Study: Education Well Worth State Tax Dollars

Increased funding for higher education is a positive investment in California's economy and quality of life, according to a UC Berkeley study released Wednesday.

The study, which breaks down California's changing demographics and financial obligations, was conducted by UC Berkeley professors Henry Brady and Michael Hout and commissioned by the Campaign for College Opportunity, a non-partisan higher education advocacy group.

For every dollar the state invests in getting a young person through college, it receives a net return of $3 over ten years, since higher levels of education tend to correlate with less of a need for social programs and maintaining prisons, which would reduce state expenditures, researchers said.

"It turns out that higher education is not only a good investment, but a great investment," said Brady, who teaches political science and public policy.

The decades-old California Master Plan for Higher Education, which outlines the state's goals for higher education, guarantees a college education to all residents who seek it, but an anticipated increase in the college-age population could put that opportunity in jeopardy, researchers said.

"The face of California is changing, but the promise we made in 1960 is a promise we should keep," said Abdi Soltani, executive director for the campaign.

Minorities are on their way to becoming the majority in California, due to rapid increases in the Latino population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

If California does not make more of a commitment to making higher education affordable, it risks becoming a "third-world state" for some residents, said Nancy Shulock, executive director of the Institute for Higher Education, Leadership, and Policy at Cal State Sacramento.

Soltani said the new study was ground-breaking because it was the first research to look at demographic trends throughout the state.

"We looked at the entirety of college opportunity for the growing population of California, not what is in the best interest of one individual campus," he said.

Researchers did not indicate how increased revenue should be spent, but Brady said his team effectively showed that higher education was worth the extra funding.

"What we've established is that in the short term it costs more, but in the long term it costs less," he said.

Experts agreed that student fees should be made more stable so students do not experience rapid fluctuations year after year.

"I hope to see a fee policy come out of this," Shulock said. "I think there is a lot of uninformed, knee-jerky reaction to fees."

Brady also said policy-makers need to focus on ensuring that college students graduate.

"We know that if we get another student through college, it will benefit the state," he said.

Shulock said while California still faces an uphill battle in convincing residents to support tax increases, anti-tax groups are more willing to compromise on using taxes to fund higher education.

The study illuminated the importance of framing college funding as an investment, Soltani said.

"The critical factor here is that we as taxpayers do not spend money on higher education, we invest money in it," he said.

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