In a recent post in Working Class Perspectives, Allison Hurst discusses the Catch-22 of higher education in our society. The working- and middle-classes need it to have any hope of improving their lot in life, but, due to rising costs, increasing debt loads, and limited upward mobility, the benefits of higher education are becoming questionable.
I’ll begin with an assertion: No undergraduate degree is worth graduating with a $30,000 or $50,000 debt.
As Hurst notes in her post, it is a class issue. It doesn’t matter if you’re White, a Person of Color, male or female, although the impact is greater on People of Color and women. Upward mobility is limited in the U.S. , inequality is rampant, and the huge debt burden many students carry creates fearful and compliant workers for capitalists and the ruling class generally. It’s one of many reasons socialists continue to focus on class.
I took a route out of the working class similar to the one Hurst describes in her post, although at a time when loans weren’t de rigeuer at state schools. I will vouch for the economic importance of an education: The jobs that I’ve held required college degrees, although the specific degree didn’t matter (I studied English and economics, and I added additional degrees later, mostly paid for by tuition assistance from employers). I worked in high tech when high tech was just getting started, not as an engineer or programmer (although I acquired some of those skills on-the-job), but as a technologist. My job was to translate the Next New Thing into comprehensible language for technicians and (sometimes) for consumers.
More importantly, though, my worldview expanded exponentially because of college. It continues to expand today, 45 years later, because of the habits of mind formed in college. That is the single greatest benefit I received, something I consider essential to my well-being. But the debt loads facing many students today means that the broad, humanistic development of their minds is an out-of-reach luxury.
Should a student take on crippling loans for either of those reasons? No, even though I consider a degree essential. I suggest working- and middle-class students opt for the least expensive college education possible – usually, a state school – and live at home if it’s at all feasible. Attend a lower cost community college to complete general education requirements (if you have low SAT/ACT scores, this is a good route, because most colleges won’t request the scores if you’ve accumulated 24 college credit hours at a community college). Keep loans to a minimum (and then only federally guaranteed loans). Work during the year (for spending money, if nothing else), on extended breaks, and over the summer. Go to school part-time, if necessary.
My wife and I have put two kids through college, and we have one in college now (and a fourth next year), in a mix of public and private schools. How was it paid for? My wife and I paid some, scholarships paid some, our kids worked and paid some, and loans paid some. They started at community college at 16-years-old (we home-schooled) and were ready to enroll as juniors in college when they turned 18-years-old. It’s hard, especially when two kids are in college at the same time, but it can be done.
By the way, I doubt private schools are worth the extra cost, unless a student receives a very large financial aid package and/or is studying something that’s not readily available at a public school. My son attended one, and while his education was good, I doubt it’s superior to a good public college. One of our daughters is studying opera at a conservatory, so she is in a private college. She won a large scholarship, which helps, but we (and she) still pay a non-trivial amount for her tuition, room, and board. The same might be said of “flagship” state universities, which tend to cost more than the other colleges in the state system. Yes, there is some “cultural capital” to be acquired at private or flagship schools, but given the exorbitant cost of an education, I doubt it’s worth it. As Allison Hurst notes in her post, working- and middle-class students are less likely to benefit from cultural capital or connections.
Is this unfair? Absolutely. Capitalists (the ruling class) pay little or nothing for a well-educated workforce, although the workers themselves are struggling. Abolishing student debt would ease the psychological and financial burdens on workers, but it won’t solve the larger problem. Nor, as Hurst points out, would more education. Unequal economic and social power in a system in which class mobility is limited is the real culprit. Worker (not state) ownership and control of the workplace is the solution. In the interim, democracy in the workplace would be a giant step forward (https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/08/the-need-for-workplace-democracy and https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/01/freedom-from-the-boss).
Is this an issue for Catholic Social Thought (CST)? Yes. The dignity of human beings – the working- and middle-class – is damaged by our current economic system. Choice and freedom, essential elements of human dignity, are, in fact, limited in our late stage capitalist society. We must accept whatever wages are offered, under whatever conditions capitalists determine is profitable (when you’re broke, labor mobility is a joke). Our well-being, or that of our families and communities (the “common good” in CST), are not a serious concern of employers. Education is presented as the escape from poverty, when it frequently leads to debt, wage peonage, and psychologically damaged people. The doctrine of hyper-individualism shifts all responsibility – and consequences – for personal well-being to workers, regardless of how little control they have over the workplace or the larger economy. The idea of resilient families in a supportive community, of people working together to flourish, is lost. Addictions, divorces, and suicides are a natural consequence of our economic system. Catholic Social Thought contains alternatives to this destructive system (for a brief explanation: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/03/22/what-does-catholic-social-teaching-say-about-economy-its-more-complicated-you. For a detailed look: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html.)
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