Professor David Card of UC, Berkeley presented some astounding evidence that ought to please parents and high school guidance counselors everywhere. Yes, indeed, higher education does pay off in a big way. The Department of Economics brought Card, a concise yet lively lecturer, to present the results of his many years of research as a labor economist both in Washington and at Princeton. Each year of higher education returns about an 11 percent gain in earned wages. Not surprisingly, the gap is slightly wider for women.
College graduateshave an even higher probability of being married.
These advantages continue and increase significantly into the forties and fifties and then begin to taper off as college graduates go into business for themselves or retire. Card addressed the idea that there is a built-in ability bias when comparing college graduates as a group to populations that decided against college or were unable to attend for various reasons. Arguing that people who graduate from college have more inherent ability than those who do not graduate, some have charged that the correlations are spurious to some degree. Studies in other countries and even studies using twins, who would have very similar if not identical ability levels, show that education pays off at the same predicable rate for everyone. This distinguished UC, Berkeley professor's research supports what may be seen as a radical point of view by some, namely that despite problems in the education system and social inequalities, all our work at creating a democratic form of higher education is working.