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Share the Wealth

Out of an Arizona Board of Regents proposal to provide free community college education to Arizona high school graduates, three plans, each varying slightly on the theme of free secondary education, have emerged. The goal of such proposals is to prepare students better to compete in the "new economy," says Regent Don Ulrich, who spearheads the original voucher proposal. However community college vouchers come to be implemented, they are one of the best ways possible to help Arizona high school graduates obtain access to higher education.

The first plan is simply to provide vouchers for two years of community college tuition to all Arizona high school graduates who apply. This approach, while progressive, is difficult to implement because of the estimated cost. Projections place the price tag of vouchers at $13 million for just the roughly 13,000 high school graduates who enroll in community colleges now. The counter argument is, of course, that the $13 million dollars is money well spent. Surely it is better spent on educating Arizona high school graduates than on building a stadium for a mediocre NFL franchise.

It is not the expense of this plan, really, that upsets the regents, but rather that it may take students and money away from the three universities. Regent Hank Amos argues, "I am extremely nervous about saying we're going to give two years free to community college - that could have devastating consequences on our universities in all sorts of ways." More directly, why would a student enroll at one of the state universities and pay as much as $120 per credit hour (according to the fall '99 fee schedule, pre-tuition hike) when that student could take the same college algebra or freshman comp at community college for free and in a smaller class? Amos, as well as some other regents on the board, fear that high school graduates will ask themselves the same question and make the sensible decision.

Some regents worry that community college vouchers would decrease the ethnic diversity at the universities. This argument is fatuous in many ways, not the least of which is its assumption that minority students compare community college to a university, and all things being equal, opt for the more expensive institution. While the universities try desperately to cling to a standard of ethnic diversity - according to the 1999-2000 University of Arizona Factbook, there are roughly 6, 500 non-white undergraduate students, compared to roughly 23,000 who are white - they may actually be harming minority students. Of those roughly 7,000 about 5,500 can be expected to drop out. Perhaps these students, as well as the approximately 15,000 white students who are likely to drop out, will benefit from a chance to test the waters of higher education at community college.

A second plan for the vouchers proposes that the state target students in the seventh grade, encouraging them to take college preparatory classes. These students would then be eligible for the vouchers upon graduating high school. While this plan seems to have most of the regents support, it, too, has drawbacks. First, students who prepare to go to college from the seventh grade on are not ever likely to step foot on a community college campus. Second, as concerns students who are not expected to attend college from the moment they are able to read, interest in college at age 13 is no guarantee of interest in college at age 17. Many college aspirants are lost along the uncertain road through junior high and high school, not ever necessarily reaching a place of higher education. In this way, this plan is short-sighted and ineffectual.

Finally, there is a plan that offers the vouchers on the basis of need. Arizona State University President Lattie Coor, who suggested this idea, remarks, "If we're going to give free tuition to people making $100,000, politically, it absolutely sinks." This idea seems to combine the best of both plans, limiting expense while taking advantage of a time in which students are seriously considering pursuing a college education. The students who really need the help paying for college not only get it, but get it when they can use it.

Short of granting tuition vouchers to the universities, there is little better that the state can do for its high school graduates. Community college vouchers are an excellent way to grant all desiring students access to higher education. To not adopt a voucher plan in some form would be only one more example of how little Arizona values education in general, secondary education in particular.