Staying in hostels in Europe this past summer, I had the unique privilege of meeting young people from many different countries. My inability to speak their native languages and their flawless mastery of English were sources of embarrassment, but I could always rely on one topic to send them into shock: the costs of higher education.
The notion of shelling out $250,000 for a degree — let alone the hundreds of thousands more for law school, business school, medical school and other graduate programs that are becoming increasingly important to compete — always sent my debt-unencumbered European and Canadian friends’ jaws dropping. If American exceptionalism can be measured in higher education costs, then the good ol’ U.S. of A. is still number one.
A quick comparison of other countries’ average annual university-level costs, as compiled by Higher Education Strategy Associates in 2010, is simply jarring. The U.S., at about $14,000, rapidly outpaces Canada’s $5,974, England’s $5,288, the Netherlands’ $3,125, Germany’s $933, Sweden’s $600, France’s $585 and Denmark and Norway at about $550 each.
Predictably, the high costs of education lead to debt. Indeed, the Class of 2014 boasts the distinction of holding the most debt in the history of American higher education, according to the Wall Street Journal. The average student graduating in the Class of 2014 owes over $33,000, double the inflation-adjusted average of 20 years ago. Aggregate U.S. student debt totals over $1 trillion.
To the average student at a top school like Dartmouth, $33,000 in debt looks like a drop in the bucket of a $250,000 education. Some colleges have tried to make higher education feasible for everyone, and substantial financial aid packages have done much to alleviate the pains of paying for a four-year undergraduate education.
Counterintuitively, perhaps the average student with the $33,000 in debt is the lucky one. He or she, after all, has a degree and has four years of friendships, student involvement and memories on which to look back. As the New York Times Magazine reported, after six years, over 40 percent of American students who start at four-year colleges still have not earned a degree. Often, those who drop out come from lower-income families.
Globally, the U.S. is an aberration in the percentage of its population that graduates from college. Although the U.S. ranked fifth out of all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations in 1995, it had fallen to 17th by 2011 — below the OECD average.
While more students are going to college today than ever before, inequality within higher education is more pronounced. As the upcoming documentary “Ivory Tower” explores, in 2011 the top income quartile produced 75 percent of the students at the top 200 colleges. A survey from the Harvard Crimson found that only 20 percent of freshmen surveyed at Harvard had family incomes under $65,000, while 15 percent had family incomes over $250,000. To put that number into context, the median U.S. household income was about $51,000 in 2012.
Because wealthier students go the wealthier schools, they have the best resources and opportunities. In the end, inequality becomes self-perpetuating. Wealthy, highly educated individuals marry other wealthy, highly educated individuals they meet at college or in similar social circles. The cycle goes on and on.
Simply put, American higher education faces a systematic catastrophe. Predicating access to top education on wealth is no blueprint for running a sustainable society. Private institutions in the U.S. cost more than public ones, and even our great public universities are being sacrificed on the altar of fiscal austerity. We know that greater investment from our governments, both state and federal, can do much to allay these cost extremities. Other Western nations take similar action. But of course, investment requires money, which requires taxes. We must ask ourselves: is the status quo sustainable? Is having a highly educated, debt-free society in which people from all income brackets can attend top institutions worth increased investment?
It begins with students saying enough is enough. In Quebec in 2012, after the regional government authorized increased tuition costs, tens of thousands took to the streets and demanded tuition freezes. We can learn something from our neighbors to the north.
