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So where is the failure in our society as this conversation hits the 6 O'Clock news and becomes the agenda at the dinner table of so many families pressured to provide the funds so their children can have the opportunity that they had? The dreams of my family can become a financial nightmare for each of us!
Assessing the value of a college degree
By Michael Regan
What's a college education worth$ Two new studies take a look at that question, and come up with somewhat different answers.
One study, based on surveys done by the Pew Research Center this spring, concludes that a "typical" college graduate will earn $650,000 more than a "typical" high school graduate between the ages of 25 and 64. Subtract the potential earning college students forgo while in school--about $100,000--and the cost of college, and the net benefit is somewhere in the half-million-dollar range.
Still, only 40 percent of Americans believe colleges and universities deliver good value for the money spent to get a degree. (Not surprisingly, 76 percent of college presidents say higher education is worth the cost.)
The other survey, described by the Hechinger Report, puts a lower value on a college degree: While graduates of the most selective institutions can earn $550,000 more than those with a high school degree, it says, the premium for graduates of the least selective institutions is just $230,000.
But the real losers, according to the study by Nexus Research & Policy Center and the American Institutes for Research, are taxpayers, who subsidize private non-profit as well as public institutions. Those subsidies outstrip incremental tax gains from the higher incomes of college graduates, according to the study.
One caveat: Hechinger notes that Nexus is funded by foundations set up by the for-profit University of Phoenix, and the study was framed to highlight the benefits of for-profit education, which has come under fire lately. Despite some flaws, said Dennis Jones, president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, “It’s a reasonable study.”
