INSIDE HIGHER ED: Legislating an Honest Look at College Cost
By Liam Knox
June 7, 2023
The Ohio State House of Representatives passed a higher education bill last week to ensure that colleges are transparent in their communications about the cost of their degree programs and the returns their graduates can expect on that investment.
Ohio House Bill 27, which passed by a vote of 88 to 1 Thursday, would require public colleges and universities in the state to send admitted students who qualify for financial aid a one-page “financial cost and aid disclosure form” in their aid packets. The form would offer a full breakdown of the net cost of a degree, including the expected duration of the student’s financial aid package, a clear definition of grants versus loans, and the minimum monthly loan payments required of the student after graduating. It would also mandate that institutions share with admitted students postgraduation data on outcomes….
“There is this concerted effort to call into question the value of higher education by some on the right wing, and obviously that is a specter that hangs over everything,” he said. “I’m definitely worried about state disinvestment and this bill providing an excuse for that … I’m hopeful it does the opposite, but I do think that’s a concern.”
Matt Sigelman, president of the Burning Glass Institute, a nonprofit focused on workforce research, said he recognized lawmakers could have hostile motivations for introducing transparency bills in an age of increasing state disinvestment and right-wing hostility to higher education funding.
But the data, he said, are on higher ed’s side. On average, graduates with bachelor’s degrees earn 84 percent more over their lifetimes than people with only high school diplomas, according to a study from the Georgetown CEW. And if institutions or programs do underperform for students, making consumers aware of that is a worthy public service when the data are presented in good faith.
“Yes, this is being driven by hostile legislatures. But I think everything that we’ve seen in the data for the most part shows that college degrees are worth it,” Sigelman said. “If lawmakers want to bring accountability measures to prove that, I say game on.”