Entitlement U.S.A.: Colleges as Attendance Centers
By Jonathan Bean • Saturday January 2, 2010 4:39 PM PDT • 6 Comments
Several years ago, I chuckled when I dropped my young daughter off at a friend’s elementary school. In fact, the school was named an “Attendance Center.” I never learned why “school” was suddenly out of fashion.
“Attendance Center.” How apt a phrase for what is happening in higher education, as every politician and president (Bush and Obama included) promise “more, more, more!”
A new book is getting acclaim for documenting how simply funding more college “attendees” is a waste of money: Jackson Toby, The Lowering of Higher Education in America: Why Financial Aid Should be Based on Student Performance. Toby hammers home the message that always shocks people when I tell them that most of those who go to college will never graduate with a degree. Moreover, mere “attendance” at a college does little to improve earnings and leaves many in debt. The situation is even worse at community colleges, where politicians at the state and national levels are heavily subsidizing two-year college education. By accepting all, the old whip of “working hard in high school” to “get into college” is gone—every K-12 student knows they can go to college whether they prepare themselves or not.
The following excerpt from an article on the abysmal state of community college “attendance centers” highlights how much worse the problem is at that level:
A cursory look at the data is not encouraging. Although 41 percent of America’s college-bound students enter community colleges each year, only 28 percent of this cohort actually complete their studies and earn a degree, an even more dismal outcome than that displayed at the nation’s baccalaureate colleges, where 56 percent manage to graduate. These depressing statistics haven’t dampened the general consensus favoring support of community colleges because proponents appear to believe that college “access” trumps successful college completion and that “some college is better than none.” Refuting the latter point, U.S. community college non-graduates have only marginally higher earnings and lower unemployment rates than high school graduates and do far less well than their counterparts that manage to complete their studies. The disappointing outcomes at community colleges are to some extent hard-wired into four aspects of their design. These institutions are proudly and aggressively “open admissions” which means that there are no academic criteria to get in except, in most places, a high school diploma. . . .
Readers interested in learning the graduation rates (and other vital statistics) of any college in America can find it here. Will financial aid be tied to merit rather than a free lunch for everyone, regardless of performance? The political incentives work against any such reform. After all, the citizens of Entitlement U.S.A. believe it is their unalienable right to a discounted (or free) college education. Furthermore, politicians count votes and “something for nothing” is always popular. On we go . . .
Tags: Books, Education, Government subsidies, Welfare 
Yay SIUC!
hanmeng | Jan 3, 2010 | Reply
That’s good for those that do complete college. It makes completion and an earned degree more of a commodity in the labor market.
Ryan | Jan 3, 2010 | Reply
As bad as those graduation rates appear, the reality might be even worse when you consider all of the grade inflation in recent years. ;-(
Speedmaster | Jan 4, 2010 | Reply
I have to say, I like the idea of open admissions. There are plenty of smart people who don’t do well enough in high school (for a variety of reasons, the most obvious being that they’re bored to death) to get into a four-year college. A community college can give them some exposure to college courses. If they find something they’re interested in, they continue. If not, so what?
The problem isn’t so much that everyone feels entitled to a college education; it’s that they think they need one in order to make even a halfway decent living.
Joe | Jan 5, 2010 | Reply
I personally attend a community college and I was forced to pay for tuition and books due to my and my wife’s earnings, but about 75% of the students who come to this college take advantage of financial aid, some of them even get money for transportation and rent. Every semester is a struggle to enroll in classes due to budget cuts, and on top of that classes get full of students who don’t have to pay for classes and register with the idea that if they don’t like the class or if they don’t do good in the class they can just drop it, while I HAVE to work hard to earn a grade because if I don’t, I just wasted a whole semester and about $600. Someone needs to do something about this issue because good teachers are loosing their jobs because colleges don’t have the money to keep them but they can waste money on “IDIOTS” who spend up to 6 years in community colleges making up their minds and experiencing different classes trying to make up their mind in what they really want to do with their life.
cesar | May 21, 2010 | Reply
This process needs to be reviewed in order to prioritize those students and teachers who really want to make the learning process a reality. Any young person has the right to choose but the government should not make that right costly for others.
Sharky | Aug 7, 2010 | Reply