editorially speaking Economic Realities: A Driving Force Changes of far-reaching importance to high education are occurring external to it. Historically, the process of higher education has been effectivelysheltered from external forces, but in the last decade or so, society's growing interest in postsecondary education has created several pressure points that will surely change forever the character of educational institutions. From one point of view, possibly one not appreciated by many involved with higher education, colleges and universities have become less relevant to society because they have yet to understand, much less respond to, the demands being placed upon them. Like it or not, the most relentless pressure on colleges and universities stems from the changing nature of the American economy and the role a college degree has come to play in pmvidingaccess to good jobs. The transformation of the economy from a manufacturing base to a service (information) base and the substantial decline of high-wage, traditional blue-collar employment drives the current association of a college degree with a good job. The evidence is persuasive. In 1981,nearly 9% of the nation's top-paying jobs were held by persons in the manufacturing sector who had attained only a high school education. A decade later the share of those jobs fell by one-third (to 6%), representing an absolute decline of nearly a half-million workers in a labor force that had increased by almost 12 million. The job prospects for most college graduates, on the other hand, have been very different. Most of the growth in toppaying jobs during the past decade has come in the part of the service sector that provides employment to holders of the baccalaureate degree. The gap in expected earnings between college and high school graduates has increased by 20 percentage points over the last decade. Indeed, even an education corresponding to "some college" has come to have a significant impact on expected earnings, and employers are increasingly relying on associate degrees and technical certificates offered by community colleges as a method of screening job applicants. Much of the interest shown by today's workers in obtaining college degrees is prompted by the recognition that they will become increasingly disadvantaged in a harsh job market. Blocked fmm promotion and occupying jobs in a declining manufacturing sector, they have helped swell the ranks of older-than-average college students to the point where they have become a sizable cohort in higher education's new majority. For students entering college directly from high school, the fear of not finding a job is redefining their college years. Vocationalism now affects everything from the choice of an academic major to student demand for academic advising, career counseling, and job placement services. Parents are increasingly measuring the quality of higher education in terms of their children's ability to obtain secure and well-payingjobs.Students are asking similar questions as they face the harsh realities of rising levels of educational indebtedness. The vocational purposes now being associated with higher education have, of course, led to increased demand for the baccalaureate degree with the result that college and university enrollments are rising. There is also a gmwinginterest in an education designed for the whole person-the modem ver-
sion of the renaissance person--that will enable graduates to succeed in a variety of different jobs. students, the Higher edu~ation's~vocationall~~oriented "new majority", seek a reasonable limit to what their education will cost; look for access to programs that will result in meaningful jobs; seek a reduction of institutional bureaucratic impediments to a degree; and want assurances that shiftine financial and nolitical fortunes will not place a higher edzcation beyond their grasp. Public appropriations are increasingly being replaced by market force revenues, that is revenues derived fmm activities that are deemed to be the financial responsibility of individual students--basically student fees. As the need to pare state budgets has forced reconsideration of public priorities, state eovernments have beam to differentiate between the research and educational missions of institutions as well as between higher education and other ~ublicservices such as the public &hool system, social welf&e, and health care. Increasingly, legislatureshave come to regard higher education as more of a private than a public good. Because college degrees translate into higher paying jobs, many puliticians conclude that a college education contnhutes more to individual advancement than to the nation's social fabric. Students in postsecondary public institutions increasingly are being asked to pay for an even greater share of the costs of their education. This philosophical s h f i has numerous ramifications, e.g., the possibility of ending direct appmpriations to ~ublicinstitutions and renlacine them with a voucher svstem ihat would make "public' instikions compete directli with private ones for this form of public funding. Adoption of tuition and policies that would distribute public moneys in the form of financial aid to economically disadvantaged students attending public institutions would leave all other students to pay nearly the full cost of their education. There is a gmwing suggestion that appropriations for public education at flagship institutions amount to a public tax for the benefit of the economically advantaged whose children neither need nor deserve such subsidies for their college - education. Hieher education's "roarine vears" ended because the economy>hanged and because GwerM groups responsible for funding higher education--the makers and shapers of public policy, governors, legislators, regulators, heads of public aencies. and private philanthropists-have developed a real concern about the system's doa.neas to respond to extfrnal Drvssurrs. Manv of those rcspons~blefor haher education's fimding believe-that collegesAanduniversiti& have become too isolated from the economic hardships that beset most other American institutions and its peoples. Many policy makers feel that higher education has yet to fulfill promises that often figured in its funding over the last three decades: promises such as access for under-represented populations, fostering economic development for states and regions, and producing an educated and skilled citizenry Particularly troublineto manv consumers of the nmduds ofhieher education is that tno oRcn grnduaws arc produccd who do not have sufficient skills to be either cffectlve workersor informed citlzens. Even the best and brightest oRen are perceived to exhibit a self-centeredamressiveness that renders them incapable of working effectively with others; they cannot collaborate, only compete with each other. JJL
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Volume 71 Number 8 August 1994
627
