A new analysis of Census Bureau data suggests that a national push to get more people into college isn’t getting a passing grade, especially when it comes to enrolling newly minted high-school graduates.
Just under 66% of recent high-school grads were enrolled in two- or four-year college programs in 2013, down from 68.6% in 2008, according to research by the American Council on Education, a higher-education industry group.
Most troubling is the sharp downward trend line for poor students: 45.5% of low-income, recent high-school graduates were enrolled in college in 2013, compared with 55.9% in 2008. That drop comes despite expanded grants and other financial aid offerings earmarked for those exact students, a relatively modest gain in net tuition, fees, room and board costs at four-year colleges and outright decline in such prices at two-year schools.
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