# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S248 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 248 HIGHER EDUCATION ethnic minorities as, with recently awakened self-con- sciousness and self-esteem, they explode from the physi- cal, occupational, and cultural ghettos in which they have so long been confined. Dream or Myth? Within the context of social change, the educational enterprise has been both accelerator and brake. The extension of free, or at least relatively inexpensive, edu- cation to all segments of the population and through all the years from kindergarten through graduate school is certainly one of the massive accomplishments of mod- ern times. There is reason to believe that, for various social, economic, and political reasons, the upper level of compulsory education may soon be raised, so that theoretically almost every young American citizen will have had some college experience. Already any young person of at least average ability can, again theoretically, make an occupational choice from a bewildering list of possibilities from astrophysics to zoology and pursue his interest to the limit of his ability in the tax-supported sector of the American educational system. It has long been a commonplace observation that public education has been the chief factor and accelerator of cultural change and social mobility in the American nation. But every American citizen knows that this beautiful picture has many blemishes and that the great dream is in many respects a myth. It is simply not true that every American child has access to the educational advantages so widely advertised. Specific social or eco- nomic limitations often prevent this, or perhaps the educational process at one level simply does not prepare him for acceptable work at the next. Cooperation in Crisis The whole American educational system is further- more rushing into a fiscal crisis of the first magnitude. Because the cost of education has for some years been rapidly outstripping all existing methods of support, it is now generally acknowledged that all private educational institutions, including the largest and most prestigious, are engaged in a dramatic struggle for sheer and out- right survival! To the surprise of many, the malady has spread to the public sector to the point that certain state systems of higher education have reached the legal and practical limits of their funding powers. We have even seen municipal school systems close all schools for weeks at a time out of absolute lack of funds. Little wonder, then, that both private and public institutions have been seeking means and devices both to stretch the dollar and to improve and revitalize the educational process, which in many ways had become overgrown with archaic practices and paralyzing tradi- tions. The result has been a whole new vocabulary of cooperative endeavors through which schools hope to assist each other toward greater educational and fiscal strength and even viability. Colleges have joined to- gether in consortia largely to avoid excessive duplications in program. State schools have been welded into sys- tems to allow a greater measure of intelligent centralized control and to avoid an astronomical and impossible rise in total budget. The American Association of Theological Schools is urging seminaries to join into clusters for both educa- tional and economic reasons. New educational struc- tures, seeking to avoid the restrictive forms of the past, are calling themselves centers and institutes. Through it all there still persists, apparently inevi- tably, the factor of competition both for funds and for competent students. Schools are still being judged by their products, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and ironically have been unable to meet the full demands of society even while they are in danger of perishing from overgrowth. Ministerial Education Perhaps the most intimate context in which minis- terial education takes place is that of the church body which sponsors it. As acommunity of human individuals, it constitutes a social group as capable of change or re- sistance to it, of function and dysfunction, of internal cooperation and conflict, as any other group. It is manifestly impossible to repeat here the entire discussion of change in American church life, thought, action, and organization which has resulted in a volumi- nous literature. However, certain specific developments need to be carefully observed and charted if the educa- tional task is to be intelligently undertaken. A major issue, the resolution of which will necessarily have a substantial impact on certain aspects of minis- terial education, is the matter of cooperation among church bodies, especially the Lutheran church bodies in the present instance. Certainly there is no need for the church’s educational system to become a pressure group in the discussion and resolution of these difficult matters. However, the members of our educational com- munities, both faculty members and students, are active members of the church and as such should be, and want to be, active participants in this vital conversation. The Board for Higher Education needs to be sensitive to ecclesiastical developments and carefully weigh their effect on the organization and function of the Synod’s program of higher education. Another issue in contemporary church life which necessarily affects the character and quality of ministe- rial education is the degree of financial support which the supporting church body receives from its constitu- ents. It is probably true that no voluntary organization which is essentially altruistic in character is able to main- tain its level of support in a time of inflationary price rises. Most people simply do not increase their contribu- tions in adequate proportion. In recent years the educa- tional system of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod has had to contend with the fact that its support has not kept up with rising costs. However, this in turn is the result of the fact that the Synod itself has not been able to elicit the kind of concrete financial support to under- write the kind of expanded program which, by common consent, is called for by the crisis of our times.