|
|
Cato Institute on Education |
Low-income students shouldn't be condemned to low-quality schools just because their parents cannot afford a home in a wealthy neighborhood. The D.C. OSP was an important step toward breaking the link between home prices and school quality, so it's encouraging to see that D.C. is not likely to take a step backward. Ideally, though, Congress would take the next step from school choice to educational choice by enacting a universal education savings account program.
The fact of the matter is that community college completion rates are atrocious: a mere 19.5% of first-time, full-time community college students complete their programs, and that rate has been dropping almost every year since 2000. Meanwhile, the for-profit sector has an almost 63% completion rate at two-year institutions, and that has been rising steadily.
The other huge problem is that the large majority of job categories expected to grow the most in the coming years do not require postsecondary training. [About 70%] of the new jobs will require a high school diploma or less.