But it’s not just my opinion.  According to the National Center for Education Statistics, students who begin at a 2-yr public institution take “about a year and one-half longer to complete a bachelor’s degree than students who begin at public 4-year institutions, and almost 2 years longer than those who begin at private not-for-profit 4-year institutions.”  And in California, 6 in 10 community college students give up their transfer plans.

And it’s no wonder when there are fewer spots available for transfer students, higher tuition and fees, more competition to enroll in prerequisite courses, and a lack of guidance during the admission process.  What’s frustrating is that school officials push community college and the prospect of transferring as a viable option when less than 50% of community college students actually make it to a four-year program.

We can’t let these students fall through the cracks.  Our state and our country need more college graduates to contribute to the workforce, and it’s a tragedy that students with academic potential are given the promise of transferring but instead are disheartened by an educational system that should be encouraging them to succeed. What can we do to ensure students who can make it at a 4-yr institution are given the best opportunity to get there?

The data is based on tracking nearly 17,000 low-income students as they completed the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid).  Some of those students were assisted by H&R Block representatives who helped them fill out the tax data on financial aid forms – the result?  The task of filling out the FAFSA forms which normally takes around 13 hours for an average student was reduced to just 10 min.

The researchers were quick to point out that the study seems to point to the fact that it’s not simply making information about financial aid available that improves college access, but having individuals provide assistance in filling out the forms.

“Making college aid applications almost effortless to complete had an extremely powerful impact on the number of low-income students who made it to college,” said University of Toronto Associate Professor Philip Oreopoulos. “For high school seniors, just helping their parents fill out the financial aid form and apply increased college enrollment rates by 30 percent.”

“In most cases, two-thirds of the FAFSA form can be completed using tax information, so in less than 10 minutes, we were able to address a major educational problem and had a substantial impact on aid applications and college enrollment,” Harvard Graduate School of Education Professor Bridget Terry Long said. “The next step is to think beyond one company to how we can implement these lessons on a larger scale, perhaps in schools or with community organizations, and ideally by changing the aid application process at the federal level.”

“As thousands of low-income, first-generation freshmen flock to campus in the next two months, many, despite their intelligence and optimism, will arrive only to be gone in an academic eye blink. Just 11 percent of them earn a bachelor’s degree after six years, according to the Pell Institute, compared with 55 percent of their peers.” (Second Home for First-Gens, NYT 7/20/09)

But schools like University of Cincinnati, Bay Path College (MA), College of Idaho, College of Mount St. Vincent (Bronx), and Fresno State have implemented innovative programs to support first generation students make a successful transition from high school to college.

This is such important work these schools are doing, and I hope to see more colleges across the country following their lead to ensure more first generation students earn their bachelor degrees.

Aurora Ponce, senior class president with a nearly perfect A-average, recently participated in a student sit-in to protest increased class sizes and the elimination of college prep classes.  But now “according to the 18-year-old and her supporters, officials at the Accelerated School, a collection of South Los Angeles charter schools, have barred Ponce from making her valedictory speech at Saturday’s graduation as punishment. They have also taken away a summer tutoring job and other honors, she said.”

Seriously?!

Click here to read the full article in The Los Angeles Times.

Here’s a summary of how the governor would cut $5.5 billion through June 2010:

– $750 million from the University of California and California State University systems, bringing the total reduction over two fiscal years to nearly $2 billion.

– $10.3 million – Eliminate all state general fund spending for UC Hastings College of Law.

– $173 million – Eliminate new Cal Grants.

– $70 million – Eliminate general fund support for state parks, potentially closing 80 percent of them.

– $247.8 million – Eliminate the Healthy Families program, which provides health care to nearly 1 million poor children.

– $1.3 billion – Eliminate the CalWorks program, which primarily helps unemployed single mothers find jobs.

– $809 million – Release nonviolent, non-serious, non-sex offenders one year early, and reduce the Corrections Department’s contract work, rehabilitation and education programs.

Yikes!

In 2006 the average counselor’s caseload in California public schools was reduced from 846 to 685 students. This already ranks pretty close to last in the nation in terms of counselor to student ratios, so the latest cuts are not a good sign for a state floundering to address the issue of high school drop-outs and a deficit of college graduates in the workforce.

Oh, California, however will we dig ourselves out of this educational quagmire?

It is a controversial issue, for sure.  On the one hand, I think everyone should have the opportunity to go to college, and I do support allowing undocumented students to enroll in college in the U.S. But it gets a little dicey for me when we talk about giving those students in-state tuition discounts since we already have a HUGE problem of enrolling academically qualified low-income U.S. citizens in college. I get nervous that giving undocumented students in-state tuition rates will add enormous pressure to our already inadequate financial aid system and end up making college admission to state schools, like the UC’s even more competitive than they already are. Just last year, the UC system made the decision to enroll more out-of-state students because they needed to increase their revenue.

I haven’t researched this adequately enough to come to a definite conclusion, but those are just my initial thoughts.  I’d love to hear what you think about the Dream Act.  Should illegal immigrants be allowed to enroll in college and pay in-state tuition rates?  Do you agree with the College Board’s decision to support the Dream Act?