- BOSTON (Reuters) - Fewer
than half of U.S. college students make it to graduation, which means that
Americans have a better chance of getting an accurate weather report than
they have of getting a university degree.
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- Less than 50 percent of students entering four-year colleges
or universities actually graduate, Council for Aid to Education (CAE) researchers
said in a report. ''And that's a conservative estimate,'' said Richard
Hersh who co-authored the report on the quality of higher education for
the National Governors Association.
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- As for the weather reports, a spokesman for the U.S.
National Weather Service said: ``If you want to know if it's going to rain
tomorrow, then we're accurate 88 percent of the time.''
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- Backing up the CAE report, figures from ACT, formerly
the American College Testing Service, show the graduation rate at four-year
public institutions fell to 41.9 percent in 2000, while the rate at private
schools was 55.1 percent.
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- In 1983, those figures were 52.2 percent and 59.5 percent,
respectively, according to ACT, which conducts college placement tests
and offers education and career planning services.
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- ``It's the lowest it's been and it's been going down
by increments,'' said Wes Habley, director of ACT's office of educational
practices. ``That's somewhat staggering when you think about the amount
of money invested in people who don't finish.''
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- LACK OF SKILLS
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- A number of factors contribute to the high drop-out rate,
according to Habley.
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- ``Access is part of the answer,'' Habley said. ``There
is a notion of entitlement for the U.S. population'' that everyone should
have access to a college education ``and some lack the requisite skills
to succeed.''
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- CAE's Hersh agreed that ``we have increased access to
college, but we haven't done very much about the quality.'' Instead of
cutting back on access, he suggested ``that we change the system such that
we get people better prepared for college and do a better job once they
get to college.''
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- Changes in the U.S. tax law in 1992 and 1998 have ``caused
student loans to middle class families to really take off. That segment
has ballooned,'' said Bridget Terry Long, an economist at Harvard University's
School of Education.
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- ``There's been a great deal of discussion about the huge
debt burden. Is this helping the middle class?''
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- The changes have also meant ``that more money is going
to middle class kids who would normally go to college and less is being
made available to the poor. Subsidized loans, those that the government
pays or waives the interest on while a student is in college, have remained
basically level. But the unsubsidized student loans have really taken off.''
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- EXPENSIVE BUT WORTH IT
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- Long estimated that student aid during the 1999-2000
academic year totaled $68 billion, including federal loans, subsidies,
state grants and student loans.
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- In addition, states contributed another $60 billion directly
to colleges ``so that state schools could offer lower tuition to their
students,'' Long said, citing figures from the College Board, creators
of the SAT college admission tests.
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- More than 70 percent of students attending four-year
schools spend $8,000 or less a year on tuition and fees; only 9 percent
pay more than $20,000, according to College Board figures.
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- The College Board estimates that college graduates earn
on average 81 percent more than those with high school diplomas. Over a
lifetime, the gap in earnings potential between a high school diploma and
a baccalaureate degree is more than $1 million.
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- But that is for college graduates. What about those that
drop out?
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- ``There is some evidence,'' Long said, ``That even those
who have only one year of college benefit.''
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