With only 27.9 percent having any kind of degree, over 10 points below
the national average, several reasons exist why this could be the case. One,
that not enough funding is going into the enterprise, can be dismissed quickly.
The state ranks
18th in state per capita
spending on higher education, yet ranks poorly in outcome measures such as
this one, in part because these inputs are being spread too thinly with so many
campuses of an overbuilt system.
The other reasons, which deal with how the inputs get used, reveal much
more about the nature of the problem and the solution. Until this past year,
one of these was the virtually open admissions model that existed at the lowest
tier or “regional,” universities. Before then, all a recent high school
graduate or General Equivalency Diploma holder needed to do for admittance to
at least some of these was to perform around the national average in the
American College Test, or have a better than C average in core coursework, or
to graduate in the top half of the high school class. Now,
both these averages must be achieved as well as 2.0 grade point average overall
and some require higher standards still, and universities in higher tiers even
have more stringent requirements. And these are due to increase again next
academic year.
Combined with tuition rates that, despite significant advances in them
over the past few years, still rank as almost lowest in the country, this meant
that too many enrollees not prepared and/or qualified to pursue higher
education did. Add to that the fact that, until recently, while the
baccalaureate-and-above portion was overbuilt, as were the technical schools
where nearly half of all parishes had them, community colleges were scarce
meaning students who had the preparation to succeed at those instead ended up
at four-year schools where they did not, and you can see why so much gets spent
with so little in output.
Because it’s never been a problem about access to Louisiana higher
education. In fact, the latest data available from the mid-2000’s showed in
terms of adult population enrolled in two- or four-year schools in Louisiana,
that portion actually was
slightly higher than the national average, even as the percentage of
college graduates in the state was low. Above average numbers go in, way below
average numbers go out.
Also in part explaining this has been the relatively lackluster economic
performance of the state from the mid 1980s for about two decades. This lack of
jobs disproportionately discouraged people with degrees from staying. Things
have improved recently as in even a slower year such as last year Louisiana
still managed to be ranked 30th in growth, but it will take many
years of not being close to the bottom to make up for the extended stretch that
it was.
And even if changed admission standards hope to cause resource
allocation to be more efficient, those same standards still carry much potential
for inefficiency. All community colleges remain open admissions (that is, only
high school diploma or GED needed) and an associate’s degree from any suffices
to transfer to any regional school, if transferring with hours taken a 2.0
overall still gets you into the regional schools.
Thus, it is vital that the community colleges offer both rigor and
concentrate heavily on the teaching aspect (that is, not sacrifice rigor because
it is easier to teach when less is demanded of students) in order to make sure
students are ready for upper-division work, remediating and elevating if need
be. And it is incumbent on the schools to where they transfer also insist on
rigor to make sure a meaningful degree gets awarded. Until recently,
accountability policy focused more on the inputs – enrolling as many students
as possible – rather than outputs – successful meaningful degree completion.
The higher are the latter, the higher is their proportion in the population.
Therefore, the root of the low proportion of state residents without a
degree is a consequence of (1) economic trends not creating enough jobs for
those with degrees that only has begun changing in the past five years, (2)
historically low tuition rates plus low to nonexistent admissions standards
only recently improved that shoved those more likely to fail into the system and
the track placement problem that created to aggravate that tendency, (3)
resources spread too thinly across an overbuilt system that makes the process
of educating less effective as a whole, and (4) misplaced commitment that eroded
the quality of higher education delivery. Access and money spent did not impact
negatively the proportion, so any solutions that address these are mistaken if
not ideologically motivated.
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