Christa in New York

Last week every major news outlet in the U.S. ran a story, or several stories, about the just-released Pew Research Center study entitled “Is College Worth It?” The study found that “57% of Americans now believe the value of higher education is not worth the cost.” I first heard about this study in the elevator of my office building, and as I made my way to my desk, my heart sank.

This study could take us in a few different directions:

1.) The cost of a university education, cited by the study as the main barrier for more Americans to attend and graduate from college, could begin to be re-evaluated. Operations and financial directors of U.S. colleges and universities could begin to serious look at cost savings that could make college more affordable. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a headline that says, “College tuition in the U.S. drops compared to the year before for the first time in our history“? It’s going to take some serious retooling of these institutions to make this headline a reality, and they will have to take a look at every single line item, every single process, and open it up for re-evaluation. It would be an effort worth undertaking.

2.) College becomes a publicly funded venture as it is in countries like Canada and a good deal of Europe. This of course will take a government action that our country fights tooth and nail at every turn: an increase in taxes. Given our current federal environment, I’m not sure if it’s possible for this option to come to life. It would also require a serious re-tooling of our education system as a whole, a subject we have struggled with for decades since. I’d love to see a renegade state take on this experiment the way that Massachusetts ran its experiment of providing healthcare to all residents.

3.) Potential college students will throw up their hands at the high cost of college and not apply. This is the possibility that really pains me. I’d rather pay more taxes now than face a future with fewer American college graduates. We are already woefully behind many other countries in the world in critical fields like engineering, science, and math. What we need is for more Americans to attend college, not less, if we are to continue to compete on the world stage. This needs to be our focus in our debate, and to make it happen we need to consider every possible option to reach this goal.

As this debate continues, and I’m sure it will be a part of our news for years to come, my plea to young high school graduates is this: you cannot let the high price of college get in the way of your future. Easy for me to say, right? How would I know what problems your families face? How would I, a very well-educated professional, know how tough it is for you? And my answer to that is, trust me, I know plenty about how difficult it is to fund a college education because I funded my own, and you should do it any way you can.

Here’s why: My mother provided for a family of five with multiple jobs making far less in her annual salary than it cost for a single year’s tuition at Penn, where I went for my undergraduate degree. I was on my own to fund college any way I possibly could, and though Penn was a very difficult road for me and I thought about giving up so many times that I just stopped counting, I’m so grateful that I hung in there. I always worked at least two jobs in school, and filled out every possible form for every scrap of money I could possibly earn or be granted or loaned. I went without a lot; I certainly had many moments of embarrassment at my financial situation that I could do nothing about. It was humbling to say the least. I had to take the very, very long-view on why all this hard work and struggle was worth it. And I did the math. Over the long-run, a college education would pay off in increased income. It would be a slow rise, but it would happen if I just kept working as hard as I possibly could. So I did, and it worked out. It took so much effort, though I’ve never regretted that choice. Not for one single moment.

As if that debt wasn’t enough, I also put myself through graduate school at the Darden School at UVA, too, and continue to be grateful for that investment as well. And it was a very large investment. It was what most Americans pay for a mortgage. Again, I did the math and worked as hard as I could. It worked out. It continues to work out.

Funding your own college education carries plenty of compromises, challenges, and frustrations. And so does everything else that’s worthwhile. Go to college.