Even before the pandemic, America's colleges and universities were in crisis. It is time to question long-held orthodoxies concerning the nature and purpose of higher education. Too much of this burden rests on those seeking it because it has not been recognized as a shared obligation. According to the Federal Reserve, now's average graduate has between $20,000 and $25,000 in education debt. Complete student debt tops $1.6 trillion -- the nation's second-largest source of customer debt after mortgages.
Education is a public good, and it needs to be treated like that. It doesn't just offer challenging skills and factual knowledge. It instructs us to think critically, communicate effectively, and participate in our liberal democracy. And it's the indispensable driver of economic growth and social progress.
Policymakers should invest more, while allowing innovation in the delivery of educational services. The goal must be to introduce any person who desires higher education with a range of alternatives, at different price points, all creating pathways to full professional and economic involvement.
To make this occur, we need various associations -- including new vocational associations and coaching partnerships operating at scale -- issuing new kinds of credentials that can be earned more rapidly and in transferable modules. Financially speaking, pupils could more easily receive those credentials via revamped payment versions that could include wide tuition credits, subscription-based pricing, income-share agreements, and much more.
The next orthodoxy to be challenged is that the best instruction calls for a traditional on-campus residential encounter. This past spring, schools have been forced into a huge unplanned experiment: how to deliver instruction entirely online. Today we must learn from the outcomes.
A commission of school administrators, researchers, technologists, and policymakers ought to be made and charged with collecting relevant data from schools throughout the country, and use the lessons learned to make a roadmap for the future. Their task will be to maintain the core aspects of a residential experience -- like group laboratory work, extracurricular activities, etc -- while delivering other facets digitally.
This could be accomplished by putting more course content online whilst setting local sub-campuses and re-imagining campuses for activities requiring cooperation. The result would also be to integrate universities more fully in their communities. Schools could nurture the development of collaborative student networks. Along with the workforce would be competitive as schools expanded access not just for the young but also for individuals deep into their careers.
The next orthodoxy is that innovation is best left to the private sector. U.S. technology giants have certainly innovated. But the origins of a lot of these innovations lie in American education -- in its study and development programs, and in the students it trains. For instance, the National Science Foundation spent over $6 billion in education and research programs in 2019 alone. This funding supports projects whose discoveries are then translated for use by partners and industry across the market in medicine, transport, infrastructure, energy, computing and software, amongst others.
Following the 2008-09 financial crisis, by 2019 annual federal R&D funding dropped from $168 billion to $126 billion, or by roughly 4 percent of the national funding to 3 percent. Likewise, when the current period of financial stimulus ends, traditional wisdom will require cuts, and R&D budgets will likely be a target. Such investment does not just produce new industrial applications. It generates whole new industries, such as semiconductors, computing, and biotech, that provide opportunities for millions of Americans.
The United States has transformed its educational system earlier, to match its own people's skills to the task at hand. The"American century" was grounded in a broad democratization of access to higher education. In 1910, only 9% of the nation's 18-year-olds had a high school diploma. From 1940, over half did.
Following World War Two, America again revolutionized learning. New businesses and new geopolitical opposition called for taxpayers with technical skills. In reaction, the GI Bill ensured tuition and living expenses for veterans. According to the Census Bureau, in 1940, only one in 20 Americans needed a four-year level. Now, over a third do.
The world has changed again, as well as the U.S. higher education system must change with it. The post-Covid-19 reset is an chance to reimagine American post-secondary education and bring the academy closer into the market, helping to make the next wave of invention and inclusive expansion we need to recuperate and build a more resilient society.
Education is a public good, and it needs to be treated like that. It doesn't just offer challenging skills and factual knowledge. It instructs us to think critically, communicate effectively, and participate in our liberal democracy. And it's the indispensable driver of economic growth and social progress.
Policymakers should invest more, while allowing innovation in the delivery of educational services. The goal must be to introduce any person who desires higher education with a range of alternatives, at different price points, all creating pathways to full professional and economic involvement.
To make this occur, we need various associations -- including new vocational associations and coaching partnerships operating at scale -- issuing new kinds of credentials that can be earned more rapidly and in transferable modules. Financially speaking, pupils could more easily receive those credentials via revamped payment versions that could include wide tuition credits, subscription-based pricing, income-share agreements, and much more.
The next orthodoxy to be challenged is that the best instruction calls for a traditional on-campus residential encounter. This past spring, schools have been forced into a huge unplanned experiment: how to deliver instruction entirely online. Today we must learn from the outcomes.
A commission of school administrators, researchers, technologists, and policymakers ought to be made and charged with collecting relevant data from schools throughout the country, and use the lessons learned to make a roadmap for the future. Their task will be to maintain the core aspects of a residential experience -- like group laboratory work, extracurricular activities, etc -- while delivering other facets digitally.
This could be accomplished by putting more course content online whilst setting local sub-campuses and re-imagining campuses for activities requiring cooperation. The result would also be to integrate universities more fully in their communities. Schools could nurture the development of collaborative student networks. Along with the workforce would be competitive as schools expanded access not just for the young but also for individuals deep into their careers.
The next orthodoxy is that innovation is best left to the private sector. U.S. technology giants have certainly innovated. But the origins of a lot of these innovations lie in American education -- in its study and development programs, and in the students it trains. For instance, the National Science Foundation spent over $6 billion in education and research programs in 2019 alone. This funding supports projects whose discoveries are then translated for use by partners and industry across the market in medicine, transport, infrastructure, energy, computing and software, amongst others.
Following the 2008-09 financial crisis, by 2019 annual federal R&D funding dropped from $168 billion to $126 billion, or by roughly 4 percent of the national funding to 3 percent. Likewise, when the current period of financial stimulus ends, traditional wisdom will require cuts, and R&D budgets will likely be a target. Such investment does not just produce new industrial applications. It generates whole new industries, such as semiconductors, computing, and biotech, that provide opportunities for millions of Americans.
The United States has transformed its educational system earlier, to match its own people's skills to the task at hand. The"American century" was grounded in a broad democratization of access to higher education. In 1910, only 9% of the nation's 18-year-olds had a high school diploma. From 1940, over half did.
Following World War Two, America again revolutionized learning. New businesses and new geopolitical opposition called for taxpayers with technical skills. In reaction, the GI Bill ensured tuition and living expenses for veterans. According to the Census Bureau, in 1940, only one in 20 Americans needed a four-year level. Now, over a third do.
The world has changed again, as well as the U.S. higher education system must change with it. The post-Covid-19 reset is an chance to reimagine American post-secondary education and bring the academy closer into the market, helping to make the next wave of invention and inclusive expansion we need to recuperate and build a more resilient society.