President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ victory signals a crucial moment for enhanced access to higher education that could, given their commitment to “Doubling the Pell Grant,” promote a success model as well. One of the points to be emphasized is that the goal of college access has force and plausibility as an aim of social policy only insofar as colleges and universities function as effective means for delivering what they promise to deliver. And, while education has a number of legitimate goals, among the most central are promoting cognitive and socio-emotional development, allowing students to attain general knowledge and skills, and helping students become desirable from the perspective of employers. For the latter, they must graduate. What follows from these considerations, then, is that whatever form access strategies assume, college campuses need to adopt corresponding strategies that meet the needs of the students they choose to enroll.
As the Biden-Harris administration prepares to enter office with this new plan and as state budgets anticipate lower than expected revenues given the COVID-19 pandemic, I think it is critically important to put the higher education discussion in some perspective before it gets too far afield. Some seem to be promoting “free college” at the expense of the independent colleges and universities, a sector that has performed quite well in New York and beyond in advancing social mobility.
Promoting social mobility and equal access to opportunities must center on underserved and low-income students. This starts with doubling the Pell Grant, which Biden’s plan includes, rather than a blanket “free college” policy for public institutions. Our democracy requires it.
In New York, there are approximately 1.2 million students enrolled in higher educational institutions across the state. Approximately 500,000 of these students are enrolled in independent colleges and universities. And, even as we recognize that the public universities in New York, not without exceptions, are appropriately celebrated for promoting social mobility in some very significant ways, we cannot overlook the role independent colleges/universities play in creating transformative learning environments that significantly promote social mobility.
Independent colleges and universities award 60% of all graduate degrees and 74% of all graduate degrees in the state. Independent colleges and universities award approximately $6 billion in financial aid while only taking in approximately $5.8 billion in revenue. Of the aid awarded at independent colleges/universities, 89% is self-funded with approximately 11% coming from Federal and State sources. 40% of all African American and Latinx students enroll in an independent college. Notably, 12 independent colleges in New York are designated Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) and 21 are emerging HSIs.
As for success rates, 60% of students enrolled in the independent sector graduate within four years and 72% of students enrolled in the independent sector graduate within six years. As engines of growth, independent colleges/universities generate more than $85 billion dollars in economic activity, support more than 400,000 jobs and spend more than $2 billion per year on construction. Approximately 4% of the New York higher education budget goes to the independent sector yet the sector produces 59% of all degrees granted in the state.
The solution should not be to eliminate or compromise the independent sector, especially those in the sector that have been serving the underserved since their inception, but to provide incentives for educational institutions to collaborate to ensure that all New Yorkers (and all citizens) have a choice set that enables them to achieve their dreams.
