Free College—at 45

An article featured in The Louisiana Weekly last week articulated how quickly automation will eliminate thousands of jobs in Louisiana, and millions across the United States in the next five years. On August 1, the Pelican State joined its neighbors in acknowledging the advance of technology by allowing autonomous commercial vehicles to begin to take to our roadways.

Quite soon as a result, certainly within the next five years, 2.5 million truck drivers across the nation shall lose their $75,000 plus per year, middle class jobs to eighteen-wheelers which drive themselves. Thousands of unemployed teamsters here in Louisiana will join the soon-to-be laid-off staff of our petrochemical plants, put out of their employment by robotization and automation.

These number amongst the last good-paying middle class jobs – those not requiring post-high school training – and will evaporate more quickly than we think, a point that presidential candidate Andrew Yang has made nationally, and state representative contender Matthew Willard locally. Of course, Louisiana lacks the wealth to enact a UBI, as the former proposes. However, there exists a simple and cost-effective method to increase the opportunity of new careers through higher education access.

Louisiana Revised Statute 17: 1807 states, “Any person age fifty-five years or over who registers for one or more courses of instruction at a public college or university in this state and who is a resident of this state shall be exempt from the payment of tuition and other registration fees and shall receive a fifty percent reduction in the cost of textbooks… Any funds lost to any public college or university as a result of this Section shall be reimbursed to the college or university by the state.”

Currently, RS 17:1807 is a rarely used program where, typically, a retiree will take a few community college or university classes for self-enrichment. Other than serving as an advertised benefit for retiring in the Pelican State, its admirers can boast of little economic purpose. What if, though, the age threshold were dropped? What if the program could provide retraining for middle-aged workers made redundant by robots?

What if a thoughtful freshman legislator proposed to reduce the qualifying age from 55 to 45 – or even 40. The opportunity of community college training or even a university degree FOR FREE could provide a lifeline for middle-aged adults. It might even encourage their kids to go to college if children see their parents taking a second chance at school. More importantly, the state budget could afford it.

Crunching national stats on middle-aged matriculating freshmen and cross-applying the small numbers who currently take advantage of RS 17, one concludes that, initially, lowering the age to 45 should only increase the overall undergraduate enrollment by between one percent to three percent. Reimbursements from the state General Fund would be nominal at first.

Of course, even at first, enrollment would be disproportionately larger at community colleges and members of the Southern University system. Hardly surprising, particularly in the latter category as Louisiana HBCUs like SUNO have engendered a particular specialty in helping adults earn a degree later in life. Finally, the state would provide some greater direct tuition reimbursements to help fund those efforts. (State HBCUs have enjoyed the fewest benefits of the TOPS program, and consequently endured the disproportionate degree of cuts during the Jindal Administration.)

In a decade or more, such a program of getting students in their 40s to return to college might be so successful that Section “C” of the aforementioned Revised Statute might kick in. As RS 17:1807 continues, “The tuition exemption and reduction in textbook costs provided in this Section shall be provided only if and to the extent that there are sufficient funds appropriated by the legislature to reimburse the public college or university granting them.”

If tech lay-offs mount in the next ten years, and more and more members of Generation X find the need to get a FREE college degree, the fiscal challenge to the General Fund may have to be addressed. Yet, Detractors need not kill reform today on the fear that Louisiana higher education might become a victim of its own attendant success. A gentle tweaking, allowing those who have not received a TOPS scholarship in 20 years (or ever) to qualify for the program, could make a reasonable alteration to the popular scholarship scheme. And remember, to access community colleges, only an ACT score of 17 is required by TOPS. That’s well within the capabilities of any literate adult.

As envisioned by Patrick Taylor, the original purpose of TOPS was to keep people living in Louisiana and therefore their ability to generate future tax dollars. Should that not include our aspiring citizens who are middle-aged as well?

Nevertheless, to begin, simply change the qualification age in RS 17:1807. Lower it to at least 45 years, an age where a few college courses could launch a second career lasting another two decades.

Are there any legislators brave enough to fight for such a simple reform, or any who realize what will happen to their political careers when robots cast a half of a million of their constituents onto the street, without any options to help our workers start over? We imagine those voters will be quite angry with their elected officials.

This article originally published in the August 26, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.