Making the Case: The Publics Perspective

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Making the Case The Publics Perspective

• John Immerwahr,
• Public Agenda and Villanova University, December
  12, 2008

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A Unique Collaboration

• National Center (www.highereducation.org)
• Public Agenda (www.publicagenda.org)
• Public opinion studies on higher education since
  1993
• Squeeze Play (2007), The Iron Triangle (2008)

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The evolving challenge

• The long-term challenge
• Access
• Social justice
• Individual success

• The new challenge-all of the above plus
• State funding cuts
• International competitiveness
• Demands for productivity

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Topics to be covered

• Public perspectives on the long-term challenge
• The emerging dialogue on the new challenge,
  perspectives of
• Legislative and business leaders
• College presidents and faculty
• Public

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The long-term challenge gateway to the middle
class

• Compared to current situation easier
• Clark Kerr first two tidal waves
• GI bill
• Baby Boom
• Third tidal wave
• A new generation of students
• Majority-minority

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Making the case for individual well being and
social justice

• GI Bill creates the American middle class
• Baby boom generation extends American dream
• Will we close the gate on millions of new
  aspirants?
• Problem of social justice, fairness, mobility
  etc.
• No disagreements in principle

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Public perspective

• Public perspective key to legislative support
• How to read the numbers
• Data from 2007
• Read for enduring values
• Adjust for changing economy

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Importance of access

• College is important H.S. student should go to
  college rather than take good job now
• 1993 79
• 2003 87

• Possible to succeed without college education
• 2000 67
• 2007 49
• Virtual right- 72 strongly agree

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High grades for higher ed

• 51 say 4-year colleges excellent or good,
  compared to 37 for secondary schools
• 67 -- college worth it despite high costs
• 66 -- higher ed teaching students what they need
  to know, up from 53 in 1998

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Higher education Teflon

• 86 -- effort matters more than quality of school
• Blame the consumer, not the provider
• Drop out rates, whose fault?
• H.S. -- schools fault
• College students fault

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Rising prices, rising anxiety

• 59 -- higher ed prices going up as fast or
  faster than health care
• The 25 ice pack, and the 200 textbook
• 78 -- students have to borrow too much

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Access under attack

• Many qualified students dont have opportunity
• 1993 -- 60 (economic recession)
• 1998 -- 45
• 2003 57
• 2007 -- 62
• 2008 -- ????
• 60 -- Middle class hardest hit

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Squeeze play (college misery index)

• 2000
• College essential -- 31
• Many cant go 47

• 2007
• College essential --50
• Many cant go 62

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Minority groups really worried

• Many qualified people dont have opportunity
• 56 -- non-Hispanic white parents
• 67 -- Hispanic parents
• 84 -- African-American parents
• Minorities also much more likely to believe
  college is necessary

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Why isnt the public more panicked?

• Three factors importance, quality, access
• K-12. Importance high, access good, quality
  problematic
• Health care. Importance high, quality good,
  access problematic
• Higher ed, seems like health care but . . .

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Pressure valves

• 67 -- a student who really wants to go can find
  a way
• 73 -- student who sacrifices will learn more
• 72 -- students can learn at 2-year college

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Parents well find a way

• 61 -- very likely oldest kid goes to college
• 84 --- well find a way to pay for it

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The new challenge

• New international reality
• Geography class wrong world is flat!
• US falling behind in global competition in
  education

• New domestic reality
• More students requiring more support
• Declining state revenues
• Greater demands for accountability

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The emerging debate between

• Business and legislative leaders
• College presidents and faculty
• Where does the public stand

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College presidents the problem

• Recent speech UC President Mark Youdof, Iron
  Triangle report
• Costs going up because of uncontrollable factors
  (salaries, health care, security, etc)
• Decreasing state subsidies
• Increasingly expensive students
• Translates to higher fees or decreasing quality

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College presidents the solution

• Inefficiencies mostly squeezed out of the system
  already
• Voluntary accountability moving along
• Need for redefinition higher education is a
  public good, not merely a private good
• Public reinvestment in higher education (as part
  of economic stimulus and infrastructure spending)

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Business leaders the problem

• (Older surveys, more recent qualitative
  information)
• Inefficiency
• Lack of innovation

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Legislators the problem

• Resistance to accountability
• Little responsiveness to community needs
• Arrogance
• Large number of dropouts
• Maybe higher education can afford to take some
  hits

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Legislators and business leader solutions
productivity!

• Produce more degrees
• Eliminate wasteful programs
• Change incentives
• Eliminate mission creep
• Greater use of community colleges
• Technology
• Coordination between K12 and college

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Two problems for higher education 1)
Disagreement on assumptions

• College presidents an iron triangle
• Cost, quality, access locked in a reciprocal
  relationship
• Business and legislative leaders
• Dont accept iron triangle view
• Higher education enormously resistant to change!

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2) Presidents caught between external critics and
faculty

• Preliminary focus group study (funded by Lumina)
• Importance of faculty
• College presidents even if they agreed with
  critics, they must answer to faculty

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Faculty perception of problem

• Quality is central
• Quality has deteriorated (mostly due to change in
  students)
• Student has become customer
• Proposed solutions may further reduce quality
• Reject business models - productivity a dirty
  word

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How about the public?

• When leaders disagree, they look to the public
  for support
• Public mostly concerned with individual issues,
  hasnt focused on macro picture
• But they do have a hunch

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Higher education the bloom is off the rose

• 52 -- colleges care mostly about bottom line
• States higher education system needs to be
  completely overhauled
• 1993 54
• 1998 39
• 2007 48
• 2008?

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Public reject tradeoff between cost, access,
quality

• 58 -- colleges could take more students without
  hurting quality or price
• 56 -- colleges could spend less money and still
  maintain quality
• Only 48 say students are learning more as a
  result of increasing prices
• The high cost of Teflon

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Public hands off access

• 68 -- use more community colleges
• 67 -- internet, weekend, and evening classes
• 56 -- take college courses in h.s.
• 66 -- oppose cutting number of courses
• 65 -- oppose consolidating programs

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Making the case to the public the good news

• Good news
• Universal agreement on importance
• High public support for access
• Bad news
• Little public concern about quality (as defined
  by higher education)
• Little support for non-access related funding

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Two ways of making the case

• Easier tell the story better
• Marshalling arguments (economic benefits, etc)
• Reaching stakeholders
• Using tools of communication

• Harder making changes
• Not just looking at administration
• Softening the iron triangle
• Gaining faculty buy-in

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Thanks

• Further information Immer_at_villanova.edu