Value of a degree from a Texas university | Dallas News Live

The question being answered by researchers is, do you think your education, your college education was worth it? A new report showing that a majority of people who graduate with a bachelor's degree from a Texas university see it pay off within a decade. The biggest problem for students, as you might imagine, is affordability. And here to help us break down the numbers and understand this, one of the authors of that report, Nicole Torpey Sabo at Strada Education Foundation. Thank you for being with us today. Texas ranks near the top of the country when it comes to the value of a degree. More than 75% of recent bachelor's grads from Texas universities see their degree pay off within a decade. Can you talk about that? Sorry, go ahead. Can you talk about that for a minute? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So Texas is one of the leading states when we look at the odds of your degree paying off within a decade for bachelor's degree graduates. As you mentioned, there's two parts to that equation, though. And Texas, when it comes to affordability, is doing a great job for its community colleges. Those are highly affordable. And for those of you who are For its low-income students, we also see gains in affordability, but for that average student, Texas is actually still one of the most difficult states in which to afford that public education. Okay, so the Dallas college system, for example, is what you're speaking of when you talk about where it's affordable to get an education, the junior colleges, two-year college programs. Our state, near the bottom for how many hours a typical student must work Work to cover the cost of a four year. degree. That makes it very difficult for many students now, especially with changes in grants and loans and other forms of financial assistance, doesn't it? Yes, and many of the changes primarily affected graduate students, but what we do see is in Texas we estimate it would take the average student more than 30 hours a week of work in order to be able to pay for their cost of attendance, which is more than most students would be able to at the same time keeping up with their studies. So that does put you in a position of taking out loans. And then we have to look at, okay, if you're going to be taking out those loans, How do you ensure that students are being set up for career success right away when they graduate? So what makes a degree from Texas pay off more than other states? Yeah, I mean, I think part of it is really just the demand for college educated graduates in Texas. So the states where we tend to see those highest payoffs are states where more jobs tend to look for graduates with a college degree. So a lot of it just has to do with the economy. And then the other things we see are good alignment between the types of programs that people are graduating from and then demand in the state. So, you know, we see that In Texas, in terms of software developers or data analytics, that Texas is doing a good job of filling those roles, as well as some healthcare professions. There's still some opportunity, I think, especially for those community colleges, that there's even more demand for healthcare technicians and technologists, so good jobs that are in demand in Texas. What about these other seven states? What do they have in common, or do they have anything in common that makes the education worth it? Yeah we see states succeeding in a variety of ways and so some of them are keeping costs really low like California and Florida and then others it's it's really more about the payoff. I mean California and Florida have that as well but work-based learning is one of the key things that We've seen evidence behind. So think about things like paid internships or apprenticeships that allow students to get that experience before they graduate, because that's what employers are looking for is not just a degree, but also that experience. OK, so let's talk just a little bit about what makes affordability harder in our state. Yeah, I mean, it's really what we look at is how much does it cost not only for tuition, but also all of those related expenses. So you think about housing and books and fees and, you know, just compared to, you know, The national average, Texas isn't that different, but also we look at it in terms of what students earn. And so when you put that in the context of wages in Texas, it just comes out more difficult for students in Texas to be able to earn enough to cover those costs. Okay, outgoing Governor Greg Abbott had proposed a three-year college degree plan to be created by Texas public colleges and universities. Fewer hours, 90 instead of 120 for completion, which he says equates, of course, financial savings. Student wouldn't be enrolled as long, and recommendations have to be turned in by the end of December. I'm guessing all that could change with the new governor and legislature taking office in January. But what do you think about that idea? Yeah, we're following that with a lot of interest. We've seen a lot of states pioneering this, Arizona is one, Maine is another. And so we think that could be a really interesting option for students. Usually what we're seeing with the 90 credit degrees is they retain all of the same major requirements and even all of the same general education requirements, but eliminate some of those elective credits. So, I think, of course, we'll need to study those career outcomes, making sure that employers are still seeing those as valuable and students are getting the same kind of career outcomes. But we're definitely, time is money for students, so we're really interested in that option. And what do you hope the state does with the findings in this report, Nicole? Yeah. I mean, we would hope that this provides a framework in a couple different ways. One is just to look at other states that might be in a higher category than Texas and see what might be able to be learned from those, you know, get innovative ideas from other states. And then also just a framework for, you know, what gets measured tends to be what People drive change toward and so, you know, prioritizing things like affordability, work-based learning, career guidance, which we didn't touch on so far, but making sure that students have accurate information and timely information when they're making their choices. All right. Nicole Torpey Sabo, thank you so much for being with us and sharing the information in this study. Thank you so much.