The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has set a goal of making Virginia the best educated state in the country, but getting there could be an uphill climb. While the in-migration of educated people has boosted Virginia to a 6th-place rank nationally in educational attainment, the attainment of high school grads is only 11th. Increasingly, the state’s college-bound population consists of minority-race households with lower income who face greater academic and financial challenges attending college.
To address the problem, SCHEV staff recommends significant spending boosts in the next biennial budget to help recruit and retain “first generation” students who are the first in their family to attend college. Highlights include:
- $2.5 million annually to encourage lower-income high schoolers to attend college;
- $10.0 million over two years for colleges and universities to provide student support services and experiential learning programs; and
- $45.5 million over two years to boost the Virginia Student Financial Assistance program for lower-income students.
The Council will consider these and other budget proposals in its October board meeting tomorrow. The entire two-year package of higher-ed recommendations enumerated by SCHEV staff total $240 million in General Fund spending and $126 million in nongeneral funds. If approved, the recommendations will be forwarded to the McAuliffe administration and to legislators working on the fiscal 2018-2020 budget. Higher-ed priorities will face stiff competition from Medicaid, K-12 education, transportation, and public safety, among other priorities.
Postsecondary access resources. A July 2017 SCHEV-commissioned study, “Landscape of Postsecondary Access Resources in Virginia,” found that 30% of Virginia school districts need additional resources to counsel middle and high school students about college careers. The need is particularly acute among lower-income students.
The staff presentation by Finance Policy Director Dan Hix did not specify what the $2.5 million in “postsecondary-preparatory planning and capacity-building efforts” would be spent on. But the July report suggests “SAT/ACT test preparation, the financial aid application process and/or financial literacy, and opportunities for student exposure to postsecondary institutions, especially those beyond the local area.”
Graduation rate. Another priority is bolstering the graduation rate. Schools have experimented with an array of programs to improve student retention, from one-stop shopping for tutoring, mentoring, and guidance counseling; family orientation programs to get parents more engaged; living-learning dormitories that house students with similar interests; and the use of predictive analytics to spot dropout risks.
The $10 million for such programs, states the Hix presentation, should be tied to graduation rates and other success metrics.
Financial aid. The federal government provides extensive financial aid to lower-income students in the form of Pell grants and loans. Public universities also run scholarship programs funded by donations and tuition. (Virginia higher-ed institutions are using approximately 5% of in-state tuition revenue for financial aid for in-state students.)
The Virginia Student Financial Assistance Program (VSFAP) is a third source of financial assistance. In 2016 Governor Terry McAuliffe and the General Assembly put an extra $24.1 million into VSFAP, the largest increase in the program’s history.
Yet from fiscal 2013 to 2016, states the Hix presentation, combined enrollment across all public Virginia institutions dropped by 11,200 students (mostly at community colleges). Students demonstrating financial need declined by 13,000.
The loss was concentrated among students in the $0-to-$50,000 income group, which declined by nearly 17,000 (14.8%).
The VSAP program must balance two criteria: helping more students and making larger awards. Virginia universities have been awarding money to more students, but the awards have not kept up with students’ needs. The results, says Hix, are unfortunate. He cites a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) report suggesting that a $1,000 boost to financial aid is associated with a three- to five-percent point increase in college attendance. Presumably the converse is true: a $1,000 cut in financial aid is associated with a three- to five-percent drop in attendance. The practice of spreading the gravy might be contributing to a higher dropout rate. SCHEV’s solution: Put more funding into the program.
Bacon’s bottom line: Hix’s analysis makes perfect sense if you accept the proposition that more lower-income students need to attend college. The aspiration certainly makes sense to colleges, which need more lower-income students paying tuition to maintain their revenue streams. It make sense to the business community, which wants a skilled and educated workforce without bearing the expense of training or apprenticeships. And it makes sense to social justice advocates who think it unjust that some Americans are stuck in lower-paying jobs because of a lack of educational opportunity. But the aspiration may not make sense to lower-income Americans themselves.
A four-year college education can be a ticket to the middle class, or even riches for a fortunate few. But attending college is a lottery. If you are a first-generation college student, there is a good chance that you will struggle academically, have a hard time paying the bills even with financial aid, and drop out saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt. There is a good chance that you’ll fall behind in your loans, your credit will be wrecked, and your life will be worse than if you never went to college. How many millions of Americans have had that experience? How many students in the same social milieu have heard the cautionary tales? And how much will it cost to overcome their resistance?
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