Dr. Kurt Corbello, PhD, Political Science
In April 2015, a blog known as The Hayride published a higher education policy piece claiming that, “Louisiana has 14 four-year universities. Florida, with over four times the population of Louisiana only has 12 four-year universities. Louisiana can no longer sustain this many universities.” They suggested closing enough to get down to only 5 colleges and universities in Louisiana. At the time, I reacted to this first round of disinformation in my own blog, which was kindly reported in full by Tom Aswell in his Louisiana Voice. You can click on the accompanying link to access my complete set of Data on State Populations and Institutions of Higher Education in the United States as of 2010 to 2015. Nine months later, The Advocate (Baton Rouge/New Orleans), one of the state’s top newspapers, began an otherwise fantastic and informative series on the plight of higher education in Louisiana, but with the very same comparison and a nearly identical quote: “The skeptics point out that Louisiana has 14 publicly funded four-year schools compared with Florida’s 12, despite having less than a quarter of the population Florida has.” The Advocate called it a “University Glut” in Louisiana! Unfortunately, at least on this particular subject, The Advocate put itself on an equally discreditable footing with a junk blog that has a pattern of disregarding facts when the facts don’t suit its ideological purpose!
A few months ago, I couldn’t understand why
there were no other states brought into the discussion. To see for myself whether Louisiana had
too many colleges and universities, I wanted to look at the best available data
on the characteristics of the higher education systems in each state, nationwide. Within a few short minutes, my first
foray into this discussion brought me to the U. S. Department of Education, National
Center for Education Statistics (https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/). It was
clear then, as it is still clear now, that the much-regurgitated comparison of
the higher education systems in Louisiana and Florida, the one put forward by
The Hayride and The Advocate, is useless and inaccurate because it is
unsupported by actual evidence!
Now, I will be the first to tell you that data
is almost always ill-defined, incomplete, and fraught with errors, at least to
some extent. That is why
scientists are always updating data and revising findings. Human data-collection can always be contested
in some way. This is important as
I inform you that, according to the best available data from the U. S. Dept. of
Education, Louisiana has 17 public
four-year colleges and universities, while Florida has 39! That’s right: 17 & 39 versus 14
& 12. There is a big
difference between the real data and the data that is “commonly accepted,” but
WRONG!
The U. S. Dept. of Education defines and 4-year
institution as “An institution authorized primarily
to award Bachelor (or higher) degrees, such as a college or university”
[emphasis added]. By comparison, a
2-year institution is one “authorized primarily
to award Associate degrees or 2-year or longer certificates, such as a
community or technical college” [emphasis added]. The distinction is important for this comparison, because
Florida shows some overlap in institutions, but not enough to diminish my
argument overall.
I used the department’s “College Navigator” to
explore for public 4-year institutions first. The list for Louisiana shows 17 public 4-year institutions1. The list for Florida shows 39 public
4-year institutions.2 It seems to me that a look at public 2-year
institutions is no less important in assessing the burden of the higher
education system in each state. Louisiana
appears to have 16 public 2-year institutions,3 while Florida
appears to have 63 public 2-year institutions.4
When I use the “College Navigator” to combine
public institutions in each state, something interesting happens. While Louisiana’s public institutions
add up nicely to 33, Florida’s combined public institutions add up to 78 public
4-year and 2-year colleges and universities5, not the 102
institutions you would expect. This
implies that, unlike Louisiana, in Florida there are perhaps 24 public 4-year
colleges and universities that also award 2-year certificates. More importantly, regardless of any
overlap in institutional purpose in Florida, it isn’t even remotely possible to
argue that the entire state of Florida has only
12 public 4-year colleges and universities, not if your interest is in
using the best available data, where 4-year institutions are well defined, even
if there is some overlap into 2-year institutional capabilities.
But, let’s continue this discussion into my
larger argument about the entire higher education system in Louisiana, compared
to state systems across the country.
This is the most important reason why The Advocate messed up a perfectly good series of reports with the errant comparison to Florida. Post-secondary education is a system
with many interdependent parts, public and private, large and small, 4-year and
2-year, general and specialized, each serving different needs and communities
in order to serve the state as a whole.
Nationwide there are 718 public 4-year colleges
and universities (avg. 14), 1705 private 4-year institutions (avg. 33), 1173
public community colleges (avg. 23), and 284 private community colleges (avg.
6), for a total of 3814 post-secondary institutions (avg. 75). Louisiana has 17 public 4-year colleges
and universities (rank=11th), 12 private 4-year institutions
(rank=34th), 16 public community colleges (rank=27th),
and 6 private community colleges (rank=12th), for a total of 51
post-secondary institutions (rank=28th). Florida has a total of 193 post-secondary institutions (or
169 if we exclude the overlap in public institutions), and ranks 4th
(or pretty high).
Nationally, Louisiana ranks 25th in population
size, but 12th (91,170) in population per post-secondary institution. I see this as a measure of the burden
on the state’s higher education system.
Among the 17 Southern states, Louisiana ranks 6th in population per
institution. Only Texas (140,401),
Maryland (117,184), Florida (103,074), Georgia (99,974), and Virginia (99,122)
impose somewhat heavier burdens on their higher education systems. Nationally,
77% of states are less burdensome to their higher education systems than is
Louisiana. In the South,
Louisiana’s higher education system is more heavily burdened than systems in 65%
of all other states.
In the end, my conclusions about the burdens
within Louisiana’s higher education system haven’t changed, because the data
will not allow it! It remains the
case that the average college student at a public institution in Louisiana is
struggling to fulfill dreams. It
remains the case that most students have little money, though often working
one, two or three jobs. Many have
families. Others are changing
careers. It is still the case that
most of our students in Louisiana are able to go to college because they can
drive to one within 30 miles of their families, children, and jobs. I repeat that closing public colleges
and universities in Louisiana negatively alters the logistics and deprives them
of the promise of a better life! Anyone who wishes to engage in an honest and informed debate regarding higher education in Louisiana should maintain a high standard that requires access to the best available data, not the most readily available and unfounded assumptions!
NOTES:
1
Louisiana’s 17 public 4-year
colleges and universities:
Grambling
State University
|
Louisiana
State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
|
Louisiana
State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans
|
Louisiana
State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport
|
Louisiana
State University-Alexandria
|
Louisiana
State University-Shreveport
|
Louisiana
Tech University
|
McNeese
State University
|
Nicholls
State University
|
Northwestern
State University of Louisiana
|
Southeastern
Louisiana University
|
Southern
University and A & M College
|
Southern
University at New Orleans
|
Southern
University Law Center
|
University
of Louisiana at Lafayette
|
University
of Louisiana at Monroe
|
University
of New Orleans
|
2 Florida’s 39 public 4-year colleges and universities:
Broward College
|
Chipola College
|
College of Central Florida
|
Daytona State College
|
Eastern Florida State College
|
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
|
Florida Atlantic University
|
Florida Gateway College
|
Florida Gulf Coast University
|
Florida International University
|
Florida Polytechnic University
|
Florida SouthWestern State College
|
Florida State College at Jacksonville
|
Florida State University
|
Gulf Coast State College
|
Indian River State College
|
Lake-Sumter State College
|
Miami Dade College
|
New College of Florida
|
Northwest Florida State College
|
Palm Beach State College
|
Pasco-Hernando State College
|
Pensacola State College
|
Polk State College
|
Saint Johns River State College
|
Santa Fe College
|
Seminole State College of Florida
|
South Florida State College
|
St Petersburg College
|
State College of Florida-Manatee-Sarasota
|
The University of West Florida
|
University of Central Florida
|
University of Florida
|
University of Florida-Online
|
University of North Florida
|
University of South Florida-Main Campus
|
University of South Florida-Sarasota-Manatee
|
University of South Florida-St Petersburg
|
Valencia College
|
3 Louisiana’s 16 public 2-year colleges:
Baton Rouge Community College
|
Bossier Parish Community College
|
Capital Area Technical College
|
Central Louisiana Technical Community College
|
Delgado Community College
|
Fletcher Technical Community College
|
Louisiana Delta Community College
|
Louisiana State University-Eunice
|
Northshore Technical Community College
|
Northwest Louisiana Technical College
|
Nunez Community College
|
River Parishes Community College
|
South Central Louisiana Technical College
|
South Louisiana Community College
|
Southern University at Shreveport
|
SOWELA Technical Community College
|
4 Florida’s 63 public 2-year colleges:
Atlantic Technical College
|
Bradford-Union Technical Center
|
Brewster Technical College
|
Broward College
|
Charlotte Technical Center
|
Chipola College
|
CHOICE High School and Technical Center
|
College of Central Florida
|
D A Dorsey Technical College
|
Daytona State College
|
Eastern Florida State College
|
Emerald Coast Technical College
|
Erwin Technical College
|
Florida Gateway College
|
Florida Keys Community College
|
Florida Panhandle Technical College
|
Florida SouthWestern State College
|
Florida State College at Jacksonville
|
Fort Myers Technical College
|
Fred D. Learey Technical College
|
George Stone Technical Center
|
George T Baker Aviation Technical College
|
Gulf Coast State College
|
Hillsborough Community College
|
Immokalee Technical College
|
Indian River State College
|
Lake Technical College
|
Lake-Sumter State College
|
Lindsey Hopkins Technical Education Center
|
Lorenzo Walker Technical College
|
Manatee Technical College
|
Marchman Technical Education Center
|
Marion County Community Technical and Adult Education
Center
|
Miami Dade College
|
Miami Lakes Educational Center
|
Mid Florida Tech
|
North Florida Community College
|
Northwest Florida State College
|
Orlando Tech
|
Palm Beach State College
|
Pasco-Hernando State College
|
Pensacola State College
|
Pinellas Technical College-Clearwater
|
Pinellas Technical College-St. Petersburg
|
Polk State College
|
Radford M Locklin Technical Center
|
Ridge Career Center
|
Robert Morgan Educational Center and Technical College
|
Saint Johns River State College
|
Santa Fe College
|
Seminole State College of Florida
|
Sheridan Technical College
|
South Florida State College
|
St Petersburg College
|
State College of Florida-Manatee-Sarasota
|
Tallahassee Community College
|
Taylor Technical Institute
|
Technical Education Center-Osceola
|
Tom P Haney Technical Center
|
Traviss Career Center
|
Valencia College
|
William T McFatter Technical College
|
Withlacoochee Technical Institute
|
5 Florida’s 78 non-overlapping public 4-year and 2-year
colleges and universities:
Atlantic Technical College
|
Bradford-Union Technical Center
|
Brewster Technical College
|
Broward College
|
Charlotte Technical Center
|
Chipola College
|
CHOICE High School and Technical Center
|
College of Central Florida
|
D A Dorsey Technical College
|
Daytona State College
|
Eastern Florida State College
|
Emerald Coast Technical College
|
Erwin Technical College
|
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
|
Florida Atlantic University
|
Florida Gateway College
|
Florida Gulf Coast University
|
Florida International University
|
Florida Keys Community College
|
Florida Panhandle Technical College
|
Florida Polytechnic University
|
Florida SouthWestern State College
|
Florida State College at Jacksonville
|
Florida State University
|
Fort Myers Technical College
|
Fred D. Learey Technical College
|
George Stone Technical Center
|
George T Baker Aviation Technical College
|
Gulf Coast State College
|
Hillsborough Community College
|
Immokalee Technical College
|
Indian River State College
|
Lake Technical College
|
Lake-Sumter State College
|
Lindsey Hopkins Technical Education Center
|
Lorenzo Walker Technical College
|
Manatee Technical College
|
Marchman Technical Education Center
|
Marion County Community Technical and Adult Education
Center
|
Miami Dade College
|
Miami Lakes Educational Center
|
Mid Florida Tech
|
New College of Florida
|
North Florida Community College
|
Northwest Florida State College
|
Orlando Tech
|
Palm Beach State College
|
Pasco-Hernando State College
|
Pensacola State College
|
Pinellas Technical College-Clearwater
|
Pinellas Technical College-St. Petersburg
|
Polk State College
|
Radford M Locklin Technical Center
|
Ridge Career Center
|
Robert Morgan Educational Center and Technical College
|
Saint Johns River State College
|
Santa Fe College
|
Seminole State College of Florida
|
Sheridan Technical College
|
South Florida State College
|
St Petersburg College
|
State College of Florida-Manatee-Sarasota
|
Tallahassee Community College
|
Taylor Technical Institute
|
Technical Education Center-Osceola
|
The University of West Florida
|
Tom P Haney Technical Center
|
Traviss Career Center
|
University of Central Florida
|
University of Florida
|
University of Florida-Online
|
University of North Florida
|
University of South Florida-Main Campus
|
University of South Florida-Sarasota-Manatee
|
University of South Florida-St Petersburg
|
Valencia College
|
William T McFatter Technical College
|
Withlacoochee Technical Institute
|
