Work Colleges and Student Loan Debt

Rising tuition and high interest rates on loans are frequent topics of discussion nowadays, but universities have done little to change the status quo on their own volition. Many students are left with crippling debt after graduation – nationally, almost $1 trillion is owed. All of us UC students have experienced huge tuition increases, and maybe even participated in protests against them. And Cal’s fees pale in comparison to the $50K often charged by private schools. Basically, the current system is unsustainable, and with the current political climate makes policy change seem unlikely. However, seven small private vocational colleges have found a possible solution on their own: reducing or eliminating tuition in exchange for working a required number of hours.

             At these colleges, all students – regardless of their financial situation – are required to work on tasks ranging from gardening to handling phone calls, usually around 100 hours a semester, and then evaluated on their performance. (Cal, of course, has work study, but it is quite different: it’s voluntary, targets financially needy students, and is a federal program.) The results are promising: average student debt is $12,121 as opposed to the national average for private nonprofit colleges of $27,710 and public colleges of $21,740. The vast majority of students find the program helpful, saying it helped prepare them for their first job, manage time, work with people with different views, etc. And the schools have benefitted from reduced staff costs and have seen large increases in applications and enrollment. Three of the schools, Alice Lloyd, Berea College, and College of the Ozarks, have used grants, donations, and the work program to completely cover tuition costs.

            Despite these positive outcomes, this program brings up a lot of questions. Should every student be required to participate? The colleges claim it evens the playing field, since everyone is working the same amount, but students with disabilities or other part-time jobs might really struggle to fulfill the additional time commitments. And the program’s demands might detract from students’ ability to find well-paying jobs they could otherwise squeeze in. The colleges admit that a lot of fundraising is needed to keep the program running – requiring everyone to participate might not be economically sustainable. Letting students choose to opt out and pay full tuition could help cover the program’s costs. On the whole, though, I think that the benefits of giving everyone job experience and the same time commitments outweigh the costs.

            Given that, could it work on a larger scale? All the colleges currently doing this work program are small, private schools with vocational emphases, and it is a little difficult to imagine huge universities like Cal managing 30,000 students’ work hours. And replacing staff with students would be unfair to the employees, many of who have families or more financial demands than college kids with access to their parents’ bank account. It seems as though the work college program is well suited to the seven institutions currently using it, but that the program’s limitations would be exacerbated on a larger scale.

Overall, I think the seven work colleges have designed a really interesting way to combat student loan debt while simultaneously preparing their students for the workforce after graduation. It works well at those schools, but it does little to change the outrageous student debt situation nationally.  

Read more at: http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Students-jobs-pay-off-tuition-at-7-work-colleges-5361112.php#photo-6095445