Photo: President Bill Clinton (Clinton Global Initative)
On Saturday, April 2, Bill Clinton (yep, the 42nd President of the United States) will announce the winner of MTV's Get Schooled "College Affordability Challenge" during the CGI U session on education. To catch the announcement, tune in at live.cgiu.org.
Expanding access to higher education is essential to putting America back in the future business. Post-secondary education is not only the gateway to more fulfilling and higher-paying jobs for students; it is fundamental to America’s success in an increasingly competitive global economy.
Researchers at Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce predict that by 2018, 63 percent of all domestic jobs will require at least some college education. Yet at the moment, only 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 have earned any post-secondary credentials and for the first time since the GI Bill. Though we remain first in the world in the percentage of young people going to college, we’ve fallen from first to 12th in the percentage of young adults who are college graduates.
Each year, I bring together hundreds of college students from around the world for the Clinton Global Initiative University, to find innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. I am constantly amazed at the students’ capacity to turn good intentions into positive changes, yet I am also reminded that the cost of college will put many of these students in debt for years to come. Ifreke Williams is a third year medical student at Virginia Commonwealth University who will be speaking on a plenary session entitled, “Financial Aid: Innovation for Affordability,” at this year’s CGI U, April 1-3 at the University of California, San Diego. She is already $226,000 in debt, and like countless other students in America, she struggles to balance her higher education goals and passion for public service with the stark financial realities that await her upon graduation.
While a college degree is increasingly necessary for professional growth and economic security, escalating tuition and housing costs threaten to put higher education out of reach for millions of young people. When I was elected president in 1992, the average tuition at a public, four-year university was 7.6 percent of the national median household income. Today, that same degree costs nearly 13 percent of the median household income. From 2001 to 2007, after inflation, college costs rose 75 percent. As the cost of college continues to rise and cash-strapped states shift more of the financial burden onto students and their families, we must work together to make post-secondary education more affordable and accessible.
Some promising reforms are already under way. The Department of Education is working to simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid so that applying for financial aid is easier, more secure and more accurate.
Even more important, the student loan reform bill passed last year requires colleges to originate loans through its Direct Loan Program, established during my Administration, to help end costly subsidies to private lenders and provide billions of dollars in savings for America’s students and taxpayers. It also makes every student loan income contingent so graduates can pay their loans back as a small fixed percentage of their income for up to 20 years.
That should end students dropping out of college because they’re afraid they can never repay their debt, and increase the number of public service- minded young people willing to become teachers, police officers and family physicians. Now the job will determine the repayment obligation, not the other way around. The new congressional majority’s plan in the last election called for a repeal of this law, returning $60 billion in subsidies to banks, raising the cost of college, making the debt harder to repay and increasing the deficit by $20 billion. We can’t allow that to happen.
And there is still more to be done. An issue this urgent and complex requires more than federal legislation alone. It demands innovation for affordability, and a fundamental rethinking of the delivery system for higher education in America.
As we seek to expand enrollment but cut costs in the coming years, our nation’s community colleges have proven to be a promising model. They are providing millions of Americans with flexible, low-cost training for high-quality jobs. Miami Dade College, the largest nonprofit institution of higher education in the United States, provides more than 170,000 students with marketable skills ranging from emergency medical response to information technology, at a cost of approximately $1,200 per term for a full-time, in-state student. The college is now offering four-year degrees in high-demand fields where there are demonstrated worker shortages. Community colleges in 17 other states are following suit with similar four-year programs. In an age where 86 percent of college students don’t live on campus and 77 percent work full- or part-time jobs while attending school, institutions like Miami Dade College provide the affordability and flexibility that today’s students need.
Another promising example is Berea College in Kentucky, an undergraduate institution with a lean administration, no expensive athletic programs and lots of student work to keep overhead costs low.
We must also harness the power of technology to close the educational opportunity gap. Knowledge that was once confined to textbooks and lecture halls can now be webcast around the world for low costs. There is an emerging movement of online colleges, open-source curricula and peer-to-peer learning communities that use technology to create the classrooms of the future. Though largely experimental, their impact on curriculum delivery and college access could be substantial in the coming years. Virtual universities and free online academies have already delivered millions of lessons on topics ranging from calculus to organic chemistry. In the coming years, the internet could redefine access to education in the same way that it has revolutionized access to commercial products, political movements and interpersonal communication.
In our interdependent world, our common crises and shared aspirations require us to provide a top-notch college education to more than the privileged few. We can no longer compromise our nation’s need for human capital with an inefficient, costly system of higher education, and we can no longer thwart the next generation’s capacity for success by forcing them to choose between insufficient education and insurmountable debt.
By expanding the community college system, supporting low-cost, high quality undergraduate institutions and transforming higher education with technology, we can begin to create a system of post-secondary education in America that is both affordable and accessible. A college degree is not just a critical step in the successful career of a student; it is essential to America’s economic future. We must and we can regain our world leadership.
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Tune In
Catch the announcement live on Saturday, and see who walks away with the $10k prize!
