The economic improvements described in Part Two have apparently made Californians more optimistic, which in turn has influenced their views about higher education.
Finding Four: While Californians are still deeply concerned about access to higher education, they are less anxious than they were in 1993.
1993: A Feeling of Desperation. Three years ago, Californians were convinced (as they are now) that a college education was essential to a middle-class lifestyle. At the same time, they were concerned that higher education was slipping out of reach for many Californians. In effect, Californians felt that they were in an intolerable situation, with higher education becoming simultaneously more important and less accessible. Perhaps as a result of this tension, they supported radical changes in the way higher education was delivered in the state. Nearly two-thirds of the Californians surveyed in 1993 (64 percent) felt that the state's public college and university system needed to be "fundamentally overhauled."
In 1993, comparisons of Californians' views to those of Americans nationwide showed that Californians were more anxious about access to higher education and more likely to call for a fundamental overhaul of higher education in their state. (The Closing Gateway included both California and national samples.)
1996: Concerned but Less Anxious. The 1996 survey shows that while Californians' concerns about higher education remain high, they have declined from 1993 levels. Still convinced of the importance of a college education, Californians today are less anxious about a young person's opportunity to get one. The tension arising from their dual beliefs--their sense that higher education is absolutely essential and their concerns about access--has eased.
Survey data, of course, do not explain definitively why anxiety has lessened, but the stabilization of tuition and fees must be partly responsible. Earlier price increases, coming during a contracting economy, were widely publicized and obviously made a deep impression--not only on those in college but on many state residents. Today, Californians see a far better set of conditions, with the economy improving and prices remaining stable.
Although still concerned about what the future will bring, Californians are also less pessimistic than they were in 1993; 64 percent say that a college education will be harder to get a decade from now, but this is below the 73 percent who felt this way just three years ago (see Figure Four).
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There is also greater optimism regarding educational opportunities for different groups of individuals--poor people, minorities, middle-class people, and older students. In 1996, as in 1993, Californians are primarily concerned about the difficulties poor people face in gaining access to higher education. There is evidence, however, that people today are more sanguine about the ability of poorer families to attend college. In 1993, 61 percent of those surveyed said that poor people had less opportunity to get a college education; today that number has dropped to 52 percent. Californians are also less likely to emphasize the difficulties of older people who require training. Overall, no group was seen as worse off than it was in 1993, while several groups were perceived as better off (see Table Two).
In 1993, California citizens were also extremely concerned that the classes many students needed to graduate were not available, with 83 percent describing this as a very serious or somewhat serious problem (see Table Five). Many of our 1993 focus group respondents mentioned seeing news stories about this or having heard anecdotes from students. While concern about this problem remains high--71 percent still describe it as a problem--the concern has dropped since 1993.
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Table Five Access to Classes and Borrowing Money |
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| Do you think [INSERT STATEMENT] is a very serious, somewhat serious or not very serious problem, or not a problem at all, facing California's public college system? | 1993 | 1996 | |||
| Students have trouble getting the classes they need in order
to graduate A very serious problem A somewhat serious problem |
56% |
40% | |||
| Students have to borrow too much money to pay for their college
education A very serious problem A somewhat serious problem |
50% |
45% | |||
Californians are also still concerned about students having too many loans. Seventy-eight percent of Californians say this is a problem, although the number of people who describe the problem as "very serious" has dropped from 50 percent in 1993 to 45 percent today (see Table Five).
Finding Five: Californians are now less likely to call for a fundamental overhaul of the state's public higher education system.
Given the decreasing concerns of Californians about the issues described above, it is not surprising that they are considerably less interested in overhauling their higher education system today than they were several years ago. The percentage of people supporting a fundamental overhaul dropped from 64 percent in 1993 to 44 percent in 1996, the largest single change for any of the survey items (see Figure Five). Today, the thesis that the higher education system should be fundamentally overhauled is debatable in California, with 44 percent of citizens favoring an overhaul and an approximately equal number (40 percent) wanting to leave the system alone.
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In open-ended interviews, some people called for moderate rather than extreme reforms. One woman from San Mateo said, "You can't blow up the system; you just need to get in there and help some of those people change their ways." A woman from Sacramento said:
I don't see the need for big changes in the higher education system, more like little changes around the edges; a few more trade schools, maybe like we used to have, or higher standards so that some of those athletes who can barely read and write aren't cheating the others out of an education.
Finding Six: Although Californians are now less anxious about access to higher education, they are more resistant to price increases.
Despite the reduced anxiety over access, Californians are now even more concerned about future increases in college tuition and fees. In fact, while economic times are better now, the public is more resistant to price increases today than during the recession. The data suggest that Californians have been burned on this topic--"enough is enough," they seem to be saying--and therefore they are extremely hostile to any increases in the near future (see Table Six).
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Table Six Opposition to Price Increases |
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| Do you think [INSERT STATEMENT] is an excellent, pretty good, only fair, or poor idea for colleges to consider in dealing with financial shortfall? | 1993 |
1996 | |
| Raise college prices even though some people argue that the burden on families and students would be too high | |||
| Poor idea |
52% |
64% | |
| Only Fair Idea |
26% |
21% | |
| Pretty good idea |
13% |
11% | |
| Excellent idea |
7% |
3% | |
Public Agenda questioned respondents about a number of potential alternatives that might be enacted in the event that the state reduces its support for higher education. There is strong opposition to raising fees in response to such an eventuality, a resistance that has increased significantly since 1993. One older man from Bakersfield reacted to the idea of price increases this way:
Raise fees? They are astronomical already. It isn't like when we sent our kids to college; you could afford it then, and we were able to do it. Today it is a whole different picture.
There is also a slight decline in the intensity of people's belief that students should bear a portion of college costs. The idea that students should contribute to the cost of their education remains popular, with 66 percent of Californians still agreeing that "students don't appreciate the value of a college education when they have no personal responsibility for paying what it costs" (see Table Seven). However, in 1993, 45 percent of respondents strongly agreed with this sentiment; today a somewhat lower 37 percent express this view. Californians may be saying something like this: "It is good for students to pay part of their own education, but they already do; we don't want them to have to bear more of the burden than they are already bearing."
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Table Seven Students Paying for Their Own Education | |||
| To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement? | Nation 1993 |
CA 1993 |
CA 1996 |
| Students don't appreciate the value of a college education when they have no personal responsibility for paying what it costs | |||
| Strongly agree |
48% |
45% |
37% |
| Somewhat agree |
28% |
23% |
29% |
| Somewhat agree + strongly agree |
76% |
68% |
66% |
Finding Seven: Californians are now more likely to value college education for what is learned.
In The Closing Gateway, we noted that people were extremely concerned about the importance of a college degree, but much less committed to the importance of a college education itself. Many respondents interviewed in focus groups felt that a good job requires common sense, motivation, and a strong work ethic, but that most of what an employee needs to know in order to do a job is learned at the workplace--not in college. In fact, there was a widely shared sense that many employers use the requirement of a college degree to screen out job applicants. People often expressed the sentiment that too many people are going to college and that "society has made going to college seem more important than it is."
While the perception that society over-emphasizes a college degree does not make that degree any less important in people's eyes, it can cause frustration and bitterness. In the 1993 focus groups, some Californians who had not attended college themselves spoke with great intensity and bitterness about the promotion of less qualified college graduates at the expense of more qualified and more experienced workers who had not been to college.
Three years have brought some interesting changes. California citizens are now more likely to value what is actually learned at colleges and universities--rather than merely focusing on the diploma. But the biggest change is in the number of Californians who think that too many people attend college.
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Table Eight |
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| Do you think [INSERT STATEMENT] is a very serious, somewhat serious or not very serious problem, or not a problem at all, facing California's public college system? | ||
| % saying "very serious" plus % saying "somewhat serious" problem | 1993 |
1996 |
| Too many people are going to college instead of to alternatives where they can learn trades like plumbing or computer repair |
54% |
41% |
| Society has made college seem more important than it really is |
55% |
49% |
| A lot of employers hire college graduates for jobs that could be done as well or better by people without a college degree |
62% |
54% |
As Table Eight reveals, in 1993, 54 percent of those surveyed felt that it was a somewhat or very serious problem that "too many people are going to college instead of to alternatives to college where they can learn trades like plumbing or computer repair." Forty-two percent did not see this as a problem. By 1996, the percentages had reversed; 53 percent of Californians now say this is not a problem. Only 41 percent say too many young people attend college who don't really need to. One woman explained it this way:
Today you have to have a degree to get a decent job, and sometimes that is unfortunate. But college is more than just a degree. It really does expand your mind and your horizons.
Such attitudes seem to vary with age, with older people much more likely than younger people to feel that too many people attend college. Indeed, only 35 percent of those under 45 consider "over attendance" at college a serious problem, versus 52 percent of those age 45 or older.
The view that society over-emphasizes college also dropped a bit. The percentage of people who believe that society "has made going to college seem more important than it really is" declined from 55 percent in 1993 to 49 percent three years later. Today, the California public is evenly divided on this question, with 50 percent saying that this is not a problem and 49 percent saying that it is.
The view that employers screen out good candidates who lack a college degree still commands a majority, but even here there has been a small decline over the past three years. Today, 54 percent of California residents think it is a serious problem that employers hire college graduates for jobs that could be done as well or better by people without a college degree, somewhat below the 62 percent who felt this way in 1993.
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These findings suggest that Californians increasingly accept the argument that we are facing a new knowledge-intensive workplace, where more is required of a young person than hard work and motivation. There appears to be a growing sense, especially among younger respondents, that students need the skills and knowledge that higher education offers, as well as the credential.