College Degree: Worth More Than a Mortgage?
The payoff in extra lifetime earnings from going to college far outstrips the increasingly high cost of going, and that wage premium has grown over the past decade, according to a new report from researchers at Georgetown University.
With tuition growing faster than Americans’ income, some have questioned whether college is still worth the cost, especially if it means taking on mountains of debt. The new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce is an unabashed attempt to swat down such arguments. Read it for yourself and see if you’re persuaded.
I listened in this afternoon to a media call with Anthony Carnevale, the center’s director and an author of the report, and Jamie Merisotis, president of Lumina Foundation for Education, which helps fund the center’s work (as well as that of EWA). Lumina’s “big goal” is for 60 percent of Americans—up from around 40 percent now—to hold a degree or credential beyond high school by 2025.
In his opening remarks during the call, Merisotis said the new report “explodes the myth” that a college education is less valuable than it used to be. Especially in light of the collapse of home values, the ticket to the American dream of income security lies in education, he argued. “Today the real coin of the realm isn’t home ownership,” Merisotis said. Instead, it’s the personal and professional mobility that comes from earning a postsecondary degree or credential.
While answering questions from journalists, Merisotis said he is concerned that folks more likely to be swayed by arguments that a college degree is no longer worth the cost are those from groups at greatest risk of not going, including prospective first-generation college-goers. But those are precisely the people who need to pursue postsecondary education if the United States is going to reclaim the global edge in college attainment that it has lost, he said.
During the Q&A, EWA member George Lorenzo said the biggest obstacle to the college-completion agenda seems to be that “people simply can’t afford to go to college … If you don’t have the money, you don’t have the money.”
Merisotis agreed that “the immediate challenge [of paying for college] is real.” But he said the solution is to drive down the cost of higher education. And the way to do that, he argued, is to reinvent it.
Which leaves me wondering: How long will that take? And what would we give up in the process? Of course, there are new, lower-cost alternatives emerging, including those that aim to decouple degrees from seat time and base them on competency instead. Western Governors University comes to mind. But is there enough experimentation and innovation happening to really change the cost-per-degree equation?
That question is just one of the many EWA will be exploring at our upcoming Higher Education Seminar. As we gear up for that, I’d love to hear your thoughts about the new Georgetown report and any other topics you’d like to tackle in LA.
With tuition growing faster than Americans’ income, some have questioned whether college is still worth the cost, especially if it means taking on mountains of debt. The new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce is an unabashed attempt to swat down such arguments. Read it for yourself and see if you’re persuaded.
I listened in this afternoon to a media call with Anthony Carnevale, the center’s director and an author of the report, and Jamie Merisotis, president of Lumina Foundation for Education, which helps fund the center’s work (as well as that of EWA). Lumina’s “big goal” is for 60 percent of Americans—up from around 40 percent now—to hold a degree or credential beyond high school by 2025.
In his opening remarks during the call, Merisotis said the new report “explodes the myth” that a college education is less valuable than it used to be. Especially in light of the collapse of home values, the ticket to the American dream of income security lies in education, he argued. “Today the real coin of the realm isn’t home ownership,” Merisotis said. Instead, it’s the personal and professional mobility that comes from earning a postsecondary degree or credential.
While answering questions from journalists, Merisotis said he is concerned that folks more likely to be swayed by arguments that a college degree is no longer worth the cost are those from groups at greatest risk of not going, including prospective first-generation college-goers. But those are precisely the people who need to pursue postsecondary education if the United States is going to reclaim the global edge in college attainment that it has lost, he said.
During the Q&A, EWA member George Lorenzo said the biggest obstacle to the college-completion agenda seems to be that “people simply can’t afford to go to college … If you don’t have the money, you don’t have the money.”
Merisotis agreed that “the immediate challenge [of paying for college] is real.” But he said the solution is to drive down the cost of higher education. And the way to do that, he argued, is to reinvent it.
Which leaves me wondering: How long will that take? And what would we give up in the process? Of course, there are new, lower-cost alternatives emerging, including those that aim to decouple degrees from seat time and base them on competency instead. Western Governors University comes to mind. But is there enough experimentation and innovation happening to really change the cost-per-degree equation?
That question is just one of the many EWA will be exploring at our upcoming Higher Education Seminar. As we gear up for that, I’d love to hear your thoughts about the new Georgetown report and any other topics you’d like to tackle in LA.
Labels: access, college_completion, college_finance, highered_reform
posted by Caroline at
6:07 PM
1 Comments:
A college education has other benefits besides the tangible one of a high salary. Some people enjoy learning for the sake of learning; it exposes you to new ideas and concepts. Not to mention the fact that connections can be made in college which can be useful later on in one's career. A degree also shows
prospective employers that the candidate is tenacious and has the ability to set a goal and execute it.
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