At Tufts, we often read about cockroaches finding their way into our dwelling spaces or a lack of wireless Internet access in dorm rooms, and we start grumbling about where our tuition money is disappearing to. In fact, that money often goes to valuable ends like retaining research faculty.
The truth is that Tufts is doing better financially than many public universities, which are losing state funding to health care programs like Medicaid. An opinion piece in yesterday's New York Times by columnist Peter Orszag asserted that as states are allotting more and more money to statewide health care, public universities are suffering financial setbacks and their professors are starting to feel the effects.
According to the column, public universities would have $30 billion more than they do now — more than $2,000 per student — in state funding if it had not gone instead to health care. As a result, a pay gap has opened up between public and private universities. The worry is that the best professors will eventually switch over to teaching at private universities, which do not rely on state funding.
Although college rankings like the U.S. News and World Report rankings are often critiqued and are far-from-perfect systems, it is important to note that historically, many public universities have been on par with or surpassed prestigious private institutions in these rankings, but recently public universities have overall been ranked lower than in the past. Orszag points to the University of California, Berkley as a prime example. It was once the top-ranked public university in the nation and placed fifth overall. It continues to be the top public school but has fallen to 22nd place.
So what are we to do about this? Stop giving medical care to the poor? The interconnectedness of the health care system and essentially everything else that receives state or federal money has become illuminated by the economic crisis. Getting the health care system under control is absolutely necessary for getting workers' wages back up and getting people back on their feet economically. Right now, a portion of the money that would normally go toward workers' wages goes instead to their health benefits and, as a result, people have even less to pay for college tuition.
At the same time, tuition has never been higher than it is now and neither has the necessity of attending college in order to get a well-paying job. Health care is an issue of the here and now, but a degenerating higher education system is a long-term determinant of our nation's future. We cannot just have one or the other, but the two are competing for the same funds and resources.
While those on the Hill might feel immune to cost-cutting in public education, it is important to remember that the vast majority of American college students attend public institutions for their undergraduate education, and many who attend private colleges and universities as undergraduates end up going to public institutions for graduate school.
In annual college ranking reports, the United States has a history of coming out on top of the world. The Times Higher Education World University Ranking, which ranks schools based on completely quantifiable measures, listed American schools as seven of the top 10 in the world. Higher education is one of the United States' anchors. It is our backbone and one to be proud of. Letting it go, even for necessary and just causes like health care, is simply unacceptable if we wish to continue to produce individuals and generations ready to conquer both today's and tomorrow's national and global issues — including rising health care costs. It is important to remember that investing in higher education today will go a long way toward improving the nation's public health, whether this is through technological advances, more health care professionals or better policy makers.
While we do not pretend to have all the answers for how to accomplish this balancing act, we hope that our leaders will not continue to let higher education funding fall by the wayside in the public discourse.
