 Notes 1. The Fiscal Crisis of Higher Education is a Report of The Commission on National Investment in Higher Education of the Council for Aid to Higher Education, itself an independent subsidiary of RAND. The members of The Commission on National Investment in Higher Education included:
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2. These changing proportions are hardly unique to CUNY. Some other examples: At UC-
Berkeley direct state support fell from about 49% of the university's budget in l990 to 37% in
l995; At the University of Michigan, the state paid for 42% of its educational programs in l975,
and just 26% in 1995. ("Privatizing UCLA: Has The Time Come?", Amy Wallace and Ralph
Fammolino, The Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1995). The University of Virginia got 27.5 percent
of its budget in 1986 from the state, ten years later it received about 13 percent. The University
of California's state support has dropped from close to 40 percent in the early l980s to roughly 25
percent in l996. ("Privatization Tugs at Public Universities: Competition for Cash Brings
Profound Changes," Pamela Burdman, The San Francisco Chronicle, August 5, 1996).
3. Somewhat echoing the RAND Report, the Report of the National Commission on Education (a
body associated with the American Council on Education), "Straight Talk About College Costs
and Prices," concludes (January 21, 1998, p.20):
"The Commission is convinced that many different stakeholders have contributed to the college
cost and price crisis; consequently all of them will have to contribute to the
solutions...Government needs to invest in higher education as a public good; foundations should
continue to support policy research and the search for innovation; parents should continue to pay
their fair share of college expenses; and students should arrive at college prepared for college
level work. But without doubt, the greatest benefits depend on academic institutions shouldering
their responsiblity to contain costs and ultimatelyprices. Although the responsiblity for
containing costs and prices is widely shared, the major onus rests with the higher education
community itself." (emphasis added)
4. The choice of the health care sector as a model is provocative. First, because the solution to
rising health care costs has been further privatization. Second, because not only are health care
costs still increasing but so too is the proportion of Americans without health coverage. And
finally, according to media reports and surveys, many people are dissatisfied with the new
healthcare regime, particularly the HMOs, and fear that their bottom line mentality is eroding the
quality of care.
5. Some state legislatures are making restructuring a condition for continued financial support.
For examples see "Performance-Based Appropriations: Fad or Wave of the Future," Anthony P.
Carnevale, Neal C. Johnson, and Anne Ruffner Edwards, The Chronicle of Higher Education,
April 10, 1998; "Public Colleges Seek Major Increases from Legislatures in 1998 Sessions," by
Patrick Healy and Peter Schmidt, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 9, 1998; "Higher
Education Systems in Many States Get Good News from Their Legislatures," Peter Schmidt, The
Chronicle of Higher Education, August 8, 1997. Sixteen Virginia public college presidents were
reported to have signed a paper "promising to show greater accountability" in exchange for some
relief from proposed budget cuts. Among the promises,"formal reviews of how faculty members
spend their time and how they are rewarded for their work" and to use some of the funding for
"new instructional techniques." (The Chronicle of Higher Education, v.40, September 22, 1993,
p.A28).
6. A June 1997 conference held by Drexel University's School of Business's Executive
Education Center was titled: Reinventing Higher Education, Using Technology, Reengineering,
and Competitive Business Strategies to Revitalize Colleges and Universities. Attendees were
charged $895 (if they registered 30 days in advance, latecomers paid $945) which included
"program abstracts, two breakfasts, two luncheons and reception." Transportation and hotel
costs were separate (although a "special rate of $140 per night plus room tax" was available).
Pre and Post conference workshops cost from $200 to $395 more. Copies of the conference
audio tapes and workbook could be purchased for $250.
7."Taking Sides in the Cola Wars," (The Guardian Weekly, January 11, 1998) reports that
Georgetown University sold exclusive campus distribution rights to Coca Cola, while the
University of Maryland sold access to their campus to Pepsi. "Microsoft's Reach in Higher
Education" is described in The Chronicle of Higher Education (April 24, 1998). When The City
University of New York issued new student and faculty ID cards recently, the cards included
access to both MCI's long distance calling service and to Citibank. Students enrolling at
Columbia University receive promotional material and applications from Citibank for both
student bank accounts and credit cards. Columbia students and new faculty can also order their
computers from J&R Computer World's Columbia campus computer store.
8. Real hourly wages have fallen from 1989-1996 for the bottom 80 percent of men and the
bottom 60 percent of women .("Has Wage Inequality Stopped Growing?" Jared Bernstein and
Lawrence Mishel, Monthly Labor Review, December, 1997, p.13) Brooks Pierce, an economist
at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, told The New York Times's Peter Passell that this growing
inequality has been magnified by the decline of company-wide medical and pension benefits."
("Affluent Turning to Public Colleges,"August 13, 1998) Real wages finally began to rise in
early 1998 for most workers although "even with these recent wage gains, the pay of the typical
worker in mid-1998 is still not as high as it was in 1989, the year of the last business cycle peak."
("Finally Real Wage Gains," Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein and John Schmitt, Issue Brief
#127, July 17, 1998, Economic Policy Institute.) But these authors caution that "these recent
wage gains, dependent upon current tight labor markets, low inflation, and one-time increases in
the minimum wage, are unlikely to withstand the inevitable shift in the business cycle."
(Unemployment in early 1998 was at a 30 year low; inflation unexpectedly slowed from 3.4%
per year in 1989-1996 to 2.1% in 1996-1998 so that wage increases given to offset anticipated
inflation translated into real increases; and the minimum wage increase in 1996-1997 raised its
real value 9% per year over l996-l998.) The increase in the minimum wager partly explains an
oddity of the recent rise in real wages, noted by Mishel et. al. There has been a narrowing of the
wage gap between the very top and the very bottom of the wage scale at the same time that the
gap between the top and the middle continues to grow.
9. The college wage premium may actually reflect rather than explain growing income
inequality. Since those in the higher echelon of wage earners are also more likely to have college
degrees a surge in their earnings would also fuel the college wage premium without such a
premium being universally available to everyone with a college degree. And indeed Daniel
Hecker finds that earnings among college graduates vary widely depending upon one's field of
study, gender, age and level of diploma. (Hecker, 1995) Bernstein and Mishel (1997, p.13)
believe that most of the increase in the differential between those in the 90th and those in the
50th percentile in the l990s is the result of growing within group inequality.
10. The projections account for slightly over 10 million jobs, about 58% of the total new jobs projected. Of the jobs requiring a bachelor's degree or higher, 56.82% are projected to be in data processing (Database administrators, computer support specialists & all other computer scientists, Computer engineers, and Systems Analysts). These are currently also projected to be the three fastest growing occupations. Not mentioned is any connection between the surge in demand for computer specialists and the Year 2000 problem facing many computer users. In addition to new jobs, almost three times as many openings are projected for replacement workers. Replacement needs are greatest, the Labor Department points out, in occupations with low pay and status and low training requirements.
The Economist (August 22, 1992, p.21) reports that according to the National Centre on
Education and the Economy, "of America's 117m jobs, 42m ( 36% ) required a good deal of
training but not a four-year college education (though many employees had one). And 40m
(34%) did not even require a high school education. In 1972 these percentages were not much
higher (40% and 37% respectively). The centre forecasts that by 2000, a full 70% of all jobs still
will not require a college education."
11. Remarks at an October 31, 1997 meeting regarding the privatization of public universities
called by Stanley Aronowitz.
12. For Kerr, universal-access higher education (better described, he writes, as universal-access
postsecondary education) is the education provided by community colleges in the U.S. Mass-
access higher education is represented by the comprehensive colleges and universities in the U.S.
The vast majority of students in the U.S. are in either universal access or mass access institution.
Only about 10-20 percent of college students are enrolled in the third sector, elite higher
education. (Kerr, 1994, pp. 64-65)
13. Kerr observes that "both Harvard and the University of California are more elite today than
when they in fact carried on more of the less-selective functions in the absence of a mass sector."
(Kerr, 1994, p.73) Kerr adds that it is "of the greatest importance that egalitarian aspirations
have an outlet for expression in some part or parts of the system at all age levels through night
courses, short-cycle courses, correspondence programs, radio courses and extension programs.
To deny such aspirations can build up great pressures against institutions of higher education as
a whole. He also cautions that "An excellent high school system, as in Japan, is a prerequisite to
fair access." (Kerr, 1994, p.93)
14. Professors Michael McPherson of Macalaster College and Morton Shapiro of the University of Southern California have found that 38% of college freshmen from families earning more than $200,000 per year were enrolled in public institutions in 1994, up from 31% in l980. They also found that families with incomes in the $100,000 to $200,000 range are increasingly sending their children to the second-tier schools (20.1 percent did in l994, up from 15.5 percent in l980). (Passell, August 13, 1997)
Peter Passell suggests that an increasingly consumerist approach to picking colleges contributes
to the movement of the affluent to public higher education. This approach, he writes, "has been
psychologically validated by heavily publicized college rankings that factor in price as well as
quality." These rankings contribute to the perception that there is little difference in quality
between the top tier of public and private institutions. So too does data showing that an elite
degree does not necessarily translate into a higher starting salary. (Business Week "The New U:
A Tough Market is Reshaping Colleges," December 22, 1997) But as Business Week points out
the degree may often ease the way to top graduate programs and thus to greater professional
attainment as well as to access to powerful alumni networks. Passell concludes that unless
legislators become willing to take the political risks associated with linking public institution
tuition with ability to pay, "four-year public colleges will remain a refuge for affluent bargain-
hunters."
15. Quoted by Ethan Bronner (1998). Bronner reports that Shapiro's data shows that while the
percentage of students entering college from the bottom one-fourth of income earners has
remained unchanged at 26 percent since 1978, it is now 50 percent of middle income earners (an
11 percent increase), and 75 percent of the top one-fourth of income earners (a 9 percent
increase).
16. McPherson and Shapiro "say that merit aid grew at a 13 percent annual rate (after adjusting
for inflation) in the 1980's and has apparently accelerated since. Need-based aid, as a portion of
all aid, fell by one-eight in the l980's, although it increased annually by 10 percent." Even some
state universities have begun to offer merit aid to keep "the most promising students in their
states." (Bronner,1998)
17. Jacoby is quoting from Clifford Adelman, whose longitudinal study for the U.S. Department
of Education, Tourists in Our Own Land, tabulated the courses taken by 22,000 high school
students representing nearly three million high school seniors (Jacoby, 1994, p.9).
18. For many mainstream educational reformers, the liberal arts are, at best, a "foundation"
valued for developing the critical thinking and communication skills that employers insist are so
vital, although usually understood by them in the most limited and instrumental ways. (Study
King Lear to learn about the problems of passing on property and power, urges KPMG World,
no.2, 1993, as it describes the use of classical literature to provide insights into business.)
Moreover, much of what passes for liberal arts education in today's vocationalized institutions of
higher learning at best merely compensates for the deficiencies of the students' prior secondary
preparation.
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