Prosperity Policy: How not to create opportunity

Friday, August 26, 2016

This article was originally published in The Journal Record on August 25, 2016.

The evidence is clear and compelling that Oklahoma needs more workers with college degrees for the state to be economically prosperous.

Overwhelmingly, the most successful states have the best-educated workforce. Both productivity and median wages in states are strongly correlated with higher education levels. On the individual level, too, good-paying jobs and financial security are increasingly limited for those without postsecondary education. Oklahoma’s business leaders understand that we need more college graduates to become the entrepreneurs and skilled workers crucial in the modern economy.

And yet, our political leaders act very differently. Oklahoma lawmakers may pay lip service to the need for an educated workforce, but between 2008 and 2016, they cut funding for higher education 21.7 percent, or $2,081 per student after inflation. This past session, they piled on even deeper cuts, slashing funding by an additional 16 percent.

The main effect of the state’s disinvestment in higher education has been increasing tuition and fees. Even before the latest state cuts, average tuition at Oklahoma’s four-year colleges has jumped by nearly one-third after inflation since 2008. While Oklahoma’s four-year universities have managed to keep tuition and fees relatively low compared to the national average, student costs at two-year institutions actually exceed the national average. Over the past decade, student tuition and fees have jumped from 36.1 percent to 47.7 percent of total revenue for higher education, as state funding fell from 50.8 percent to 35.7 percent of total revenues.

As tuition goes up, fewer Oklahomans are going to college. Nearly 25,000 fewer students enrolled in Oklahoma public higher education institutions in the 2014-15 school year compared with 2011-2012, a 9.6-percent drop in enrollment. The quality of education for those who attend has suffered too, as colleges eliminate hundreds of classes and programs.

Some hope is on the horizon. If voters approve the 1-cent sales tax increase in November, almost 20 percent of the new revenue, or some $125 million, will go to higher education to help undo recent cuts. But unless we see a new attitude from legislators and a willingness to reinvest in higher education, the path to economic opportunity for the rising generation of Oklahomans will be blocked, and Oklahoma will be a less competitive and less prosperous state for many years to come.