Why is Higher Education So Important to Californians?
There is no mystery about why higher education is such an important value for so many people. Americans have traditionally believed that a good job is an essential element for obtaining a satisfying lifestyle, and for most Californians, a higher education is the prerequisite to a good job. By an overwhelming majority of nearly six to one (76 percent to 13 percent) Californians endorse the view that "high school graduates should go on to college because in the long run they'll have better job prospects" and reject the view that "high school graduates should take any decent job offer they get because there are so many unemployed people already."
Reflecting on his own experiences as an immigrant to this country, James Harvey, chief staff writer of A Nation at Risk, explains the significance of a college degree this way: "When I came to this country 30 years ago, my uncle, who was already established here said, 'If you want to be someone in America, you need to graduate high school.' Today, he would say the same thing about a college degree." For many Californians, a college degree has taken on the status traditionally held by a high school diploma.
In focus groups across the state, people emphasized that a college degree is a necessary requirement for almost any good job:
You have to have it to get a job. The more education the more you have a chance to get a job. It is important to go to college, because you can get a better job. If you look in the paper, most of the jobs say that you need a degree.
- in San Jose
- in Hayward
The same picture emerged when Califor-nians were asked to rank their expectations about a college education. Three things top the list of most important goals. Californians believe a college education should provide marketable skills, teach problem-solving skills for a variety of careers, and give low-income people an opportunity to succeed. Other goals-helping minorities succeed, retraining people in the workforce, teaching students citizenship, and promoting respect for diversity-also commanded support, but at significantly lower levels.
For most Californians, access to an affordable higher education is regarded virtually as a right, at least for students who are qualified. As we point out later, this does not mean that people think higher education should be free. They believe strongly, however, that financial concerns alone should not put higher education out of reach for someone who can benefit from it. There is virtual unanimity (84 percent) on the proposition that "we should not allow the price of a college education to keep students who are qualified and motivated to go to college from doing so." In focus groups, many people echoed the thoughts of a Hayward man who said, "I think everyone should have an opportunity to go to college, but it is hard to go, and the price is skyrocketing."
This is one area where the parallel with health care is particularly close. Most Americans are very uncomfortable with the idea that people should not get the health care they need just because of income; they seem to be equally uncomfortable with the idea that low income should prevent a qualified student from getting a college education.
Support for the importance of higher education transcends ideological and dem-ographic categories. It is widely endorsed by Republicans, Democrats, and independents, and by people from various income levels and ethnic groups. California is a large and diverse state and, as one might expect, we did find some topics which were controversial (see sidebar: FOCUS ON OLDER PEOPLE, p. 15). On the most basic questions about higher education, however, the consensus is much more striking than the differences.
A College Degree vs. a College Education
Although Californians are nearly unanimous about the necessity of a college degree, there is much more controversy about the importance of a college education. Most people seem to be convinced that young people who do not have college credentials will be locked out of good jobs, but they are not nearly so convinced that there is something intrinsically valuable about college education itself. For many Californians, the demand for a degree by potential employers is often a kind of credentialism. But the fact that the degree may only be a piece of paper does not, for most people, make it any less important in today's harsh economic climate.
Many Californians seem to feel that, especially in times of high unemployment, employers often demand a college degree, not because it is essential for the job, but as a way to limit the number of applicants. Nearly two-thirds of Californians (62 percent) think it is a problem that "too many employers hire college graduates for jobs that could be done as well or better by people without a college degree."
There is also a widespread sense that not everyone can profit from a college education and that many young people are pressured into going to college by peers, parents, or so-ciety. Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) think that it is a problem that "many people are just wasting their time and money in college because they don't know what else to do with their lives." Fifty-five percent say they are concerned that "society has made going to college seem more important than it is."
In focus groups, people talked about trade schools and apprenticeship programs and seemed genuinely concerned by the perception that college was increasingly becoming the only path to a decent job. Nearly 55 percent expressed a concern that "too many people are going to college instead of to alternatives to college, where they can learn trades like plumbing or computer repair." Concerns about the intrinsic value of a college education were often connected to pessimism about California's economy. In an economy where many people with college degrees are unemployed or taking jobs which used to be held by high school graduates, there is a great deal of gloom about opportunities generally, and a certain amount of cynicism about higher education.
In focus groups, Californians who did not themselves have a college education were especially skeptical about the intrinsic value of higher education and about college courses that are not directly job-related. As one San Jose woman said: "If I am going to be an accountant, what do I care what someone did back in ancient Egypt? It is ridiculous to study that stuff." We also heard bitter complaints, especially from non-college educated respondents, about young college graduates who supervise older experienced workers without a degree. A woman from Ba-kersfield said: "My husband's boss is 24 years old. He is a kid; he still has a baby face. He has no idea what is going on, but he is the boss. They hired him because he has a degree, and it impresses the bigwigs because they have the same education."
Concerns about credentialism, however, do not affect the strong conviction that, without a college education, a young person is se-verely hampered. In-deed, the fact that a college degree may only be a piece of pa-per increases the public's anxiety. It is as though society is telling them: "Your child might be a real asset to a company, but without a college degree he or she won't even be considered for a position."
The growing sense that a college degree is essential to a comfortable, secure, middle-class life is accompanied by a widely shared perception that college education is becoming less accessible. Two-thirds of California residents (64 percent) think that higher education prices are going up faster than other things in California. As a result, a majority (52 percent) think there are many qualified people who currently do not have the opportunity to go to college in California. There is also a widespread concern that even those who are going to college cannot get the classes they need. Eighty-three percent of Californians rate "students having trouble getting the classes they need in order to graduate" as a very serious or somewhat serious problem. As one San Diego woman said, "At San Diego State, my daughter can't get the classes she needs; she could only get three of them. She may have to go to private school. I can understand that California has budget problems, but the students are caught in the middle of it."
Californians also believe that the situation has deteriorated and that it will continue to worsen in the future. Sixty-seven percent think that it is more difficult to get a college education now than it was ten years ago, and an even higher percentage (73 percent) feel that college will be even more inaccessible in the future. Once again, these views are shared by substantial majorities of all segments of the population. As one San Diego man said: "I see the costs escalating higher and higher. You hear on the news that the fees have gone up 80 percent, but it will go even higher still."
Those Most Vulnerable Are Hardest Hit
Californians might be somewhat less concerned about in-creasing costs if they felt that higher costs would weed out students who really don't belong in college anyway. But most Californians are convinced that cutbacks hit hardest at precisely those who most need a college education. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) agree that raising college fees will put college out of reach for many people who should be going to college. Only a minority (27 percent) think that the cuts will mostly discourage people "who are not committed to going to college in the first place."
Californians also overwhelmingly agree that low-in-come families have the most difficult time getting a college education. Although "giving people from low-income backgrounds opportunities to succeed" was rated as one of the most important goals for higher education, qualified students from low income families are thought to have the least opportunity to attend college. While middle-class people sometimes complain that they are "too rich for scholarships but too poor to afford college," they too, along with minority group members, identify low-income families as hardest hit by rising college costs. As one person in L.A. said, "the biggest problem is the elitist problem-the separation of the poor and the wealthy. Poor people will have a hard time getting an education, and that will leave everything in the hands of the wealthy."
As a result of these perceptions, Californians are deeply troubled by the situation in higher education. Indeed, when specifically asked about higher education, 53 percent report a high level of concern, even in comparison to other issues such as the economy and health care. Obviously, this finding cannot be taken literally; higher education is not an issue of the same magnitude as the economy or health care (most surveys currently show these issues as the top national concerns). But this study does suggest that when people specifically focus on higher education, they are deeply troubled by it.
What is even more striking is the high percentage of Californians who believe that there should be drastic changes in the way the state's higher education system is organized. By a more than two-to-one margin (64 percent to 28 percent), Californians believe that the state's "public college and university system should be basically overhauled."
Calls for a basic overhaul of higher education in California do not appear to be driven primarily by concern about quality. Given the pessimistic picture that focus group respondents painted of California generally and, specifically, of K-12 schooling, Californians give the quality of higher education a qualified vote of confidence. Fifty-five percent think that the quality of public higher education is the same or better than it was ten years ago, and a plurality of 46 percent to 37 percent think that the public colleges and universities are teaching students the "important things they need to know."
Our interpretation is that what unsettles people is precisely the dual problem of the increasing importance of a higher education and the diminishing opportunity to get one. People may not have a clear idea about specific solutions, but they are frustrated by a situation that seems to be difficult now and getting worse every day. As one Bakersfield man put it, the situation in higher education "just can't keep going on this way." People want an "overhaul" that will keep the doors of the state's higher universities open to those who are qualified and motivated.
As suggested earlier, this is one way in which attitudes toward higher education resemble attitudes about health care. National surveys show that most people (74 percent in one recent survey) are satisfied with the quality of the health care they receive (NBC News/Wall Street Journal, 1993), but at the same time, a very large majority (85 percent) call for a complete overhaul or major changes in the health care system (Martilla and Kiley Inc./Harvard School of Public Health, 1993). What alarms people about health care, in other words, is not lack of quality, but fears that escalating costs may cause them to lose their health insurance. Calls for an overhaul of the health care system do not necessarily translate into support for any particular approach. Instead, they register a general concern that the situation is becoming increasingly intolerable.