Degrees of Inequality: How the Politics of Higher

Education Sabotaged the American Dream

By Suzanne Mettler

Presentation by Erin Kiffmeyer, Chelsey Krankeola, and Carl Read

Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944 GI Bill enacted after WWII

Education and Training Benefit Provision Included full coverage of tuition and stipends for college bound veterans and those seeking vocational training

Higher Education Act of 1965

Grants for low income studentsGuaranteed student loans subsidized by

the governmentExpanded the work study programIncreased aid for financially struggling

institutions

“The law Johnson signed that day was the most far reaching and comprehensive higher education law ever created in the United States” (Mettler, 2014, p. 51).

Higher Education Reauthorization Act of 1972

Claiborne Pell promoted the inclusion of basic grants for low income students and universities

Average grant covered full tuition at a 4 year university By 2011, covered only 54% of tuition

The End of the Expanding Access Era

Regan Administration 1981 Budget Cut in student aid passed

Tightened student loan eligibility Created Origination FeeLimited Amount of Pell Grants

Changes After Expanding Access Era

Late 1990s and Early 2000s Banks Controlled Higher Ed Lending

September 2007 - President Bush Signed College Cost Containment and Access Act

July 2008 - Higher Education Act Increased Pell Grants and how Lenders Could Work with Lenders

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 increased Pell Grants and Provided Money to States to Fund Public Universities and Colleges

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

$15.6 billion for Pell Grant

Extended grant for 800,000+ students

Increased grant from $4,731 to $5,500

Provided money to states to fund public universities and colleges

Changes Enacted by President Obama

Proposed Eliminate Federal Family

Education Loan (FFEL)

Pell Grants for Everyone

Increase Pell Grants

Give Funds to States and Community Colleges

Made Law FFEL was Eliminated

Direct Federal Lending by July 1, 2010

Lenders compete to service loans, but not originate

Pell Grant Maximum to Increase to $5,975 by 2020

College Access Challenge Grant

John Oliver on For-Profit Instituitions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8pjd1QEA0c

4:05- 9:20

Obama Takes on For-Profits

Sought to limit finiancial aid to schools that failed to establish a record of positive outcomes for students Measured by their subsequent earnings relative to their student loan debt

and repayment rates

"Gainful Employment" - students must be successfully repaying their loans within 3 years of graduation Proposed rules were fought and lowered from 45% to 35% of students

Final standards were so low that only 1 in 20 schools would be affected

Devised new rules to ensure program integrity and protect students from agressive and misleading recruitment offering data about school outcomes for students to make informed

enrollment decisions

Activity

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5

Video 6

A Problem of Politics

Policies need updating and maintenance

Dysfunctional political system

Paralyzed by polarization

Bipartisan cooperation occurs only to represent the advantaged and neglect the needs of ordinary Americans (polarized plutocracy)

A State of Crisis

American higher education - Long characterized by excellence and wide accessibility

State governments are divesting public institutions

Burden of affordability now placed on students and families

Federal governments are subsidizing for-profits

Permitting the continuation of preying on low income students while benefiting at public expense

Private nonprofits are doing too little to recruit less advantaged students or lower tuition costs

Why It Matters

Producing too few highly skilled workers - our international competitiveness is fading

Loss of talent - our "most precious natural resource"

"American Dream" is increasingly out of reach for most citizens

Higher education no longer about the broader public

More necessary than ever to foster economic growth and innovations that benefit society as a whole

Core values and identity of the US are at stake

Preparing the Way to Reform

Redirect resources and invest in institutions that promise to be most effective

Make top priority the enabling the least advantaged Americans to enroll and emerge better off as a result

Strengthen community colleges

Reward system for private nonprofits that enroll and graduate high percentages of low income students and penalize those that give little effort

Overarching Themes

Severely dysfunctional state of American politics and its impact on higher education

Elected officials need be more responsive to ordinary Americans and diffuse forces of polarization and plutocracy

Advantages of powerful interests take priority over ordinary Americans - need to level the playing field

"If the ladder of educational opportunity rises high at the doors of some youth and scarcely rises at all at the doors of others, while at the same time formal education is made a prerequisite to occupational and social advance, then education becomes the means, not of eliminating race and class distinctions, but of deepening and solidifying them."

(Mettler, 2014, p. 199)

References

Mettler, S. (2014). Degrees of inequality: How the politics of higher

education sabotaged the American dream. New York, NY: Basic

Books.