Researchers who have examined graduation rates discern another troubling trend. They see a growing difference in the rate at which students of different income levels complete college.
Sarah Turner, an assistant professor of education and economics at the University of Virginia, wrote in a recent paper that “the overall share of students receiving a college degree from the low-income quartiles has not changed markedly over time, while the share of students receiving a degree among high-income students has increased.”
Policy analyst Mortenson says that, in 1975, 7 percent of those in the bottom income quartile and 38 percent of those in the top quartile received a baccalaureate degree by age 24. In the ensuing 25 years, the number for the bottom quartile fluctuated between 5 percent and 8 percent, while the rate for the top quartile generally was somewhere between the mid 50s and the high 60s. “Every time you go up one quartile in family income, your chance of earning a bachelor’s degree by age 24 just about doubles,” concludes Mortenson.
This attainment gap troubles many policy-makers. They wonder why it persists after more than three decades of providing federal grant and loan aid to low-income students — aid that now exceeds $54 billion annually.
Though the reasons for this gap are complex and interrelated, analysts’ explanations can be summarized in one sentence: There’s not enough money, and money’s not enough. The cost of college has increased so rapidly, they say, that even $54 billion of federal aid annually is insufficient to ensure enrollment for many low-income students.
Like Harvard’s Bridget Long, some experts conclude that many capable low-income students decide very early that “there’s not enough money” and opt out early, often before they enter high school. Seeing little hope that they can afford higher education, they simply choose not to enroll in courses that will prepare them for it. “There is a big difference between the ability of students and what many parents encourage academically based on their perceptions of college affordability,” says Tally Hart, director of student financial aid at Ohio State University.
