If you build it they will come but if you offer high school kids a hefty bonus for going to college, many won’t come.
Such is the rather amazing finding that despite a state scholarship program dangling upwards of $5,500 a year to attend a four year university, 62% of last year’s high school graduating class found something else to do rather than pursue a higher education.
That was much to the chagrin of Michigan’s governor whom wants to see 60% of the state’s population carrying around a sheep-skin by the year 2030. The number is now at 51%.
Lawmakers have pumped a respectful $550 million into the Michigan Achievement Scholarship offering $2,750 to community college students, $4,000 to private higher ed schools and between $2,500 and $5,500 for those attending one of the state’s 15 universities.
But the widely respected think tank the Michigan Citizens Research Council discovered that out of the 99,000 high school grads from last year, only 27,800 took advantage of the higher ed freebie.
“It’s a little too early to prejudge the program not being successful but so far the data shows the new scholarships have not turned the trend around,” MCRC researcher Robert Schneider reports while adding that the program currently gets an “incomplete grade.”
The problem of course with taking an “I” is that the program could go either way, i.e. into the dumpster or skyrocket to success.
There are a number of variables in play here that help to understand why the downward trend.
In the year 2008, 117,000 seniors walked across their high school stage into the real world but those 99,000 last year was a 15% drop off. Fewer grads means fewer alive to actually go to college.
Despite tons of data that suggests having a higher degree is a one-way ticket to a fatter pay check, if there is nobody in the queue, it will be tougher to get to the 60% goal.
Obviously not everyone wants to take four years out of their life for the ability to attend football games, visit local watering holes and study for that degree.
Nothing wrong with that. But the scary part is the more students not choosing the stipend is bed news for the governor, high ed administrators not mention the students who do go who end up with even higher costs.
Ten years ago 66% of high schoolers went to a campus. It’s now 53% even though 75% of the 12th graders were eligible for the state aid.
While the legislature did pony up the money to do this, its track record over the years of chopping away at the higher ed. budget has been less than exemplary as it shifted more money onto the back of parents to foot the bill. In fact U of M grad Rick Snyder nixed his own alma mater and the other universities by 15% when he became governor in order to raise money for a business tax cut.
To make matters worse the public attitude about anyone who has a degree has shifted from widespread respect many years ago, to a feeling among some today that higher ed folks think they are better than the rest of us not to mention the rash of protests on many campuses that are not exactly a positive calling card for college recruiters.
