By Eric Johnson

CHAPEL HILL (July 13, 2023) – Two recent decisions by the US Supreme Court — one ending affirmative action in college admissions and the other quashing President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel billions in student loan debt — reignited debates about who gets into selective colleges and who shoulders the burden of college costs. Much of that discussion has missed two simple facts about higher education in America. 

First, most universities — and certainly most public universities — aren’t in the business of selecting their students. They serve almost every qualified applicant who applies, which is why campuses like UNC Pembroke, East Carolina University, and UNC Charlotte don’t struggle with diversity in the same way as UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest or Duke. North Carolina is a big and diverse state, getting more so by the day. When you welcome all comers, you get a big and diverse student body. 

Second, most public universities — and certainly most public universities in North Carolina — are a bargain, and have actually gotten more affordable over the past several years. Tuition at our public universities has been held flat for seven years, meaning it’s cheaper to attend this fall than it was at the end of Barack Obama’s presidency. At the state’s four NC Promise schools, in-state tuition has dropped to $500 a semester, which is less than the average monthly payment on a used car. 

It’s easy to understand why the narrative of ever-rising costs got entrenched. From the late ‘90s to the period after the Great Recession (which includes the time I was in college), tuition was on a relentless upward march. By 2018, that trend was largely over. Nationwide, average tuition has actually been dropping for the past few years.

North Carolina has an even better story to tell. Only about half of in-state undergraduates at public universities rely on federal student loans, and the average among borrowers hovers somewhere in the low-twenties — again, cheaper than the average used car. And that’s in exchange for a lifelong asset that appreciates in value, driving higher earnings, longer life expectancy and a host of other individual and societal benefits.

This doesn’t mean all is rosy. There are still troubling disparities in who borrows most, with Black families more likely to take on debt because of longstanding inequalities in family wealth. And the biggest driver of student loan default isn’t excessive debt, but a failure to graduate. There again, we see stubborn disparities by race and income, driven by longstanding inequalities in K-12 quality and family resources. Some of the most important work in higher education is engineering student aid and academic support programs to close those gaps.

That work is made harder by the relentless drumbeat of anxiety around college costs and access to elite universities. A survey this year by the nonprofit YouthTruth showed that large numbers of Black and Hispanic students who aspire to attend college are pessimistic about their odds of success, with costs a major concern. We need simpler financial aid, better and earlier student outreach — ideally starting in middle school — and a clear message of belonging for students of all backgrounds. 

But we also need more stories about the incredibly effective ladder of opportunity that exists at so many of our public universities. While the world obsesses over admissions policies at a handful of elite schools, places like UNC Greensboro, Winston-Salem State, and Western Carolina rank extraordinarily high on measures like economic mobility, meaning they do a great job vaulting low- and middle-income students into stable, well-paying careers. That is the workaday miracle of higher education, and it goes almost entirely unremarked and unheralded as we focus on much narrower controversies.

One of the more interesting political developments of recent years is the bipartisan push for more routes into good jobs, for pathways to a thriving career that don’t necessarily involve a degree. Our state’s MyFutureNC initiative is all about promoting education and training beyond high school, whether that’s college or another high-value credential. 

Gov. Roy Cooper touted the elimination of degree requirements for many state agency jobs this year, and President Biden’s big economic speech this month touted non-college careers. “Because of this new economy, we don’t need everyone to have a four-year degree,” Biden said. “It’s great if you can get one; we’re trying to make it easier for you to get one. But you don’t need it to get a good-paying job anymore.”

I couldn’t agree more that we need multiple paths to success in America, and eliminating needless degree requirements is a great idea. But we should also be loud and clear with a message that many more students would benefit from hearing: Public universities are an affordable, effective route to a good life, and their doors are wide open. 

Contributing columnist Eric Johnson lives in Chapel Hill. He works for the UNC System and the College Board, and you can reach him at ericjohnson.unc@gmail.com.