On seeking out black culture in Phoenix
When I moved to Phoenix almost two years ago, my first goal was to meet someone I could relate to, someone who looks like me: a black woman.
I moved here by myself and had a lot of questions: I needed to know where to get products for my hair, who has the best soul food in the Valley, and where I can dance to trap music on a Friday night.
I was moving from Atlanta, the nation’s black mecca, to a much whiter city. But I was confident I could quickly find my own slice of home here.
I was excited to feel a dry heat and slightly afraid of seeing a haboob. I got caught in my first dust storm driving home to Tempe. And I cooked food in my car during a 118-degree day, because why not? A true Southerner, I sampled as much sweet tea as I could
However, so was a representative of the Maricopa Community College system, who told the committee that it believed that it could offer some four-year degrees without increasing tuition or existing property tax rates, the two revenue sources the community colleges control.
Even with a somewhat higher tuition rate for upper-division courses, that would be a game changer for higher education opportunity in the Phoenix metro area.
The Board of Regents and the state’s three public research universities – ASU, U of A, and NAU – opposed the bill. They sometimes talk a good game regarding alternatives. But, when push comes to shove, they act to protect their current oligopoly in public higher education options.
Research universities are valuable assets. But they are the most expensive higher education model. And not all students benefit from the enhanced educational opportunities they provide.
The most significant problem with higher education in Arizona is that we have no public options except for research universities. If you want a degree from a public institution, you have to go to a research university and pay the higher price, irrespective of whether you will benefit from the research university experience.
California offers a useful comparison. It has a robust system of research universities, such as UCLA. But it also has an extensive network of state colleges, such as Cal State Fullerton.
Arizona has a solid network of community colleges, with expansive facilities. Allowing them to get into the fouryear degree business could organically create the equivalent of a state college system.
The research university oligopolists claim that’s not necessary. That they have been providing lower cost options.
The research universities have gotten better at accepting community college credits. And they are offering some upper division classes on community college campuses. They brag that there are around 3,600 students so enrolled. However, there are over 158,000 undergraduates enrolled at our research universities, so that’s not much of a pipeline or a very robust option.
The current oligopoly is unfair to students. Students not truly benefiting from the enhanced research university experience shouldn’t have to pay the higher research university fare, even if only for a year.
An average Jack or Jill wanting a general business degree to land a middlemanagement, white-collar job shouldn’t have to try to obtain admission to one of the elite business schools the research universities have created. Those elite business schools are a great benefit to the state. But they shouldn’t be the only option.
There’s a lot of fretting about the low number of Arizona high schoolers going on to college. Allowing community colleges to become, for some degrees, a lower-cost, less intimidating state-college option would probably do much more to improve that than the outreach and financial assistance approach of the research universities.
Greatly disappointing was the opposition of committee Democrats to the bill, although one did pass rather than vote no. Providing expanded public higher education opportunities at a lower cost should be something they embrace.
Some Democrats seemed worried about competition or duplication. But competition in higher education would be a good thing for students. Research universities would have to be more cautious in increasing tuition if they aren’t the only game in town. They would have to make sure that their higher prices actually produced a better educational experience for students.
This idea has percolated for years. The research university oligopolists are never going to agree with allowing community colleges into the four-year degree business.
But the community colleges now think they can pull it off without additional funding from the general fund. It would be a travesty, for students and the state, not to let them try.