I was sitting in my public policy course last Thursday and the topic was about globalization and the middle class. The thought came up about how the middle class is being squeezed by stagnating wages as globalization takes manufacturing-based jobs to other countries, leaving only unskilled jobs or very highly skilled jobs. While there was an intense discussion among myself and several classmates as to the cause, there wasn't much time to get into how we could help smooth the inevitable transitions that were bound to take place in an increasingly globalized world.
After class ended, I began to think about what courses of action could be taken to help prepare all of us for the inevitable job market changes we are going to encounter. There could always be joint government and private investments to create a new industry, like what transpired to create the Internet and expand the telecommunications industry. Then, I started to think about possible transitions that could be made in the educational field to prepare for new opportunities.
Needless to say, college is expensive. According to Ball State University's Web site, tuition costs are projected to rise next year at a level of 4 percent to 6 percent. It's even more in some other states. When middle class families are barely treading water with stagnant wages and skyrocketing health care costs, rising education costs make it difficult for them to help their children attain a quality education. Not everyone is fortunate enough to qualify for our school's Presidential or Whitinger scholarships. I've always been a fan of the idea of increasing Pell grants, Stafford loans and other funding programs to help send students to school, but I still don't think that would have much of an effect.
The average student is graduating with over $20,000 in student loans. This forces many students to go for the highest paying career possible. There's nothing wrong with being an attorney or a CPA, but what if someone's passion is in the field of social work, nursing or teaching? Those with these vital careers often get gratification not in the form of high wages, but in the realization that they have positively influenced somebody's life. How many students have been driven from the field they love because it would never allow them to repay student loans?
It was then that I recalled a 5-month-old blog post from Robert Reich, a labor economist at the University of California, Berkeley. He's likely better known for being the Secretary of Labor in former President Bill Clinton's administration. To address rising education costs, he devised a basic idea that I think would be an improvement over the current financial aid setup students are in.
Reich's back-of-the-napkin idea is rather simple: Any student can attend school with a full scholarship from the government, and they can pursue any degree they wish. The trade-off is that once they're out of school and in the work force, either through graduation or drop-out status, 10 percent of their income goes to the government fund that financed their education. This would happen every year until the amount they used to go to school is paid off.
It was an example, so the 10 percent figure could be adjusted to cover costs, but as he put it, the idea is to link the costs of going to school with the wages that result from education. This would make college more affordable for everyone in a way that incurs little cost on the part of taxpayers.
It's not a perfect idea. Some will attempt to game the system, just as is the case with every system. But making it where debt repayment is based on a percentage of income allows everyone to follow their real dream. Artists could afford to paint or sculpt or aspiring doctors could afford medical school.
It was just a brainstorming product, and it doesn't have to be this arrangement; surely something can be done to help more of our friends get the same opportunity many students here have. At the very least, it's a discussion that's worth having.
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