"Are four-year colleges worth the cost? More Californians question the value of a degree" (The Tribune)
UPDATED MAY 12, 2022 9:55 AM
Three in four state residents say a four-year college degree is valuable, but many are skeptical about whether higher education will pay off with better opportunities and economic success, according to a new statewide poll. Instead, state residents are viewing community colleges, technical schools, apprenticeships and vocational training as attractive alternative pathways to a successful career, according to a California Community Poll released Monday. About 84% of Californians polled said the education options were valuable. Overall, about two-thirds of Californians said that getting a four-year college degree wasn’t the only pathway to a successful and profitable career. While about 53% of state residents said higher education can help people access better opportunities and financial success like in the past, about 45% said that wasn’t true anymore, or was never true.
Black and Asian and Pacific Islander respondents were more likely to say people need a four-year college degree to be successful compared to white and Latino respondents. What’s driving that skepticism? It could be the rising cost of higher education.
About 60% of California residents said the University of California and California State University are unaffordable, with Black and Latino respondents more likely to say the schools are financially inaccessible. UC tuition for in-state undergraduate students costs about $13,000 for the 2022-2023 school year, while tuition at CSUs is roughly $5,700 for undergraduates. In 2007-2008, UC tuition was about $5,800 and CSU tuition was about $2,800. Meanwhile, spending on higher education as a percentage of the state budget has decreased since the 1970s, according to a 2017 report from the Public Policy Institute of California, as well as funding per student. The average student loan debt for a Californian who graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree was $21,125, according to The Institute for College Access and Success. That figure places California just behind two other states where students graduate with the lowest amount of debt, in part because of the large number of public schools and accessible financial aid packages. Still, soaring rent prices near UC and CSU campuses in the Bay Area and Los Angeles also makes the financial prospect of attending a four-year institution daunting for some students.
The new poll comes as the state prepares an ambitious plan to make public higher education more affordable, and potentially debt-free, for California students — such as expanding the Cal Grant program and scholarships for middle-class families. Gov. Gavin Newsom this week is expected to release an updated state budget proposal, which will likely detail higher education spending. About a quarter of Californians polled said that taxpayers should pick up a larger share of the rising costs to operate higher education schools, the poll found, while about 18% said student tuition should be increased. About 28% said taxpayers and tuition should both pick up the shortfall, while 30% didn’t know or didn’t answer. In addition, while a majority of people of color polled said college campuses are welcoming to people like them, 23% of Latino and Black respondents and 18% of Asian and Pacific Islander respondents said they feel unwelcomed. About 21% of white respondents said college campuses are unwelcoming to people like them. More than 1,200 adults were interviewed online for the poll in English or Spanish between April 7 and 18. The poll was conducted by Strategies 360 in partnership with the Los Angeles Times, The Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality, and the Los Angeles Urban League.