Diminishing Equity in the Nation's Premier Public Universities

 

Three cheers for the Ed Trust for bringing these shameful trends to light.  Hopefully, sunlight will again prove to be the best disinfectant:

Between 1995 and 2003, flagship and other research-extensive public universities actually decreased grant aid by 13 percent for students from families with an annual income of $20,000 or less, while they increased aid to students from families who make more than $100,000 by 406 percent. In 2003, these institutions spent a combined $257 million to subsidize the tuition of students from families with annual incomes over $100,000 – a staggering increase from the $50 million they spent in 1995.  At the same time, poor students were disproportionately bearing the brunt of increased college tuition and fees.

 

These types of choices at the flagships have resulted in undergraduate populations that are less and less and reflective of the states these institutions were established to serve. For example, though minority students comprise more than 35 percent of Georgia’s high school graduates, they represent less than 7 percent of the entering 2004 freshmen at the University of Georgia.  Even more alarming, this underrepresentation is actually getting worse at most flagship campuses. The report documents similar trends for low- and middle-income students, who are being displaced at the flagships by students from the most affluent families.

 

“The shifting of financial aid resources away from students who genuinely need more support shows that these schools are not merely victims of bad choices by policymakers or bad preparation in K-12. The data make it very clear that these universities are independent actors in shrinking educational opportunity in their states,” Haycock said.

Some very interesting (though not surprising) findings here:

The study found that students who fall behind in the number of credits they are expected to accumulate have a difficult time getting back on track at traditional high schools. Of the class of 2003’s dropouts, the study found that 93 percent fell behind in their credits at some point, indicating that their chief problem may not be the state requirement that all graduates pass a series of Regents exams. By contrast, only 19 percent of those who graduated had fallen significantly behind in their credits at any point.

There are 68,000 students ages 16 to 21 who have dropped out of school, the study found, but there are 70,000 who are still enrolled even though they are behind in their credits. Effectively serving that group, the bulk of whom are 16, 17 and 18, is critical to improving the city’s graduation rate, Ms. Cahill said.

Many students fall behind after coming to high school with insufficient reading and math skills, the study found, indicating shortcomings in the city’s middle schools. But 30 percent of students who eventually fall behind begin their freshman years with proficient or nearly proficient reading skills, suggesting that high schools are also to blame. Boys are more likely than girls to drop out, the study found, and black and Hispanic students are more likely to drop out than whites and Asians.

 

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http://www2.edtrust.org/EdTrust/Press+Room/Engines+of+Inequality.htm

Engines of Inequality: Diminishing Equity in the Nation’s Premier Public Universities

 

The nation’s 50 flagship universities serve disproportionately fewer low-income and minority students than in the past, according to a new report by the Education Trust.  Students in the entering and graduating classes at these schools look less and less like the state populations those universities were created to serve.  The study shows how financial aid choices made by these prestigious public universities result in higher barriers to college enrollment and success among low-income students and students of color.