202. Unstack the Odds--Set at Birth? Part 1

Unstack the Odds: Help All Kids Access College—and Graduate!

by

Joe Rottenborn
Executive Director, Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP)

1. Are the odds being stacked at birth against some kids going to college and graduating?

“Who gets a bachelor’s degree from college by age 24 is largely determined at birth.”

--Thomas Mortenson, “Family Income and Higher Education Opportunity, 1970-2002,” Postsecondary Education Opportunity 143 (May 2004): I-13 in Peter Sacks, Tearing Down the Gates: Confronting the Class Divide in American Education (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007), p. 4.

On February 24, 2009, President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress. In that speech, the President said the nation must face “. . . the urgent need to expand the promise of education in America.” As President Obama put it: “Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma. And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education. We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation. And half of the students who begin college never finish.”

The President continued: “. . . it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education – from the day they are born to the day they begin a career.” Then, he announced this national goal in unmistakable language: “That is why we will provide the support necessary for you to complete college and meet a new goal: by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. “ (Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery Address to Joint Session of Congress, Tuesday, February 24th, 2009.) http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-President-Barack-Obama-Address-to-Joint-Session-of-Congress/

However, despite this presidential address—and the media attention in recent years given to the importance of continuing education beyond graduation from high school--many students are failing to matriculate and graduate from college—in no small part, it seems, because the odds are stacked against them. Simply put, when it comes to college access and success today, many American students are being left out.

As Peter Sacks put it in an interview about his book Tearing Down the Gates: Confronting the Class Divide in American Education, “Instead of a system of equal educational opportunity, we are creating a system of educational haves and have-nots that increasingly is based upon birthright. Yes, a system based upon class origins.”—Scott Jaschik, “Tearing Down the Gates,” Inside Higher Ed, May 9, 2007.-- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/05/09/sacks