There’s a good chance that the budget being proposed in Congress will seriously gut the Pell Grant programs. Here’s how it will hurt this country in general, and you in particular, and what you can do to stop this from happening.
1. Our Economy Runs on College Jobs, and Will Need More in the Future
If you follow my column, you know that I’ve researched how many jobs in the future will need a college degree. A college degree is now even more important for our economy in the future, according to today’s numbers.
“By 2031, 72 percent of jobs in the U.S. will require postsecondary education and/or training,” the Center on Education and The Workforce at Georgetown University reports. “Between 2021 and 2031, there will be 18.5 million job openings per year on average, and some 12.5 million of these annualized openings will require at least some college education. After Everything: Projections of Jobs, Education, and Training Requirements through 2031 includes a national overview of job projections and their educational requirements across industries, occupational clusters, and detailed occupational groups.”
You can still have a high school diploma, or lack one, and still get a job. But those jobs will make up only 28% of the economy six years from now, with the majority requiring a diploma. In 1983, the economy only needed a college degree for 32%, with 68% not needing a degree. Those numbers were reversed by 2021, according to CEW data.
2. College Degrees are the Key to Employment and Earnings
Every year, my students and I calculate average earnings for those with a college degree and those without, as well as employment statistics. And every year, those with a college degree always outperform those who don’t have one, and it’s not even close. That doesn’t even count the gap between those with a graduate degree and those who don’t. And unlike most other studies, we calculate the costs of going to college, and assume you don’t earn a dime until well after age 21, starting the non-college graduate earnings several years earlier. And still there’s a big gap. If you look at NCES data, the gap is even growing.
3. Pell Grants Make Colleges and Universities LESS Elitist
Pell Grants go out to those for whom college would be a stretch. They help with public colleges as well as private colleges. Without them, college would only be for the rich. From research compiled by the Education Data Initiative, 51% of Pell Grant funds go to families who earn less than $20,000.
I can tell you from experience that many of those “Pell Eligible” students are just as much a joy to teach as those who are from better-off families.
According to EDI, 34% of college students are eligible for a Pell Grant. Zeroing those out would destroy our economy, because according to the Census Department, “[a]s of 2021, 37.9% of adults 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree or higher.” And you don’t need a college degree to see that we’re well below the 68% of jobs requiring a college degree from the Georgetown numbers (or 72% of jobs by 2031), which is why companies are importing people from other countries to fill the gap. Keep in mind that those 37.9% with a college degree include retirees.
Contact your Senators and your member of the House here, and insist that they fully fund Pell Grants. In fact, based on how important the evidence shows that these funds are, we might think about expanding them.