Advocate Online

They're Talking On Campus. . .

. . .About three recent reports critical of efforts in the U.S. to provide educational opportunity for economically disadvantaged students or to sustain those students who are fortunate enough to gain admission to postsecondary education.

Promises Abandoned: How Policy Choices and Institutional Practices Restrict College Opportunities, from the Education Trust, charges that the nation isn’t living up to its promise to make college a reality for low-income students who work hard in school.

Poor and minority students, says Promises Abandoned, have a more difficult time getting to college and staying enrolled now than they did 30 years ago. Further, says the report, the financial aid practices of higher education institutions disadvantage these students as much or more than regressive federal and state policies.

On another front, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, in its report Measuring Up, an annual "report card on higher education," failed 43 states on efforts at affordability. Most of the remaining states received a grade of D, and no state got better than a C.

Finally, Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators, from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, reports that while almost two-thirds of American young people begin higher education, just over half of them earn a degree—one of the lowest rates of completion among OECD countries. The OECD also found that the U.S., which has always ranked first in the percentage of 25-34 year olds earning at least an associate’s degree, has now fallen to seventh in that category.