The Wonk Salon

Prepared in Mind and Resources? A Report on Higher Education in South Carolina
South Carolina Policy Council

Summary quote: “When taken as a whole, the findings of this report are troubling. Many students throughout the state can graduate with large gaps in their knowledge. Tuition and
costs are rising rapidly, and families are being asked to pay more and more of their hard-earned dollars. Meanwhile, graduation rates remain woefully low. There is little evidence that either the Commission or the institutional boards have a coordinated or consolidated vision. The state’s desire to ensure high academic quality, affordability, and accessibility—and the clear challenges to the goals documented in this report—make a review of the state’s higher education governing structure both urgent and timely.”

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Mobility Makers
by Tom Hilliard
Center for an Urban Future

Community colleges are a key platform for low-income people to move into the middle class. Unfortunately, too few people who enroll at community colleges end up graduating or moving on to earn a bachelor’s degree. This paper published by the Center for an Urban Future estimates that increasing graduation rates at New York City’s six community colleges by just 10 percentage points for the class that entered in 2009 would provide a $71 million one-year boost to the city and state: a $16 million boost in annual earnings (of which $2.1 million would go to the city and state in tax revenues), $28.5 million in economic activity as higher-earning college graduates spend their income in their neighborhoods, and $26.5 million in taxpayer investment going towards college graduates instead of college dropouts.

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Making College Affordable
Third Way

The cost of going to a public university has risen 80% in just the past 10 years. Two out of three college students today are graduating with student debt, versus fewer than half in 1993, and they are borrowing more. Under the plan outlined in this Third Way position paper, families earning up to $200,000 would receive a generous new college tuition tax cut in the form of a $5,000 credit toward the costs of college tuition, fees and books.  The credit would replace and expand existing education tax credits and deductions, such as the Hope Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit, which all carry different and potentially confusing rules and eligibility requirements. “A single, simple, super-sized credit would ensure a generous benefit for all families with a student in school.”

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Literary Research Costs and Impact
by Mark Bauerlin
Center for College Affordability and Productivity

Universities are known for hiring, paying and promoting professors according to the “publish or perish” principle. Accordingly, professors invest considerable time writing books and journal articles. Is the outcome worth the investment, asks Mark Bauerlin in this paper published by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity? More specifically, is research publication the best use of university resources and talent in the humanities?

In his review of four university English departments, Bauerlin finds: (1) universities make substantial investments in faculty research through direct compensation; (2) faculty members produce numerous scholarly books and articles; and (3) the vast majority of these publications attract meager attention from other scholars. “There is a glaring mismatch between the resources these universities and faculty members invest and the impact of most published scholarship,” he writes. “Despite the scant attention paid to this scholarship, a faculty member’s promotion and annual review depends heavily on the professor’s published work. A university’s resources and human capital is thereby squandered as highly-trained and intelligent professionals toil over projects that have little consequence.”

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Use of New Data Could Help Improve Oversight of Distance Education
Government Accountability Office

From the overview: “As the largest provider of financial aid in higher education, with about $134 billion in Title IV funds provided to students in fiscal year 2010, the Department of Education (Education) has a considerable interest in distance education. Distance education — that is, offering courses by the Internet, video, or other forms outside the classroom — has been a growing force in postsecondary education and there are questions about quality and adequate oversight.”

In 2009, Education selected 27 schools for distance-education monitoring but lacked the data to identify schools with high enrollments in distance education, so there was no assurance it was tracking high-risk schools. This year the department’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) will start collecting data on distance-learning enrollment. However, the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), responsible for monitoring Title IV compliance, was not involved in the process of deciding what distance education information would be collected. Further, FSA officials said they do not yet have a plan on how they will use the new data in monitoring.

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