Nearly one thousand more students transferred from Wisconsin's public universities and colleges to its technical colleges (3,850) than the other way (2,903) according to the most recent data.
It turns out that the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) is the state's largest graduate school.
Students are voting with their feet for a more focused and practical education despite a major push by University and elected officials to increase Wisconsin's percentage of baccalaureate degree holders.
Students are transferring to the WTCS because its diploma and associate degree programs provide students with hands-on education and marketable skills utilizing a pedagogy that integrates thinking and doing. These one and two-year programs enable students to secure family supporting employment and provide employers with the skilled workers and technicians they need.
It also doesn't hurt, especially in this depressed economy, that technical college tuition is lower than UW's.
The appeal of hands-on education is not limited to the WTCS. It also helps explain the extraordinary success of the Milwaukee Public Schools Project Lead the Way. MPS currently has more students of color participating in STEM (science, technology and math education) that any school system in the country.
Project Lead the Way students get exposed to cutting-edge technology, science and math through integrated, hands-on learning. But there's one more benefit that trumps all the rest, according to Lauren Baker, coordinator for career and technical education at MPS, "They learn these incredible problem-solving skills - the kids learn how to think," Baker said.
A recent New York Times article by Matthew B. Crawford makes the same point when he writes:
If the goal is to earn a living, then, maybe it isn’t really true that 18-year-olds need to be imparted with a sense of panic about getting into college (though they certainly need to learn). Some people are hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and natural bents, when they would rather be learning to build things or fix things. One shop teacher suggested to me that “in schools, we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement. Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.”
The trades suffer from low prestige, and I believe this is based on a simple mistake. Because the work is dirty, many people assume it is also stupid. This is not my experience. I have a small business as a motorcycle mechanic in Richmond, Va., which I started in 2002. I work on Japanese and European motorcycles, mostly older bikes with some “vintage” cachet that makes people willing to spend money on them. I have found the satisfactions of the work to be very much bound up with the intellectual challenges it presents. And yet my decision to go into this line of work is a choice that seems to perplex many people...
For me at least there is more real thinking going on in the bike shop than there was in the think tank.
The article is linked.
Showing posts with label University of Wisconsin System. Show all posts
Showing posts with label University of Wisconsin System. Show all posts
Monday, June 1, 2009
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Investment in higher ed crucial to affordability and prosperity
Wisconsin received an F for the affordability of higher education in a new study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. College education was more affordable in Illinois and Minnesota, two states that have higher per capita incomes and a larger percentage of four- year graduates than Wisconsin.
For several years Wisconsin's political, education and business leadership has made increasing the number of four-year college graduates a public policy goal. But the state has not made the investments necessary to accomplish this goal.
According to a New York Times article on the report: "The rising cost of college — even before the recession — threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans..."
The report found that published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007 while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.
The increase in costs has been particularly hard for middle class and poor families. Last year, the net cost at a four-year public university amounted to 28 percent of the median family income, while a four-year private university cost 76 percent of the median family income.
Among the poorest families — those with incomes in the lowest 20 percent — the net cost of a year at a public university was 55 percent of median income, up from 39 percent in 1999-2000.
Even at two-year colleges the cost was 49 percent of the poorest families’ median income last year, up from 40 percent in 1999-2000.
The cost of attending Wisconsin's public colleges has risen rapidly because state support has declined precipitously. As recently as 1990, the state provided the Wisconsin Technical System's colleges (WTCS) with about 30% of their funding. That contribution has fallen by 50% to less than 15%. WTCS students, who pay 20% of the costs, now contribute more than the state! And the state contribution to the University of Wisconsin's total operations budget has fallen to below 20%.
As the state's investment in higher education and occupational training has declined, the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) have raised tuition and fees, shifting the cost of post-secondary education to students and their families.
The WTCS's adult basic education tuition has increased 54.6% over the last ten years; collegiate transfer tuition by 57.3%. Two-year UW college tuition increased by a whopping 82.6% and UW Madison by 83.8%.
These tuition increases are making higher education less accessible for middle class and low- income students. Recent studies conducted by the University of Wisconsin System concluded that students from lower income families were increasingly under-represented in the state’s public baccalaureate education institutions. Between 1992 and 2002, the percentage of freshmen reporting family incomes in the lowest quintle (less than $30,000) fell by nearly one-fourth, from 14.5% to 11.0%. At the same time, the percentage of freshmen reporting family incomes in the state’s top quintile (greater than $87,000) rose by nearly one-fifth.
The WTCS/UW Committee on Baccalaureate Expansion concluded: "...Wisconsin students from lower income families have less access to a college education than in the U.S. as a whole."
Wisconsin's continued disinvesment in higher education makes a mockery of the goals of increasing the number of four-year college graduates and training a skilled labor force.
The WTCS's adult basic education tuition has increased 54.6% over the last ten years; collegiate transfer tuition by 57.3%. Two-year UW college tuition increased by a whopping 82.6% and UW Madison by 83.8%.
These tuition increases are making higher education less accessible for middle class and low- income students. Recent studies conducted by the University of Wisconsin System concluded that students from lower income families were increasingly under-represented in the state’s public baccalaureate education institutions. Between 1992 and 2002, the percentage of freshmen reporting family incomes in the lowest quintle (less than $30,000) fell by nearly one-fourth, from 14.5% to 11.0%. At the same time, the percentage of freshmen reporting family incomes in the state’s top quintile (greater than $87,000) rose by nearly one-fifth.
The WTCS/UW Committee on Baccalaureate Expansion concluded: "...Wisconsin students from lower income families have less access to a college education than in the U.S. as a whole."
Wisconsin's continued disinvesment in higher education makes a mockery of the goals of increasing the number of four-year college graduates and training a skilled labor force.
If these trends are not reversed, higher education and occupational training, keys to competitive advantage in the global economy, will be increasingly inaccessible for Wisconsin's middle and working class students.
State leaders, faced with a $5.4 billion deficit, need to resist the temptation to reduce Wisconsin's investment in higher education. It is a strategic investment that is essential to Wisconsin's long term growth and the prosperity of its businesses and citizens. It is particularly crucial now as dislocated workers and returning veterans flock to tech colleges.
In these hard times, the state needs to increase its investment in tech colleges and public universities so that when the economy begins to grow again we have the the skilled and technical workforce and the innovative ideas that a growing economy requires.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Wisconsin's prison costs crowd out higher education
Wisconsin policy makers have made increasing the number of four-year college graduates a strategic objective. Yet, the state's aggressive policy of incarceration is crowding out investments in higher education, undermining its ability to accomplish this goal.
Between 1987 and 2007, Wisconsin actually cut its support for higher education by 6%. Only 6 states reduced their investment in higher ed by more. During the same period, Wisconsin increased corrections spending by 251%, 8th highest nation, despite a declining crime rate.
Wisconsin's incarceration rates are higher than the neighboring states of Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa and the state's African American incarceration rate is the nation's highest.
A recent study released by the Pew Center on the States reports that the U.S. prison population has tripled over the past 20 years. The United States now holds the distinction of imprisoning more of its own citizens, both in total number and share of the adult population, than any country in the world.
In 2007, the United States had a record-breaking one out of every 100 adults in prison. Policy changes in sentencing and parole revocation, rather than increases in crime, have largely driven the increase in incarceration rates.
States, like Wisconsin, shoulder the vast majority of the costs associated with these policies. While states struggle with gaping budget shortfalls (see the recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities), incarceration rates and costs continue to escalate, consuming growing portions of state general funds and forcing cuts in high education and other programs.
As Wisconsin's higher education funding has declined, the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) have been forced to raise tuition, shifting the cost of post-secondary education to students and their families.
The WTCS's adult basic education tuition increased 54.6% over the last ten years; collegiate transfer tuition by 57.3%. Two-year UW colleges have increased their tuition by a whopping 82.6 and UW Madison by 83.8%. Rapidly rising tuition costs have made it even more difficult for lower income residents to pursue post secondary education.
Recent studies conducted by the University of Wisconsin System concluded that students from lower income families were increasingly under-represented in the state’s public baccalaureate education institutions. Between 1992 and 2002, the percentage of freshmen reporting family incomes in the lowest quintle (less than $30,000) fell by nearly one-fourth, from 14.5% to 11.0%. At the same time, the percentage of freshmen reporting family incomes in the state’s top quintile (greater than $87,000) rose by nearly one-fifth.
The WTCS/UW Committee on Baccalaureate Expansion concluded: "...Wisconsin students from lower income families have less access to a college education than in the U.S. as a whole."
Unless Wisconsin addresses its escalating incarceration costs, it will not be able to meet its objective of increasing the number of four-year graduates or train the next generation of technical and skilled workers.
Between 1987 and 2007, Wisconsin actually cut its support for higher education by 6%. Only 6 states reduced their investment in higher ed by more. During the same period, Wisconsin increased corrections spending by 251%, 8th highest nation, despite a declining crime rate.
Wisconsin's incarceration rates are higher than the neighboring states of Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa and the state's African American incarceration rate is the nation's highest.
A recent study released by the Pew Center on the States reports that the U.S. prison population has tripled over the past 20 years. The United States now holds the distinction of imprisoning more of its own citizens, both in total number and share of the adult population, than any country in the world.
In 2007, the United States had a record-breaking one out of every 100 adults in prison. Policy changes in sentencing and parole revocation, rather than increases in crime, have largely driven the increase in incarceration rates.
States, like Wisconsin, shoulder the vast majority of the costs associated with these policies. While states struggle with gaping budget shortfalls (see the recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities), incarceration rates and costs continue to escalate, consuming growing portions of state general funds and forcing cuts in high education and other programs.
As Wisconsin's higher education funding has declined, the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) have been forced to raise tuition, shifting the cost of post-secondary education to students and their families.
The WTCS's adult basic education tuition increased 54.6% over the last ten years; collegiate transfer tuition by 57.3%. Two-year UW colleges have increased their tuition by a whopping 82.6 and UW Madison by 83.8%. Rapidly rising tuition costs have made it even more difficult for lower income residents to pursue post secondary education.
Recent studies conducted by the University of Wisconsin System concluded that students from lower income families were increasingly under-represented in the state’s public baccalaureate education institutions. Between 1992 and 2002, the percentage of freshmen reporting family incomes in the lowest quintle (less than $30,000) fell by nearly one-fourth, from 14.5% to 11.0%. At the same time, the percentage of freshmen reporting family incomes in the state’s top quintile (greater than $87,000) rose by nearly one-fifth.
The WTCS/UW Committee on Baccalaureate Expansion concluded: "...Wisconsin students from lower income families have less access to a college education than in the U.S. as a whole."
Unless Wisconsin addresses its escalating incarceration costs, it will not be able to meet its objective of increasing the number of four-year graduates or train the next generation of technical and skilled workers.
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