Good parents will always
try to get the best education they can for their children. If competition
for places in the best colleges is becoming increasingly fierce, then
good parents will pay whatever they can afford to secure competitive advantages
for their children. Saying that parents who purchase costly private counseling
are unduly anxious or ambitious misses the point. The difference between
excellent students who make it into the best colleges and the excellent
ones who do not will often be slight, and if a few thousand dollars could
give your child a possible edge over others, you will happily pay it.
Parents are not to blame here. But cause for shame certainly lies elsewhere.
The appalling ratio of high-school counselors to students in California
high schools means that no student can expect to receive adequate counseling
on their education after Grade 12. This is no tragedy for those whose
parents have the money to buy the counseling their children need, and
it may be no tragedy for those who lack the money but have the time and
knowledge to seek out from other sources the information their children
need. But for families who have neither the money nor the time and knowledge,
the fate of their children is more uncertain. Talented youth with parents
too poor and uneducated to help them choose wisely in making the transition
from high school to college will get help from no where if their schools
do not help them. High schools in California cannot help them at this
point in time, and so we have yet another public betrayal of our professed
commitment to equal educational opportunity.
-Eamonn Callan
Professor
of Education, SUSE
Professor Callan is a philosopher of education who specializes in the
ethical problems that are frequently ignored in educational policy.
eamonn.callan@stanford.edu
I find
myself answering "yes" and "yes" to this question. Yes, the privatization
of college counseling and test preparation provides a boon to vital services
that are inadequately provided in the majority of public high schools
today. These services will continue to attract prospective college students
and their parents who can afford to buy these services, particularly as
the economic benefits of a college degree and the competition to get into
more selective public and private colleges (i.e., more prestigious degrees)
also continue to rise. And yes, a threat to equal opportunity to access
in higher education is growing as a result of this boon. Once the primary
domains of schools, counseling and test coaching services now have become
big business in the private sector within the last decade. Approximately
80,000 students used these services in 1998 compared to 12,000 in 1990,
thus widening the equal opportunity gap between those families who have
the financial resources to increase their children's college admissions
advantages and those who do not. Moreover, the demand for these services
is expected to rise steadily in light of the expansion by Kaplan Educational
Centers and Princeton Review, entry of new venture capitalists, direct
marketing in high schools, and internet offerings.
As a former high school teacher and counselor, I ask myself, how could the middle and low income students who want to go to college, such as those I knew at Garfield High School or Venice High School in the LA Unified School District, be able to afford such services? Clearly, they could not afford them.
Counselors then had a 1,000-to-1 student-counselor load, handling a myriad of scheduling, disciplinary, and other duties that left very little time for college advising. These conditions have worsened as high school counselors today deal with increasingly more social and psychological issues. At the same time, school districts everywhere are decreasing the number of counselors for financial reasons, while student enrollments are increasing.
Is it any wonder that parents who can afford to purchase the services of independent counselors and coaches do so? Ideally, every student should be able to benefit from such services in order to broaden his/her career and college choices, but sadly, this is not the case. What are other solutions? Certainly, state legislatures should increase funding for more public school counselors. Foundations, corporations, and local businesses could join in partnerships to offer these benefits to students who cannot afford them. Also, private counselors and coaches could offer their services pro bono in schools and public libraries, churches, and community centers.
As a researcher who focuses on higher education issues of access and equity, I ask myself, what about the additional barriers these private industries impose on those who cannot afford their services? Students from diverse racial/ethnic and lower socio-economic backgrounds are seriously underrepresented in four-year colleges already. As more affluent students access private counseling services and improve their college admissions, low income students are in danger of being further displaced due to their weaker, less professionally polished applications. As such, this potentially exacerbates their underrepresentation in college. For the economic and social well-being of the nation and the individuals within it, this cannot be allowed to happen.
-Berta
Vigil Laden,
PhD '94
Visiting Scholar, SUSE
bvladen@stanford.edu
Most students view
college admissions as unpredictable and doubt their ability to compete
without professional assistance. Public high schools have effectively
divested themselves of college advisors, with ratios of 350-1400 students
per counselor. Private college counselors provide vital services by
offering what high school counselors should, but can not: information,
advising, task management, and emotional support. Every college-bound
student deserves this assistance.
The college applicants who use private counselors have college-educated parents and tend to be full-tuition-paying students in an age of diminishing need-blind admissions. These students also disproportionately use test prep and other admissions management services. In contrast, most poor students and underrepresented minorities are making their college decisions constrained by a lack of individual and family college knowledge, as well as a lack of professional advisors. These students struggle to get basic information and meet admission requirements in schools without adequate honors and advanced placement classes.
When private producers enter into public monopoly markets, accountability shifts. The public's goals of equality of educational opportunity and full development of human talent are replaced by goals of increasing profit and market dominance. The best way to encourage private managers to serve the public interest is through competition among governmental entities and private entrepreneurs. We must reinvest in public high school counseling. Equality of opportunity depends on the ability to compete equally, but the conditions of competition are not equal when only a small percentage of students get the vital assistance of professional counselors.
-Patricia
M. McDonough, PhD '92
Associate Professor & Chair Department of Education, UCLA One of Professor
McDonough's main areas of interest is access and equity in education;
she has written extensively on this topic.
mcdonough@gseis.ucla.edu
