RE: Balancing Enrollment Numbers, Performance Based Standards and Funding

To begin this blog post we must understand one thing. Millennials are the most educated generation that the United States has ever seen. They aren't only the most controversial generation because of the labels that has been given to them by older generations (entitled, lazy, unappreciative, etc.), but this generation could change the look of our education system, the structure of our economy and our social systems. In short, this could be one of the greatest generations to grace this earth with it's presence. To better understand my rationale and view some credible sources on this issues, please view this video:

Because Millennials are the most educated generation, this means that education has been a booming business for the last 20 years or so, if based off of enrollment numbers. However, as Ms. Beck's original post indicated, funding isn't based entirely off of enrollment numbers, it is also based off of results. Have graduating students gotten jobs their education pertains to? Are they making a wage in which college debt is worth taking on?

Clearly, enrollment numbers aren't the issue in funding college institutions. Between 1992 and 2002 degree earning institutions saw an increase of enrollment of 15 percent. Between 2002 and 2012, there has been an increase by 24 percent (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). The projected rate between 2012 and 2022 will be 33 percent, but I am not a statistician.

The information presented doesn't offer a solution to fixing the system. Higher education, as a system is not sustainable. In the next 10-30 years mass amounts of changes will need to be invoked, in my opinion. Difficult questions will need to asked and answered. For example: Which athletics are costing the university the most amount of money? Which academic department is seeing less success in job placement and national recognition? Questions similar to this will require a university to examine their institution as a business model and they can make it more sustainable.

Bump, P. (2014, March 25). Here Is When Each Generation Begins and Ends, According to Facts. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/03/here-is-when-each-generation-begins-and-ends-according-to-facts/359589/

N2NetworkSocial. (2014, Jan. 5). This Generation Explained - Most educated Generation with no 

        Jobs or Money. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSijInp8Ghw

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2015). Digest of Education 

       
         Statistics, 2013 (NCES 2015-011), Chapter 3.