Editorial: Public-service crisis looms

Friday, April 7, 2006 | 7:13 a.m.

A new study has documented a growing trend affecting people right out of college and entering the workforce that, if not checked, could create a severe nationwide shortage of public-service employees.

The study, conducted by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and released this week, examined the immediate debt facing college graduates who chose careers in teaching and social work. Extrapolating what they had found with these graduates, researchers concluded that many fields of public-service work are in danger of becoming far less attractive to college students as they make their career choices.

Most students need federally guaranteed student loans to meet their costs of obtaining a degree from either a public or private university. Just a few years ago students could obtain the loans with variable interest rates below 4 percent, and after graduation consolidate them into one loan with a low fixed rate. The interest rates, however, have been going up, and on July 1, owing to federal cost-cutting, they will rise to a fixed rate of 6.8 percent.

At the same time, state universities across the country, including here in Nevada, have received less support from their legislatures than rising costs are dictating. Therefore, tuitions are going up, adding to students' debt burden.

And for those students going into public-service jobs, the low pay, compared with jobs in the private sector requiring similar skill and education levels, forces too many of them to live meagerly for years to have enough money left over each month to pay their student-loan installment.

The U.S. PIRG report alerts public policymakers to the potential consequence, that students in the coming years will be even more likely than they are now to choose careers where they could land higher-paying jobs in the private sector. If that begins happening, the national teacher shortage will become a lot worse and other public services, now taken for granted, are likely to become strained as well.

We believe the finding is important and that solutions will require cooperation among the private and public sectors.

Can states offer more attractive scholarships to students seeking public-sector careers? Can they resume making higher education a priority in their budgets? Can they increase the budgets of public-service agencies, including school districts, so that starting salaries are more competitive? Can banks stretch out the loans, so that monthly payments are lowered? Can communities make a stronger commitment to affordable housing?

We believe all of these solutions, and more, are possible. We hope this report, which is applicable to conditions in Nevada, motivates business and government leaders to begin working together before this trend creates a crisis.