As millions of Americans attended college graduations recently, their minds probably drifted during platitude-laden speeches and long recitations of names. Probably few reflected on how our diverse, decentralized system of higher education contributes to U.S. prosperity.
Much of the dynamism of the U.S. economy comes from the education and research done at colleges and universities. Indeed, U.S. higher education is one of the greatest advantages we have over other countries, and so far no other nation has succeeded in duplicating it.
The secret of this success is that our colleges and universities spontaneously welled up from society. They were not created or imposed by agencies in Washington, D.C., or St. Paul. Yes, we have state colleges and universities, but the templates for our higher education system were established by individuals working through private institutions.
European leaders know their countries’ universities lag ours in productive research, quality of doctoral programs and in using resources efficiently to educate undergraduates. They periodically meet and issue pious calls for change, but European universities remain underfunded and overcrowded, bound by dead tradition and centralized bureaucratic controls.
Europeans spend proportionately as much public money — 1 percent of gross domestic product — on higher education as U.S. taxpayers. The key difference is that taxes account for nearly all higher education funding in Europe. In the U.S., thanks to private sources, another 1.4 percent of GDP is spent on colleges and universities.
Private-sector funding comes from U.S. households, religious denominations and philanthropic foundations. Donors feel they have a stake in these autonomous private institutions controlled by their constituencies.
Such institutions spring from the history and culture of the nation. Many Europeans who settled on the East Coast in the 1600s valued colleges, especially to train clergy. They saw colleges as a way to maintain doctrinal heritages of specific denominations. Harvard and Yale were founded by Puritans, William and Mary by Anglicans, Princeton by Presbyterians, Rutgers by Dutch Calvinists and Brown by Baptists.
These were not the first higher education institutions in the hemisphere — there were universities in Lima, Peru, and Mexico City nearly a century before Harvard. But these universities were subject to ecclesiastical control and funding.
Though U.S. colleges had denominational affiliations, they generally had some governing autonomy and funding sources outside the church. That autonomy grew over time along with funding from individuals.
As settlement moved westward, new colleges often were established within a decade or two. As the nation grew, immigrant groups followed the model and established their own colleges. These institutions often reflected national or linguistic differences as much as theological ones: Gustavus Adolphus for Swedes, St. Olaf and Augsburg for Norwegians. St. Thomas, St. John’s, St. Catherine’s and St. Scholastica reflected specific Catholic constituencies.
Often, these institutions struggled financially. Initially, many faculty members were poorly qualified. Even so, the important thing was establishment of a strong precedent of privately funded and controlled higher education. Many families thought of a particular institution as “their college” even if no family member ever attended. Giving money to such institutions was an accepted and honored act.
Decentralization also fostered self-renewal. Harvard became complacent and slipshod by the mid-1800s. But when Johns Hopkins was established following the new German model of the modern research university, Harvard and other established schools scrambled to catch up.
Europe had good universities — Oxford, Cambridge, the Sorbonne, Padova, Heidelberg — but the trend was toward centralization and increasing government funding and control.
U.S. government funding for teaching and research grew dramatically after World War II. But it was available to private as well as public institutions with few strings attached. The GI Bill and National Defense Education Act effectively established voucher systems for federal higher education that no one cared to challenge on constitutional grounds.
U.S. colleges and universities have many problems. Grade inflation, poorly prepared students, complacent departments and petty intellectual prejudices are common. Some U.S.-born students shun hard courses in math, science and engineering.
But the U.S. system is still the best in the world. It turns out millions of educated graduates and much of the world’s basic research. It is rightfully the envy of the world.
© 2006 Edward Lotterman
Chanarambie Consulting, Inc.