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Why we need publicly funded higher education for the public

J. TODD NESBITT

Lock Haven

I write in support of Peter Campbell’s recent entry — A School and Community in Crisis.

I might add that we are not only experiencing a school and community in crisis, but a generation of college students in crisis as well. To make matters worse, many of these college students are your children and grandchildren.

Peter points out that one of the most salient factors in precipitating the current economic crisis within The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is the systematic defunding of higher education.

Since the inception of the PASSHE System, the General Assembly has reduced public funding from approximately 75% of the cost of a student’s tuition to under 25% today. Pennsylvania ranks 48th to dead last in the nation in terms of support for higher education.

Over the last 20 years, college costs have grown at three times the rate of inflation. This is largely because states have been defunding higher education, and transferring the cost to students and their families. I like to call this the back door privatization of higher education.

We have privatized public higher education, telling students that they must become massively indebted to big banks and the federal government in order to get a college degree. In 2019, Pennsylvania ranked third highest in student loan debt nationally, where average student debt is $38,521. This represents a classic transfer of wealth from the lower and middle classes to upper class — corporate welfare at its finest.

Let us not forget that student debt is the only debt that is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Of course, the banks love this form of corporate welfare — privatize what is supposed to be publicly funded education, and when students cannot afford to repay banks are bailed out with public money.

To make matters worse, most economists tell us that the next economic crisis will be a result of student debt, which currently stands at $1.6 trillion. The Brookings Institute estimates that nearly 40% of borrowers who entered college in 2004 may default on their student loans by 2023.

This is how corporate welfare works in corporate run America. It robs the majority of any hope for economic democracy. It is a covert way of rigging the system against those struggling to get ahead. Middle class Americans should be outraged!

Most societies understand higher education to be a public good. Why? Because college educated individuals, on average, earn more money and spend more money.

The result is increased aggregate demand for goods and services, and a healthier economy and economic outlook for all. Research clearly, and I should say empirically, demonstrates that the public funding of higher education offers a good return on investment. Expanding the middle class builds aggregate wealth as well as individual wealth.

Today, however, a large portion of earnings among the college educated goes to repaying debt instead of fueling economic growth.

Research also demonstrates that the college educated are more likely to be politically active, quite necessary for a properly functioning democracy. This is of critical importance given the need to fight against the corporatization of American democracy and higher education. Why, in the wealthiest country in the world, should students have to assume decades of debt to earn a college degree? Especially when earning that degree is good for society collectively.

Economic democracy is long overdue for Pennsylvania’s families and college students. It is time we stop the corporate-driven transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top.

Sufficiently funding public higher education is a good start.

As a first generation college student, I am keenly aware of the need for publicly funded higher education. I grew up in West Virginia, the poorest state within the United States. I come from a family of coal miners, stone masons, subsistence farmers and electricians — people who labored very hard to get ahead with minimal formal education.

I was given the opportunity to go to college for one simple reason, because at the time public investment in higher education made it affordable. You see, my dad was an old school hillbilly. Allowing me to become a debt serf for a college degree would have been unthinkable for him.

(Dr. J. Todd Nesbitt is a professor of sociology, anthropology and geography at Lock Haven University.)

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