Spokane7
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October 20, 2010 in City
Vestal: Improving job prospects through school has hefty price
Sara Kerbs-Ridenour takes a break from working at the Eastern Washington University student government office Friday.
(Full-size photo)
Sara Kerbs-Ridenour is a schoolteacher working on a master’s degree in special ed.
She’s 24, with three years of experience in the classroom. A Spokane native, she returned to Eastern Washington University for her graduate degree after teaching in Oregon. Since she’s lost her in-state residency, at least for now, she’s facing a tuition bill of some $6,500 per quarter – more than double the in-state rate.
By the time she graduates, her debt from her undergraduate and graduate educations is likely to exceed $60,000.
“That’s something that permanently affects your adult life,” Kerbs-Ridenour said. “It’s either don’t be a qualified professional and don’t have student loans, or be in the professional world and be stuck with these for half your life.”
Our system of higher education in Washington is full of cognitive dissonance: We want more kids to go to school, but we’re raising tuition at usurious rates. We want to encourage “underserved” populations to get degrees, but our financial aid programs don’t cover everyone who qualifies. The business community seems to expect colleges to produce its workers, fully formed, while we shift the costs more and more onto those workers.
Our primary response as a society has been sadly typical: Borrow, borrow, borrow, kids. Tomorrow never comes.
The recession is kicking the system in the teeth, of course. But even before that, our leaders have been paying lip service to the idea that we need to produce more college graduates if we want Washington kids to have a crack at the best jobs here – all while providing less and less support for college.
And now, with another horrible state budget coming up, it looks like more of the same.
Washington State University President Elson Floyd – who has led the university’s budget-slashing efforts with a minimum of sky-is-falling histrionics – says these cuts threaten to undercut the entire system of college education.
“Four-year quality baccalaureate education is the foundation of moderate, Western, civilized society,” Floyd said in a statement about the cuts in September. “Access is meaningless without quality. Washington has always provided quality public higher education. It remains to be seen if this tradition can continue.”
Floyd has done some smart, symbolic things – such as refusing to take a pay raise – and some smart, substantive things – such as cutting administrative positions. But the big changes won’t come from eliminating three vice presidents, as appealing as that sounds to those who imagine this is a simple case of forking out big chunks of fat. Cutting entire colleges, eliminating majors, laying off staff, limiting and worsening the options for students – these are the ways you save tens of millions of dollars.
That, plus raising tuition – hikes of 30 percent over two years. Meanwhile, the number of needy students who can’t get state financial aid is growing. The latest estimate is that some 25,000 students who will qualify for the State Need Grant this year won’t actually get one.
At Spokane Community College, where enrollments have surged, financial aid director Tammy Zibell says she’s seen more applications for aid than in any year of her 16-year career. And State Need Grant money is already scarce this year, she said in a recent interview.
“We’re really low on that,” she said. “I don’t actually at this point know if I’ll have any left after fall quarter – or maybe winter.”
It’s hard to see how this story will end. Will we continue raising tuition, cutting services and handing students loan applications? Should we just hang signs on campuses: “Come rich or leave poor”?
A task force, formed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, is trying to find alternatives. The panel of business and education leaders has met several times and is charged with developing proposals for the 2011 legislative session.
While it’s too soon to say what might be proposed, the ideas under consideration are wide-ranging – including the creation of three-year degrees, a cap on the number of credits the state will support for students, basing funding for each college on “performance metrics,” streamlining administrative functions across campuses, and cutting the cost of core classes by using “technology-related course transformation methods.”
I always wonder how you stick “Moby-Dick” into a metric, and I feel pretty committed to the idea that a college student ought to wrestle with “Moby-Dick.” Will the transformations wrought by technology – read: less face time with instructors – be good for students? Will students benefit when their institution with a shoddy metric score takes a funding hit from the Legislature?
Hard to say – and it’s not like I have any brilliant ideas for fixing things. It’s going to be interesting to see what emerges, and how it might affect the next generation of students like Kerbs-Ridenour. For now, these young people – at least the ones who aren’t rich – are facing a Hobson’s choice: Pursue a professional life with a lot of debt. Or don’t.
“It’s obviously a problem – the massive cost of it,” Kerbs-Ridenour said. “And Eastern is one of the cheapest schools.”
Shawn Vestal can be reached at shawnv@spokesman.com or (509) 459-5431.
The draw of the unknowable 
Dave64 on October 20 at 3:06 a.m.
Elson Floyd hasn’t cut administrative positions. That was just a PR move. All three VP’s who lost their titles remain at WSU as very highly paid administrators. While entire programs will be eliminated from the academic side, per the latest news release administrative cuts will only involve the loss of currently vacant positions.
polistra on October 20 at 5:56 a.m.
“Four-year quality baccalaureate education is the foundation of moderate, Western, civilized society”
What a monstrous pile of PERFECTLY FALSE AND DANGEROUS NONSENSE.
The main enemies of Western civilization are highly educated, and the solid backbone of Western civilization is less educated.
In fact the EXPLICIT and SOLE purpose of “liberal arts” courses is to turn out effective revolutionaries. (Wasn’t always that way, but it’s been that way for at least 40 years.)
oneanddone on October 20 at 6:39 a.m.
There are any number of major failures in our higher ed system of education.
- University employees are paid FAR above their value in both salary and benefits. Ask any retired professor at the U of Idaho who pays for his medical insurance. We do. Same is likely true for WA.
- Sports of all sorts suck money out of academics continually. Hey, kids? You’re there for an education, not drugs, sex, and rock ‘n roll.
- Any tom, dick, or harry can go to public universities, regardless of their commitment and take underwater basket weaving. Entry should be competitive and courses germane to present day society should be the only ones available. Don’t take ‘liberal arts’ and expect to pay off a $100k student loan. In fact, those students shouldn’t even be able to get a loan.
Run higher ed like a business, not welfare.
TSR_Matt on October 20 at 7:47 a.m.
It’s easy to point fingers at the cost of an education, but you knew the costs before you started. Now it’s up to you take personal financial responsibility. Live within your means. Don’t buy it if you can’t afford it. How long will it take you to pay off $60k in student loans at a teachers salary? Do what you can to avoid the loans in the first place. Just because you qualify for a Masters program doesn’t mean that you have to follow through with it at this point in your life.
Here is another alternative: How about Ms. Kerbs-Ridenour delays her Masters program until she qualifies for in-state tuition? If out-of-state tuition costs $6500 per quarter x 4 quarters, that is a total of $26,000. By waiting to qualify for in-state tuition, her tuition costs would be reduced by 50% (per the article). Is it worth the additional $13,000 in debt to start your Masters degree immediately? Wait the extra year to qualify for in-state tuition rates. That eliminates 21% of her future $60k debt without any additional effort. Be smart.
Albert on October 20 at 7:51 a.m.
Sara lacked advanced planning. I wrote a book on how to get through college/university on a full free ride. My wife and 2 daughters graduated in this manner. Teachers can obtain their MA via this methodology if they simply know how to accomplish this. The money is there, however the career major must be the “right” one to qualify. Medicine, technology, mathematics, and “some” areas of medical science are the “hot” degrees. Business, law, accounting, teaching, and “dull” majors that guarantee only entry level positions will run $35,000 - $65,000 in debt with 20+ years to repay. Sara should consider working for the various “government” agencies who will pay her a “decent” wage and forgive her debt as she works. Serving in the Armed Forces also carries these similar types of “benefits”. Trades are still a great way to generate a profitable living, i.e. a duly licensed plumber makes $65,000+ annually, which is almost twice the entry level income of a teacher. After considering your 20+ years of debt repayment, plus the “basic” income level of a teacher, one can arrive at the conclusion that a teacher, (like my wife), serves in this career because they enjoy it. It certainly isn’t for the money.
eagleproducer on October 20 at 9:01 a.m.
albert: You are right, we do it because teaching is fun to us and we hope to inspire life long curiosity in our students. Once teachers move up in longevity and degree level they make pretty decent salaries when benefits are factored in.
polistra: Thanks for your predictable wing nut rant against Academia. With folks like you calling the shots we’d still be without vaccines, machinery, technology, etc. associated with the modern world. Go back to reading your bible and leave the heavy lifting to those who actually had the discipline to better themselves (and the world) through education.
WillyPeter on October 20 at 9:45 a.m.
Liberal political correctness can be a debilitating thing. Illegal immigrants are attending state colleges and universities and paying Washington resident tuition rates. Not even neighbor kids from Idaho and Oregon can do that
Students from “average income families” (about $45,000 yearly income) attend u-dub tuition free!
No wonder citizen parents paying school costs - about $20,000 a year now - and, by definition, underwriting the educations of those students and families mentioned above…are unhappy.
And, fewer than half of our state’s K-12 public school educators are teaching. The remainer are ‘administrators’ who average more than $100,000 yearly.
And those $100+ textbooks….sheeeesh
If public education isn’t broken, it certainly is corrupt.
P.S. just give ‘em more $$ and everything will be all right…
Ninch on October 20 at 9:55 a.m.
Only $60K debt and for a teacher at that who can get lots of breaks on paying back federal loans… even loan forgiveness. (And federal loans are wiped out upon one’s death so heirs are not obligated). BTW: Why did this teacher give up her job to go to school out-of-state (and thus pay out-of-state tuition)? That was her decision among several alternatives.
Yes, tuition rates have increased substantially, but now private universities (e.g. Gonzaga, Whitworth, Heritage) are more competitive while offering more academic support.
Education is an investment and requires much individual research and evaluation to make the best decisions.
Hiker on October 20 at 11:44 a.m.
“The main enemies of Western civilization are highly educated, and the solid backbone of Western civilization is less educated.”
I suppose @polistra then believes the less educated will manage the electrical grid and the water supply systems, create the next Microsoft, Google or Amazon.com, design weapons for the military, or perform surgery.
The anti-intellectualism movement currently sweeping the US benefits no one.
PoorSportsmansAlmanack on October 20 at 11:59 a.m.
Of course it is this way.
The system is intentionally designed to disincentivize poor students from attending universities so that they are kept as a perpetual underclass to the sort of elites who think nothing of spending $2.2 billion of public money on a highway bypass that cuts a whopping 10 minutes off of their commute but scarcely benefits anyone else.
But no higher taxes for higher education - that’s theft!
And, for those who still accept the debt, they are enslaved by it and, thus, afraid to offer resistance to bad bosses and labor practices because they might be fired!
Thoreau on October 20 at 12:35 p.m.
What’s not mentioned here is the fact that teachers must pay out of their own pocket to take courses that maintain credentials. If they do not, then their certificate expires. What other job for $36,000 salary that gives back to the community holds this over the employees’ heads? I know a teacher that went to college with the GI Bill, worked a part-time job during college, and still had to borrow money, which hasn’t been paid off nine years later. This teacher must spend more money to stay certified, despite owing $20,000 from the original college debt. And by the way, Albert, what loan forgiveness are you talking about????
de3 on October 20 at 1:09 p.m.
There are some efficiencies that are not yet being obtained in higher education. I have read that just a few dozen topics account for the majority of first and second year courses taught in all colleges, nationwide. Yet each is generally hand crafted, custom designed by the instructor teaching the course section. Next door, another instructor is teaching the same course, with their own hand crafted, custom designed class. This is an inefficient use of resources.
Today’s LA Times has a cover story on a study done by California State University, Sacramento (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1020-community-colleges-20101020,0,6320186.story) finding that community colleges in California are not achieving the return on investment that is needed because 40% of the students drop out before even completing 30 course credits, which they say is the minimum needed to improve job skills and prospects. The result is a wasted “investment” by the State that is not achieving the necessary return. They say that 70% of the students, overall, drop out (and that would also be similar for Washington State).
The study also faulted community colleges for failing to keep adequate data on student enrollment patterns that would be valuable for identifying problems and helping to spot solutions.
While a “drop out” may or may not be a failure (may be they did get a job because of the few courses they finished), the problem is that no one knows because the community colleges are not making serious efforts to collect data and find out.
With college tuition rising even faster than health care prices, we need to take a look at all aspects of higher education. The current path is not sustainable. We need successful and efficient colleges and universities - there is much that will need to be done to bring them up to required efficiency levels.
mikeln on October 21 at 7:27 a.m.
Big corporations are not going to hire our workers so why contribute to education. Education for everybody should be our greatest goal yet we allow the cost to rise above the ability for most to afford. Education is the enemy of captilist greed, the smarter you are opens your eyes to this greed and corporate america will not tolorate this.