Maureen Lane

We Want Real College Affordability - Not Another Turkey

Education funding policy is more than the sum of its parts. As noted in Mary Beth Markein’s piece in Tuesday's USA Today, "the Nation's top universities are becoming disproportionately whiter and richer." Between 1995 and 2003 universities decreased funding for families making $20,000 a year or less by 13% and increased financial aid for families making $100,000 or more by 406%. There's no denying that middle class families needed the help but does that shift seem fair at all?

Just a few weeks earlier in October, The American Council on Education released Minorities in Higher Education Twenty-second Annual Status Report. The report summarizes high school completion and college participation rates, college enrollments, educational attainment, degrees conferred and higher education employment. Minority college enrollment was up 50.7% in the ten years from 1993-2003. Good news? Not completely. As Marklein wrote about the problem of equalizing college access, "the overall minority increases are encouraging, 'but we are also concerned by what still seems to be slow growth," says Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of Spellman College, a prestigious historically black university.

What can we understand from seemingly conflicting data? The good news is minority college enrollment is up. The troubling news is actual graduation rates for students are flagging and the money and support needed for retention is on the decline-- contributing to the problem of keeping students in college.

We want education policy that has vision. Envisioning a system that readies children for high school and high schoolers for college and college grads prepared for life as it comes with the skills and tools to envision and create new systems for new growing generations should be our goal.

The president of the American Council one Education (ACE) captures the heart of the matter as he refelcted on the Minorities and Higher Education Report. "As I look at this report I am pleased to see people of color making gains in college enrollment and degree attainment over the 10 years covered in the report, but I am more struck by the gaps that still persist and believe they only hold our nation back politically and economically," said ACE President David Ward. "Our nation faces many global challenges - among them are those related to national security, energy policy, and healthcare - and our answers to each will depend on the creativity and innovation of an educated citizenry and workforce. That makes our educational system a matter of national priority and means we cannot afford to leave anyone behind."

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Posted at 7:25 AM, Nov 23, 2006 in Education
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