Education Is a Viable Solution to the Jobs Crisis

President Obama introduced his much anticipated package aimed at boosting job creation. This announcement comes on the heels of the jobs report for August 2011, which fueled existing anxiety over what has become termed as "the jobs crisis."

Because unemployment is all too real for many Americans, President Obama's speech focused on solutions for stimulating the economy and getting more Americans back to work: Building roads, bridges, and other infrastructure projects; offering payroll tax cuts and tax breaks for businesses; providing assistance to local governments; and offering a mortgage relief program to struggling families, to name a few.

While these strategies are sound, they are only "quick fixes." If we truly want to experience long-term job and economic growth, we must first recognize that our problems are complex and require both immediate action as well as durable approaches. A strong, viable solution -- that responds to both the short- and long-term needs -- can be found in the increased educational attainment of more Americans.

According to a new Gallup poll (in partnership with Lumina Foundation for Education), a significant majority of the American public (69 percent) believes strongly that a college degree is essential to getting a good job. And there is evidence to support that belief. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that the current unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent (14 million Americans).

But one fact stands out in the data: Individuals with a bachelor's degree or higher are significantly less likely to be unemployed than those with less education. The unemployment rate for those with a bachelor's degree or higher is 4.3 percent compared to those with a high school diploma (9.6 percent) or less (14.3 percent).

In other words, for every level of education attained, the chances of being unemployed decreases, while at the same time, personal income increases. By directly connecting our job growth efforts to investments in strengthening our educational system, we will reap benefits that will lead to a more skilled workforce and stronger economy.

We will see this through increased individual wealth, increased consumer spending, increased personal and property taxes, and decreased need for government assistance (See The Investment Payoff: A 50-State Analysis of the Public and Private Benefits of Higher Education and The College Payoff: Education, Opportunities, Lifetime Earnings for more on this).

President Obama has acknowledged that education and the economy are strongly linked. In fact, he has often said that "education is the economic issue of our time." Knowing that the president recognizes this link is encouraging. Yet, this crucial point often gets lost in discussions, and instead we become fixated on the "quick fixes" that do not address the root of the problem. While the job crisis is real, especially to the 14 million Americans who are unemployed, we must refrain from crisis thinking and work to develop solutions that do not continue to sacrifice education.

While we encourage our nation's leaders to seek solutions that help to resolve the jobs crisis, we should recognize they cannot do it alone. Higher education institutions, which have historically been centers for education and innovation, must do a better job of educating the students needed for a competitive workforce.

Colleges and universities must also be proactive in creating hubs for economic development like was done in the founding of the research triangle in North Carolina and Silicon Valley. Today, community colleges like Columbia Gorge Community College (Oregon) and South Seattle Community College (Washington) have recognized the need to train workers for their state's emergent industries.

At Columbia Gorge Community College, faculty have worked with the power industry to develop a curriculum for renewable energy and produced people trained to work in that field. South Seattle Community College offers certificate and degree programs that train students for stable careers at competitive salaries in demand industries, such as aerospace and allied health.

Other institutions, like LaGuardia Community College, are working to train and transition adult learners in need of their GED, by providing specialized instruction in addition to career planning for vocational and professional occupations (for more examples of promising practices, visit the National Coalition for College Completion).

If we intend to have a stronger, more innovative workforce, the higher education community, like our policymakers, must deliver on our commitment to students and society. None of us -- the policymakers or the educational community -- can afford to retreat from this commitment to America.

The time to turn around unproductive behaviors that stall innovation and growth is now. If we fail to work collaboratively and centralize the role of education in conversations about long-lasting job and economic growth, we will continue to be frustrated and our efforts will produce minimal results.

Michelle Asha Cooper, Ph.D., is the president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, an independent, nonprofit organization that is dedicated to increasing access and success in postsecondary education around the world.

 

Comments

[dpresbit]

03:29 PM on 10/01/2011

We've been creating jobs for local kids in our community through workforce training and HEAVY investment over the last 2 years. It's a lot of work, but in the end it works to the benefit of all who are involved. Proud to say we've done it without a single grant and with assistance with the local college here. More to come and proud of it!

[Marx Twain]

11:24 AM on 10/01/2011

I'm a teacher, and would love to agree with this, but honestly I can't. America has been pursuing the notion that that education is the great leveler, but its not. Education alone will not close the income gap between the super-wealthy and the rest of us, that has been growing steadily to the point now where 1% of the world now owns 40% of the wealth.

While educational policy fits in to economic policy, it is no substitute for it. So long as we have a regressive tax code, free trade agreements that destroy our jobs, unregulated financial markets, and a generally shredded social contract, living conditions for the vast majority will not change. We won't educate ourselves out of this, or any other recession.

[evmcdaniel]

12:16 PM on 09/30/2011

Most professors care about their students, but the University system can no longer afford to run a college the way they used to, they waste money on keeping up with the jones' by building new buildings, football stadiums etc., higher administration fees and all the things that don't support actual learning, all this while cutting professors benefits, including retirement accounts, and increasing their workloads. Professors on the tenure track used to teach approx. 4 classes a semester and spend the rest of the time doing research, now however, salaries are lower, and they only way to keep up with paying off their own student loans is to take on 2-6 additionally classes every semester and drop their tenure aspirations so they can get by. So I don't think blaming education is the answer, I think blaming measures like No Child Left Behind, Pell Grant cuts and devaluation of educators in this country is the route to go. Children should not be the benchmark for funding in primary and secondary school, the skills, aptitudes and teaching methods of each individual teacher should be, higher education should not be judged on the basis of whether or not a graduate finds a job, but on whether or not the university itself supports it's students and professors over it's budget line, if this country truly wants to achieve progress, we must emphasize the value not of the piece of paper, but on the learning that piece of paper is supposed to symbolize.

[evmcdaniel]

12:13 PM on 09/30/2011

I don't think the problem is the expectation of a higher salary upon attainment of a BS or a BA, I think the problem is the way that the current (my) generation perceives their own worth and what they assume they are entitled to (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/how-to-land-your-kid-in-therapy/8555/). I was born in 1987 and I would wager that between then and 1995, children, including myself, where led to believe that they could do whatever they wanted, get whatever they wanted and deserved whatever they wanted. I think this feeling of entitlement has made my generation lazy and unappreciative of the education they could receive if they weren't content to float through the educational system. Public schools in this country are a travesty, if your kid ends up in a halfway decent one, you should feel blessed. Then these kids get into college and they don't want to do the work, they want to party or hangout or experience life without rules. They find shortcuts through classes and how to pass them without learning a single useful thing, and I wouldn't blame this on the professors.

[somewhatodd]

11:45 AM on 09/29/2011

asia has an unlimited labor pool. we are actually exporting educations to asia. asian wages are far lower than ours. asia is steadily making capital investments, both public and private. asia's productivity is rising and will continue to rise.

we have been steadily losing our advantage in productive capital, and now that we're globalized free traders, our working class can't compete with the asian wages without dramatic reductions in u.s. wages.

unfortunately, dramatic cost of living reductions, including residential real estate, healthcare, energy, will not occur simultaneously.

as a smirking libertarian recently said on cnbc, " u.s. workers have simply priced themselves out of the labor market."

asia is steadily making capital investments and improvements, both public and private. asia's productivity will continue to rise. meanwhile, asia's enormous and ever growing labor pool will continue to provide cheap labor for asia economies, and strong downward pressure on wages elsewhere.

this downward pressure on wages has just begun to affect educated professionals.

[TheGreatRenewal]

10:00 AM on 09/29/2011

Here are jobs we can create right now

Build millions of miles of bike and horse paths
Replant diversified forests, grasslands and hedgerows
Tear down derelict buildings and parking lots and plant urban farms
Retrofit all buildings
Build light rail and high speed, trollies
Clean up every creek, stream, river, lake, beach
Put solar hot water and micro wind on all buildings
Develop clean energy
Put water catchment on all buildings
Modernize water, sewage systems
Put all power lines under ground

Time for a Great Renewal ... join us and post positive actions you've heard about.

http://www.facebook.com/TheGreatRenewal

[somewhatodd]

02:25 PM on 09/29/2011

there's plenty of work to do, that' for sure. you've just scratched the surface.

[GunnyJ]

06:21 AM on 09/29/2011

I think training is more important than education. Training gets you employed in today's market. The higher education system has watered down degrees so much till they no longer have the prestige once held in high regard.... Back to training. The Community College portion of the system is key. Direct, structured training serving the needs of a region's employers. Start there and work your way up. This is where results will come from. A lot of BS Degrees out there worth no more than a paperweight and we all know it or are experiencing the reality of it. Training needs to be the focus!

[mamacita]

04:30 AM on 09/29/2011

As the mother of a recent college graduate with a BS in aeronautical science--who is unemployed and living at home--I find these kind of articles frustrating, to say the least. I can understand the need for higher education, but if there are no jobs available, why go thousands of dollars into debt? Are we only funding the higher education industry? Our young people are starting off their adult life buried in a hole filled with student loans. Many are working $10/hr jobs--or less, because that's all there is available.

[Grogger]

10:03 AM on 09/29/2011

Mamacita, yes, the young of this country are indeed keeping higher education afloat. It's an insidious little game played at your expense, and also at the nation's expense. Higher education has a monopoly on credentialing, they serve as a gatekeeper to entry into many professions. College really is little more than an expensive, over extended sorting device. I've worked in higher education for close to a decade and have concluded that it's a racket and the folks who run the schools are neither honest nor honorable, they do not deserve your trust, although they will act that way at the beginning. No one knows what they've bought with higher education until you've already paid for it. Your suspicions are right on.

[changing]

08:57 PM on 09/28/2011

More the opposite in fact. Good ecomonies make good schools. Look at poor schools versus middle class schools. Not enough jobs for the college educated now anyway in many fields.

[Christian Howell]

07:28 PM on 09/28/2011

Funny how all of the people who say they care aren't in the really important posts.

[luapmi2]

07:01 PM on 09/28/2011

What a load of B.S. I will be sure to tell the 73 out of 76 engineers fired from my company. They'll be glad to know they have it made.

Any discipline, principally focused on data (e.g. engineers, mathematicians, architects, etc.), is toast. The data is easily sent to Asia for review and analysis. Asian engineers and technical staff are outstanding and they will work for $14,000 a year.

[Christian Howell]

07:27 PM on 09/28/2011

IF they as engineers can't get new jobs then I'd have to doubt their abilities. Even entry level or mid level engr jobs pay very well. I'm an ME who went into software and both industries seem to be well-represented on the jobs boards.

[luapmi2]

02:01 AM on 09/29/2011

Interesting that as an engineer you are willing to draw conclusions without data. These people happen to live in SE Michigan where the housing values have very substantially collapsed. Their homes are SO far underwater that they can't find the funds to move. It would not be unusual for one of these engineers to need $200,000 to $300,000 to get out of their current mortgage.