by James A, Bacon
The spending avalanche keeps building. Governor Ralph Northam now is proposing to spend $145 million in the next two-year budget to make tuition-free community college available to “low- and middle-income” students who pursue jobs in high-demand fields.
The Governor’s “Get Skilled, Get a Job, Give Back” (G3) program would cover tuition, fees and books.
“Everyone deserves the opportunity to get a good education and a good job, no matter who you are or how much money you have,” Northam said in a statement. “This is an investment in equity and our economy — by helping Virginians get the skills they need, we’re building a world-class workforce while ensuring all Virginians can support themselves, their families, and their communities.”
There is so much sloppy thinking in this proposal that it’s hard to know where to begin. But I’ll try….
Let’s start with a couple of factual statements that actually are true. (1) As the governor observes, there are “high demand” occupations where jobs are going unfilled. (2) Virginians who earn credentials in these high-demand occupations can increase their wages — by 60%, according to the administration. And (3) enrollment in community colleges has declined over the past several years.
But it does not necessarily follow that the G3 program — which will make grants in amounts up to $1,000 per semester for students with household income less than four times the poverty level, or roughly $100,000 per year — addresses a problem that needs addressing.
Secretary of Education Atif Qarni stated the critical assumption underpinning the logic behind the program: “With rising tuition costs, many Virginians are opting out of higher education.”
It is very true that rising tuition, fees, and other costs are making four-year colleges increasingly unaffordable. But Virginia’s community colleges have done a far superior job of holding down costs. According to College Navigator, the in-state tuition charged to attend J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in the Richmond region — pretty representative for Virginia’s community colleges as a whole — was $4,998 in for the 2018-19 academic year; books and supplies cost an additional $1,600. That’s a total of $13,200 for a two-year stint of full-time studies (summers off) to earn an Associate’s degree.
Students attending J. Sarge received $9.5 million in Pell grants (free money), $6.9 million in federal student loans, and $13.5 million in other grant or scholarship aid. The average amount received per recipient in 2017-18:
Grant or scholarship aid — $3,262
Pell grants — $3,051
Federal student loans — $5,762
Those numbers suggest that most of the 66% of J. Sarge students who need financial aid are getting plenty of it, especially when you consider that only 28% of them are attending full time. If finances are a significant barrier to attending community college, it is far from obvious from these numbers. The Northam administration has offered no other data to justify the claim that finances are a barrier to community college attendance.
Northam does say, however, “there are financial barriers beyond tuition and fees that disproportionately affect our lowest-income students. … When you’re struggling to pay for the basic costs of life, such as a roof over your head, child care, transportation — the cost of tuition can seem far out of reach.”
What happened to food stamps? What happened to Earned Income Tax Credits? What happened to housing subsidies? What happened to the Child Care Subsidy program which “provides financial assistance to eligible families to help pay for the cost of child care so they can work or attend education or training programs”?
Perhaps there are a few students who fall between the cracks, and the combination of grants, loans and government poverty programs don’t cover all the costs. How many such students are there? What data does the administration present that $145 million ($72.5 million a year) is tailored to the scope of the problem, and how will the funds be targeted to those who fall between the cracks? In that context, upon what conceivable grounds could it be said that a student from a household with an income of up to $100,000, with all the loan and scholarship money already available, suffers a financial barrier to attending community college?
A related question: Have we as a society totally jettisoned the idea that students should expend some effort to pay for their own education? Have we abandoned the insight that every student not only “deserves to get a good education,” as Northam puts it, but should put some of their own skin in the game? Or are middle-class families making more than $100,000 a year the only ones required to put skin in the game?
One last observation: A major reason, perhaps the reason, that community college enrollment has declined over the past 10 years is that job opportunities have improved. Instead of earning new credentials at school, tens of thousands of Virginians have opted to work, perhaps gaining on-the-job training along the way. Community college enrollment always surges during recessions and recedes during economic expansions. Declining enrollment by itself constitutes no proof that finances are a barrier.
Bacon’s bottom line: Governor Northam (1) provides no evidence that finances are a barrier to a community college degree, (2) provides no evidence that handing out $72.5 million more a year will increase enrollment, (3) provides no explanation of where he came up with that particular sum, and (4) provides no explanation of why students from households earning four times the federal poverty level need financial assistance. This initiative looks like a pure pander — free money for people who may or may not need it. What’s not to like… unless you’re a taxpayer?
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