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How many graduates with bachelor’s degrees know finance, logic and advanced statistical techniques? What is the plan for even half of the 9.4 million on Pell grants to learn these entry-level job skills? We don’t have one. The few who might win scholarships at selective colleges won’t transform the nation’s workforce.
Two recent studies show how blinkered our thinking is. In a Brookings Institution paper titled “The Missing ‘One-Offs’: The Hidden Supply of High-Achieving, Low Income Students,” Caroline Hoxby of Stanford University and Christopher Avery of Harvard affirmed that there are talented poor students with high SAT scores who, shockingly enough, have never heard of Harvard or Williams.
Wrong InvestmentsThe take-away in discussions of this study is that we should do a better job of getting them into wealthier colleges that will pay their way. Why not say that they are worth the public investment, no matter what school they go to.
Finding more spots for low-income students at selective colleges may be impossible in any case. A New America Foundation study by Stephen Burd details what students from families that make $30,000 a year or less have to pay out of their own pockets, even after financial aid is taken into account. While Amherst sets the standard on generosity, with a net price of $448 a year for Pell grant recipients, Williams charges $5,402 and Princeton $7,545, according to the study.
My favorite graduations aren’t the ceremonies that perpetuate the myth. They are at community colleges, where the images are flipped. Parents and grandparents are receiving the degrees with their children and grandchildren in the audience cheering. I will share their joy, however incomplete the achievement for now. And one day, I hope I will see something to celebrate for millions more of them.
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