Marketplace 4/28/04
It's an economy where educational credentials and connections count for moreand more. A degree from one of the Ivies or from a Stanford, Michigan, orBerkeley isn't exactly a bus ticket to fat city - but it sure helps. At thevery least, you need a bachelors degree just to get on the highway.
But fewer and fewer young people from lower-middle income (what we used tocall "working class") and poor families are enrolling. At Harvard, forexample, a scant 13 percent of undergraduates are from families earning lessthan the national median of about $53,000 a year. Across America, a quarterof high-achieving poor kids who are fully qualified to attend college areopting out.
What's going on? For one thing, tuition keeps going up. That wouldn't be aproblem if universities and the federal and state governments kept givingscholarship aid to kids of modest means. Yet so-called "merit-based"scholarships are all the rage now. Private universities are paying out about$4 in scholarships for every $10 they take in as tuition revenue, buttwo-thirds of this aid is based on test scores and grades -- not on need.Public universities are following the same trend.
The reason is, universities are competing for academic stars. Competitiverankings in college guides are based largely on the grades and test scoresof entering freshman. High rankings help universities attract more andbetter applicants, and more donations. So, increasingly, universities areusing merit scholarships to lure high school seniors with the highest gradesand test scores. This means less scholarship aid for qualified applicantswho need the money in order to attend.
The trend is made worse by state governments pulling the plug on highereducation. This year, due to budget cuts, the university of Californiasystem turned away 8,700 qualified applicants from lower-income families. Inprior years, they would have been accepted.
The federal government is also cutting back on college aid. A quartercentury ago, federal Pell grants covered more than 80 percent ofpublic-college tuition for children of modest means. Now, Pell grants goonly 40 percent of the way. Federal tuition tax breaks don't help. They gomainly to affluent families that pay the most taxes. As a result, thefederal government is spending about $10 on upper-income students for everynew dollar it spends on the poor.
At a time when the gap between America's have-mores and have-lesses is widerthan it's been in a century, and when college is the gateway to upwardmobility, we should be making it easier for kids of modest means to get auniversity degree. Instead, it's becoming harder. And that's a nationalshame.
