RUNNING HEAD: COMMUNITY PROBLEM REPORT 1

Community Problem Report on Enrollment Rates for

College and Higher Tuition Costs

Fabian A Cano-Romero

University of Texas at El Paso

COMMUNITY PROBLEM REPORT ON ENROLLMENT 2
RATES FOR COLLEGE AND HIGHER TUITION

ABSTARCT

It is a widely-known fact that colleges in recent years have begun to raise tuition cost

dramatically. Whenever anyone considers continuing their education in a university it often

comes with an attached question of the price. Where either you have enough money to pay for it

or willing to go into debt. Something that is less known and a somewhat new phenomenon is that

enrollment in colleges has been dropping. Higher-education enrollment has in fact declined,

from 20.6 million in 2011 to 19 million in 2016, according to Ohio University economists

Richard Vedder and Justin Strehle. (2017). Higher costs may be one of the reasons. Many

things could be responsible for affecting the rising costs at colleges ranging from cuts from state

support. To the idea that higher loans and financial aid enable increase costs in tuition.

Overall this paper will try to answer these questions 1) Why are fewer people going to

college? 2) Why have College prices skyrocketed in the recent years? 3) What can be done to fix

this problem and make higher education more appealing to future students?
COMMUNITY PROBLEM REPORT ON ENROLLMENT 3
RATES FOR COLLEGE AND HIGHER TUITION
INTRODUCTION

In recent years enrollment for colleges has been dropping. more people are opting out of

the decision of perusing higher education. Still college graduates on average do still make more

money than high school graduates. As Christopher S. states (2017), College graduates, on

average, earned 56% more than high school grads in 2015. That is enough to address the

subject at hand as a problem. There are many factors that can contribute to this phenomena for

example a simple analysis of the situation would point towards higher education costs as the

main offender as to the decline of people not enrolling in college. Each of these factors affect it

to varying amounts of degree. To be able to begin thinking of how to fix this dropping drive in

higher education the best path to take is to figure out why the factors are present to figure out a

way to solve them.

IMPROVING ECONOMY

One of the factors affecting lower enrollment with big enough influence on the subject to

analyze and talk about would be the argument that with an improving economy enrollment rates

drop. The same is true as when the economy is in shambles enrollment rates spike since higher

education is looked at like an answer to money problems. "Historically, as the economy

improves and Americans get back to work, college enrollment declines," says U.S. Under

Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell. (Heather Long, 2017). For example, during the Great

Depression many more people attended college as it was a worthwhile investment to the

alternative. Christopher S from US Today (2017) said it best, Since the Great Recession ended

in 2009, college-educated workers have captured most of the new jobs and enjoyed pay gains.

Non-college grads, by contrast, have faced dwindling job opportunities and an overall 3%

decline in income. More and more people would rather go the route of the readily available blue
COMMUNITY PROBLEM REPORT ON ENROLLMENT 4
RATES FOR COLLEGE AND HIGHER TUITION
collar job which is available straight out of high school with the reason being that it means they

make money right away. In most cases, blue collars job offer a way to climb the hierarchy

position at a company. Witch might lead to a position that may earn as much or at least close to a

college grads paycheck. Keep in mind they did this with ought the usual 4 years of college

accompanied with high debt to their name. Even so a college degree has been proven to be better

than any of the other options. A college degree is the surest ticket to the middle class. (Barrack

Obama, 2015). Considering all of this we can agree that a college degree in general is the safest

route to a secure financial future maybe not as much today but at the end of a 4-year education

students will be glad they have invested in their education.

PARENT INVOLVEMENT

When a parent is active in the lives of their children when it comes to education it leads to

positive results as we will see be proven in different communities in other countries. Parent

involvement in a child's education is consistently found to be positively associated with a child's

academic performance. According to the department of psychology, University of North

Carolina at Greensboro (2010). Another possible factor to why education enrollment has been

declining in recent years would be the fact that parents in America have been slacking off when

it comes to being involved to their childrens academic lives. This includes general meetings or

volunteering. Beginning in 2012 the statistics indicate that fewer people started being involved in

childrens academic lives like meeting with a teacher or serving in a committee (Child Trends,

2013). More of the evidence from Child trends suggests that children with parental involvement

leads to fewer behavioral problems and better academic grades. These habits bestowed upon

children by their parents are the catalyst of a great hard working student in the future that may be

more inclined to enroll in college. Some examples backing up this idea can be seen in the
COMMUNITY PROBLEM REPORT ON ENROLLMENT 5
RATES FOR COLLEGE AND HIGHER TUITION
country of Japan. A fact that may be unknown to most is that high school is not mandatory in

Japan even so 96 percent of the population enroll with only 2 percent dropping out (ThoughtCo.,

2017). Mothers in Japan are very closely integrated in their childrens education lives. Here is an

excerpt from an article posted at culture quest, mothers are expected to play a central role in

supporting their childrens education. They are often referred to as kyoiku mamas, or education

mothers, because of their superhuman efforts to ensure that their children will come out

winners Japaneses students lead the world in literacy and numeracy. Japan is 2nd in ranking of

best educations in the world according to a study from a British multinational publishing and

education company. The roll of parents in students lifes is very much a factor and a clearly

something that America lacks or could do better in improving.

Cost

The truth is that most families do not have enough money to pay for tuition. The college turnout

is very low this means that fewer people graduate than they enroll. The reason being they are not

able to pay for the full 4 years of college. With ought, the complete degrees the money they have

spent so far is wasted. There may be more help in the form of financial aid but this most of the

time leads to loans. Even then According to Ethan Siegel (2016) a contributor to Forbes, With

tuitions at many Universities now exceeding $40,000 per year, even a plethora of financial aid

opportunities and scholarships leave the average student approaching or upwards of six figures in

debt because of their four-year degree. Any reasonable person looking whether to embark in a

journey of great debt may be more inclined to choose a different path for example as stated

before a job right out of college. Americans owe 1.45 trillion dollars in student debt according to

statistics from Student Loan Hero (2017). It is also a fact that tuition has been rising faster than

inflation according to john from CNBC (2016). The fact that student tuition has been rising
COMMUNITY PROBLEM REPORT ON ENROLLMENT 6
RATES FOR COLLEGE AND HIGHER TUITION
throughout the years it would seem logical that we correlate it with the lower enrollment rates

affecting colleges. The more money tuition costs students will try to find different solutions to a

better future financially. Another example showing how tuition has increased drastically would

be the case of how much tuition cost at Harvard in 1987 which was 2,600 dollars at the time this

was only 13 weeks of the median households yearly income. Now a days parents need to work

almost a year to pay for the cost of college.

WHY ARE COLLEGES COSTS RISING?

To figure out how to prevent any more further costs increases in tuition it would be wise to

figure out why it is increasing. One of the most brought up arguments to why you be because of

reduction of state support. This is also true for local support. A new study shows how for every

1000 dollars cut by the government students are expected to pay about 257 dollars more per year.

Compared to the year 2000 where it was only 100 dollars (Rick,2017). The rate of these figures

continues to rise in recent years. Another not as clear to see as the previous issue would be that

schools must fight to appeal to students. They do this by acquiring better teaches better facilities

and so on these tend to cost more of course. It can also be stated that all the programs started by

universities means hiring more non-teaching faculty. Weather they help higher education or not

the problem remains this action increases tuition prices. As John (2017) states, schools continue

to compete for students by working to attract top faculty, build and maintain the latest facilities

and offer the next generation of students amenities that can be touted on campus tours for

prospective applicants. Another possible factor affecting costs would be the idea that students

can now barrow more money in the form of loans compared to past years. In an article by Ellen

Wexler (2016) she states, Student aid accounts for most of the tuition increases between 1987

and 2010, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research also
COMMUNITY PROBLEM REPORT ON ENROLLMENT 7
RATES FOR COLLEGE AND HIGHER TUITION
in the article it says how researchers have found that college raise tuition mainly because they

can and know that the government will cover the difference for students through federal aid or

loans. There are many problems that affect lower enrollment and higher prices some more true

than others on and some more widely believed, but the real question is how we can fix it.

CONCLUSION

The only question left would be how we can fix the problem of lower enrolment in college and

the subsequent problems and reasons that come behind it? There are two possible ways to

make college free. The first point made would be that we could just redirect government

funding. According to Weismann (2013), What if Washington just went ahead and made

tuition at state schools free (or close to it)? Again, according to him we already spend the

money. Last year all the financial aid initiatives created by the government could have simply

paid the tuition for every student in public college in the country. This makes sense because

most people that receive financial aid have money left over that could be used to help pay

other students tuition. Now higher education isnt a question of whether you can pay or not. It

will be a simple decision made by the person involved. This will help higher percentages of the

lower income families to enroll in college. Of course, it is very possible that people will start

covering the financial gaps in this plan in the form of taxes. One of the pros would be that more

lower income students would graduate. Even so it can be argued that a more educated

population can be beneficial to all of us including those of us with ought kids embarking in

higher education in the future. An article by Neil Buchanan says, The educated population

is Essential to a nations prosperity. Either way There must be a solution to such a

big problem plaguing the young people of this country, and this is just one

possibility.
COMMUNITY PROBLEM REPORT ON ENROLLMENT 8
RATES FOR COLLEGE AND HIGHER TUITION
REFRENCES
Abe, N. (March, 2017.). The Japanese Education System. Retrieved November 17, 2017, from
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-japanese-education-system-2028111

Collective of many people (2015). Retrieved November 17, 2017, from

http://www.culturequest.us/culturequestsummer/prole.html

MASTERS STUDY FAIRS. (2017). Retrieved November 17, 2017, from http://www.master-
and-more.eu/en/news-detail/news/top-40-education-systems-in-the-world/

Neil H. Buchanan Neil H. Buchanan, Politicians Are Demonizing Our Educational System for

Political Advantage. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from

https://verdict.justia.com/2012/03/29/an-educated-population-is-essential-to-a-nations-

prosperity-yet-some-politicians-are-demonizing-our-educational-system-for-political-advantage

Parental Involvement in Schools. (2013). Retrieved November 17, 2017, from

https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/parental-involvement-in-schools/

Rugaber, C. S. (2017, January 12). Pay gap between college grads and everyone else at a record.
Retrieved November 17, 2017, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/01/12/pay-
gap-between-college-grads-and-everyone-else-record/96493348/

Schoen, J. W. (2016, December 08). The real reasons a college degree costs so much. Retrieved
November 17, 2017, from https://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/16/why-college-costs-are-so-high-
and-rising.html
COMMUNITY PROBLEM REPORT ON ENROLLMENT 9
RATES FOR COLLEGE AND HIGHER TUITION

REFRENCES
Siegel, E. (2016, March 01). Why College Is So Expensive, And How To Fix It. Retrieved
November 17, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/03/01/why-
college-is-so-expensive-and-how-to-fix-it/#7db5dd45252f

State Funding Cuts Matter. (2017). Retrieved November 17, 2017, from
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/07/24/new-study-attempts-show-how-much-state-
funding-cuts-push-tuition

Topor, D. R., Keane, S. P., Shelton, T. L., & Calkins, S. D. (2010). Parent involvement and
student academic performance: A multiple mediational analysis. Retrieved November 17, 2017,
from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020099/#R15

U.S. Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2017. (2017). Retrieved November 17, 2017, from
https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/

Years, F. (2016). U.S. college enrollment is dropping. Bad sign? Retrieved November 17, 2017,
from http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/20/news/economy/college-enrollment-down/index.html

Wexler, E. (2016). Why Is Tuition So High? Retrieved November 17, 2017, from
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/09/study-increased-student-aid-not-faculty-
salaries-drives-tuition