OPEN ACCESS TO POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION KEY TO AMERIC'S ECONOMIC STABILITY

Written by

Michael A. Robinson

What is open access to higher education and how does maintaining its availability impact the American economy? Open access is the policy of permitting students to enroll in a college or university without regard to academic qualifications. This concept grew largely out of the turmoil of the period 1965-75 which coincided with America's intense involvement in the Vietnam War. This era featured a sharp turn to the left by elites, especially among the intellectuals (Reeves, 2001).

So, Why should Open Access Be An Important Issue For All Americans?

A survey conducted in 1999 by the American Management Association found that over 38 percent of job applicants tested for basic skills by U.S. corporations lacked the necessary reading, writing and math skills to do the jobs they sought, according to the American Management Association's annual survey on workplace testing.

Forrester Research predicts as many as 3.3 million U.S. jobs that now pay combined wages of $136 billion will transfer offshore by 2014. Everything from call-enter work to software development to accounting is shifting to lower-wage centers in India, China, the Philippines, Brazil and South Africa. But what about the 30 million workers here in the U.S. stuck in dead-end, low-paying jobs (Hansen, 2006). The answer is simple; failure to improve ones skills forces them into a life of low wage and dead end employment. Thus the battle lines have been drawn; a fight for economic survival will not come at the end of gun, but at the keyboard of a computer.

Ensuring avenues for educational attainment and career training for today’s workforce will benefit the American economy, as it will result in the creation of a pool of workers prepared to meet challenges of an information-based society. Having an educated and mobile workforce that is capable and willing to learn new task faster, while embracing emerging technology which autonomous and requires less supervision, will free employees to become more creative in thinking of ways to improve the management of their work thus will make America more globally competitive (Sawhill, 2000).

Universal access to higher education today as it has been throughout the past 45 years is primarily accomplished through the nation's 1,200 community colleges. It is largely because of the openness of community colleges that students from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of needs and objectives have gained access to higher education (Ruppert, 2003). Providing access to postsecondary education to all people--even students who are not fully ready for college-level work--is a primary principle of the U.S. educational system. Policy makers can argue over which institutions should provide access to non-traditional students, but the reality is that most institutions will serve at least some students who are underprepared relative to their peer (Brothen and Wambach, 2004).

There has been a belief that within our democratic society, education has been the Great Equalizer; it presents hope, opportunity and the American dream (I. McPhail, 2003). However over the past decade the Great Equalizer has been under attack and the dream of a college education has become excessively harder for the economically disadvantaged to achieve. Many students have to choose between assessing masses debt to finance their education, or cut back on their semester course load, which will result in a longer enrollment and delay in graduation.

As America fights to hold onto its position as a global innovator and economic engine it is strained to do so with an insufficient workforce and an academic infrastructure that appears to be stumbling and bumbling at every level as it attempts to find the right path to regain its educational supremacy. Perhaps the American economy and the future prosperity of its citizens may again begin with its community colleges.

It is estimated that more than 75 percent of entering freshman students at our nation community colleges are in need of some form of remediation. Without authentic open access to an education that is ensured through affordable tuitions, adequate financial aid, flexible course scheduling and delivery, America will be unable to produce a workforce to meet the demands of a global economy. Especially when a mere 53 percent of poor high school students are ready for college after graduation? (Nyhan, 2005).

An abundance of underprepared workers places tremendous stress on the economic systems of America. Valuable resources must be allocated to provide supplemental services for those who have not earned some form of education beyond high school. The national unemployment rate in August of 2005 for workers holding only high school diplomas, 4.7 percent, was more than double that of those with bachelor's degrees or more, 2.1 percent (Nyhan, 2005). These figures signal a challenge for all educational and economic systems.