[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Articles\/Article\/ID\/157\/people-with-phd-and-masters-degrees-on-food-stamps#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Articles\/Article\/ID\/157\/people-with-phd-and-masters-degrees-on-food-stamps","headline":"People with PhD and Master’s Degrees on Food Stamps","name":"People with PhD and Master’s Degrees on Food Stamps","description":"A person with a graduate degree is one of the last you\u2019d expect to be on food stamps, but an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education the numbers have soared in the last few years.","datePublished":"2018-07-06","dateModified":"2018-07-26","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/author\/admin#Person","name":"admin","url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/author\/admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26111862ca029071a00a76fae48c51b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26111862ca029071a00a76fae48c51b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"FoodStamps.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","width":100,"height":100},"url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Articles\/Article\/ID\/157\/people-with-phd-and-masters-degrees-on-food-stamps","about":["Normalcy on Foodstamps","SNAP Facts","SNAP News"],"wordCount":596,"keywords":["157"],"articleBody":"A person with a graduate degree is one of the last you\u2019d expect to be on food stamps, but an article in the\u00a0Chronicle of Higher Education\u00a0the numbers have soared in the last few years. The amount of Masters and PhD degree holders has more than tripled, while professional-school degree holders have increased by a third. If higher education is supposed to be the pathway, then why are we seeing this trend?From the Ivy Tower to the Food Stamps LineA generation ago, getting a graduate degree meant you\u2019d be more educated than the vast majority of the population, setting you apart from others in a valuable way. You\u2019d have a skill and knowledge set that few other people have, and employers were willing to pay for that. And in higher education, this also meant becoming tenured, or essentially getting a lifelong, unbreakable contract with a college.That\u2019s not the case anymore, not by a long shot. In the Chronicle article, Melissa Bruninga-Matteau features prominently as one such case: she has a PhD in medieval history and teaches two courses at a community college in Arizona. She was doing okay financially \u2014 not great, but sustainable enough \u2014 until Governor Jan Brewer cut her college\u2019s operating budget from $4.3 million to $900,000. Suddenly, adjunct professors like Bruninga-Matteau weren\u2019t as necessary, and they saw their collective hours reduced by 18,000.Educated and Unable to Support ThemselvesA popular image of professors is a tidy six-figure income, teaching a few classes a week, having long summers off, and being able to enjoy a sabbatical every few years or so. This cushy image has understandably drawn many people to the profession, but it\u2019s evolved into a job of status and prestige being its calling cards, and not actual reliability.The article reports that 360,000 of the 22 million Master\u2019s degree holders were receiving some form of aid, but this percentage isn\u2019t as startling as the rise itself. According to the 2011 Current Population Survey by the US Census Bureau, which measured data from 2007 to 2010, the number of Master\u2019s-educated people on food stamps rose from 101,682 to 293,029. Those with a PhD increased their reliance at a much faster rate, with the 9,776 soaring to 33,655 over the same three-year period.Facing the Hard TruthAlong with Bruninga-Matteau, the article also explores the story of Elliott Stegall, who found himself having to get food stamps after his two-courses-a-week job wasn\u2019t enough to make ends meet. However, the mistakes that Stegall made are much clearer than Bruninga-Matteau\u2019s: he got his graduate degree in the midst of the economic recession, going after a white-collar job when they were disappearing before his eyes.Perhaps most telling is the self-analysis that Stegall performed on himself, admitting that he may not have made the best decision. In the article, he\u2019s quoted as saying, \u201cAs a man, I felt like I was a failure. I had devoted myself to the world of cerebral activity. I had learned a practical skill that was elitist. Perhaps I should have been learning a skill that the economy supports.It\u2019s almost always a smarter idea to go after college education than to not, but the\u00a0kind\u00a0of college education makes a difference. A PhD in medieval history, such as is the case with Bruninga-Matteau, may not be the most profitable course of action. But a graduate degree in healthcare or STEM subjects is a better bet.&l"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Articles","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Articles\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Article","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Articles\/\/Article\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"ID","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Articles\/\/Article\/\/ID\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"157","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Articles\/\/Article\/\/ID\/\/157\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"name":"People with PhD and Master’s Degrees on Food Stamps","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Articles\/Article\/ID\/157\/people-with-phd-and-masters-degrees-on-food-stamps#breadcrumbitem"}]}]