While pleased to have gotten my arguments in print to counter what I do think is a pretty dangerous trend—discouraging kids from pursuing college—this argument (and all its over-coverage) seems so completely out of synch with what the country really needs from both higher education and those of us who write about it.  College learning is, of course, more important than ever to succeed in today’s economy—and, God knows, we need better educated citizens to help our country work our way out of our current mess.  And all the ink being spilled about the dire state of public education, the funding crisis in the states, etc., is certainly worth it.  But the public also deserves to know more about what is going right with higher education.

Nicholas Lehman has a useful article in The New Yorker reminding readers that “mass higher education is one of the great achievements of American democracy.”  He notes that “A hundred years ago…two percent of twenty-three-year olds had a college degree.  Now, on any given weekday morning, you will find something like fifty million Americans, about a sixth of the population, sitting under the roof of a public-school building, and twenty million more are students or on the faculty or the staff of an institution of higher learning.” He admits that our system of education is, like democracy, “loose, shaggy, and inefficient, full of redundancies and conflicting goals.”  But, in spite of all that, he reminds us that “we would do well to appreciate what our country has built, and to try to fix what is undeniably wrong without declaring the entire system to be broken.”

I am remarkably privileged to work at AAC&U, where I get to see the parts of the system that are working.  The truth is that AAC&U member institutions are facing difficult challenges, but are also filled with incredibly creative and committed educators working to provide more and more students with just the kind of engaged liberal education that will prepare them for work, life, and leadership in the future.  Do we need to do more?  Yes, of course—especially for those students traditionally undeserved and those not well-prepared for the demands of college learning.  But a lot is going right, and we know what works—even for the less-prepared kids.   AAC&U is about to publish a review of hundreds of research studies documenting how five educational practices that have been spreading like wildfire throughout higher education (such things as first-year seminars, service learning, and learning communities) all have a significant positive effect on today’s students—helping more of them stay in college, graduate on time, and learn a host of important skills.  Readers should also watch www.aacu.org for an upcoming article in the October issue of AAC&U News on the incredible undergraduate research program at the College of Wooster. It is a wonderful example of what is really right about higher education today.  Maybe the Washington Post could find a College of Wooster graduate as the hook for its next article—something like “Why College is Underrated: Look What It Did for Me!”

Luckily for us, Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce continues to set the record straight on the continuing value of a college degree.  Make no mistake about it, even as more and more students flock to college and even in the midst of a recession with high unemployment rates for everyone, “college is still the best option.”

In a report posted to the center’s Web site this week, the authors note that while emphasis has been placed on the recent declines in wages for BA holders, “pundits have erroneously taken this statistical detail to imply that there are no longer advantages to a college diploma.”  They misunderstand the differences between the supply and demand for college workers and the wage premium of college degrees.  The report adds, “the demand for college can be rising dramatically, but if the supply keeps up with the demand, college wages will not increase.”

And the two really important questions for the public and for policymakers are: 1) is going to college better than not going in terms of real potential earnings?; and 2) to grow the economy and meet demand, do we really need more college graduates? The answer to both questions is definitively “yes.”

The Georgetown report notes that, while real wages of workers with BA degrees may have declined a bit in recent years, the wage premium between a BA degree and a high school degree has declined very little.  In 2008, college graduates still earned 1.94 times as much as high school graduates, down from a peak of 2.13 times in 2006.

Moreover, one can see in several very up-to-date charts on the Georgetown Center’s Web site that employment growth is set to resume in 2011 and that by 2018, thirty million new and replacement jobs will require at least some college education.  In fact, when the recession ends, as the report notes, “most of the non-college jobs lost will not be coming back, and a growing share of new job openings will require some college.”

Clearly, more college graduates are needed in large part because the workplace demands far more of workers today.  In fact, not only is it the smart choice to pursue a college degree, but students should pursue a degree that provides all the outcomes of a good liberal education, regardless of what major they choose.  A survey of employers that AAC&U will be releasing next month found, for instance, that 91 percent of employers agree that they are “asking employees to take on more responsibilities and to use a broader set of skills than in the past.”  Eighty-eight percent agree that “to succeed in their company, employees need higher levels of learning and knowledge than they did in the past.”

This is totally consistent with earlier studies AAC&U has commissioned as part of its Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative.  Keep an eye on AAC&U’s Web site for the full report on this survey of employers conducted just last month.