“If you think hard work is expensive, wait until you get the bill for mediocre.” When I first heard this statement, it hit me hard because, well it’s true. As the price of education continues to rise, I often find myself having to convince students that the price tag is worth it, the student loan payments are worth it. Students look at me crazy when I tell them that I even though I have an ungodly amount of student loan debt, I am living comfortably because of it. If I didn’t take on this debt and worked my butt off even after failing (which added to loan debt), I would not be in the position I am in today. Life could be so much harder for me if I didn’t obtain my degree and I see that in the lives of my family and peers. Yes, education is expensive but its worth it. Play around with this website to see what some returns on the investment of seeking a college degree.
With the continued rise in cost, more and more states are looking to streamline education which limits the time a college student spends in college to obtain their degree. This means making students make choices about the career at a much younger age than I did. It didn’t click for me until I was failing (one too many C’s) out of grade school at 22 or 23. While reading “The American Policy Landscape” by Jennifer Rippner (exciting I know), the author explained the approach of my high school to a T. Rippner (2016) stated that schools in America don’t view high school as preparation for college but the end of a finish line. College preparatory classes weren’t required, to be eligible to graduate. For example, to graduate, I only needed two years of math, but to college eligible, I needed 3. What did my counselors enroll many of my peers and me in? The number of years required just to graduate from high school. I had to ask for additional years to be college eligible.
The failure of my high school counselors to enroll me in the right classes speaks to the pipeline issue and the lack of collaboration between P-20. Why is there a lack of collaboration between these educational systems? Well, Rippner (2016) outlined six barriers mission, political, resource, legal, constitute and bureaucratic. I will spare you a breakdown of all six and focus on three briefly.
- Politics seems to ruin just about everything, so it makes since politics is a barrier to P-20 collaboration. Politicians are elected and appointed by people with varying agendas, and because of this, our students are left in the rubble of political warfare.
- Resources are scarce, and because of this, no one is willing to share. One of the greatest comedians explains this much better than I ever can. Chris Rock has a bit discussing why everybody should get a prenuptial agreement and uses the example of having to split $20 million vs. $30k. Everyone is fighting over crumbs and doing anything that can affect that makes it difficult for people to collaborate.
- Lastly, constitute barriers. Why would a superintendent or president work with an agency that can make their position or what their district is doing obsolete? Collaboration is an inherent threat to one’s primary need, security.
The pipeline is not leaking it’s completely broken and needs to be soldered back together. Is there hope? P-20 councils are a thing. P-20 councils bridge communications and policies between state education entities by bringing education stakeholders together to discuss statewide educational issues (Rippner, 2017). In 2017, Rippner studied the effectiveness of P-20 councils and found that although effective the stability of these councils tend to falter. Unfortunately, stakeholders change, people in these councils move on and the work that is built falls apart right along with the departures. Once again leaving students flowing out of the broken pipeline.
College is necessary, everyone can’t catch lightning in a bottle like Mark Zuckerberg or Mark Cuban. We as educators have to do a better job of preparing our students to be successful in a faster time frame that might save them thousands of dollars. This doesn’t mean forcing them to graduate in four years. This means engaging students in meaningful conversations and school work that allows a student to be successful once they step foot on their college campus.
Rippner, J. A. (2016). The American policy landscape. New York: Routledge.
Rippner, Jennifer A. (2017). State P-20 Councils and Collaboration between K-12 and Higher Education. Educational Policy, 31(1), 3-38.
The Educated Fool Podcast 
I completely agree with everything you say here. I also am concerned with the less easy to measure benefits and costs of college. For example, college-educated people have more choices; not just because they make more money. It is often easier for us to move physically and to switch careers because we have the skills and relationships to do so. We also are more likely to contribute to the democratic process by voting and running for office, so we have a greater sense of self efficacy. We have an immediate way to bond with other college educated people.
There are also costs of higher education that go beyond the financial. Having a lot of formal education can be isolating and may distance you from your family, if that is not in their background. You might be more likely to move away. Some educated people find it challenging to have personal relationships with people with less formal education than they have. When people have advanced degrees, they spend a lot of time on a very narrow area of inquiry; further isolating them, even from people within their own academic discipline. People of color may be particularly isolated as can white women in some contexts and disciplines. Still, there really is no question that for most of us, higher education is worth it.
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