Thinking this morning about how higher education needs to shift relatively soon from the short term scramble of trying to move online to a different framework that adjusts to a socially distanced life for the next 12-18 months.
There's a lot of things to consider. First is that there are likely to be (at least localized) disruptions to schooling until there is a widespread vaccine for the coronavirus. Every expert I've read says that even if we flatten the curve now, it will periodically resurge.
Institutions that are planning on operating in the fall should be thinking about how learning can happen at a distance. And I can't say this enough, it must go beyond plans for using technology. This is not our biggest hurdle.
Tremendous numbers of students who rely on working while on school are instead going to be unemployed. The Federal government may be providing assistance for basic necessities, but where is money for tuition coming from?
Given that a huge number of public institutions depend on student tuition to keep the doors open, what are they going to do if their students do not have the money to pay tuition and must forgo their educations?
We are looking at massive institutional collapse under this scenario. I'd love to go on about how it was inevitable and preventable if we hadn't allowed public education to be a private good, but the crisis is here, so we have to get beyond that.
Institutions should, right now, be rallying around getting the kind of bailouts that airlines and cruise ships are in line to receive. They need to be arguing that they are essential to keep operating and that this will require a massive infusion of public money to do so.
How many institutions could operate if their student bodies were even 20% smaller? Even 10%. What percentage of current students will not be able to make tuition in the midst of the coming recession? That's what we're looking at.
The solution is tuition-free public post-secondary education for all. This was the solution to the problem before the crisis. It's vital now if we want to stave off collapse. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see another out of this problem.
By Fall, higher ed institutions should be a source of support to students and the community, rather than the other way around as is happening now. washingtonpost.com/local/educatio…
