Goldschmidt fears too many youths can't afford college

By THERESA HOGUE
Gazette-Times reporter

Former Governor Neil Goldschmidt didn't want to leave his vineyards and his dogs and his peaceful lifestyle to go back to being a public rabble-rouser. At 63, Goldschmidt had put in enough time in public office, as mayor of Portland, Secretary of Transportation under Jimmy Carter, and governor of Oregon, as well as time in the private sector as an executive officer at Nike.

So when Governor Ted Kulongoski told Goldschmidt that he wanted him as president of a newly revamped Board of Higher Education, Goldschmidt balked.

"This job as the new president of the board of higher education is a really stupid idea. I told the governor it was stupid, my wife said it was stupid."

But Kulongoski's response convinced Goldschmidt that the cause was worth putting aside wandering through the vineyard, at least for a while.

"He is so embarrassed about how higher education is getting handled," Goldschmidt said, "and the disinvestment, that he went out personally and recruited a bunch of us."

Oregon's post-secondary education system is in crises. That's what Goldschmidt told the Corvallis Rotary on Thursday afternoon at their weekly luncheon, and that's what the State Board of Higher Education discussed at OSU.

Goldschmidt explained to Rotarians that in 1964, college students had to work 22 hours a week at minimum waged to pay their way through college. Today, it takes students 55 hours a week on minimum wage to do the same.

"The kids we know we have to get through community college and universities cannot earn enough money in the summertime to pay their tuition," Goldschmidt said. "The discouragement factor is beginning to penetrate these kids' heads way before they have to get to the point of deciding to borrow the money."

Those are the children whose parents are unable to contribute financially to their education.

"The effect of this is we're making decisions as a society about who it is ultimately who is going to be educated," he said.

Goldschmidt used a slide show that sent ripples of astonishment through the room. He demonstrated that of every 25 Oregon high school freshmen, only 8.5 will enter college, and of those, only 3.8 will graduate by the end of six years. Somewhere along the way, the other 21 students will take other paths, many for financial reasons.

Goldschmidt said educating Oregon's youth is crucial to creating a strong economic future. But Oregon is in danger of slipping to post-GI bill days, where only the wealthy students from good families were able to afford a university education.

"We are very quickly positioning ourselves to compete with West Virginia," Goldschmidt said of the declining state support of higher education.

A current goal of the revamped state board is to develop proposals for the Legislature and Oregon voters to provide the financial resources needed to give access to all qualified Oregon graduates, and to get them through the system in good time. Another goal is to look at ways in which the university system can do things more efficiently, such as creating smooth transfers between community colleges and universities.

These issues were discussed by working groups of the state board Thursday at several meetings throughout the afternoon. Reports of those groups will be heard by the full board today.

The State Board of Higher Education continues its meetings from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at the Valley Football Center's banquet room.

Theresa Hogue is the higher education reporter for the Gazette-Times. She can be reached by e-mail at theresa.hogue@lee.net or by phone at 758-9526.