Education will be among the top issues considered by the Georgia Legislature when it reconvenes Monday.  Funding for higher education took a huge hit in Georgia last year and prospects are not yet clear for 2005.  The economic and social stakes couldn’t be higher as the growing student population is poorer and more diverse each year.  Concern about college access and affordability threatens to unravel the American social compact that historically ensured greater educational mobility from one generation to the next.

Private colleges help ensure access to higher education – a fact that seems to elude public debate on the issue.  One of the greatest transfers of private wealth in American history is occurring in this sector. In 2001-2002 alone, private colleges and universities provided more than $11.3 billion in financial aid to the next generation of students – primarily through alumni-contributed endowments and scholarships. 

The myth seems to endure. Public officials and opinion leaders nurture the fiction of privilege and status at private colleges.  A May 2004 Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial opposed the HOPE scholarship for part-time students at independent colleges noting:  “ . . . There’s no evidence that the private tuition subsidies from HOPE have benefited student access.”

Facts dispel the notion that students from the poorest families primarily attend state schools. In Georgia, 29 percent of financial aid applicants at private colleges and universities are from families earning less than $30,000. At state schools 26 percent of aid applicants are from families with the same income level.   

Comparisons of minority enrollments at public and private colleges also might surprise Georgia’s decision makers. In a state where 29 percent of the population is African American and Hispanics now exceed 5 percent, 27 percent of those enrolled at Georgia’s private colleges and universities, are minorities. Include students attending historically black colleges and universities, and the figure grows to 41.4 percent.  These percentages equal or exceed those at Georgia’s public institutions.  Agnes Scott, as Georgia’s top-ranked liberal arts college, is particularly proud that one third of its students are minorities.

Independent colleges are accessible, affordable and offer strong programs enabling students to be successful and to graduate on time.  Nationally, students at independent colleges are twice as likely to graduate in four years than students in state institutions. In Georgia, the six-year graduation rate for students at four-year institutions is 30.7 percent for state schools and 47.1 percent for the privates.

Private colleges and universities are improving educational opportunities for all Georgians.  Most Georgia independent colleges offer excess capacity and could absorb some of the anticipated growth with comparatively modest additional support from the state.  The state pays $8,200 to fund a student at a state school – without capital expenditures, but only $900 at a private one with all capital costs borne by the private sector. 

State funding for Georgia students attending in-state private colleges has not kept pace with increases at state institutions. The Tuition Equalization Grant (TEG) for students attending private institutions has decreased from $1,000 to only $900. HOPE scholarships have been stagnant for 10 years at $3,000. A modest proposal would be to increase TEG by $1,000 for each year a student stayed in college, thus meeting the state’s primary goals of retention and graduation.  

The state’s first priority must be to rebuild funding for state higher education.  A second priority must be to strengthen the private sector in Georgia’s higher education landscape. Last year Gov. Perdue and the state Legislature supported the “Half-HOPE” proposal to increase lottery-funded scholarship money for independent college and university students. This signals new opportunity for cooperation – a great New Year’s gift to the people of Georgia.

Mary Brown Bullock is president of Agnes Scott College, a director of the American Council on Education, and past-chair of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.