How Educated Are RI’s Lawmakers?
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Seventy-three percent of Rhode Island state legislators have a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to a recent poll by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Rhode Island is 33rd in the nation for percentage of legislators having completed Bachelor’s, Master’s, Law, and/or Doctorate degrees, just trailing the national percentage of 74.7%.
However, 24% of Rhode Island legislators have no degree – 8% never attended college and 16% started but never graduated. Nationally, 20% of state lawmakers have no degree (8.7% with no college, 11.3% with only some college). In a few states – South Dakota, Nevada, and Delaware – one in three state legislators never received a full college education.
Certainly a college degree is no guarantee of a good legislator. Nor, one can argue, is the lack thereof a guarantee of a bad one.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“I think it is important but not essential that legislators have a degree,” said Alfred Killilea, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island. “Many have a degree now that has no relevance to the position as a legislator. And some very smart people never get a near a college. However, you learn a lot about politics, economics, business, ethics, and policy in higher education. All of that knowledge can be useful.”
Slashing Education Budgets
Though the percentage of legislators with post-secondary education far outweighs its civilian counterpart – only 40% of American adults have a college degree – lawmakers are slashing government spending on their alma maters. In 2010, states cut higher education budgets by $1.2 billion dollars – in 2011 that number is expected to reach $5 billion. The data raises important questions about the extent to which legislators value their own college experience – and higher education in general.
“I would not draw the conclusion [that legislators do not value their experience with higher education],” Killilea said. “They may be graduates of a private institution and not value public higher education. They may value higher education for their class but not for people in lower classes.”
Indeed, Rhode Island – where state legislators cut 10.1% of the higher education budget in 2009–is last in the country for state legislators who attended public universities (47%). The state was only one of four in the nation that cut spending on post-secondary institutions by over 10%.
According to Michelle Brophy-Baermann, Associate Professor of Political Science at Rhode Island College, the cuts have don’t necessarily mean lawmakers do not value education.
“I don’t want to believe that state legislators don’t value their experiences with higher education, or the general benefits of higher education for the state. In fact, I’m sure they do,”she said. “Rather, I think they have to deal with both economic and political reality. In a weak economy with so many people hurting, many voters may consider higher education more a privilege than a public good. It doesn’t help that an entire political movement (the Tea Party) has emerged to fully promote the “small government” narrative. And, it also doesn’t help that the folks who benefit the most from state aid to post-secondary education, young people, are the least likely to participate in the political process! We can’t blame state legislators for paying more attention to constituents who go to the polls”
Public Schools Hardest Hit
Attendees of public schools are hard hit by state budget cuts, which translate to higher tuition and less financial aid, making higher education less accessible to mid- and low-income students.Tuition increases added about 30% to student costs at Rhode Island’s three public institutions (University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, and the Community College of Rhode Island) between 2007 and 2010. Decreased funding also forces institutions to cut programs and educators, perhaps compromising the quality of public education.
The slash in support for higher education in Rhode Island may also reflect where state legislators obtained their degree. According the poll, of the 82 RI legislators with degrees, 38.5% attended an institute of higher education in Rhode Island. The percentage of in-state attendees is well below the national figure – 55.3% – and the 6th lowest in the country.
“None of these explanations are particularly complimentary about the effect of [legislators’] experience in higher education,” Killilea said.
Overall, experts on higher education and political science cited civic engagement and intellectual engagement as the greatest benefits of the college experience to lawmakers.
“The college experience, at its best, doesn't just instill knowledge: It creates an appetite for it,” wrote David Longanecker, President of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. “And the more knowledge a state legislator can bring to bear on the complex issues of the day, the better.”
“It is useful to know about the budgets and economics that you get from a policy program,” Killilea added. “Hopefully you would get some ethics, too, as well as Machiavelli.”
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