As the temperatures cool and the days grow shorter, many Philadelphia high school seniors are thinking about their next steps. According to Technical.ly, 75 percent of graduates of criteria-based (aka special admit) high schools, e.g. Central, Masterman, Carver, Bodine, CAPA, Science Leadership Academy, and 38 percent of graduates from open access neighborhood schools chose to attend college this year. Immediately we see a contrast in outcomes.

Still, many other Philadelphia high school graduates will go on to apprenticeship programs or the military — and, as of this year, decent jobs working for the city that don’t require a four-year degree. While I’m supportive of all of these pathways, I’d be remiss not to point out that it’s not an either / or proposition. Most young people benefit from both / and. Higher education serves larger purposes.

A high quality bachelor’s degree in any discipline educates rather than trains. It fosters problem-solving, encourages reasoned approaches to issues, and imbues values of participatory citizenship.

On the practical level, a four-year degree provides context for advancement from entry-level employment to supervisory and entrepreneurial roles. At the three public universities I led, we offered a completion degree for students who had associate degrees in career-oriented community college programs in everything from culinary arts to paralegal certification. This inverted baccalaureate offered liberal arts courses to put technical training in context.

Beyond the practical, a high quality bachelor’s degree in any discipline educates rather than trains. It fosters problem-solving, encourages reasoned approaches to issues, and imbues values of participatory citizenship. Students should not have to choose between technical training and broad-based higher education. It’s important for students in every kind of job to gain the insights that lead to having a voice in a democratic society.

The civic value of a college diploma

We in higher education have done a terrible job in communicating the civic value of a four-year degree. We have made transactional arguments and presented statistics on the higher overall earning power of college graduates. There’s little doubt that a four-year degree does indeed lead to higher lifetime earnings. But making that point involves college statisticians pitting majors against majors and overall sanctioning a monetary contest between four-year degree holders and others.

This way of communicating has set up an us / them dichotomy between those who attend college and those who don’t, leading to the current negativity toward college that we are now experiencing. In that context, political leaders should support the idea that a college degree is not the only pathway to a well-paying job. But they should go further in establishing policies that would encourage non-degree holders to work while also enjoying the benefits of opportunities for publicly funded degree completion.

My friends and acquaintances continue to seek advice on how to help their own children gain entrance to highly selective public and private universities that require extensive course work in the liberal arts. While these institutions also offer top-notch specialized preparation, that is not all they do. They provide broad educational benefits that should be available to less privileged students who are not now finding their way to 34th and Walnut.

The value of a college education underlined by the creation of the Peace Corps

Although I have spent a professional lifetime arguing for the societal value of a four-year college degree, I recently encountered a powerful articulation of this idea in historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s. The narrative is based on the couple’s painstaking study of rooms full of boxed documents collected during the 1960s and beyond.

In an early chapter devoted to JFK’s 1960 campaign for president, Goodwin tells the story of the initial idea for the Peace Corps. In the early hours of October 14, after arduous campaigning, Kennedy arrived at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His plan was to catch a few hours of sleep at the Michigan Union. No one in the campaign was prepared for “upwards of ten thousand students waiting in the streets to greet the candidate.”

Rather than deliver a stump speech, Kennedy spontaneously asked the crowd “what they might be willing to contribute for the country.” He ended the speech with a clear recognition of the larger purpose for higher education, “Let me say in conclusion, this University is not maintained by its alumni, or by the state, merely to help its graduates have an economic advantage in the life struggle. There is certainly a greater purpose, and I’m sure you recognize it.”

In the three-minute speech, Kennedy had articulated a rough outline for the Peace Corps as a key element in winning over Third World nations to the U.S. side in the Cold War:

How many of you, who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world? On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer — whether a free society can compete.

Students at the University of Michigan immediately took up the challenge. They organized and appealed to Kennedy to develop plans for a government-sponsored agency of volunteers deployed internationally to alleviate struggle and promote peace. The rest is history.

This story illustrates the greater purpose for higher education: to understand a world beyond the personal and to seek fulfilling service. In other words, higher education is preparation for citizenship. Students and the nation as a whole benefit from this larger higher education concept. A university “is not maintained by its alumni, or by the state, merely to help its graduates have an economic advantage in the life struggle.” It’s interesting that JFK assumed this idea was taken for granted in 1960, and the students’ actions show that it was. Have we lost that today? Can we get it back?

The right to college education beyond job training

Students are not shy about seeking rigorous education that goes far beyond job training. This year, 65,235 students applied to the University of Pennsylvania. Only 3,508, 5.4 percent, were accepted into the Class of 2028.

Are we in danger of denying the full benefits of higher education to the less privileged while expensive highly selective institutions offer their students the full package? In 1960, JFK was able to assume that students at the University of Michigan, a prestigious public flagship, had gained a spirit of public service from their four-year education. If it’s OK for some students to settle for only job training, are we depriving them — and the nation — of what a four-year degree is expected to provide?

The vast majority of students attend public universities, especially local and less-well known regional publics — in PA the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) campuses like West Chester and Cheyney. Although the current PA budget provides better funding for PASSHE, these campuses are still woefully underfunded.

We can be proud that Pennsylvania is beginning to address this unfairness by supporting affordable high-quality four-year degrees through the actions of Governor Shapiro and special tuition-free programs like the Temple Promise.

Every citizen has the right to become a better citizen through higher education.

What can be done?

• Encourage Governor Shapiro and PA legislators to cover tuition and fees for state workers to complete college degrees.
• Support free tuition programs like the Temple Promise.
• Encourage the University of Pennsylvania to extend its efforts to reach and fund low-income Philadelphia students, including outreach to the neighborhood schools.
• Lobby for adequate funding for PASSHE institutions, PA’s regional publics.
• Support increased funding for Pell grants. In addition, learn more about wealth-based Pell grants. Right now, Pell grants are based almost exclusively on income. Wealth-based grants would take into account a family’s investment resources and provide grant money for those who are resource-poor.
• Support inverted baccalaureate programs offering degree completion for students with career/technical degrees.
• Encourage universities and colleges to offer credit for work experience.

Elaine Maimon, Ph.D., is an Advisor at the American Council on Education. She is the author of Leading Academic Change: Vision, Strategy, Transformation. Her long career in higher education has encompassed top executive positions at public universities as well as distinction as a scholar in rhetoric/composition. Her co-authored book, Writing In The Arts and Sciences, has been designated as a landmark text. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum. Follow @epmaimon on X.

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