Capitalist Crisis in Higher Education

by Jacob Bilsky
Springfield, MA

Higher education in the United States is in crisis. Faculty, staff, and graduate students work precarious jobs for low pay as the cost of living rises. Meanwhile, Supreme Court decisions to stop student loan forgiveness and affirmative action, as well as universities raising tuition, make college education increasingly inaccessible to working-class people.

Socialists stand for the right to high-quality, free education for all. Every working-class person deserves the time and funding to pursue their interests, including technical training and graduate degrees. The privatization of higher education and reliance upon predatory loans to fund it has been a disaster for the working class and the U.S. economy. Socialist solutions are needed to end the crisis, secure the right to education for the working class, and create a better society.

A Bubble Waiting to Burst

Student debt grew by $68.6 billion a year over the last decade, with student loan debt achieving an 8% annual growth rate between 2007 and 2021, according to the Education Data Initiative. Forbes reports that the cost of an education increased 180% since 1980. Currently, the average student loan debt per borrower is $37,750.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, tuition increases plateaued in some cases, as relief funds encouraged state legislatures to increase spending on public universities by an average of 6.6% (Inside Higher Ed). However, increased spending translated to a less than 2% decrease in education costs from 2019 to 2021, hardly making up for tuition hikes in previous decades.

A study by the National Education Association (NEA) found that by 2020, 32 of 50 U.S. states still spent significantly less on public higher education than before the 2008 economic crisis. The two states that cut public funding for higher education the most also saw the greatest increases in tuition from 2008 to 2018.

Students took on additional loans to pay for the tuition hikes. NEA research also found a correlation between cuts to public spending and a 1.6% drop in faculty salaries from 2020 to 2021, meaning that university workers pay for the crisis alongside their students. Some hope lies in the fact that states with strong unions in higher ed faced fewer cuts.

The growing student debt bubble affects working-class families’ lives and the U.S. economy. Studies indicate that consumer spending decreases by 3.7% for every 1% increase in a household’s debt-to-income ratio. Furthermore, student debt prevents workers from buying homes, allowing landlords and Private Equity/Asset Management firms to monopolize the housing market, contributing to the housing crisis.

While workers saw a brief respite from student loan payments during the pandemic, this pause expired on August 31st, with interest on the loans accumulating again. Unlike other loans, student debt loans generally accrue interest even if they are deferred. They are nearly impossible to clear with bankruptcy. The New York Times recently reported on how members of Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980) hold “about a quarter of the nation’s outstanding $1.6 trillion in student loan debt — to the tune of nearly $49,000 per borrower.” As Gen X approaches retirement age, their savings have lagged behind what financial planners recommend for retirement due to debt. A study from Northwestern Mutual revealed that 55% of Generation X did not feel financially prepared for retirement.

Despite calls to cancel all student loan debt, Biden opted for a limited proposal to forgive $400 billion in loans in 2022 (about 25% of the total debt), leaving $1.2 trillion in outstanding loan debt. Due to the administration’s weak legal approach, right-wing courts struck down, culminating in the Supreme Court ruling against the debt cancellations in June. Despite majority support for debt cancellation among eligible voters, particularly people of color and youth, the courts denied Biden’s proposal.

Rather than launching a bold campaign to fight back, the Biden Administration responded by cutting the scope of its policy. In July, the Department of Education reported $116.6 billion in debt forgiveness for 3.4 million borrowers across four new measures, a mere 9.4% of student loan debt. The most recent of the four measures, which forgives $39 billion for 800,000 borrowers, survived a legal challenge by conservative think tanks, but the courts left the door open for future challenges if brought by other parties.

Court Attacks Further Limit Access to Education

In addition to ruling against student loan forgiveness, the Supreme Court overturned decades of legal precedent to end university affirmative action policies. The impacts of affirmative action were always limited, but they allowed some students of color and women to attend elite universities, which otherwise favored white male students from wealthy families.

Less than 200 universities implemented “race-conscious” admissions policies before the ruling. These policies failed to address systemic barriers like the underfunding of public education and services as well as the effects of poverty that particularly impact working-class Black, Latino, and Indigenous American communities. The costs of applying to elite universities, whether or not they have affirmative action policies, are unaffordable for many working-class students.

The Supreme Court’s decision did not address the systemic inequalities that make a college education inaccessible to many students of color. It was a reactionary ruling that will make college less accessible to working-class students while leaving the privileges of legacy students from capitalist families intact.

A socialist plan for higher education would address the systemic barriers to education that affect all workers, particularly workers of color. City and community colleges already allow open enrollment, and many historically offered free tuition. On the campaign trail in 2020, Senator Sanders assured his supporters that a Biden presidency would make public universities and community colleges free to attend, but the Democratic Party once again failed to deliver.

The Enrollment Crisis and the Housing Crisis Collide

The growing cost of higher education and the general increase in the cost of living have alienated working-class people from universities. Universities nationwide have seen a drop in enrollment rates. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that enrollment peaked at 18 million students in 2010 and dropped 15% to 15.4 million by 2021. The pandemic accelerated this trend.

Some universities accept more students than usual to compensate for lower enrollment while failing to build the infrastructure to accommodate incoming classes.

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, students organized protests in April after more than 900 students were denied on-campus housing for the 2023-2024 school year. Forced to find off-campus housing, students compete with local workers to rent apartments as rents rise an average of 11% nationally. Landlords take advantage of the high demand for housing, with Amherst seeing the highest average rent increases in Western Massachusetts, as much as 30% for studio apartments, according to Western Mass News.

Notably, the protests at UMass Amherst connect the on-campus housing crisis to the issues of increased privatization, tuition hikes, and university practices of over-enrolling students while building apartments that charge $1,500-$2,500 per student as a “solution.”

In Worcester, Massachusetts, Clark University saw a 13% increase in enrollment, leading to a 103% occupancy rate for the 2022-2023 school year. Independent Socialist Group member Molly Joe reports that:

“Rooms that were meant to house one or two students are forced to house three, meaning that space is limited, and resources are stretched thin. The increased need for student housing coincides with the risk of further gentrifying the areas that surround universities. All around, a lack of universal higher education means fewer resources for students and more debt for graduates. More debt means the economy suffers, and workers pay the price.”

This past April, Clark University’s student newspaper, The Scarlet, reported a 5.3% increase in tuition and a 6.1% increase in the total cost of attendance for the new school year. Students are paying more for worse accommodation.

Although the University plans to build new, denser student housing by demolishing a block of older buildings, the new housing will not be finished until 2026 at the earliest. In the meantime, the demolition will exacerbate the crisis, forcing students and university workers to live further from campus and compete with local workers for housing while pushing out local small businesses.

Like UMass Amherst, students at Clark are beginning to fight back with a campaign to Save the Main South Street Block emerging over the summer break. The movement at Clark currently focuses on saving buildings for their historical value and protecting small businesses while raising important critiques of university policy. To build a strong campaign, it’s important to link up with university workers and the broader working class in the Main South neighborhood and other parts of Worcester. The community should demand an end to universities and landlords grabbing land in the city and fight for high-quality, municipally owned housing for students and working families in the area. Such housing could include daycare, health clinics, and other amenities to create jobs and a vibrant community without pricing working-class people out of their neighborhoods.

Fight for the right to Higher Education!

Every working-class person deserves the right to an education. Graduate students employed by universities as researchers and teaching assistants have taken important steps nationwide by unionizing and often striking for a livable wage, quality health insurance, childcare, and safe working conditions.

In Worcester, Clark University grad workers unionized with Teamsters Local 170 and won increases in pay after a five-day strike in October 2022. The strike was successful in part because graduate students worked with Teamsters and workers in the building trades to shut down deliveries and construction on campus. The following month, 96% of graduate students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute voted to unionize with the UAW and are currently engaged in the fight for a first contract.

November of 2022 also saw 48,000 University of California system graduate workers organized by the United Auto Workers strike during final exams and win better pay, healthcare, and childcare benefits. Again, the university workers organized alongside the broader working class, including UPS teamsters who refused to cross the picket lines to make deliveries.

The recent strike victories show that when workers and students unite, they can win concessions from university administration. By fighting for increased salaries and benefits, graduate workers’ unions ensure that more people can afford to pursue advanced degrees in their field of choice.

A similar united, working-class approach could pressure federal and state governments to fully invest in universities, community colleges, and trade schools. Going further, organizing unions, workers, and youth into an independent working-class party could win reforms such as universal higher education for everyone, with open enrollment and free tuition regardless of age, race, or economic standing. To make the dream of education accessible to everyone, whether it is for personal enjoyment or career reasons, the Independent Socialist Group Calls for:

• An immediate tuition freeze and reinstatement of the student loan pause.
• Cancel all student loan debt. 
• Support unionizing workers at universities! Build community solidarity committees and invite other unions to coordinate strike support.
• All university workers should be union with a living wage and full benefits. End the “adjunct” classification for faculty.
• Build elected neighborhood committees with the power to accept, reject, or modify institutional land acquisitions and development in their communities.
• Smash the barriers keeping workers out of higher education! Guarantee the right to a union job, housing, universal healthcare, free public transit, and high-quality K-12 education.
• We need a 30-hour work week with a living wage and more paid time off for all workers. Ensure working-class people have the time to pursue their educational and recreational interests.
• Take the wealth of the ruling class and use it to fund free, high quality education for all and good jobs for education workers.
• Take all universities under democratic, public ownership! For elected committees of educators, university workers, students, and community members to govern the universities, with national representation  and funding from a workers government.