Civic returns to higher education: A note on heterogeneous effects (original) (raw)

American educational leaders and philosophers have long valued schooling for its role in preparing the nation's youth to be civically engaged citizens. Numerous studies have found a positive relationship between education and subsequent civic participation. However, little is known about possible variation in effects by selection into higher education, a critical omission considering education's expressed role as a key mechanism for integrating disadvantaged individuals into civic life. I disaggregate effects and examine whether civic returns to higher education are largest for disadvantaged low likelihood or advantaged high likelihood college goers. I find evidence for significant effect heterogeneity: civic returns to college are greatest among individuals who have a low likelihood for college completion. Returns decrease as the propensity for college increases. The questions of how and to what extent education can and should influence civic participation have preoccupied philosophers, theorists and social scientists for hundreds of years. From Plato and Aristotle to America's prominent educational leaders-Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey, Horace Mann, W.E.B. Dubois-education has been recognized for its role in preparing youth to be socially engaged citizens (Giroux 2009). The original missions of colleges and universities expressed this essential public purpose, and civic returns to education, particularly among disadvantaged members of the population, continue to offer a central justification for public policy promoting equal access to schooling.1 Civic participation is defined as unpaid work or involvement with voluntary associations, groups or activities, such as the United Way, Meals on Wheels, neighborhood improvement groups, little league sports or sometimes more broadly, involvement with political activities such as campaigning. Civic participation confers societal rewards by way of a vibrant democracy and well-functioning neighborhoods; it is linked to individual rewards by way of job networks, occupational advancement, and physical and mental well-being (Durkheim 1933; Putnam 2000; Wilson 2000). A prominent tradition of social and political research seeks to identify factors that influence civic participation (Wilson 2000). This work has taken on renewed interest at a time when many forms of civic involvement appear to be declining (Putnam 2000). Numerous studies identify education as a key correlate if not determinant of civic participation, with the more educated more participatory than the less educated (Almond and Verba 1963; Brehm and