U.S News Rankings Affect State College Funding?
It goes without saying that the media tend to influence public opinion, if not in large part shape it.
A case in point is the ranking of colleges in U.S. News & World Report. According to a March 2, 2007 article by Elia Powers titled “A U.S. News Effect on College Funding?” that appeared in Inside Higher Ed, “College rankings, such as those published annually by U.S. News & World Report, are typically thought to factor into a consumer’s perception of an institution. Plenty has been written about how high school students, parents and college counselors respond to the list. But what about state legislatures?”
Study Finds Interesting Correlations
In my mind, this is a particularly relevant line of questioning. As I have said in previous posts, I am having a difficult time believing that the new student loan legislation (Student Relief Act [H.R. 5], Sunshine Act, STAR Act and others) will save or benefit college students as much as we have been told. I have just dug too deeply and read too much to the contrary to think otherwise. So, my idea was that perhaps the low-income students could best be helped by instituting policy or legislation at the state level that would generate the funds they need for attending school.
The article outlined the findings of this study which correlated rankings in the publication with an increase in state funding. Here is what it said:
“In 1987, state funding was higher for colleges that had regularly been in the top 25 (the University of California at Berkeley, for instance) than for those that had not. That trend line continued in 1995. The researchers found that state funding increased an average of 58 percent from 1987 to 1995 for colleges that first appeared in the rankings in 1990. By comparison, state funding increased 49 percent for colleges that were never ranked and 48 percent for those already on the list.
“The report says that the increase in state expenditures amounted to 6.5 percent per student, while the U.S. News exposure did not seem to have an impact on the institutions’ tuition rates. States with the largest pre-college age population, voter turnout and U.S. News newsstand sales were most likely to see the greatest rise in state appropriations, according to the paper.
“‘The idea is that you have this information out there that is read by the whole public,’ said one of the paper’s co-authors, Ginger Zhe Jin, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Maryland at College Park. ‘What we see in the data is that states where people are more actively looking at the rankings are the ones where the funding increase follows.’”
Solution to Funding Ailments Suggested by Study
Again, the article suggests that the U.S. News & World Report publication perhaps has an effect on college funding at the state level. And my thought is, how could we use that to our advantage, to really do something for college students who need it, like low-income attendees? In other words, is there some way we could use local, state and/or national media channels to influence the state legislatures in a similar manner, so that lower-income students get the money they need for college? While I certainly do not have the exact answer, I think it is an intriguing idea that deserves further exploration.
Talk to the education financial advisors at NextStudent. They have all the information and advice you need on student loans. Check out www.nextstudent.com.
Be sure to tune in next Tuesday for my next blog about this week in student loans.
Student Loan Girl