PrintPrintSouth Carolina has made tremendous progress in a decade by extending college education to more of its citizens. But storm clouds loom for our universities that could set back progress and bar students whose families live on the economic margins from sharing the benefits of higher education.
Published Dec. 22, 2008
South Carolina has made tremendous progress in a decade by extending college education to more of its citizens. But storm clouds loom for our universities that could set back progress and bar students whose families live on the economic margins from sharing the benefits of higher education.
The state has much of which to be proud:
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| James T. Hammond |
Lottery-funded LIFE and Palmetto scholarships open the universities to many for the first time.
The state’s 16 two-year technical colleges offer programs to make transfer seamless to USC’s four-year campuses.
Furman University’s Hollingsworth Scholars program opens a private university education to hundreds of the state’s high school graduates. USC’s Carolina Scholars program has helped about 800 students since its inception.
Honors colleges at Clemson University and USC attract high achievers who might otherwise be lured out of the state.
New scholarship programs at Furman and USC for out-of-state students attract academically gifted youth. Many will stay to enrich the state’s talent pool.
USC created the “Gamecock Guarantee,” a commitment to find grants and other funds to educate low-income students who are admitted to the university.
The scholarships’ effects will be an intellectual brain trust the likes of which this state has never seen. The impact on business, innovation and culture will not be fully realized for a generation.
But the Gamecock Guarantee and other programs will be sorely tested as state universities slash millions in the wake of state government budget cuts.
The GI Bill that allowed millions of veterans to attend college dramatically increased the number of people who could earn a college degree. It changed our state and the nation. LIFE and Palmetto scholarships are doing the same thing.
But we stand at a crossroads in our state’s commitment to the democratization of knowledge. The demand for lottery-funded scholarships has pushed the cost to levels lottery profits cannot sustain. Legislative leaders warn they might cap the amount. That can happen two ways: Reduce the number of people receiving the scholarships or reduce the awards.
Universities’ expectations of ever-higher funding also is a threat. For years, universities have had higher growth rates than family income. They even invented their own inflation index, called HEPI. While the Consumer Price Index rose 2.6% in 2007, HEPI jumped 3.4%. In 2006, the gap was even larger: 3.8% CPI versus 5.0% HEPI, according to the Commonfund Institute. Such price increases threaten access to college even for some middle-class people. They also threaten the institutions themselves. The demand bubble could burst, and universities could be stuck with underused faculty and facilities.
Public universities have had to rely more heavily on student fees as the General Assembly has reduced the percentage of the institutions’ budgets it is willing to fund. USC received 36% of its budget from state taxpayers 10 years ago; today, state funding is just 20% of its total.
The public is clearly concerned. Though a college degree is increasingly necessary for success, people believe that opportunity is slipping away. A new study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education found 58% of people surveyed thought the cost of a college education was rising faster than other costs.
“As a result of these cost increases, the percentage of people who believe that many qualified individuals do not have access to a higher education has also been rising steadily over the last decade, up from 45% in 1998 to 62% in 2007,” the report states. “This percentage is the highest we have seen, greater even than in the recession years of the early 1990s.”
South Carolinians need look no further than Clemson to see the impact on their own lives: Required tuition and fees for state residents skyrocketed to $10,378 in the fall, from $3,470 in the fall of 1999.
S.C. leaders, including research university presidents, pledge to develop the knowledge economy. The promise is more jobs that pay higher salaries.
But the soaring cost of a college degree will leave worthy but cash-strapped students behind. University trustees and legislators who ignore that human cost put their institutions and our state in peril.
James T. Hammond is the editor of GSA Business, a sister publication of the Charleston Regional Business Journal. E-mail him at jhammond@scbiznews.com.
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