RALEIGH (October 13, 2016) – The Pope Center for Higher Education Policy distributed a column last week that simply can’t go unanswered.

In it, the writer challenges the economic benefits of greater enrollment in North Carolina’s public universities.  He questions the goals of the universities’ 2013 strategic plan, “Our Time, Our Future,” to raise the percentage of North Carolinians with bachelor’s degrees from 26% in 2013 to 32% by 2018 and 37% by 2025.¹

The University system’s Board of Governors is currently developing a new strategic plan.  But let’s start with simple supply and demand that any economics major should understand.  Too often, critics assume North Carolina has a constant population and forget we’re a rapidly growing state.

The Pope Center’s analysis starts in 2000.  Leaders of the Connect NC bond campaign this year made it abundantly clear that North Carolina has 2 million more people now than it had in 2000.  That’s the equivalent of the entire population of Nebraska.²

To be sure, not all those people will go to college.  But you don’t add 2,000,000 people without expecting that some of them just might go to college.

Workplace demands are undoubtedly increasing as well.

The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce projects that by 2020 – four years from now – 65% of all U.S. jobs will require some form of post-secondary education, and 35% will require at least a bachelor’s degree.³

In remarks at her inauguration this morning, University of North Carolina System President Margaret Spellings acknowledged both the demands of the workplace and the increasing challenges of access and affordability.

“The best jobs of the future demand education beyond high school,” she said.

“We have one of the finest university systems in the nation, but we also have too many citizens whose lives and ambitions are limited by geography, by income, by struggling K-12 schools, or by tuition that seems out of reach. We are leaving behind thousands of capable students who never even apply to college because it doesn’t seem possible for them.  That’s a tragic waste of talent, and we must do something about that.

“It’s time to raise our expectations once again.  Higher education is the next frontier — a new civil right.  Every child must be able to reach beyond high school — that has to become our expectation, our promise for a rising generation.  That may mean a four-year degree, a master’s or a doctorate; it could mean an associate degree or a professional credential.”

The benefits of higher education not just to the individual but to society at large are well-documented:  A study by the Milken Institute found that adding one year of schooling among workers with at least a high-school degree increases a region’s GDP per capita by 17.4% and increases real wages by 17.8%.⁴

Other studies document that on average, degree holders enjoy higher incomes, higher rates of employment, lower poverty rates, less dependence on public assistance, lower incarceration rates, better health and greater civic engagement than those who don’t go beyond high school.

Are we opposed to those?

The Pope Center also asserts that pursuit of greater degree attainment has caused academic standards to be lowered, when in fact the Board of Governors has raised admission standards multiple times in recent years.  In the few instances where an exception was granted, any student with an SAT score below the standard was required to have a grade-point average above the standard to be admitted.

The Pope Center does make an astute observation that students who drop out and don’t get a degree are likely to be saddled with substantially higher debt these days.  They also wouldn’t enjoy the additional wages that normally come with a degree and could help pay off that debt.

Completion is essential, and the University’s goal involves students not just enrolling, but finishing their degrees.

John Casteen III, president emeritus of the University of Virginia, noted in recent remarks that analysts at Reuters estimate the net value of a college degree at $1 million.

“This core (curriculum) … is if anything more necessary now than it was a generation ago,” Casteen said.  “No one knows what comes next after our information age.  Everyone who works and lives in the economy knows that learning to learn, life-long learning, matters more now than at any time in our history.”⁵

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¹ https://northcarolina.edu/sites/default/files/strategic_directions_2013-2018_0.pdf, p. 14.
² http://www.highereducationworks.org/2016/01/2b-bonds-nc-stepping-up-to-the-future/.
³ https://cew.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Recovery2020.ES_.Web_.pdf.
⁴ http://assets1c.milkeninstitute.org/assets/Uploads/LegacyPublication/Matter-of-Degrees-RF.pdf, p. 1.
⁵ http://www.higheredworks.org/2016/10/casteen-core-curriculum-needed/