Worry Over Lack of College Access Has Eased, Study Finds

Californians are less anxious about access to higher education than they were three years ago, and more believe that some college is “necessary for almost everyone,” according to a study released Monday.

About 54% of 800 people randomly polled by the New York-based nonprofit group Public Agenda said that attending college was more difficult today than 10 years ago--but that figure is considerably lower than the 67% who said the same thing when asked in a 1993 poll.

“During our first study, Californians were experiencing both a prolonged recession and unprecedented hikes in fees for public higher education,” John Immerwahr of Public Agenda writes in the report. “Today, the state’s economy is much stronger and college [fees] have been frozen for the last several years. As a result, anxiety has dropped.”

But, Immerwahr said in an interview, if access to college is threatened again, the pessimistic numbers “will spike right back up.”

In addition to expressing greater optimism about their ability to attend college, 64% of those polled in November said that a higher education was vital to success in today’s world, compared with 56% three years ago.

Just 32% said a college education is “not necessary for many people,” compared with 39% in the last survey.

The report--titled “Enduring Values, Changing Concerns” and released by the San Jose-based nonprofit California Higher Education Policy Center--also concludes that Californians are less likely today to call for a fundamental overhaul of the state’s higher education system than they were three years ago.

But they are more resistant to tuition hikes, with about 64% saying that raising tuition would be a poor way to improve the system, up from 53% in the last study.

“I took that as the public saying, ‘You kicked me when I was down, don’t do it again,’ ” Immerwahr said.

Although responses varied substantially between the two studies in several categories, the figures for what the study dubbed California’s “enduring values” for higher education remained unchanged.

By a margin of 6 to 1, for example, those polled said young people would have better long-term career prospects by going to college than by taking a job offer right after high school.

They also said that no one who is qualified and motivated should be turned away because of a lack of money.

“Public confidence in California higher education depends heavily upon the preservation and enhancement of opportunity,” said Patrick Callan, executive director of the California Higher Education Policy Center. “And the people of California expect state government, higher education leaders and students to take the steps necessary to assure opportunity for the current and future generations.”

The recent study also asked questions not posed in 1993. Among the findings that resulted:

If the state had more money for college education, 52% said it should be given to qualified students in the form of scholarships to use at public or private institutions, while 39% said it should go to public colleges and universities.