The state’s astounding budget surplus and historic unemployment rates illustrate the rift between the haves and the haves in California: a $ 76 billion chasm separates wealthy elites from underpaid workers. Californians at risk have been hit hard by the pandemic, and our colleges and universities must work to help bridge this divide, especially for students who are forced to stop their education.
Armed with more budget surplus, colleges should roll out the red carpet for a new wave of students – unemployed Californians, underpaid basic workers, and anyone else who had to “drop out” of post-secondary education. We need to make higher education more flexible and manageable for the millions of Californians who now have the promise of new college funding.
California Competes research highlights the unique challenges faced by students who exit college prior to graduation. These barriers are shortcomings of colleges and universities, not students – and good policies can secure their futures in higher education and later careers.
Universities need to investigate how long-standing policies inadvertently limit access and ultimately success. For example, a small library penalty can be anything to remove some students from college indefinitely if it delays obtaining credits or prevents further enrollment. Many colleges have already written off these and other administrative debts from their books, but they still hold students accountable at stakes too high to repay them.
Debt relief helps students, of course, but colleges and universities also have a lot to gain. When Wayne State University in Detroit canceled outstanding balances for defaulted students, it had net sales of $ 200,000 in the first seven months of the program thanks to increased enrollments – and its degrees soared.
Higher education has other ways to be flexible, such as with enrollment ramps. Students typically have limited opportunities to enter college each year; Most University of California campuses only offer one enrollment option in the fall, and California community colleges typically have two to four enrollment points. If applicants are ready to start in March, they will wait until June to actually enroll. Forcing students to wait up to a year from application to enrollment discourages potential graduates from re-enrolling or re-enrolling in some cases.
The Accelerated College Education program at Shasta College has been successful in making these and other student-centered changes. It also helps students earn credit for college-level learning outside of the classroom and graduate faster with additional advice, shorter lead times, and predictable course offerings.
California’s economic and opportunity outlook is dire if we ignore these trends and opportunities and leave so many high school graduates behind. With an average personal income of $ 26,359, adults ages 25 to 54 years old with a high school degree but no associate or bachelor’s degree make less than half of what college graduates do, often worse paid service and production jobs, and are more likely to be unemployed. Most of these potential graduates live in urban areas and comprise 71% of Latinx Californians and 61% of Black Californians. Rural areas like the Central Sierra, Northern California, and the Upper Sacramento Valley have much higher concentrations and far fewer post-secondary options.
As businesses grow, they strengthen communities and improve the overall quality of life in their region – but they cannot grow without skilled talent. A college-educated workforce helps everyone bottom line.
We have the opportunity to change our system for the better and we know it will pay off. Reach out to government decision-makers and university leaders to urge them to change bureaucratic structures that put institutional facilitation above student needs. Acting now could make a big difference for students as early as the fall.
Su Jin Gatlin Jez is the Executive Director of California Competes: Higher Education for a Strong Economy, jez@californiacompetes.org.
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/other-view-budget-surplus-can-smooth-the-path-to-higher-education-opinion/
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