The Myth of Public Education

America's public universities are supposed to be the great equalizer. If a student can't afford tuition at a private college (and let's be honest, that includes nearly everybody), she can go to a state school and receive an education of superb quality, which sets her up well for a more stable, comfortable life than her parents may have had.

Schools like the University of Michigan, the University of California at Berkeley, Virginia Tech University and others are routinely ranked near the top of "best university" lists, and the cost of attendance is a fraction of the cost of competing private universities. Those schools have cultivated an image as poor kids' path to a great education.

But that notion of public universities increasingly belies a less-attractive truth: many public colleges are too expensive for even middle-class students, and they're not providing enough financial aid. A study out this month from advocacy group The Education Trust underscores the growing problem: rising tuition and changing priorities for financial aid have priced many poor students out of their states' flagship public universities. As Kati Haycock, president of The Education Trust, wrote in the report, "No longer widely accessible, their treasure is bestowed disproportionately on the children of America's economic and political elites."

The numbers outlined in The Education Trust's report are stark. Between 2003 and 2007, public research universities increased the amount of financial aid to students whose families make more than $115,000 a year by 28 percent. At many of the schools included in the study, students whose families made more than $80,000 a year were awarded the same amount of financial aid as those making less than $54,000 a year.

The reasons behind the problem are numerous. Budget cuts have hurt financial aid pools, though that doesn't explain why relatively wealthy students are receiving so much aid. Efforts to attract the "best" students -- which in turn helps the university increase its national ranking -- mean that merit scholarships are routinely awarded to families who don't need aid (the most prestigious private universities generally do not award merit scholarships, basing all aid on demonstrated family need). Public university leaders insist the biggest cause of the disparity is that low-income students are less likely to be prepared for entrance into prestigious colleges. That's certainly true -- the inequality in public school systems is a tragedy in its own right -- but it's no excuse for denying qualified students enough aid to fund their education.

As public universities' aid packages to needy students get worse and worse, many private colleges are filling the void. The image of private universities as playgrounds for the rich is outdated: the wealthiest private schools now go out of their way to recruit qualified low-income students and provide them with generous financial aid packages. When I chose to attend a private college on the East Coast instead of the flagship public university in my western state, I saved my middle-class family several thousand dollars a year. The low-income high school senior I mentored last year was shocked to discover on her financial aid offers that her family could afford a private university education, but not a public one.

President Obama said in his State of the Union address this week, "In the 21st century, the best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education." Here's hoping that students in the 21st century can still get one at their public university.

Photo credit: Oscalito