College Completion Gap Between Rich and Poor Has Doubled: Study

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/03/college-completion-gap-between-rich-and-poor-has-doubled-study



'It's really quite amazing how big the differences have become between those from the highest and lowest family incomes,' said Laura Perna, director of the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy

College Completion Gap Between Rich and Poor Has Doubled: Study
Nadia Prupis, staff writer
Tuesday, February 03, 2015

The college completion gap between rich and poor students has doubled over the past four decades, according to a new report published Tuesday.

Only 9 percent of students from the lowest-income families currently earn bachelor's degrees by age 24, in contrast to the 77 percent of students from the wealthiest families. While the number of wealthy students obtaining bachelor's degrees has nearly doubled since 1970, when it stood at 44 percent, it has inched only three percentage points for low-income students—up from 6 percent—in forty years, according to the report, Indicators of Higher Education Equity in the United States (pdf).

Moreover, the study found that the enrollment gap between rich and poor students has narrowed across the board—indicating that more low-income students are entering college, but far fewer are able to finish.

College costs, meanwhile, have skyrocketed. A 2012 report by Bloomberg found that tuition and fees have increased 1,120 percent since 1978. "For millions of young people, rising college costs are putting the American dream on hold, or out of reach," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told Bloomberg at the time. And federal aid like the Pell grant, which covered 67 percent of college costs in 1975, only covered 27 percent in 2012.