WHEN IT COMES TO INCOME INEQUALITY, WHITHER HIGHER ED?

The following is a statement that I made today, December 10, 2013, at the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education meeting held at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, Massachusetts:

“The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe,” stated President Obama in a speech onDecember 4.  Obama’s comments highlighted trends that the US, among developed countries, is at the forefront of income inequality and reduced upward mobility.

While we in public higher education have always prided ourselves in providing a pathway to the middle class for our students, the question is: Whether, in the present circumstances, are we fulfilling that mission?  Or is public higher education, nationally and in Massachusetts, contributing to the growing economic schism in this country?

Let me give you some disturbing facts:

American higher education is becoming increasingly racially segregated. According to a recent study of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, between 1995 and 2009, white higher education freshman enrollment grew by 15%, black enrollment by 73% and Hispanic enrollment by 107%. However, virtually all -82%- of the increased white enrollment was captured by the 468 selective four year colleges and very little of the new black and Hispanic enrollment went there: 9% and 13% respectively.  By the way, the undergraduate campuses of UMass and the nine state universities are among the 468 selective colleges. The great majority of those black and Hispanic students went, as you can guess, to open access, under-resourced community colleges.  Thus higher education system is becoming more racially segregated, with greater numbers of black and Hispanic students at the community colleges and greater numbers of white students at the selective four-year colleges and universities.  This trend is evident at my own college: white enrollment has been stagnant for years while black and especially Hispanic enrollment has skyrocketed.

Mirroring racial segregation there is increasing segregation by income between four-year and community colleges.  According to an April, 2013 study by the Century Fund, in 2006, just 16% of community college students were from the top income quartile while the figures for competitive to highly competitive four year college categories ranged from 37% to 70%. Moreover and not surprisingly, community college students are becoming increasingly poor.  In 1982, 24% were from the top quartile, and as I just mentioned, that figure had dropped by one-third to 16% in 2006.

The level of academic preparation of our students is a challenge for community colleges.  According to the October, 2013 BHE Final Report from the Task Force on Transforming Developmental Math Education being considered today by the Board, at Massachusetts community colleges on average 60% of entering students require developmental course work. This is an enormous burden for the community college segment, one for which we receive no additional appropriation.

Finally, I want to highlight the support or lack thereof that the community colleges receive from the Commonwealth. Commissioner Freeland was clear about this when he visited our campus recently remarking that the community colleges have to educate the most challenging students in higher education with the fewest resources. In FY 2013 the community colleges received $3481 per FTE, the state universities $5634 or 62% more per FTE than the community colleges.  The average received per student from the state and student charges is similarly skewed at $8,588 per FTE at the community colleges and $13,793 at the state universities.  And by the way, Massachusetts’ community college student charges are the fourth highest in the nation.

I am not implying that the state universities are over-funded.  I am saying, however, that the state’s community colleges are woefully, shamefully underfunded.

President Obama called rising inequality “the defining problem of our time.”  Therefore, I would argue that BHE - the public policy Board for higher education - make equity its top priority.  Public higher education and by extension all of higher education must be actively part of the solution, not part of the problem, of income inequality and reduced upward mobility.