Communities need to pay teachers more, says Carolyn Meyers, president of Jackson State University. "I think our whole system, nationally, is topsy-turvy," she said this morning at Koinonia Coffee House. "This is where we need our best people to do their best work, and we need to pay them."
She said her parents were both educators, so she is particularly sensitive to the plight of public-school teachers.
Meyers spoke at Friday Forum this morning at Koinonia Coffee House and discussed the need to build a better relationship between the university and the city. She said JSU can help Jackson develop economically and socially as students serve the community and companies seek to locate near a university with a commitment to research.
Even with years of experience as a university administrator under her belt, Meyers still looks like a teacher as she explains her vision for how JSU can help the community despite a persistently sluggish economy.
One audience member asked what JSU could do to help students who cannot see the economic value of graduating with a high amount of debt and then moving into low-paying jobs, like some public-school teaching positions. Meyers said many students at JSU are on some form of financial aid, and most of them involve some type of loan or debt.
"We know one thing: We'll never have the state support that we had," she said. "We know also that people protect what they love." Meyers said the school is aggressively seeking private funding to help bridge some of the gaps between what students can afford and what school costs.
"We have a sad situation that occurs every time we register," she said. "We have students who are academically qualified who can't enroll because they've maxed out their debt. If we had private money, we could go back and fill in. Sometimes it's as little as $200 keeping (students) in school."
Still, graduates will need good-paying jobs to pay off all the debt they have accumulated in college.
Across the country, high levels of student debt has become the new norm as the cost of education rises and state support for public universities dwindles. Meyers asked for the community's support as JSU submits its budget requests to the Legislature.
Even in tough economic times, JSU can be a model for the nation, Meyers said. The university has always done a good job of serving the underserved and can lead the way for other schools to serve a population with a high level of unemployment that needs more education.
Some programs, particularly those with JSU's e-Center, help businesses and business leaders grow and succeed, she said, and can be models for success elsewhere in the country.
"We've had decades of success and our present track record, so one of the things that you can look out for is us developing more model programs, not only for Jackson, but for the state and the nation," she said.
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