyurl.com/y5uxtr46.

42. Jeffrey Aaron Snyder, “We Don't Need No Education?” Boston Review, May 9, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/

y6ysytfl.

43. Paul Fain, “Support Grows for Major Shift in Pell,” Inside Higher Ed, July 10, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/

yy7a5f8n.

44. Steven Johnson, “There's a New Pipeline to White-Collar Jobs. It Starts With Apprenticeships,” The

Chronicle of Higher Education, June 21, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y4cy34a3.

45. Meg St-Esprit, “The Stigma of Choosing Trade School Over College,” The Atlantic, March 6, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/yydcpa9b; Paul Fain, “Spotlight on Vocational Training,” Inside Higher Ed, April 25, 2017,

https://tinyurl.com/lduev2g.

46. Andrew Kreighbaum, “Student Loan Default Rate Continues to Decline,” Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 26, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y6zyz38f.

47. “Alexander: If Colleges Share in the Risk of Student Loan Defaults, They Can Help Reduce Over-

borrowing — and the Cost of College,” news release, Office of Sen. Lamar Alexander, May 20, 2015,

https://tinyurl.com/yy4ufjwx.

48. “Senators Strive to Protect Student Borrowers & Hold Colleges & Universities Accountable for Student

Debt,” news release, Office of Sen. Jack Reed, April 3, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y3v32h58.

49. Megan Walter, “DeVos Answers Come Up Short to Democrats at House Hearing,” The National Associa-

tion of Student Financial Aid Administrators, March 27, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6n6w6az.

50. Michelle Hackman, “White House Might Put Colleges on the Hook for Student Loans,” The Wall Street

Journal, March 12, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6ganlfm.

51. “S.968 — Protect Student Borrowers Act of 2019,” Congress.gov, introduced April 1, 2019,

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https://tinyurl.com/y5erq3yp; “Senators Strive to Protect Student Borrowers & Hold Colleges & Universities

Accountable for Student Debt,” op. cit.

52. “S.2124 — Skin in the Game Act,” Congress.gov, introduced July 16, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y4637gfz.

53. Terry Nguyen, “Here's What Trump's 2020 Budget Proposal Means for Higher Ed,” The Chronicle of High-

er Education, March 11, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y2uoyd6p; Andrew Kreighbaum, “Trump Seeks Billions in

Cuts,” Inside Higher Ed, March 12, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6q4bk6s.

54. Kate Padgett Walsh, “Student loans and ’risk-sharing’ — the problem with penalizing colleges when grad-

uates can't pay,” Slate (republished from The Conversation), March 23, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y64ccut8.

55. “Maximizing Student Success: A Student-Driven Platform for Higher Education Accountability,” Young In-

vincibles, June 28, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yyed8clw.

56. Adam Looney and Tara Watson, “A risk-sharing proposal to hold higher-ed institutions accountable to their

students,” Brookings Institution, Feb. 22, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y6yvqtnh.

57. “History of College Education,” ProCon.org, last updated Aug. 11, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/y6k9jpe8.

58.Ibid.

59. Benjamin Franklin, “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania [sic], 1747,” National Hu-

manities Center Resource Toolbox, https://tinyurl.com/y5y6od9b.

60. “History of College Education,” op. cit.

61.Ibid.; “Northwest Ordinance; July 13, 1787,” The Avalon Project at Yale Law School's Lillian Goldman Law

Library, Art. 3, https://tinyurl.com/y6o686e5.

62. “History of College Education,” op. cit.; Dwayne Mack, “Oberlin College, 1835,” Black Past, Oct. 25, 2010,

https://tinyurl.com/y2jar2tc; and Carol Lasser, “Beyond Coeducation: Oberlin College and Women's History,”

https://tinyurl.com/y5pa25j3.

63. “History of College Education,” op. cit.

64. “Colleges of Agriculture at the Land Grant Universities: A Profile,” National Academies Press, 1995, Chap-

ter 1, https://tinyurl.com/y93otz9j.

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65. “History of College Education,” op. cit.

66. “The Evolution of Distance Learning,” Florida National University, Aug. 15, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

y66ol6oe.

67. “History of College Education,” op. cit.

68. Neville B. Smith, “A Tribute to the Visionaries, Prime Movers and Pioneers of Vocational Education, 1892

to 1917,” Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, vol. 16, no. 1, fall 1999, https://tinyurl.com/87kmrpt.

69.Ibid.; “Smith-Hughes Act of 1917,” Prentice Hall Documents Library, https://tinyurl.com/y3c5qlsm; and “His-

tory of College Education,” op. cit.

70. John S. Brubacher and Willis Rudy, Higher Education in Transition: A history of American colleges and

universities, 1636-1968 (1968), p. 307; “National Youth Administration,” Roosevelt Institute, Aug. 30, 2011,

https://tinyurl.com/yysrnpfe; and “Youth with Disabilities Entering the Workplace through Apprenticeship: Un-

derstanding Apprenticeship Basics,” U.S. Department of Labor, undated, http://tinyurl.com/h2a2n6v.

71. “History of College Education,” op. cit.

72.Ibid.; Sean Trainor, “How Community Colleges Changed the Whole Idea of Education in America,” Time,

Oct. 20, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/y4us3fvm.

73. “Sputnik and the Dawn of the Space Age,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, updated Oct.

10, 2007, https://tinyurl.com/lpjbk69; Ben Wildavsky, The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Re-

shaping the World (2010).

74. “History of College Education,” op. cit.; “College Enrollment Linked to Vietnam War,” The Associated

Press, The New York Times, Sept. 2, 1984, https://tinyurl.com/yxov6e3n, “The Vietnam War,” The History

Place, https://tinyurl.com/gmqh5; and “The Military Draft During the Vietnam War,” “Michigan in the World”

history project, University of Michigan, https://tinyurl.com/lsd4ud2.

75. Mitchell, op. cit.

76. “History of College Education,” op. cit.

77. Jennifer Robertson, “The Community College Student's Social Construction of Global Learning in the

Florida College System,” Table 3, “Number of Community Colleges in the United States, 1901 to 2015,” Se-

Sage

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Page 63 of 68 College Costs

mantic Scholar, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/y3l5524t; “History of College Education,” op. cit.

78. “Total fall enrollment in degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by attendance status, sex of student,

and control of institution: Selected years, 1947 through 2023,” Digest of Education Statistics, National Center

for Education Statistics, https://tinyurl.com/mg4z9f8.

79. Mitchell, op. cit.

80. Aims C. McGuinness Jr., “The States and Higher Education,” in Michael N. Bastedo, Philip G. Altbach

and Patricia J. Gumport, eds., American Higher Education in the 21st Century: Social, Political and Economic

Challenges, 4th ed. (2016), p. 261; William Zumeta, “The Great Recession: Implications for Higher Edu-

cation,” Almanac of Higher Education 2010, The National Education Association, 2010, https://tinyurl.com/

y3h69mvd, p. 37; and Michael Mitchell et al., “Unkept Promises; State Cuts to Education Threaten Access

and Equity,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Oct. 4, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y77h4rk9.

81. Evan Gerstmann, “Trump's Proposed Cut To Pell Grant Funds Is ’Lunacy,’” Forbes, May 19, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y3bbhs5q.

82. “A Look at the Shocking Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2019,” Student Loan Hero, updated Feb. 4,

2019, https://tinyurl.com/znapz7m; Nykiel, op. cit.

83. Alan Greenblatt, “For Community Colleges, A Hard Lesson In Politics,” NPR, March 29, 2010,

https://tinyurl.com/ydagxpde; Sue Kirchhoff, “Student Loan Program May Break the Bank,” CNN and Con-

gressional Quarterly, Feb. 7, 1998, https://tinyurl.com/y6zvnqhc.

84. Stephanie R. Cellini, Rajeev Darolia and Lesley J. Turner, “Where Do Students Go When For-Profit Col-

leges Lose Federal Aid?” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 22967, December 2016,

https://tinyurl.com/y9h8awlq; David Whitman, “The GOP Reversal on For-Profit Colleges in the George W.

Bush Era,” The Century Foundation, June 7, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y7qd2tug; and Ryan Craig, “A Brief His-

tory (And Future) Of Online Degrees,” Forbes, June 23, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/y4cnverm.

85. “Almost all student loan fraud claims involve for-profit colleges, study finds,” The Associated Press, Los

Angeles Times, Nov. 9, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/yx8wlr85.

86. Emily Wilkins, “Student-Loan Outlook Is Reversed, Showing $31 Billion U.S. Cost,” Bloomberg Govern-

ment, May 7, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5nnqxae.

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87.Ibid.

88. Nykiel, op. cit.; ibid.

89. Howard R. Gold, “Who's at fault for student-loan defaults?” Chicago Booth Review, May 13, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y3h8v7jg.

90. Erica L. Green, “DeVos Repeals Obama-Era Rule Cracking Down on For-Profit Colleges,” The New York

Times, June 28, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6pwzlor; Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, “Trump administration formally

rescinds rule governing career training programs,” The Washington Post, June 28, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

y4o86vl7.

91. Andrew Kreighbaum, “For-Profits Keep Access to Billions in Aid,” Inside Higher Ed, Aug. 13, 2018,

https://tinyurl.com/yya6zyu3.

92. Joelle Fredman, “ED to Forgive Debt, Refund Students from Closed Schools for Erroneous Loan Col-

lections,” National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, Sept. 23, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

y2l4k8kq; Michael Stratford, “Education Department opens new review of ACICS,” Politico, July 31, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y25cngbw.

93. Danielle Ivory, Erica L. Green and Steve Eder, “Education Department Unwinds Unit Investigating Fraud

at For-Profits,” The New York Times, May 13, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yakruxko; Michael Stratford, “Trump

and DeVos fuel a for-profit college comeback,” Politico, Aug. 31, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y28w6c8y.

94. Kreighbaum, “For-Profits Keep Access to Billions in Aid,” op. cit.

95. Jon Marcus, “Can For-Profit Colleges Rebound?” EducationNext, Winter 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

y2wbyn8o.

96. Dan E. Way, “With Colleges Shifting to Adjuncts, Teaching Quality May Suffer,” The James G. Martin Cen-

ter for Academic Renewal, June 22, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y2o9v9ec; Karen Herzog, “UW campus merg-

ers: 5 things you need to know about the system's transformation,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sept. 13,

2018, https://tinyurl.com/y8haxw8w; Timothy Pratt, “How smaller colleges and universities team up for sur-

vival,” PBS (The Hechinger Report), Oct. 13, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y45schu5; Mark Kantrowitz, “Surge in

Number of Colleges Cutting Tuition,” Saving For College, Aug. 8, 2019, and Annie Nova, “Colleges are slash-

ing their tuition. Don't expect to feel relief,” CNBC, Aug. 20, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5eycvce.

Sage

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97. Jordan Weissmann, “Is Financial Aid Really Making College More Expensive?” The Atlantic, Feb. 16,

2012, https://tinyurl.com/y2wpq5sf.

98. Erica L. Green, “House Democrats Unveil Plan to Make College More Affordable,” The New York Times,

Oct. 15, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5tu8f86.

99. Kelli B. Grant, “If you can't get New York's free tuition, here are 10 more states with cheap college costs,”

CNBC, May 17, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/yxsx8ule.

100. Chandelis Duster, “New Mexico governor announces free college tuition plan for residents,” CNN, Sept.

18, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y38bgroc; Simon Romero and Dana Goldstein, “New Mexico Announces Plan for

Free College for State Residents,” The New York Times, Sept. 18, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y2xmep5y.

101. Kendall Trammell, “California joins a handful of other states that provide community college tuition-free,”

CNN, Aug. 28, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y25jmr5l; Stacy Fernández, “University of Texas Rio Grande Valley to

provide free tuition for students with household incomes under $75,000,” The Texas Tribune, Sept. 16, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y3mduo72.

102. Zachary B. Wolf, “Student debt and tuition: Warren v. Sanders v. everyone else,” CNN, June 24, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y3k634yk; Duster, op. cit.; Andrew Kreighbaum, “Senator Pushes ’Debt-Free’ as Solution

for College Costs,” Inside Higher Ed, March 7, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yyq8m8r9; and Tara Golshan, “Bernie

Sanders's free college proposal just got a whole lot bigger,” Vox, June 23, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y2gznkll.

103. Wolf, op. cit.; Golshan, ibid.

104. David J. Deming, “The Economics of Free College,” Econfip (Economics for Inclusive Prosperity), June

2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6m83cuk.

105. Kay Coles James, “The High Cost of ’Free’ College Tuition,” The Heritage Foundation, July 18, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/y22qz9xc.

106. Annie Nova, “Student loan borrowers who say they were defrauded sue Betsy DeVos for failing to cancel

their debt,” CNBC, June 25, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y3v344zq.

107. “The Latest Reports on Betsy DeVos Scamming For-Profit College Students,” Project on Predatory Stu-

dent Lending, WilmerHale Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, Sept. 25, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

yytoox6h; Nova, “Student loan borrowers who say they were defrauded sue Betsy DeVos for failing to cancel

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their debt,” op. cit.

108. Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, “Federal judge slams DeVos and Education Department for violating order and

weighs sanctions,” The Washington Post, Oct. 9, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y326aq4z; Chris Quintana, “No,

Betsy DeVos is not going to jail,” USA Today, Oct. 8, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y38vbj8l.

109. Andrew Kreighbaum, “Raising the Bar for Loan Forgiveness,” Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 3, 2019,

https://tinyurl.com/yycqy7bb.

110. “U.S. Department of Labor Makes Major Announcements on Apprenticeship Expansion,” news release,

U.S. Dept. of Labor, June 24, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5wub797. (Note: This press release lists all 23 schools

and participating companies to be funded.)

111. Roy Maurer, “DOL Proposes Major Expansion of Apprenticeships,” Society for Human Resources, July

15, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6c9v6od.

112.Ibid.

113. Mark Gruenberg, “Construction Unions Protest Trump Admin's New Apprenticeship Rules,” United Steel-

workers Press Associates Union News blog, Aug. 22, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6xt99wg.

114. Lauren Camera, “The Higher Education Apocalypse,” US News, March 22, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/

y3wc4a44; Scott Jaschik, “Are Prospective Students About to Disappear?” Inside Higher Ed, Jan. 8, 2018,

https://tinyurl.com/yy3w9mgm; and Daniel M. Johnson, “What Will it Take to Solve the Student Loan Crisis?”

Harvard Business Review, Sept. 23, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yxmxek85.

About the Author

Sage

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Lorna Collier has written about education and technology for the Chicago Tribune, U.S. News & World Re-

port, AARP Bulletin, KQED Mindshift, GetEducated.com and many others. She has written on school safety

for CQ Researcher.

https://doi.org/10.4135/cqresrre20191025

Sage

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